Weber Tierney Family profiled in NY Times

Gay Couples Say Civil Unions Aren’t Enough

Eager to celebrate their partnership, Tracy and Katy Weber Tierney were among the first in line when Connecticut created civil unions three years ago as a way to formalize same-sex relationships without using the word “marriage.”

But when Tracy was giving birth to their son, Jake, five months ago, a hospital employee inquired whether she was “married, single, divorced or widowed.”

“I’m in a civil union,” she replied. When the employee checked “single,” Tracy protested. “I’m actually more married than single,” she said, leaving the employee flustered about how to proceed.

That conundrum is at the core of a case on which the Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to rule soon. It presents a new constitutional challenge to the political compromise that several states have made in recent years to grant rights to gay and lesbian couples while preserving the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and woman. At the same time, the state legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing in Hartford on Monday to consider amending the civil union law in light of complaints from same-sex couples that the measure had not delivered the equal rights it had promised. The committee passed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage, 27-15, last year, but it was never put to a full vote of the legislature.

Read the rest of the article

Smithie '89 Up for an Oscar

Cynthia Wade, class of 1989, is nominated for an Oscar in the short documentary category for her film Freeheld. The film follows NJ policewoman Laurel Hester's fight to have her pension transfered to her partner while dying from cancer.

Wade says, “Our film is the story of a dying police officer who wants to give her pension to her partner. She died and never got to see the film. I spoke to her surviving partner today, and she was very emotional. Her case changed the law in parts of New Jersey and the elected official who was against it is now running for Congress, so it’s still very much in the press. Our hope is we can make a difference in the elections. We have to tell this story. Hopefully the Oscar nomination will bring more awareness to couples around the country.”

'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.

Read The Rest of the Article

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.

Read the Rest of the Article

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.

Her life's a real circus

The Madison Capital Times has a great story about our own Krin Haglund. Shortly after graduation Krin succumbed to the pull of the circus and is now planning to create her own troop. Congrats Krin and best wishes!

********
Her life's a real circus: Multifaceted performer with Canadian troupe is coming home
MONTREAL -- Here are the clues.

When Krin Haglund was a little girl, her dad would tip her upside-down every day. In the Madison family's archives is a snapshot of her at age 6, fixated on performers in Baraboo.

This is a woman who has long loved the circus, but it wasn't until age 21 that she decided to join one. Nothing has shattered her dream, but events have challenged it, and she continues to reinvent herself as a professional clown, comedienne, aerialist and acrobat.

Since 2002, she has performed with Cirque Eloize, a 13-year-old Canadian company that travels the world, most recently returning from the Chekhov Festival in Moscow. It was in Germany two months before that.

Haglund will lead a two-day clowning workshop next month in Madison. The Cirque Eloize cast of 12 will come to Milwaukee in November to present "Rain," a globally acclaimed theatrical and acrobatic tribute to childhood.

Read the rest of the article

Cirque Eloize in action. Krin is in many of the shots in this clip.

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.

Feminist Fatale

The current issue of US News and World Report is doing a retrospective on major events in the year 1957. Betty Friedan ('42) is profiled because that year she began writing an article in that would later become her book The Feminine Mystique. The article was in response to a popular new book of the day, "Modern Women: The Lost Sex", which suggested American women were overeducated and not properly adjusting to their role as women. To say the least Ms. Friedan set out to prove differently.

Feminist Fatale:Betty Friedan and the book that changed women's lives
The housewife in Grandview, N.Y., was busy doing what so many women were doing in 1957: hustling three kids to school, running the Cub Scout meetings, cooking hamburgers for dinner. When Sputnik flew overhead, Betty Friedan woke up her son and carried him outside to see it tracing its way across the sky.

But Friedan, then 36, still had time to become annoyed over a popular new book, Modern Women: The Lost Sex. The authors, Freudian psychoanalysts, said that American women were over educated and not properly "adjusting to their role as women." Friedan, who had reveled in debates over politics and economics at Smith College, didn't buy it, and she set out to prove that the academic experiences of her fellow alumnae had made them better mothers. "I knew my Smith classmates were doing great things in their own communities, and having a great time, as I was, fixing up their houses, getting their kids educated," she later wrote.

The rest, as they say, is history. Friedan polled her peers about their marriages, their sex lives, their children. Two hundred women responded. The ones who were focused solely on home and family seemed depressed and frustrated. Those with other interests seemed to be enjoying their children and marriages.

Maybe it wasn't education that was making women frustrated, Friedan thought, but the limited role that women were asked to play.

Read the rest of the article

Simon Aronoff profiled in MetroWeekly

Our own Simon Aronoff is on the cover of the July 26th MetroWeekly for his work as the deputy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Read Simon Says: Simon Aronoff just wants equality -- for everyone.

The interview with Simon is great, as is his commitment to social justice and equality.

