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For more than 100 years, Reed students have written papers, conducted physics experiments, and even occasionally danced to the sound of jazz. Now a new generation is clamoring for its turn in the spotlight at a storied music club next week.

Fashion isn't the only 1980s cultural iconography recently spotted on the Reed campus: on Wednesday, Richard Simmons made a Gray Fund-sponsored appearance to motivate and inspire the Reed community during reading week.

Simmons spent the first part of the day roaming around campus in his short-shorts and sequined top, dishing out hugs, kisses, and compliments to students, faculty, and staff. (Sadly, I hear that President Diver was out of the office when Richard dropped by.) By shortly before 3 p.m., Simmons was outside the sports center greeting people who were dresseed in their workout best and and ready to hit the gym for a straight-out-of-the-late-twentieth century aerobics routine.

Witty and self-effacing, Simmons worked the crowd a bit before heading up on stage to get the aerobicizing started. Simmons's love of people, life, and exercise shone through everything he said and did; he was euphoric in the presence of hundreds of participants and buoyed by the tunes blaring out of the sound system. He ribbed the folks who chose to watch rather than dance, worked in a centennial joke, and scoffed at those who couldn't touch their toes during the stretching exercises. Participants waved their arms, grapevined, kicked, and strutted. Simmons invited a wide-ranging selection of people up on stage to dance with him, encouraging men to doff their shirts and everyone to be proud of their participation. So strong was the positive vibe in the room that I don't think it was possible to walk through the door without cracking a smile and breaking out the jazz hands.

Deafening drums, sky-towering stilt-walkers and heart-rending Broadway numbers exhilarated the Reed community on April 20 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on the twentieth anniversary of the Gray Fund.

Since its establishment in 1992, the Gray Fund has brought together students, faculty, and staff in a range of activities -- from hot air balloon rides, to sailing down the Columbia River, to attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  Events are free of charge and substance-free, allowing all members of the Reed community to participate. It has been 20 years since Betty Gray gave $2,000,000 to Reed so that the students, in her husband’s words, “could have some fun.” Her generosity was celebrated in style at the Schnitz as part of Reed's ongoing Centennial.

Eliot Circle erupted in a flurry of snowballs this morning as upperclassmen enacted a relatively new tradition, the Pelting of the Freshmen, after the final Hum 110 lecture of the academic year.

Unidentified upperclassmen (rumored to include Seth Douglas ’13 and Jeremy Lawrence ’12) drove a pickup truck to Mount Hood, loaded the bed with snow, and lay in wait for the unwary freshlings to emerge from Vollum. Cheers rent the air as the youngsters streamed down the steps and the icy fusillade commenced.

Reed has just announced that Oregon Attorney General John Kroger will be the college's 15th president.

“John impressed us with his brilliance and clarity, advocacy for the primacy of the liberal arts education, and his commitment to the mission and vision of Reed College,” said board chair Roger Perlmutter ’73. “We are very excited about his arrival on campus this summer.”

Kroger, 46, was selected after an extensive national search. He met with faculty, staff, and students as part of the process, and made a strong and positive impression. Reed’s presidential search committee also interviewed dozens of Kroger’s professional colleagues.

Kroger has had a long and distinguished career as a public servant and educator. He was elected Oregon’s Attorney General in 2008 after winning the nominations of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Since taking office, he created new units to prosecute environmental crimes, protect civil rights, and combat mortgage fraud. He has testified before Congress and argued twice before the United States Supreme Court.

Emotions rose and fell faster then a rubber ball on a hardwood floor during Reed’s annual indoor soccer tournament.

The thunder of drums and the syncopated chant of voices echoed through Eliot Chapel last month when traditional dancers swept a captivated audience of students and faculty into a culture, a community--even a world--often overlooked by those outside of it: the Native American community.

A six pack of beer as payment for a lesson in how to ride a tall bike? This was the confession made by Marshall Allman, the lead actor in Blue Like Jazz, at an advance screening of this independent film at Reed on Wednesday night (the movie opens around the country today). The preview for students, staff, and faculty included a Q&A at which we learned about Allman's preparation for his role as Don Miller, a person of faith who finds his way from being dogmatic to authentic during his time at Reed College. The character of Don was based upon some real-life experiences of author Don Miller, who audited Hum 110 at Reed and then stuck around as adviser to the student group “Oh, for Christ's Sake!” for a couple of years; he went on to include his Reed interlude in his spiritual memoir, Blue Like Jazz (2003), upon which the film is loosely based. Don was present at the Q&A, along with the director, Steve Taylor, and three of the actors (Allman, Tania Raymonde, and Justin Welborn); they were a genial group and even encouraged the Reed crowd to indulge in a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 viewing of it.

Reedies for Somalia held a fundraiser to help relieve the destructive famine ravishing the east African nation at Kaul auditorium last weekend, drawing roughly 100 supporters.

“Famine is declared when 2 in 10,000 people die each day,” said Hamayoun Jamali, a representative of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), who just returned from relief work in Africa. “In Somalia up to 15 children out of 10,000 die every day.” He also said that even a few dollars could make a huge difference to the ongoing human disaster. For example, it costs $71 to support an average Somali family of seven or eight for an entire month.

With the flowering of the cherry trees on Eliot Circle comes the notice of the spring crop of student awards and fellowships. We salute the following Reed students for their scholarship, dedication and inventiveness.

 Davis Projects for Peace

Two seniors in biochemistry and molecular biology, Gabe Butterfield ’12 of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, and Michael Gonzales ’12 of Round Rock, Texas, have designed a grassroots project in Nicaragua this summer for Davis Projects for Peace.

They will be working under the supervision of Dr. Clara Gonzalez, a microbiologist at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua in Managua.

Misuse of antibiotics in the developing world is causing bacterial resistance. Doctors in Nicaragua are uncertain whether the drugs they prescribe are curing their patients’ diseases or making them worse. Gabe and Michael will test for the presence and strain of two common diarrheal pathogens, shigella and salmonella. Different strains can cause different symptoms and possess different levels of antibiotic resistance. They will then determine the level of antibiotic resistance and the efficacy of antibiotics, sourced both locally and from U.S. suppliers.