Hood College

Hood College has chosen the provost of a Midwestern Lutheran university as its new president. Ronald J. Volpe, vice president and provost at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, will take over at the women's college in Frederick in July. "Hood has good students, a very strong faculty and a strong emphasis on the liberal arts," said Volpe, 55, adding that it reminds him of the all-male school he attended, Gannon University in Erie, Pa. "There are a lot of common themes there." Hood has had an interim president, Robert Funk, since shortly after Shirley Peterson resigned last spring.

The Hodson Trust handed out its annual gifts to four Maryland schools yesterday, some $17 million to the Johns Hopkins University, Hood College, Washington College and St. John's College. Set up by Clarence Hodson, the founder of the Beneficial Corp., one of the country's first small-loan companies, the trust has given more than $110 million to the four schools over the past 65 years. For the three liberal arts colleges, the Hodson money is usually the largest gift of the year. "We're a stubborn place and would have built our new science building anyway," Robert Funk, interim president of Hood College, said of Hodson Hall currently under construction on the school's campus in Frederick.

Shirley D. Peterson, who survived a vote of no confidence from the Hood College faculty and student petitions for new leadership last fall, has announced that she will quit as president of the Frederick school on June 30. The 59-year-old Peterson, who signed a contract last year through 2004, could not be reached for comment Friday. "This is part of the life cycle of colleges," said Allen Flora, a professor of physics and acting dean. "Presidents come and go." Complaints centered on Peterson's leadership style.

New positions Malinda B. Small promoted at BGE Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has appointed Malinda B. Small, a graduate of Hood College and Johns Hopkins University and a 13-year employee of BGE, as director of corporate contributions and community relations. She is active with several civic organizations and serves on several boards, including the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts, Hood College and Literacy Works. Rothschild, Millman, Miller join executive recruiter Millman Search Group appointed Tom Rothschild as vice president of business development, Amy Miller as office administrator and Jennifer Millman as executive recruiter for the Baltimore-based international executive recruiting firm.

Tom Samet, 52, professor, Hood College dean of faculty Tom Samet, Hood College dean of faculty and an English professor, died Sunday of cancer at his Frederick home. He was 52. He joined the Hood faculty in Frederick in 1995 after serving at Maryville University in St. Louis, Mo., Louisiana Scholars College at Northwestern State University of Louisiana at Natchitoches, Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa., and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. He wrote widely on the literary critic Lionel Trilling and modern critical theories in literature.

The day's work has yet to start, but already Phil Rogers sees a problem. The pottery he created Saturday -- the half-dozen vases, bowls and jugs that he had shaped on a potter's wheel at Baltimore Clayworks -- has dried too much overnight and might be too brittle to mold into finished products. Rogers, who has come to the arts center in Mount Washington from his native Wales to pass on a few secrets to his fellow potters, realizes the pottery is too dry when he picks up a jug and places it on the wheel spinning in front of him. "It should be softer," Rogers tells the class of 10 students yesterday.

New positions Betty Schutte, Vickie Johnson take posts at Hood College Hood College has appointed Betty Schutte director of major gifts and planned giving, and Vickie L. Johnson community relations coordinator at the four-year college in Frederick. Schutte, a graduate of the University of Virginia, is a certified financial planner and formerly was an assistant vice president at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. Johnson, a Hood graduate and resident of Frederick, will serve as liaison with area communities.

The Hodson Trust, set up 78 years ago to support four private colleges in Maryland, handed out its annual grants yesterday, $6.7 million going to the Johns Hopkins University, Hood College, St. John's College and Washington College.Hopkins, Hood and Washington each get $1.94 million, while St. John's receives $881,839, according to an enrollment-based formula written into the original agreement.Hood will spend this year's gift on construction of a science center. St. John's will put the money toward a technology endowment, the athletic program and faculty salaries.

Beginning elementary teachers in Carroll County schools will get a crash course this fall in how to teach students about insects, magnets, rocks and minerals, and electrical circuits.Hood College in Frederick will sponsor a one-day workshop that will feature lesson demonstrations by veteran county science instructors from the school system's award-winning "Hands-On Elementary Science Program." The program has been adopted in about 3,000 schools nationwide.The college received a $6,500 grant last week from the Foundation for Independent Higher Education to develop the workshop for Carroll teachers.