Recently posted by Jason Wood

But it's great accomplishments live on.  Not only did the Simmons Community come together in the annual rite of bidding wars and wondering at what the basements of certain individuals might look like, but their combined generosity made a big difference for a local charity.

The 25th Annual Silent Auction is on track to raise over $6000.00 (not a typo) for the Fenway Parker Hill Emergency Food Pantry. 

Thanks to everyone who donated, bid, participated, blogged, volunteered, and joined in the fun!

In April 1969, a group of students from the Black Student Organization presented Simmons President William Park with the Ten Demands, outlining a plan to increase diversity in the student body, among faculty and staff, and in the academic program.  

The new exhibit, curated by Ashley Solod, Archives student worker, provides a detailed account of how the College responded to each of the Demands.

The exhibit is outside the College Archives, LIB-220, and will be featured through April.  

Over the years Simmons College students have enjoyed annual day-long athletic events in celebration of the Spring Season.  The first springtime athletic event held at Simmons College was Track Day.  The event was organized by the newly formed Simmons Athletic Association in 1911 and included several athletic events in which each class competed for gold and silver cups.  Traditionally held in May, the outdoor athletic events were joined over the years by various non-athletic competitions.

 

In 1916, non-athletic competitions such as best Song and Best Costume contests were added into the event.  The popular Student Faculty Baseball game became incorporated in Track Day in the early 1920's.  Track Day continues to be a popular springtime outdoor event, now known as the Simmons Cup.

Visit the College Archives Display Case in Java City to learn more about Spring Spree and see some wonderful photos! 

. . . that the 25th Annual Silent Auction is approaching at Simmons. Every year, Staff Council sponsors this charity event that benefits the Fenway / Parker Hill Neighborhood Food Pantry. I'd like to think it's become legendary around these parts . . . it certainly is a major event for the good folks at the food bank . . . In these oh-so-difficult times all around, it's important to think of those for whom difficult times are far too common . . . Anyway, the Auction is coming in April, so we've a ways to go before then. It's a great opportunity to bring the community together for a good cause and a good time . . . all much needed.

and wow, it flew by in quite the flash!  It was a very interesting and important month for the country and Simmons College and yeah, probably even myself somehow.  So important I completely forgot to blog about it . . .it's the old trick in which one feels that nothing is infused with significance at the time only to look back in retrospect and be amazed. 

I knew what January had in store for me, so I had a software program installed on my phone that allowed my organizer to sync with my work calendar.  Which is a fancy way of saying, I knew where I was supposed to be most of the time.  I spent a lot of January in meeting after meeting, talking about a flurry of really interesting topics--what leadership at Simmons means, what students are interested in for degree delivery options, marketing strategies for the College, ensuring staff representation and satisfaction, some intriguing candidates for Provost . . . and then we did the whole array of meeting topics over again!  All weirdly engaging and exhausting.   And every now and then, i even took a few minutes to answer some questions and process some records in the College Archives. 

And, on top of that, I watched the Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and cried all afternoon like a little baby.  And both Lost and Battlestar Galactica came back, feeding my inner geek.  Meanwhile I'm reading (very slowly) Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen--a wonderful book set near the intersection of truth, myth, and memory in the swamps of Florida.  A busy month.   No wonder I forgot to blog.

So I start out February with a pile of proposal documents to read and evaluate as part of the Strategic Planning Process and a couple other big projects in the Archives that I'm continuing work on.  In the upcoming months, I'll be working with my student worker and with the ever-wonderful Diane Hammer in the Institute for Leadership and Change to develop an online exhibit celebrating the Bringing Beijing Home conference held at Simmons in 1996.  And Donna Webber, College Archivist and I are continuing a major project of arranging and describing the records of the President's Office from before there even was a Simmons College to 1995.  Very interesting stuff buried in those records.   

And I really have to finish Shadow Country, as i hate carrying around the same book (no matter how good or how long--and this is both) for over a month . . . I grow to feel somewhat remedial. 