Congratulations Simon on all your work!

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Highlights Carolyn Kuan

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had a great article on our own Carolyn Kuan and her post at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra last week. I have included the first few paragraphs below with a link to the full article.

If you are in the Seattle area show your support of Carolyn and check out one of the shows she is conducting. See her bio at the Seattle Symphony site.

Congrats Carolyn on all your success!

******

New Seattle Symphony associate conductor is aiming for the top
By R.M. CAMPBELL - P-I MUSIC CRITIC

It was only last year when Marin Alsop was named music director of the Baltimore Symphony that she became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra.

However, for Carolyn Kuan, women on the podium is a non-issue.

"It's not a subject I bring up," said Kuan, who recently was promoted, a year ahead of schedule, to associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony. "There are so many other things to discuss." But, she added, "I think I have been very fortunate."

Two decades ago, no major management firm represented a female conductor, top-flight orchestras rarely had women musicians and female music directors were, almost without exception, found only in regional orchestras. The pioneers were few, among them Antonia Brica, Sarah Caldwell and Eve Queler. Today, there are 30 or so scattered across the country, from nations as diverse as China and Finland, and leading the parade into more important jobs.

Kuan, whose biggest conducting assignment of her first season in Seattle comes this week, is with an orchestra that had one of the first women music directors. Mary Davenport-Enberg took the baton in 1921 and led the symphony for a couple of years.

It's no surprise that Alsop is a major role model for the 30-year-old Kuan, who not only admired her from afar but up close.
Read the Rest of the Article

"We Meant To Say Wellesley"

My dear fiance, bless his heart, happened to have a copy of GQ so I scanned the brief interview that they had for y'all to see (click the image to read it):

GQ Takes it Back... kind of

So GQ is apparently taking back their Smith jab only to send it Wellesley's way. I can't wait to see if the Wellesley women respond. In the meantime I'm going to get a copy of GQ to check the interview. Sadly they don't have the story online, but I'll post anything interesting. The tidbit below is from the Smith news feed.

We meant to say Wellesley
GQ MAGAZINE, June 2007

After receiving a flurry of letters from people unhappy with the magazine's inclusion of Smith on a list of places "not to find" attractive women, the magazine published the headline "We Meant to Say Wellesley" along with an interview with letter-writer Caredwen Foley '09.

GQ Gets it Wrong

GQ's April issues is running an article titled "Where to Find Her, 2007". Below the article title is the following, "A whole world of smart, beautiful women are out there, from the beaches of Uruguay to aisles of Whole Foods. We searched far and wide to discover the best spots on the planet to meet them."

Now, my first thought is Smith College (or really any women's college) would be a natural choice for finding "smart, beautiful" women. Oh how wrong I am...

Now, I'm not expecting greatness from GQ, but the article contains a sidebar which additionally describes where not to find her. There, so graciously lumped in with family reunion, Hooters and on vacation with the wife and kids, is Smith College.... apparently not home to the "smart. beautiful women" I remember.



Oh GQ.... I'm sorry, but you are just so so so wrong.

To say the least current Smithies, at those on the Daily Jolt (where I found out about this little tidbit), are up in arms and have started calling for a variety of protests. They put together a Facebook group called "F*ck You, GQ: Smithies are Beautiful" calling on Smithies to send photos of themselves to the editor of GQ to demonstrate their beauty. From their website:

"…while this list offends all different types of nationalities, sexualities, religions, hobbies, and age groups in addition to ALL WOMEN EVERYWHERE, I feel that it is our JOB to stand up for our college. Smith does not get enough positive publicity. This article appears in a well-known, well-read magazine. It offends our school, our intelligence, our beauty, and our beliefs. It lowers us to a worthless thing. According to GQ, we are merely a place where smart and beautiful women cannot be found…"

I personally liked this response from the Daily Jolt:

Dear GQ,
In light of your recent mention of Smith College as lacking smart beautiful women, we hereby challenge you to an academic decathlon and swimsuit contest.

Love,
Smith College

There are some entertaining threads going on over at the Regular Daily Jolt and at the Alumnae Daily Jolt.

Krin ran away with the circus!

Krin Haglund continues her circus endeavors and is currently performing with Cirque Eloize "Rain" and on occasion is the circus MC/artistic director for the band the Dresden Dolls. Krin is on their new DVD shot in London last fall. Krin works mostly as a clown, single wheel acrobat and aerialist, but has been beginning to direct and coach lately.


"Rain" is getting great reviews. The New York Times reviewed the performance as "accomplished circus and theater. There are tricks galore, but the spectacular physicality of the performers is bent towards something more profound - a whimsical and moving journey through the topography of the human mind." The Boston Globe gave an equally glowing review and even singled out Krin as a "standout" saying that "Haglund’s character gives the show its most heartrending moment."

