|
back to top
back to top
|
 |
Colby Is 18th
The unhealthy emphasis on college rankings aside, Colby folks will be
pleased that the College held close to last year's placement among
U.S. News & World Report rankings of the "Best National Liberal
Arts Colleges." Colby was tied for 18th, after being 17th in 1998.
Bowdoin dropped two places to 9th; Bates, four places, to 23rd. Other
NESCAC schools are Amherst 2nd, Williams 3rd, Middlebury 5th, Wesleyan
10th, Trinity 22nd and Connecticut College 25th.
Best of Web
Colby's Seaverns Bookstore Web site was rated the #1 site by AltaVista
for folks searching for Maine books. While most companies pay to have
their sites listed that high, Bruce Barnard and company just work
to have a great selection, excellent response for searches and quality
customer service. Much of the credit goes to Barb Shutt, book division
manager and Web guru.
Best Buy
The September Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine ranks the "Top
100 Values in Private Colleges," and Colby is 77th. Not all the NESCAC
schools made the list. Those that did include Amherst 6th, Williams 27th,
Middlebury 43rd, Tufts 51st, Bowdoin 61st, Colby 77th, Bates and Hamilton
(tied) 84th and Trinity 88th.
Boost for Books
Colby's summer Great Books Institute got even more famous with some fine
publicity in Arthur Frommer's syndicated column, "Budget Travel."
The first half of a July column (in The New York Daily News and
elsewhere) was a glowing recommendation for Colby's program that concluded,
"Anyone who treasures ideas should come away with a refreshed set of perspectives."
We Teach
In July the Sunday New York Times reported that "After years of
shying away from the field, a growing number of college students, including
those from elite liberal arts colleges,
now say they want to be schoolteachers." In that article, Mark Tappan
(education) said, "In the last 10 years, the number of students in
Colby College's education and human development program has doubled, to
almost 100."
Long Peddle
The Randolph (Vt.)Herald reported June 17 that Blakeney Sanford
'01 passed through, headed for the coast. The West Coast, that
is. Sanford and Jacob Grant, both Californians, were riding 4,500 miles
from right to left and raised more than $3,000 for the Environmental Council
in Santa Barbara. A Vermonter told them that if you flatten the Green
Mountains, Vermont is as large as Texas. Having pedaled up several of
them, the pair was inclined to believe it. Meanwhile, coming east from
San Francisco on a bike, A.J. Wall III '99 of Belgrade,
Maine, kept us up to date with published dispatches each weekend in the Central Maine Morning Sentinel.
 |
|
Beetle Bob
Bob Nelson (geology) is quoted at length in an article about fireflies
in the July Down East magazine. Down East tapped his knowledge–not
of rocks but of beetles (which is what fireflies are). Explaining the
function of firefly flashes, Bob said, "It's an internal biochemical process
used principally by females to attract males." Sometimes it's an amorous
come-on; sometimes it's to attract males of
another species. "They'll come flying in," he said, "and the female will
eat them."
Debra's Dust-Up
Some Boston College officials were upset with Debra Campbell (religious
studies), quoted in the June 14 issue of People magazine in an
article about the dismissal of that school's controversial faculty member
Mary Daly. "Boston College's claims to fame are Mary Daly and the
football team," quipped Debra, who teaches a course on Daly. The People
article was prompted by a court ruling supporting BC's decision to force
the tenured associate professor to retire as a result of her persistence
in refusing to teach men and women in the same class. Daly teaches both
men and women, but separately.
Discover Colby's Back Yard
Two of Russ Cole's biology students, Darcy Cornell
and Rachel Palmer, both '99 grads, have written a splendid guide
to the Colby nature trail. The illustrated booklet introduces elementary
schoolchildren to basic ecology through hands-on activities, and youngsters
who visit the Museum of Art get a copy.
What's Brewing?
Four recent Colby grads, who among them have degrees in biochemistry,
molecular biology, physics and economics, started the Coastal Extreme
Brewing Co. in Middletown, R.I., and their first batch of Newport Storm
Amber Ale was to ship this summer. In May an Associated Press story about
Derek Luke '98, Will Rafferty '97, Brent Ryan '97
and Mark Sinclair '97 began: "Four college buddies and a consuming
passion for beer might sound like a formula for disaster. But to the young
men toiling away in a shop at the Middletown Tradesman Center, it's a
business plan."
|
Charlie Bassett's warm puss was on page one of the July 16
Chronicle of Higher Education; he was featured among other
revered U.S. college professors who retired this year. A truly wonderful
article on Charlie leads an inside section titled Wrapping Up Scholarly
Careers. . . . Colby's and Jim Wescott's men's cross country
team continues to boast the highest of collective GPA's, with the
squad posting a 3.574 to finish third (behind Hobart and St. Mary's
University) among all of the nation's Division III schools. . . .
Janice Kassman was recently asked by the Smith College trustees
to travel to New York and meet with them to discuss Colby's residential
life program. . . . Tamae Prindle (East Asian studies) has
been re-elected president of the Japanese Language Teachers' Association
of New England (JLTA-New England). |
|
