Distant Mirror

The Men's Dorm before a fire. Bowen Hall is in the background at left
The Men’s Dorm before the fire. Bowen Hall is in the background at left

Like its century-in-the-future counterpart, the class of ’16 (1916!) faced its share of campus crises scattered among the quotidian rhythm of challenge, disorientation, hard work, fun and growth. You can discover these similarities (and differences) from a display created by archivist Lisa Murphy ’98 and currently on exhibit in Upjohn Library.

The class of 1916 graduated 38 members (four with bachelor of science degrees, 34 with bachelor of arts degrees). The students matriculated in 1912. At that time all classes were held in Bowen Hall, located near what is today the east loading dock of the Hicks Center. Bowen housed the library as well. Male students lived in the appropriately (albeit unimaginatively) named “Men’s Dorm.” It was located near today’s Hoben Hall. Women students resided in “Ladies Hall,” located approximately in the center of a triangle whose vertices would one day be Stetson Chapel, Mandelle Hall and Dewing Hall. None of those three vertices existed then. And none of those 1916 landmarks (Bowen, Men’s Dorm, Ladies Hall) exist today.

Despite being 100 years apart, the academic calendar is roughly the same: mid-September to mid-June, though divided back then into two semesters rather than three trimesters. Fourteen faculty worked at K in 1916; three were women.

Ancestor to Day of Gracious Living?
Ancestor to Day of Gracious Living?

According to Murphy, freshmen and sophomores 100 years ago tended to do things as one group, juniors and seniors a second. As freshmen, the class of ’16 distinguished itself in the annual sophomore-versus-freshmen tug-of-war over Mirror Lake, a shallow mucky pond near Arcadia Creek and the Amtrak train tracks. According to a small Kalamazoo Gazette article (headline: FRESHMEN DRAG 15 CLASSMEN THROUGH CHILLY LAKE WATERS), the first-years made short work of the sophomores and pulled them across the entire pond.

Back then juniors and seniors enjoyed an annual picnic at West Lake. The class of ’16 had a chance to attend a senior-only picnic at Gull Lake (see photo, with President Stetson on the far right). Perhaps these events are ancestors to the Day of Gracious Living, which the class of 2016 experienced annually for four years.

Students confined to the Men's Dorm take some air
Students confined to the Men’s Dorm take some air

All classes endure challenges. The graduates of 1916 faced smallpox and a serious dorm fire during their four years. In early April of 1913 a junior named Ernest Piper was diagnosed with smallpox. The Gazette headline read: SMALLPOX APPEARS AT COLLEGE “DORM” WEDNESDAY EVENING: Dr. Stetson Orders All Students to be Vaccinated at Once: Glee Club Members Are Scared. Piper had been on a recent trip with the Glee Club. For a few days, the College was “campused,” which meant students stayed in their rooms with the exception of their vaccination appointments. A doctor’s written verification of vaccination (and antibody production) was required to resume classes and other activities. One such verification is on display in the library, with two dates (April 3 and April 30) corresponding (respectively) to vaccination and efficacy (presence of antibodies presumably).

President Stetson took some heat for not banishing Piper to an infectious diseases sanatorium. None existed in Kalamazoo, and the closest one outside the city Stetson considered deplorable. So he stood his ground. It turned out Piper’s was a mild case, as was the only other case, that of a faculty member. The incident occurred before the age of antibiotics and less than four years prior to the influenza pandemics of 1918-19, which killed an estimated 675,000 Americans. Infectious disease was fearsome.

In the class’s senior year, on March 17, 1916, the Kalamazoo College Oratorical Association of Kalamazoo sponsored a debate between K and Hope College. The topic: “That Congress should adopt a literary test as a further means of restricting European immigration.” K had to argue the affirmative; Hope the negative. The debate occurred of St. Patrick’s Day. No record of who won.