2007 US Dates Left for Rain
March 24 - Davis, CA -Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
March 27 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Harman Hall
March 30 - Lancaster, CA - Lancaster Perf. Arts Center
March 31 - April 08 - Irvine, CA - Irvine Barclay Theatre
April 10 - 11 - Mesa, AZ - Mesa Arts Center
April 13 - 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kingsbury Hall

"Rain" will also be in Europe this summer and Krin says she would love to meet up with Smithies on the tour!

Congrats on all the success Krin!!!

Fantastic NYTimes Article about '97 Alum

From the Smith Press Release: In Clarkston, Georgia, soccer coach and Smith alumna Luma Mufleh '97, spends as much time helping her players' families build new lives as coaching. Her team is made up of refugees from war-torn countries around the world -- some enduring unimaginable hardship to get to America.

Refugees Find Hostility and Hope on Soccer Field

CLARKSTON, Ga., Jan. 20 — Early last summer the mayor of this small town east of Atlanta issued a decree: no more soccer in the town park.
“There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,” Lee Swaney, a retired owner of a heating and air-conditioning business, told the local paper. “Those fields weren’t made for soccer.”

In Clarkston, soccer means something different than in most places. As many as half the residents are refugees from war-torn countries around the world. Placed by resettlement agencies in a once mostly white town, they receive 90 days of assistance from the government and then are left to fend for themselves. Soccer is their game.

But to many longtime residents, soccer is a sign of unwanted change, as unfamiliar and threatening as the hijabs worn by the Muslim women in town. It’s not football. It’s not baseball. The fields weren’t made for it. Mayor Swaney even has a name for the sort of folks who play the game: the soccer people.

Rest of the Article

Mary Poppins & Smith

So I am a serious lover of random facts and I want to share today's random fact with everyone. Today I was delighted to learn that the woman who wrote the Mary Poppins books, P.L. Travers, was once, among her many other jobs, a writer in residence at Smith College. For more on the life of P.L. Travers see this interesting CNN story.

As a total aside, for other random fact junkies I would highly reccomend the magazine Mental Floss. I just discovered it and it is now one of my most favorite things.

Ruth Simmons in Newsweek

Thanks to Kathryn Rotondo for passing this on!

Newsweek Sept. 25, 2006 issue (Top Women Speak on Leadership)

RUTH SIMMONS (President, Brown University)
So often in the workplace, women assume that they have to be just like everybody else, and downplay whatever is unique about them. I think it's just the opposite. Whatever I've accomplished in my life, I've done it precisely because I have been different. I have expressed different opinions, and I have been outspoken. I don't have any regrets about what remained unsaid or unspoken. The regrets I have are about decisions that I didn't take because I thought somebody else knew better.
Read rest of the article

Smith In the News

Don't favor boys over girls - USA Today
As girls begin to dominate applicant pools at many colleges and universities some schools are attempting to compensate by rejecting highly qualified girls in the name of a gender ratio, according to this opinion piece. "To a young woman who has grown up in the wake of the feminist movement, this new trend in college admissions policies smacks of injustice," writes the author, Rachel Bolten, the daughter of a "proud graduate of Smith College."

Honoring Faculty and Alums - Daily Hampshire Gazette
On Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in Sweeney Hall, faculty members Giovanna Bellesia, H. Robert Burger, Glenn Ellis and Marguerite Harrison will receive Kathleen Compton Sherrerd and John J.F. Sherrerd prizes for distinguished teaching.

Odd Couples: Chuck Berry & Sylvia Plath - The Independent UK
Writer contends that archetypal rock'n'roller Chuck Berry had a relationship with poet Sylvia Plath at Smith College in 1955, when he and his band played at a summer "homecoming ball". Berry was then 29 and Plath, 22, was a senior who arranged to meet Berry backstage.

Western Mass Students help in New Orleans - The Republican
Smith senior Christina H. Arrison volunteered with about 30 other Smith students under the auspices of United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Women, teens to be focus of Hadassah Meeting - The Republican
Smith Associate Professor of Theater Ellen Kaplan, one of the presenters at a workshop for girls on Jewish culture, will use mime, poetry, music and free writing to delve into the powerful stories of women in the Bible.

Smith's Oscar-Winning Black Mark Hartford Courant
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the film debut of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Edward Albee's play, about humiliation, illusion, hypocrisy and lost dreams. The Smith buildings used as backdrops for the Warner Bros. movie are still there, but attitudes toward profanity, sex and marriage have loosened considerably.

Piece to depict Irishmen's trial - The Republican
Smith government students will be playing most of the parts in "A Trial By Their Country," a performance piece commemorating the 1806 trial and execution of Dominic Daley and James Halligan for the murder of Marcus Lyon. Smith Associate Professor of Government Alice Hearst said, "It's important for them to see how the law fits into a whole story."