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Today is Monday, March 18, 2024 at 07:30 PM.




Reed profiled in the Wall Street Journal

Reed was one of four liberal arts colleges recently featured in a two-part Wall Street Journal series called "Education on the Edge." The series spotlighted schools that clearly stand out from the pack, noting that Reed has an edge because it has "stuck to traditional course work, yet has adopted alternative ideas."

Citing Reed's "intellectual rigor" and resistance to "academic vogues" (the article made note of the first-year humanities program, junior qualifying exam, and yearlong senior thesis, with oral defense), the March 7 profile emphasized that the college's "loyalty to traditional liberal arts at a time when such curriculum is unfashionable has redounded to Reed's advantage" with applications hitting record highs the past three years and the endowment reaching $194 million.

Stating that Reed was founded as "an alternative to places like Harvard and Yale, which were seen as too distracted by sports and other sidelines," the article underscored many of the college's fundamental tenets, including a de-emphasis on grades, equality of opportunity for both women and men (the college has always been coeducational), and the absence of fraternities, sororities, and intercollegiate athletics. It also highlighted the college's refusal to cooperate with U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings.

Amid these indicators of institutional integrity and health, however, the article noted some institutional challenges: the college can only offer financial aid to 60 percent of accepted first-year students with demonstrated financial need and, despite efforts to recruit more minorities, the number of enrolled black and Hispanic students is low.

During his day-and-a-half visit to campus in early February, WSJ staff reporter Steve Stecklow met with faculty, students, and staff, and attended a humanities lecture and conference session. Although the story did not mention Reed's strength in the sciences and made scant mention of alumni success in a broad range of endeavors, the article has brought measurable positive attention to the college.

Other schools profiled in the WSJ series were Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Deep Springs College in Deep Springs, California; and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.


Crandall article in Scientific American


"The Challenge of Large Numbers," an article by Richard E. Crandall '69, Howard Vollum Adjunct Professor of Science and director of the Center for Advanced Computing, was published in the February 1997 issue of Scientific American. Crandall outlines the history of large numbers and discusses current work on them and their applications. He says in his introduction that these numbers "lie at the limits of the human imagination, which is why they have long proved elusive, difficult to define, and harder still to manipulate." Crandall also mentions the important work being done on the number field sieve by Joe Buhler '72, professor of mathematics, along with Hendrik Lenstra and Carl Pomerance.

Jayne Culp resigns

Jayne Culp has resigned from her position as director of student activities, effective the end of this school year. She and her husband, Bill Sudduth, will be moving to Louisville, Kentucky, where his family resides.

Jim Tederman, vice president/dean of student services, said that "Jayne has been an exceptional director of student activities, working with students to help them to improve their organizations and fully supporting the Reed tradition of student control over their own activities. This is often a fine line to walk. Jayne has also been instrumental in making the Gray Fund a success at the college. She is, without doubt, one of the hardest-working staff members at the college, spending countless nights and weekends on the campus."