A Model Graduate
Allen LaPan (student mailroom) pointed out that the model on the cover of a recent Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue might look familiar around here. It's Dylan Commeret '99. One young lady in the Eustis mailroom who knew Dylan from classes didn't recognize his yearbook picture but said "Oh sure!" when she saw the shirtless cover guy. A source in New York reports we might see more of Dylan, who's also modeling for Jockey.

Above and Beyond the Cans
At the Salvation Army's Annual Civic Dinner in Waterville in May, Colby's Dining Services received an "above and beyond" award, recognizing its successful food drive last holiday season. Varun Avasthi (dining services) accepted on behalf of the College. Dining Services credits faculty and staff for making the Caring Cans program a success. Colby contributed more than a quarter ton of canned goods to the Salvation Army in December.

A Wealth of Information
As part of the Waterville Bicentennial celebration in June, Dan Casavant of Century 21-Surette presented a historic leather-bound daybook from the 18th century to Colby's Special Collections on May 2. Nehemiah Getchell of Vassalboro, a tavern owner, businessman and one-time business partner of Asa Redington of Waterville, kept the journal from 1793 to 1796. The book documents store transactions and includes a wealth of primary source information about the nature of business in the Winslow/Vassalboro area back in the day. Pat Burdick (special collections) says the gift is a significant complement to Maine-related materials already in our collection.

Baker is Back
Sally Baker returned to Colby as executive assistant to the president and secretary of the college starting July 1 and replaced Earl Smith, who retired. Baker assists and advises President Bro Adams and is the principal liaison between his office and trustees and overseers. Baker was director of communications at Colby during the nine years she worked on Mayflower Hill from 1989 to 1998. Since then she has been director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and associate vice president for communications at Colgate University.

What a Long, Wet Ride
Two inches of cold rain arrived the day that cyclist Paul Johnston (dean of students office) had agreed to accompany three students on their first century ride. Chris Cogbill '02, Tom Mace '03 and Cary Fridrich '05 had found each other through the student digest and ride the local roads together but had never done 100 miles in a day. "They learned that even though the calendar says it's mid-May, it can still be pretty cold and nasty in Maine," Johnston reported. "I learned that biking with folks half my age isn't good for my ego." Johnston and Steve Thomas (admissions) began a five-week Portland-to-Portland ride (that's Oregon to Maine) on Memorial Day.

Better Late (or Early) . . .
On Thursday morning, May 30, Joanne Lafreniere (communications) was between Eustis and Cotter Union when a member of the Class of Œ43 approached to say, "I know I'm a little early but I'm here for reunion--where do I register?" She had come from Massachusetts and, in fact, she was more than a whole week early. Oops. . . . Later Joan Sanzenbacher reported on a quartet of doctors from the Midwest who arrived at Bangor International Airport on a dark and stormy Sunday night for the first medical summer program. They rented a van to drive from Bangor to Colby. They drove and drove. And when they read a sign that said "Next Exit Woodstock, New Brunswick" it dawned on them that they had wanted I-95 South.

The Sled Dog Ate My Homework?
Cal Mackenzie (government) shares this unusual excuse, received as e-mail from a student who hails from mid-coast Maine: "I missed class on Monday. This was because I had to go home for a family dinner and got snowed in. I have the notes and just wanted to apologize." Cal notes that it's not everywhere a professor might get such a message on the last day of April, much less believe it.

Research Search
Call it project-based learning or research, increasingly it's what students do at Colby. When the call went out for student research presentations this spring, more than 300 answered. Together they made the third annual Colby Undergraduate Research Symposium, May 2-3, the most varied and ambitious yet. Students from all the divisions presented their work. To name just one percent of them, presentations included "Viking Technology and Environmental Degradation in the Colonization of Iceland" (Andrew Schannen '02), "Letters of Love: An Evolution of Letter Writing History As Seen Through Saint Anselm and Peter Abelard" (Nicole Wakely '02) and "The Role of Venture Capital Financing in Building the Tech Stock Market Bubble" (Jessica Rosenbloom '02).

