 Addressing parents and alumni Oct. 23 during Family Homecoming Weekend, President Bro Adams recapped the accomplishments of the Reaching the World campaign, then outlined an ambitious agenda for the future, including the expansion of the Colby College Museum of Art to highlight the Lunder Collection, a new environmental studies track in ocean sciences, and a planned building on the Colby Green for psychology, computer science, and mathematics. Both audio and video recordings are online.
 Construction of an $11-million biomass facility at the steam plant was approved at the October trustees meeting, putting Colby on track to heat mainly with wood chips and forest-products waste beginning in 2012 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2013. Environmental benefits include replacing oil with Maine-based renewable resources. Financial modeling shows the plant will pay for itself in about 10 years. More » ... Trustees also received year-end financial figures including the value of the endowment—$502,076,000 as of June 30, 2010. That reflected 11 percent growth from a year earlier.
 Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg delivered the 2010 Mitchell Lecture, American Leadership and International Cooperation: A Strategy for the 21st Century, Oct. 21. Steinberg, the principal deputy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds in Colby's Ostrove Auditorium," telling students that "commitment to a long-term vision, even when progress is slow, is the key to effective leadership," according to a story in the Morning Sentinel. Remarks from Special Envoy George Mitchell preceded the talk. Audio of the lecture is online.
 Five Colby students, including first-year Kayla Diaz, depart Saturday for Denver to present their research at the Geological Society of America annual meeting and expo. A sixth student who is abroad will have her work presented by a faculty member. Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology Robert Gastaldo, also presenting research, said that when bachelor's-granting colleges send students to national meetings it's more typical that one or two will go. But at Colby, he said, getting national recognition for student work is a departmental priority. Students also will talk to representatives of graduate programs and will spend a day in the field studying Colorado's geology before returning to Maine.
 A Zimbabwean community in Waterville? It's true. On Oct. 16 that community was the focus of an afternoon and evening of events including a student panel on life in Zimbabwe, a buffet dinner of Zimbabwean dishes, and a rockin' concert by Chiwoniso Maraire, one of the country's most popular musicians. The program, "Zimbabwe in Maine," honored 2010 Oak Human Rights Fellow Jestina Mukoko. Thanks in part to Oak scholarships, Zimbabwe has been the fifth or sixth best-represented foreign country on campus in eight of the past 10 years. Zimbabwe in Maine story »
|
|
A new Colby Entrepreneurial Alliance and a regional entrepreneurs' network were launched during a Sept. 23 kickoff dinner for the Colby Alumni Network (CAN) weekend, the first creating a curriculum for students interested in starting businesses and the second starting the Kennebec Valley Entrepreneurial Network in collaboration with community organizations. Suggesting that the network reflects a paradigm shift in regional economic development, a professional from Augusta said, "We're on the edge of something new and very, very exciting." More »
 Women's cross country dominated the Maine State Championships Oct. 16, taking first place as a team with four Mules among the top six finishers. The new individual state champion is Amy Tortorello '12 of Medway, Mass., who ran an 18-minute, 52-second race. This was the Colby women's team's sixth Maine championship in the last seven years. The Mules were running strong entering NESCAC, ECAC, New England, and NCAA championships over the next three weeks. More »
All Mules, all the time: www.colby.edu/athletics
 Pete Morelli '02, who was captain of the Colby Crew his senior year, will race in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls for the U.S. National Team at the 2010 World Rowing Championships Oct. 31-Nov. 7 in New Zealand. … Patrick Harner '05, a trainer at Five Seasons Sports Club in Cincinnati and member of the football and track teams while at Colby, is training with the U.S. national developmental skeleton team. More about Harner »
 Retired attorney Thomas Cox '66, who volunteers with the pro bono group Pine Tree Legal Assistance, was instrumental in uncovering the "robo-signer" foreclosure practice recently in the news. While representing a homeowner in a foreclosure case, he discovered that an employee of GMAC, now Ally Financial, was signing 10,000 foreclosure documents a month. A Sept. 22 Washington Post story said, "The legal predicament compelled Ally Financial, the nation's fourth-largest home lender, to halt evictions of homeowners in 23 states." A front-page Oct. 14 New York Times story said Cox, who formerly did foreclosure work for banks, "had switched sides and, he says, was trying to make amends." See also the Sept. 23 ABA Journal.
 Dan Harris '93, currently anchor of ABC’s World News Sunday, has been named co-anchor of the weekend edition of Good Morning America. "In his ten years at ABC News, Dan has traveled the globe, reporting from Haiti, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ground Zero, South Korea, Israel and the West Bank," said ABC News President David Westin. "He has also distinguished the news division with thoughtful and cutting-edge coverage of faith and religion in America." Harris has been anchor of World News Sunday since November 2006.
|
