Students' Choice

The Student Government Association recognized the terrific hard work and dedication of Director of Student Activities Lisa Hallen in May, presenting her with its SGA Administrative Staff Appreciation Award at the annual recognition luncheon. Tony Marin, well-known PPD mechanic, was also chosen by the SGA for this year's Staff Person of the Year Award. The Class of 2000 gave a special award to Shirley Littlefield, popular dining hall checker, at the year-end senior dinner.

A new on-line chat room "open house" for students admitted to the Class of 2004 was well attended and resulted in a lively dialogue. A wide range of topics was covered as the students explored various facets of life at Colby and the prospect of four years in the Maine wilderness. Current Colby students and faculty added flavor and occasional facts. During one evening session, a participant posted: "I had been set on Williams but now think I should give Colby some more consideration." This wasn't, however, from the guest who logged in as "Go_Bates_Go." Credit Karen Oh '93 and Dave MacLeay '97 for getting the site up and David Jones for making it go.

Bates College and their Bryant Gumbel (CBS) have nothing on Colby. You may have noticed that Dan Harris '93 has moved to New York, where he regularly reports for the ABC weekend news and can sometimes be seen as the substitute anchorperson on the ABC News This Morning. It wasn't long ago when Dan, fresh out of Colby, was reporting for Channel 2 in Bangor.

On March 12 viewers of CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood were treated to an in-depth interview with popular crime novelist Robert B. Parker '54, who's written numerous mysteries starring the private eye Spenser. During a tour of his home Parker showed a picture of himself and his wife, (Joan Hall '54), as students at Colby. Parker reminisced about meeting Joan on campus as a freshman and falling in love, which he claims to have done immediately. Osgood is a Colby overseer and received an honorary degree in 1996.

Charlie Holt, men's ice hockey coach here in the 1960s, who died at the age of 77. He left Colby in 1968 for the University of New Hampshire, where he became the winningest coach in that school's history, taking teams to the national hockey Final Four three times and twice being named national coach of the year. . . . And Dot Marchetti, one of Colby's longest-serving staffers, who died March 1 in Waterville after a long illness. Dot came to work in Miller Library in 1945 and was a familiar face there for 42 years. She retired in 1987.

The University of New England beat Colby in presenting Bill Cotter an honorary degree this spring, honoring him at its commencement in mid-May with a doctorate of humane letters. "We honor you," his citation read, "for your significant contributions to higher education, for your commitment to educational development around the world, and for your personal investment in enhancing the quality of life in Maine." . . . The Waterville Regional Arts & Community Center (WRACC) and the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce collaborated to create a new annual prize named in honor of Bill Cotter. The surprise announcement was made in June that The William R. Cotter Award was established in recognition of Bill's contributions "to the improvement and revitalization of downtown Waterville." It will be presented each year at the Mid-Maine Chamber dinner "to the individual, organization or business that has best demonstrated a commitment to the downtown business district by restoring economic vitality, preserving and beautifying Main Street, and promoting cultural enrichment."

A March feature in the Cleveland Plain Dealer highlights Elizabeth Leonard (history) and her acclaimed book on women in the Civil War, All the Daring of the Soldier. . . . Jim Fleming (science, technology and society) gave lectures on the history of climate change at six universities in New Zealand and Australia in June as part of his three-week visit to study Southern Hemisphere environmental history. . . . The May 8 Business Week (circ. 1,000,000) includes a column on China trade by Paul Magnusson that quotes Tony Corrado (government). . . . Sandy Maisel (government) is quoted in the Spanish-language version of the Miami Herald in a translation of an AP story about Jews in the running for vice president.

In its February issue, GPS World magazine explained how time is synchronized on the Internet using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data. Waterville is the only small town among 14 U.S. sites on the Network Time.
Protocol (NTP) map thanks to Colby's NTP server in the basement of Lovejoy. Colby is the only college among a dozen large universities that form the U.S. grid for Internet timekeeping. If you need to set your watch, visit (http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/time/), but be aware that even on Colby's local area network the time you get can be a whole millisecond slow.