Taking on Einstein

They Know Good Design
When the Mohawk Paper Company saw Colby's new admissions search piece‹a mailing that's sent to high school juniors‹it was so impressed by the design that it asked to buy into the press run in order to distribute the brochure nationally as a sample. Design Director Brian Speer (communications) gets extra credit for extending the reach of this Colby piece. We'll have to wait and see if sons and daughters of printers and designers are over-represented in the classes of '07 and '08.

A Brush with the Gipper
Peter Brush '03 was one of 13 college students invited by the Young America's Foundation to spend the weekend at former President Ronald Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in California in April. Brush visited the 688-acre spread north of Santa Barbara and toured the Reagan residence. The only student from New England in the group, or from a liberal arts institution, Brush went to lectures, saw the Secret Service outposts and rang Ron's dinner bell. "All the original stuff is still there," Brush said. "We got to sit at the table where the largest tax cut in U.S. history was signed."

Memoirabilia
Jennifer Finney Boylan (English) has sold her memoir to Doubleday/Random House. The book, titled She's Not There, will be published in the fall of 2003. Want a sneak preview? An excerpt appears in this May's GQ magazine.

Moving On Up
Congratulations to Marcella Zalot (athletics), promoted to director of athletics beginning July 1. Marcella, who came to Colby from Harvard in 1997, has been the associate athletics director and senior women's athletic administrator. She served as acting director of athletics this year while Dick Whitmore was on sabbatical. Whit, director of athletics since 1987 and head men's basketball coach since 1970, will continue to coach and will assume a variety of administrative duties.

Bright Fulbrights
Amber Hall '02 and Andrea Pomerance '02 have been awarded Fulbright Teaching Assistantships for 2002-2003. Amber, a French literature major from Bath, Maine, will teach in France; Andrea, a German and international studies double major from Ooltewah, Tenn., will work in Germany. More evidence that Jim McIntyre (German) and his committee are getting the job done helping students with fellowships.

An Overseas Win
On March 20 Gretchen Groggel '03 (Omaha, Neb.) and Jill Gutekunst '03 (Shillington, Pa.) won a runoff election to be SGA president and vice president respectively next year. The pair ran their winning campaign from abroad‹the former was studying in Scotland and the latter in Italy. They took 57.4 percent of the 931 votes cast in the runoff after placing first in the opening round of voting. Groggel told the Echo that one of her top priorities will be increasing interaction between Colby and the surrounding community. The election results story, by Ryan Davis '02, is online at www.colby.edu/echo.

Recognizing Colby Cares
March 18 was Maine Mentoring Day, and the new Colby Cares About Kids program was one of eight mentoring programs in the state recognized as exemplary by Governor Angus King at a capitol press conference. In its first year, Colby Cares About Kids paired 155 Colby student mentors in one-on-one relationships with kids in Waterville and surrounding towns, and with great results. The program came out of research conducted in Peter Harris's service-learning English course last year. Channel 2 news visited Waterville's Albert S. Hall School for a story on the program. CCAK coordinator Teresa Hawko '01, mentor Nick Battista '04 and board members Harris, Cindy Parker (career services), Lyn Brown (education) and Mark Tappan (education) were on hand at the capitol.

Local History Lives
In 1902 a 584-page, minutia-laden work, "The Centennial History of Waterville," was published. When the city's Bicentennial Committee recently decided to record Waterville's second century, it solicited some Colby help on various aspects of Elm City life. Charlie Bassett (English, emeritus) will write on how local organizations have contributed to Waterville's culture. Richard Moss (history) will compare Waterville's history to that of other towns. Hank Gemery (economics, emeritus) will examine economic changes, and Tom Morrione (sociology) will cover ethnic history. "These are the forces that shaped this town," Bassett told the Sentinel.