Smith Ranks the Hottest

Smith and Northampton rank high this week...
Newsweek came out with the its Top 25 Hottest Universities list in the most recent addition and Smith came in as the hottest women's college. Newsweek characterizes the ranking as, "Instead of a numerical ranking, our list is a quick but colorful snapshot of today's most interesting schools. We've talked to a range of experts—admissions officials, educational consultants, students, parents, and college and university leaders—in making our selections. We've been particularly influenced by the views of high-school counselors, the people most in tune with what matters to the latest wave of college applicants."

Hottest Women's College
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
With 2,800 students, Smith is the nation's largest women's college, and the first to start an engineering program. It is part of the Five Colleges consortium with nearby Mount Holyoke, Amherst, Hampshire and UMass Amherst. The facilities, particularly the cottage-style houses where students live in groups of 13 to 80, are so attractive that visitors originally preferring a coed college often change their minds. "Smith kind of won me over," says Katie Green, who thought she would go to a school with men. "When else in your life can you get the experience of being surrounded by smart, motivated young women who really care about what they're doing?"

Also making a best of list is Northampton. Smartertravel.com has ranked Northampton as one of 5 perfect college towns.

Want to avoid the hustle and bustle of Boston college life? Look no further than Northampton, a small New England city in the Berkshire foothills surrounded by no less than five colleges. The downtown area is filled with ma-and-pa-owned boutiques, coffee houses, hip restaurants, and theaters housed in historical buildings. Home to Smith College, the nation's largest liberal arts college for women, this funky little town is well-known for its art—many galleries feature local artists' work—and for its thriving gay and lesbian counter-culture scene.

In nearby Amherst, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the top choice for more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and hosts some major musical acts. These two colleges, plus the others in the area, provide the perfect backdrop for a formal education in the natural setting of the Berkshires.

Finding things to do outside of the classroom is a breeze, as many outdoor activities throughout the year offer a break from the books, including rafting on the Connecticut River, biking along Smith campus, hiking in the mountains, and window-shopping along Main Street. What sets this town apart from others is its energy. It may be a small town, but it's big on all things creative.

Ford Hall

A new building will be going up at Smith very soon. Ford Hall will be the new home for engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and computer science. It was sad to see the old mail room and bookstore gone, but this will (hopefully) replace the now long term temporary building that was attached to Bass Hall to house engineering.


Smith.edu Introduction to Ford Hall
"Capitalizing on a four-decade legacy of leadership and innovation in science education, Smith College has approved plans for a science and engineering facility that will intentionally blur the boundaries between traditional disciplines, creating an optimum environment for students and faculty to address key scientific and technological developments of our time. Both a structure and a symbol, the new home for the Picker Engineering Program, computer science, chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology will be a compelling, visible statement of Smith’s public identity as the women’s college with the strongest programs in science and engineering. The first building in the multi-phase complex is Ford Hall, named in honor of the lead donor to the project, the Ford Motor Company Fund. Through its Advanced Education Program, the Ford Fund supports programs that emphasize diversity in engineering and business and linking classroom learning with real-world projects and issues."

Check out all the details at Smith College: Ford Hall

Campus Guide Captures Smith Architecture

Smith News Release:
The range of architectural achievements at Smith is captured in a new book, The Campus Guide: Smith College, a lustrous volume filled with colorful, glossy photographs of the Smith campus.

The guide, which is available through Amazon.com and soon at Grécourt Bookshop, is organized into five “walks” among 67 campus buildings, each illustrated and discussed architecturally and in historical college context. Walk One tours the corner of campus around College Hall, including Neilson Library, Wright and Hatfield halls, and the Brown Fine Arts Center. The walks proceed through campus, exploring the architecture of other notable buildings, such as Sage Hall, Burton Hall, the president’s house, Lyman Conservatory, Helen Hills Hills Chapel, and many others.

As noted in the book, a tour of Smith’s 100-plus buildings is like a literal review of architectural history for more than 150 years. The Campus Guide: Smith College seeks to capture the history of Smith’s aesthetic evolution in pictures and prose.

The Campus Guide: Smith College is one in a series of books that illustrate the architecture on notable American campuses, including Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale universities, and Vassar College. It was published this year by Princeton Architectural Press.

Students Speaking out about House Community

This past Monday a group of students at Smith held a demonstration on campus and presented a list of issues to the administration concerning the perceived downward slide of housing and house community at Smith. Below is the introductory paragraph to the letter they presented with a link to the full document. If anyone is interested in connecting with these students or has questions for them, please contact Amanda Belden '07, Tamar Malloy '07, or Katie Chase '07.

This is an issue that I have been paying attention to over the last few years since I was sitting on the AASC Board of Directors at the time the changes began. Sadly, it seems that many of the fears concerning house community and tradition that were expressed during those early meetings are happening. There is a lively discussions taking place on the issue at the Alum. Daily Jolt and I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

*****

May 7, 2007

Dear Smith Community,

Smith is housing.

We are Gold Key, we are Committee Members, we are House Presidents, Heads of New Students, SGA members, we are singers, writers, we are student workers, and we are organizers. As student leaders, as Smith seniors, and soon to be alumnae, and above all as members of our house communities, we are writing out of our love for Smith.

In the past four years, we have witnessed a transformation. We applied to many colleges that offered strong academics, a diverse community with a commitment to equality, grant funding for internships, alumnae networks and libraries. What set Smith apart was housing. We knew it would give us a community with a natural support network and a sense of home that other top colleges could not offer. Yet even while many of Smith’s other, less unique, programs are poised to receive increased funding and attention, our sense of home has fallen apart.

Rest Of The Letter

Campus Views

We drove out to Northampton a few weeks back for the day. It was beautiful on campus with all the snow and Paradise Pond was completely frozen over.

Enjoy some snowy campus photos and have a great weekend!

A frozen Paradise Pond and the athletic fields.

President Christ's house and garden from the island in the middle of the pond.

Can anyone explain why there is a No Parking Anytime street sign on the edge of the island in Paradise Pond? It does not seem like this would be an issue....