The fall semester 2005 is well underway here in Hamilton and this issue of the alumni newsletter
provides us with an opportunity to relate the latest news about the department and Colgate. These are exciting times
for the department in that ground has just been broken for the new Robert Ho Interdisciplinary Science Center which will house
Geology, Physics and Astronomy and Geography. We recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of Lathrop Hall, which has been the
home of Colgate geology for all those years, but we are looking forward to our new digs with great anticipation.
Charlie McClennen has been the overall faculty leader in the development of the Ho Center plans, and Rich April has been
the departmental representative to the building committee. Robert Ho, a member of the class of 1956, has led the funding
for the new building with a $25 million lead gift for this project that will total around $52 million. While we will all miss Lathrop's
homey atmosphere and historic ambiance, the need for climate controlled lab environments for our latest equipment
and the increasing demand for technologically sophisticated teaching labs and classrooms have really outstripped our
current facilities.
We have welcomed a new faculty member to the department this fall - Martin Wong - who comes to us from the University of
California at Santa Barbara. Martin is a Williams undergrad, so is familiar with the goals of a liberal arts college and
the kinds of opportunities that we foster for our students. Martin is with us for two years as a replacement for Art
Goldstein, now at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC.
Our Cooper Lecture Series, funded with endowment income from the generous gift of G. Arthur Cooper, continues to
allow us to attract high quality speakers to the department. We attempt to include some alumni among the Cooper
invitees, as this allows our current students insight as to career paths once they leave Colgate. We are also
fortunate to have support from the Malcolm and Sylvia Boyce Endowment which funds projects for faculty and students,
including our special 'spring break' trips, which in recent years have taken groups to Death Valley, Hawaii and
the Cascades. Our discretionary fund, made up of designated annual fund gifts from our alumni, allows us to support
a variety of student-oriented events on-campus, and to deep in touch with alumni through mechanisms like this
newsletter.
We hope to see you back at colgate sometime soon. There are usually geology-related events on Reunion Weekend, but
we are always happy to see folks at any time when they visit campus.
If you want to learn more about the Ho Center project, visit
http://www.colgate.edu/desktopdefault1.aspx?tabid=2036
|
