'98 Hubbardite dies while serving in Iraq

From the Boston Globe:
Roselle Hoffmaster, a graduate of Smith College who died while serving in the Army in Iraq, is being remembered fondly today at the Northampton institution. "You couldn't find a more caring or compassionate person. She's a giver. She's the ultimate team person who gave her all," said Carla Coffey, who coached Hoffmaster in cross country and track and field.

Hoffmaster, 32, an Army captain, died last Friday in Kirkuk of non-combat-related causes. She was the First Brigade Combat Team surgeon, the military said this weekend in a release from Fort Drum, N.Y.

Hoffmaster, a native of Cleveland, graduated from Smith with a biochemistry degree in 1998. She was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in 2004. She was assigned to the Tenth Mountain Division in July and deployed to Iraq this month. She is survived by her husband and parents, the Army said in a statement. The Army has released no further details on the circumstances of her death. The investigation is still ongoing, said Fort Drum spokesman Benjamin Abel.

Professor Christine White-Ziegler said Hoffmaster was "a real star, just off the charts in terms of her academics." "She was just a very easygoing and approachable person. ... You could see her concern for others," she said.

"It's very sad for the whole Smith community. We're very saddened by her death," said Coffey, the coach.

Remembering Madeleine L'Engle, Smith '41

Madeleine L'Engle, a well known writer of classic children's books, including the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time, passed away on September 6, 2007.

L'Engle believed that storytelling "... does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically." In her 1963 Newberry acceptance speech, she mentions that "a book, too, can be a star, explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." This is why children's stories remain relevant to adults today.

In memory, I posted a tribute to Madeleine L'Engle in my blog here.

On her way to being a conducting superstar!

The Beaumont Texas Journal has a article up about the search for a new conductor for the Symphony of Southeast Texas and our own Carolyn Kuan is at the top of the list.

Best of Wishes Carolyn!

Symphony of Southeast Texas returns to Julie Rogers for opener
Search for conductor begins with Carolyn Kuan

Conductor candidate Carolyn Kuan of Seattle, will lead the Symphony of Southeast Texas in its Sept. 15 season opener.
The Symphony of Southeast Texas is sporting a new look this year. The orchestra returns home to the beautifully restored Julie Rogers Theatre with the opening concert of the 2007- 2008 season. This season also marks the symphony's search to select a new Music Director/Conductor of the orchestra.

Audience members will have a chance throughout the season to cast their vote for the new leader of the orchestra.

The first concert of the season will be Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7:30 p.m. Carolyn Kuan, of Seattle, leads the orchestra through three late romantic period masterpieces. Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from his unfinished opera, Prince Igor, will be immediately recognizable to audience members. The main dance theme was used in the 1953 Broadway hit Kismet.

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Smith Kicks Coke off Campus

The change concerning Coca-Cola took place at the end of last year. I have been meaning to post about it for some time as it has garnered a lot of press since then.

A Student Backlash Against Coke
Lots of college students get to know their peers through drinking. At Smith College, students got to know each other over drinking soda — or, rather, not drinking it. In May, a group on campus forced the school to end its exclusive contract with Coca-Cola.

Students in Smith's Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change had become aware of allegations that Coca-Cola was complicit in human rights violations at a bottling plant in Colombia and had contributed to environmental degradation in India. Such actions would be in violation of Smith's Vendor Code of Conduct, which demands fair business practices of its vendors, including safe working conditions and a commitment to fair wages. In statements posted on the company's website, Coke has denied the allegations and argues that boycotts of Coke products are detrimental to local economies.

Ally Einbinder, the Smith sophomore who helped lead the charge that forced the college to end its contract with the company, says that aside from the allegations themselves, she felt that the exclusivity of the contract was of concern. "There were very few beverage options on campus that weren't Coke brand," she says, noting that the only non-Coke drinks sold on campus were Stewart's soda (owned by Cadbury Schweppes, another soft drink conglomerate) and Vitamin Water, which was recently bought by Coca-Cola.

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Creating her first feature-length documentary

Our own Julie Casper Roth is profiled in Wisconsin's The Daily Telegram about her new documentary project. Julie also won Best Experimental Film and Best of Smith College at the 2007 Five College Film Festival for her film Object Lesson.

Documentary captures story of first gay club in Superior and its owner The Daily Telegram - 08/31/2007

The Main Club is the subject of a documentary by a Superior native.

Julie Casper Roth is planning to shoot her first feature-length documentary on the history of Superior’s first openly gay club and its owner, Bob Jannsen. ... Roth wants Northlanders, and the rest of the nation, to know more about the club.

“There’s an amazing history with the Main Club, and it’s almost a hidden history,” she said. “People in town will benefit from learning about the Main and the benefit it has in the community.” ...

When she moved away from Superior for college in Massachusetts, Roth attended Smith College in Northampton, a community with a vibrant gay community, she said. Seeing that vibrancy, Roth began to wonder about the gay community back in the Twin Ports. During college, Roth started working with experimental and documentary video. Since then, her work has been screened at film festivals and she’s won awards for her work.

Many of the films Roth makes deal with identity. She’s visited the topics of motherhood, mental illness, gender and sexuality in the past. This film follows that interest because it allows her to explore how people mediate GLBT identity within the Superior area, she said.

Read the entire article.

1875 Ad for Smith College

I found this bit of Smith history in the archives. The ad ran in 1875 to encourage young women to apply. I have typed out the text below the image since its a little hard to read.


Smith College for Young Women
Northampton, Mass.
This college will be opened for the reception of students on the second Thursday, 1875. The course of studies occupying four years, will be fully equivalent to that in our best New England colleges for young men.
Candidates for admission to the lowest class will be examined in Arithmetic, Geography, the construction of the English language, general outlines of History, the Latin and Greek Grammars, the Catiline of Sallust, the seven orations of Cicero, the first six books of Virgil's Aenid, three books of Xenophon's Anabasis, two books of Homer's Iliad, Algebra to Quadratic Equations, and two books of Geometry.
For circulars or information apply to the President, Rev. L. Clark Seelye, Amherst Mass.; or to the Secretary of the Trustees, J.M. Greene, Lowell, Mass.