Victor Hammer Fellowship announced

The Wells College Book Arts Center has established the Victor Hammer Fellowship in the Book Arts with the aid of a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, according to Bruce Bennett, the center's director and professor of English at Wells.

Jocelyn Webb has been named the first Victor Hammer Fellow for a one-year term beginning in the fall 1998 semester. She will teach a class on printing and publishing, as a counterpart to the already existing course in fine binding. "The course will cover how to set type, typography, and ways art can complement text," she said. "During the spring semester I will teach a class on the history of the book."

Her other responsibilities include executing printing assignments for the college, working on printing projects with visiting writers, and arranging for two book arts workshops per year. She will also be affiliated with the Press and Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler located in nearby Skaneateles, New York, where she will serve as an apprentice.

Ms. Webb earned a graduate certificate in the book arts from the University of Iowa this year where she worked in the university's Center for the Book. "I worked closely with writers in the writing workshop compiling manuscripts for possible publication. Jorie Graham and James Galvin were very supportive and helped me connect the Iowa writing program to the Center for the Book," said Ms. Webb.

Ms. Webb collaborated with fiction writer Peter Orner to publish Seep , a collection of his stories and her artwork which she submitted as her final thesis project at the University of Iowa. This book was published under the imprint of Sierras Press - a publishing enterprise Ms. Webb created and plans to expand.

Before she began her studies at Iowa, she was an apprentice with the Yolla Bolly Press in Ovelo, California, where she set type by hand for publication of El Pan de los Dias: The Bread of Days, a folio-sized book of Mexican poetry edited by Octovio Paz and Samuel Beckett with etchings by Enrique Chigoya. She was also an apprentice with Turkey Press in Santa Barbara.

She earned her B.A. in English literature from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She has published poems in 100 Words: A Literary Magazine for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

August, 1998

Xerox Corporation VP named Wells College Board Chair

A resident of Westport, Connecticut, Ms. Hostetter began her career in 1966 with Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. in New York City as a security analyst in the Trust and Investment Division. In 1970 she joined G.A. Saxton & Co., also in New York, as a Senior Technology Analyst.

In 1973 she became a member of the Corporate Control Staff of Xerox Corporation, beginning her distinguished career in that organization. From 1979-84 she served as Director of Investor Relations for Xerox. In 1984 she was promoted to Vice President and Secretary. She assumed her current position as Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer in 1990.

Ms. Hostetter is a member of the Board of Counselors of the Board of Trustees of Peoples Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is also a member of the Investor Relations Association of New York, the National Investor Relations Institute, and the Financial Women's Association of New York.

Her study, "Accounting Practices of Major Computer Companies," published in the Financial Analysts Journal won a Graham and Dodd Scroll Award, presented by the Financial Analysts Federation for Excellence in Financial Writing.

She attended Wells for three years and received her B.A. in economics from the City College of New York. In 1990, she was named a Wells College Trustee and has served continuously in that capacity for the last eight years.

August, 1998

Wells receives grant for Visiting Writers Series

The Visiting Writers Series has been bringing distinguished literary figures to Wells and the Finger Lakes Region for the last 23 years. The writers have included Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. Galway Kinnell, Lucille Clifton, and W. S. Merwin are among the guests who have visited campus.

"On average, eight writers visit campus each year," said Professor Bennett. "In addition to readings, they visit classes and meet individually with students. The writers are very much a part of the liberal arts curriculum."

This year Professor Bennett has scheduled a group of well-known writers including Katherine McAlpine and Gail White, editors of The Muse Strikes Back: A Poetic Response by Women to Men; Laure-Anne Bosselaar, author of the poetry collection The Hour Between Dog and Wolf; Edward Hower whose most recent novel is The Queen of the Silver Dollar; and a return visit by Lucille Clifton, one of America's most celebrated writers.

"It's wonderful that NYSCA has once again generously supported literature and the arts in this area through its grant to Wells," said Bennett. "The grant makes it possible for the college to continue to be a vital cultural center."

Professor Bennett is also director of the Wells College Book Arts Center which consists of the Wells College Press and the Class of 1932 Bindery. The center offers classes, exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, and symposia in the fine arts, the literary arts, bookbinding, printing, publishing, and related fields. It is a classroom, laboratory, and a library for information and inspiration and serves as a magnet for all who wish to study the art of the book. Visiting writers frequently participate in Book Arts Center activities.

August, 1998

Wells president named to board of the Women's College Coalition

"I am delighted that President Ryerson has agreed to join our board," said Sebrechts. "The Women's College Coalition will benefit from her vision and energy. She is an exemplary college president, and we are looking forward to her involvement."

President Ryerson will attend her first board meeting at the end of September. She will serve a three-year term, joining 11 other board members who are also presidents of women's colleges.

The Women's College Coalition is an association that advocates in many arenas on behalf of both two-year and four-year women's colleges in the United States. With headquarters at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., it also serves as a clearinghouse for research on women-centered education.

Coalition public policy initiatives include attaining gender equity in education for girls and women, advancing leadership by women in a wide variety of settings, and increasing the number of women who enter professions related to the study of math and science, according to Sebrechts.

The Women's College Coalition and the Ad Council are leading a national, public service campaign for gender equity in schools entitled Expect The Best From A Girl: That's What You'll Get. "The campaign encourages us to let our daughters and female students know we expect more from them. In turn, we must offer the support and encouragement they need to reach the highest levels of achievement," said President Ryerson.

August, 1998

Director of corporate and foundation support appointed

In this position, she will work with members of the Wells faculty and administration to match corporate and foundation resources with college priorities - including an aggressive plan to enrich academic programs which accompanies the college's policy to lower tuition costs by 30% beginning in the fall semester of 1999.

Dr. Franquemont comes to Wells with a strong record of success in fundraising both for higher education and her own research projects. She has served as Associate Director of Foundation Relations at Cornell University, and she is the recipient of two Fulbright awards as well as grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council.

She earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College in anthropology and her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has taught at Cornell University, Ithaca College, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the School for Field Studies, and was a visiting scientist in Japan. Her publications include monographs and articles on the ethnobotany of the Andes.

"As a graduate of a women's college, I am very pleased to join the Wells community at this moment when the college is strengthening academic programs and institutional planning. I am delighted to be able to put my skills and energies to work for the cause of women's education," said Dr. Franquemont.

August, 1998