An informal survey of 33 of the nation's best liberal arts colleges shows that Colby's 23 percent increase in regular admissions applications tops them all. Next closest is Reed College, which had a 17 percent bump. Colby's whopping 49 percent jump in early decision applications was topped only by Middlebury, which saw a 55 percent increase. The large volume of applicants will improve Colby's numbers--in academic quality, in overall diversity and in enrollment yield.
THE GOOD THEY DO
Associate Dean of Residential Life Jan Arminio compiled a list of
programs sponsored by residence halls through the first semester. It is long
and impressive, especially in the category of public service activities, which
included the collection of trash along the three-mile loop near campus, a
Thanksgiving food drive, help at the local homeless shelter, a Halloween party
for disadvantaged kids, volunteering on the playground of a local elementary
school, fundraising for the Family Violence Project and a bake-a-thon for the
Waterville Soup Kitchen. Jan's listing also includes more than a dozen health
education programs and nearly 30 cultural events.
OD'd on O.J.
Having thus far avoided any reference to the O.J. Simpson murder
trial, we must now tumble to a note from Special Programs Director Joan
Sanzenbacher, who points out that three principal witnesses in the
much-publicized trial have Colby ties. DNA experts Michael Baden,
Barbara Wolf and Henry Lee all have been summer faculty. Baden,
a world renowned forensic scientist, has moderated Colby's forensic medicine
course for more than two decades. Lee and Wolf have been frequent guest
lecturers.
SABBATICALS APPROVED
Full year 1995-96 sabbatical leaves have been approved for Debra
Barbezat (economics), Kim Besio (East Asian studies), Dave
Firmage (biology), Jean Haley (biology), Paul Machlin
(music), Michael Marlais (art), Julie Millard (chemistry),
Mary Beth Mills (anthropology), Julie Mueller (history),
Deborah Norden (government), Hanna Roisman (classics), Joseph
Roisman (classics and history), and Herb Wilson (biology). First
semester sabbaticals are for Jim Boylan (English) and Saranna
Thornton `81 (economics) and, for the second semester, Pat Onion
(English), Linda Tatelbaum (English) and Jon Weiss (French and
director of off-campus studies and academic affairs).
IN COLBY SERVICE
Traditional service awards were handed out by President Bill
Cotter at the 13th annual Holiday Dinner Dance in December. Honored for 20
years of service were Dean of Students Janice Kassman, Carmeline
Fredette (business office) and Joyce Matthews (economics). Ten-year
awards went to Helen Balgooyen (health services), Marlene
Belanger (physical plant), Gerard Boutin (physical plant), James
Dickinson (security), Bob Gillespie (communications), John
Henderson (physical plant), Glenda Lessard (physical plant),
Virginia Krolak (health services), Alan Lewis (physical plant),
Catherine Nicholson (dining services), Judy Ordway (dean of
students), Ray Phillips (computer services), John Rodrigue
(physical plant), Bruce Rueger (geology), Mark Serdjenian (dean
of students) and Cyhthia Young (physical plant).
Although the local molded pulp company has elected to abandon the Keyes name, it will live on at Colby as an integral part of the expanding science complex. Keyes Fibre Company, founded by Martin Keyes in 1903, has changed its name to The Chinet Company, favoring a perceived marketing advantage over preserving the historic name. In 1941, virtually on the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Colby received a bequest of $200,000 from Keyes's widow, Jennie, to build a science building on the new Mayflower Hill campus. Trustees had planned to construct separate buildings for chemistry and physics but became convinced that the two could be combined in a single building. By the time the College was ready to build in 1947, it was clear that even this considerable bequest was not enough. Keyes's son-in-law, Dr. George Averill, a generous Colby supporter in a number of building projects, provided an additional $400,000 to complete the building, which opened in 1948.
EAT AND BE HAPPY
No wonder Colby students are the happiest college students in the nation
(Princeton Review). Where else but Colby would deans, directors and
doctors prepare evening snacks for students? Dining Services Director Janet
Gray, looking for ways to relieve student stress on the first night of
December exams, assembled the volunteers to cook, serve and clean up. Nearly
400 students showed up and ate more than 450 hamburgers, flipped outdoors in
zero degree weather by Dining Services Manager Bill Bayle. Cooking
their own special recipes for students were Dean of Students Janice
Kassman and Associate Dean of Students for Intercultural Affairs Jeri
Roseboro, Special Programs Director Joan Sanzenbacher, health center
physician Al Hume, Associate Professor of Japanese Tamae Prindle,
Student Activities Director Ben Jorgensen `92 and Laurie
Fitzpatrick, second in command at Foss Dining Hall, where the event was
held. Students won't easily forget this. A tradition is born.