Meanwhile, I'm taking an MCM class this semester--Communications and Strategic Change or something like that . . .  and counting the days until my honey and I disappear from cold, snowy Boston to Jamaica for a week . . .33 days, according to the white board in my office. 

Be blogging back later. 

It's been a rather long November, all told . . . From the time spent obsessing with the waning days of the presidential campaign to  . . .  well the time spent now obsessing with the transition process (I admit it, I'm a political junkie--did you know that Bobby Jindal is in Iowa THIS WEEK?!?!  '12 here we come!!), it's been quite an engaging and often exhausting month. 

Let's take a moment and evaluate some of the past few weeks: 

It seems that I've lost obscene amounts of the past few weeks in meetings, I'm sure it was all for the greater good and will pay off in the end (unfortunately, there's a lot of meetings yet to come between now and pay-off time).  Strategic Planning at Simmons is moving ahead and I'm quite excited to be working with Carol Bonner on it. 

I gave it the College Try and completed my assignments for my Communications Technologies class early for the semester (that's why I've been avoiding posting to the blog, right?  too much communications technologies for one boy!).  My grand assignment was to write a paper on the attributes, future, and impact of direct mail.  Yes, Direct Mail.  Call me a geek, but I got into the topic a bit too much and found it a bit too interesting.  But it's over, so onward to the next thing.

The New England Archivists held their Fall meeting a Simmons in the middle of November, a weekend that coincided with an Undergraduate Admissions Open House.  Somehow, we coordinated 250 archivists with 330 prospective students and family members and made it through unscathed and successful.  I like to think that the past year of planning on my part paid off, but I think it was more the good luck of having some properly aligned stars somewhere far away.  

I read The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.  I'm still reeling in amazement from the experience.  The minute I finished it, I wanted to re-read it.  And from someone who likes to tear through books and move on (just like he collects friends on Facebook), that's saying something.

I've registered for a Poetry Workshop in the Spring Semester with Afaa Weaver and am looking forward to writing on-demand again, having realized that hoping for inspiration without deadline doesn't really work for me. 

And as I type this, Simmons is slowing down to silent for the Thanksgiving holiday break.  Speaking for myself and every single soul I encounter--from faculty, staff, student, to administrator--the 5 or so days off are much needed.  Then a few more weeks and the semester break happens.  My husband and I are busy making plans for a weekend in New York in December, then the holidays.

Which brings me to:  as the uncle of two adorable kids, I'm entrusted with the mighty responsibility of buying toys.  What do 9-month old boys like (his sister is two years older so he has all of her toys, which means he has EVERYTHING)?  Trucks, I was told, trucks.  Any other ideas are very welcome. 

More in a couple weeks!  Cheers.

Every few months I would feel this itch for permanence (or, at least whatever degree of permanence one can get from in essence opening their diary to whatever random and rare individual might browse by) and start a blog all my own.  

I'd post once or twice, self-consciously aware that no one was reading it, get distracted (I often seem to have the attention span of a cat), post something a couple weeks later, forget my password, then forget I even had the blog.  Start all over again.  Rinse, and repeat.  

So when a colleague approached me about this reconnectwithsimmons blog (to which I welcome you, faithful reader), I was both intrigued and apprehensive.  Sure, it would be fun to blog about Simmons and myself and the intersections of the two (I am paraphrasing the description I was given; if I'm misstating it, I'm sure this will be the last post from you will read), but what if I run out of things to say?  What if I have nothing to say?  What if I simply forget the blog is there?

Well, trust me there's always something to say about Simmons, whether it's a surprise visit from a delightful member of the Class of '58 just this morning (Hi, Cookie!) or chatting with an Emeritus Professor about her book on Simmons history and women's education or just wondering what the greened in "quad" behind the MCB will look like when it's finished.  Then on the other hand there's whatever else I happen to be thinking about today (that being the economic outlook of the country and a new biography on Emily Dickinson----and not necessarily in that order).  

So I trust I'll find something to chat about--and am looking forward to seeing others help a conversation spontaneously generate.  And, accepting as fact that if I don't write something down I might well forget it, I've set aside a few moments in my calendar to blog on by every now and again...hope you join me.