COLBY PRIDE
Ploughshares literary magazine and Emerson College have named
Colby poet Tony Hoagland (English) as the 1994 recipient of the John C.
Zacharis First Book Award for his book, Sweet Ruin. . . .
Mary Beth Mills of sociology and anthropology has received a Visiting
Research Fellowship for 1995-96 at the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale
University. The award includes a significant stipend. . . . Five
Colby students recently gave presentations at a meeting of the New England
Section of the Society of Physics Students at Wellesley College. Of all the
colleges represented, no other had as many students willing to present their
work. Salute Dhumal Aturaliye '95 (Kandy, Sri Lanka), Mike
Doogue '97 (Braintree, Mass.), Jim Porter '95 (Waterville), Mike
Rosenthal '95 (New Canaan, Conn.) and Mark Sinclair
'97 (Quincy, Mass).
IT'S ABOUT JOBS
More than 50 Colby seniors took part in recruiting consortiums in Boston
and New York coordinated by Cindy Yasinski and her office of Career
Services. The Small College Boston Recruiting Consortium and the New York City
Connection Recruiting Program attracted more than 100 students from Colby,
Bates, Hobart & William Smith, Mount Holyoke, Union and Vanderbilt.
Representatives from more than two dozen organizations were on hand to
interview.
Bookstore manager Bruce Barnard is the first GOP city councilor elected from Waterville's Ward Four since Lord knows when and retired alumni secretary Sid Farr '55 had the job. . . . Hurrah for Chuck Jones, the new science electronics tech, who got our seismograph up and running again. We missed Northridge and Kobe, but we're ready for the next one. Speaking of which, Rob Underwood '94 e-mailed Bob Nelson (geology) from his home 60 miles from Kobe and reported that he was fine but that the power of the Japan quake was "amazing.". . . Doug Archibald (English) will direct the Colby in Cork Program next year; Jean Sanborn (English), the year after. The Colby United Way Campaign topped $20,000, an all-time high. . . . Three healthy adult deer were spotted on the central campus on Christmas Eve, crossing from the soccer field and headed along the edge of the pond up to Roberts Union. . . . Lydia Bolduc-Marden, Colby's sterling nurse practitioner, volunteered her services in the Dominican Republic in January in a program that provides health care in developing Caribbean nations. . . . If ever there was a reason to gloat over a tie score, it would be the 3-3 epic between Colby and Princeton in men's hockey on January 3. The Tigers had nipped the vaunted University of Maine Black Bears, 3-2, in their previous outing and Maine, the same week, was rated number one in Division I. We think this made Scott Borek's sextet at least as good as any college hockey team anywhere in the nation. . . . Sara Westervelt Bizier, R.N., is a new day nurse at the Garrison-Foster Health Center. Sara's grandmother, the late Susan Fortuine, R.N., was the head nurse in the old Colby infirmary in Roberts Union in the '50s and `60s. Sara's mother and dad, of course, are Colby's own Nancy '54 and classics professor Peter Westervelt. . . . President Bill Cotter was invited by the Booth Ferris Foundation to participate in an informal conversation with college presidents and foundation officials about the needs of the higher education community over the next decade. The session was held in New York. Booth Ferris targets its funding at high-quality liberal arts colleges. The President also joined an American Council on Education panel in San Francisco, discussing First Steps in Building Campus Community. He serves an ACE planning group to study free speech and campus civility. . . . Elected for second terms as overseers are Bill Alfond `72, Ken Hart `51, Rocco Landesman `69. . . . In all of NESCAC, only Amherst and Williams brought in more cash gifts than Colby last year--$17.5 million. ONLY THE BEST
For the third time in the past five years, Performing Arts at Colby was selected to compete in the Regional American College Theatre Festival. Students Scott Cole `95 (Littleton, Colo.), Mike Daisey `95 (Etna, Maine), Brent Felker `96 (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), Jason Spooner `95 (Washington, Conn.) and Katie Thompson `97 (Lakewood, Colo.) appeared in American Buffalo February 25 at Regis College in Massachusetts.