The Men's Dorm the morning after the fire
The Men’s Dorm the morning after the fire

Coincidentally, that very night, a midnight blaze destroyed the fourth floor of the Men’s Dorm. All 48 residents of the building made it out; those on the lower floors had some time to salvage belongings, but the students on the third and fourth floors were fortunate to escape with their lives. In a scene right out of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, the bell from the dorm’s tower fell through the floors, narrowly missing one student who had just fled his room. Wrote The Index (March 21, 1916): “A very narrow escape was experienced by Paul Butler when the old bell, which had hung in the tower for more than fifty years and is well known to every alumnus, crashed through the roof and down to the third floor.  Butler had just left his room when the mass of metal tore an opening in the floor over which he had recently passed.”  Eat your heart out, Tim Burton…though, perhaps, the proximity of place and timing were embellished in the telling.

What’s certain is that local neighbors volunteered to house the newly homeless students, providing clothing and book replacements as well. Lots of homework, even some assignments not due for months, were claimed to have been lost in the blaze.

The night of St. Patrick’s Day was bitter cold. You can see the frozen ice from the water used to douse the flames in the after-photo of the before-and-after sequence. The College declared the fourth floor a loss, and refurbished the building as a three-story structure.

No matter what it may have seemed, not all about the four years was crisis–the same as with the class of 2016. The 1916 baseball team won the conference championship, as would its future descendant 100 years later. The basketball team placed first as well. And 1916 was the year the Kalamazoo College Student Senate formed. Ironically, 100 years later, 2015-16 was the College’s first year since 1916 without a student government.

The Gold of Sound

Lindsay Worthington ’17 took home the gold by winning the award for “Best Sound” in the category “Theatrical Design Excellence” at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional competition. She continued to Nationals and placed 3rd among the 9 sound designers selected from across the U.S.”

The theatre arts and music double major, (and Spanish minor) from Bethesda, Maryland, has been active in a plethora of theatrical productions on campus. She also sings in the a Capella group Premium Orange. Every winter she writes and directs Pro-Voice with Karyn Boatwright’s “Feminist Psychology” class. Pro-Voice is an oral telling of the experiences of individuals who have had abortions.

KCACTF is a national competition that involves about 20,000 students from 700 colleges and universities and (both graduate and undergraduate). A series of eight regional competitions determine the national participants. Each year Kalamazoo College sends its most talented students to the Region 3 event in Wisconsin.

At this year’s regional competition Worthington presented a visual aid, conducted an oral presentation of her work and held a Q&A before a panel of judges. She won the award for “Best Sound” sending her to the national festival and competition.

Lindsay Worthington ’’17 (left) wins gold.
Lindsay Worthington ’17 (left) wins gold.

“A struggle in my field is the difficulty to visually and verbally explain sound,” says, Worthington. “So this festival and competition have been a wonderful way to enhance my public speaking and my abilities to express my creative ideas as a sound designer.

“For the theatre department, each K student’s individual success represents a community effort and a great experience,” Worthington adds. Associated with the festival are a series of workshops in both technical and acting categories, that are open to anyone.

K’s theatre department has a strong record of success at KCACTF. Last year Grace Gilmore ’15 was a finalist in the acting category, and Jane Huffman ’15 won first place in Nationals for the “critics” category.

Disabling Life’s Challenges: A Paradigm Shift

Sean Bogue ’18, Emma Franzel ’17, and Kyle Lampar ’17 in a scene from IMMOBILE
Sean Bogue ’18, Emma Franzel ’17, and Kyle Lampar ’17 in a scene from IMMOBILE by Brittany Worthington ’13. Photo by Emily Salswedel ’16.

Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College presents the world premiere of Immobile, a play by alumna Brittany Worthington ’13, on April 28 through May 1. The play is directed by senior Maddie Grau ’16 as part of Festival Playhouse’s annual Senior Performance Series

Immobile is a story of relationships and self. Megan’s husband Alexander (Kyle Lampar ’17) is a quadriplegic as a result of an auto accident. Though he loves Megan (Emma Franzel ’17), who is also his primary caregiver, Alexander encourages her to start a new chapter—-with a new man, Caleb (Sean Bogue ’18)—-thereby challenging each character to reexamine what being mobile—-both physically and emotionally—-really means.

“These three characters are on the path of realizing their able-bodied privilege, and the loss of that privilege,” says Grau. “Megan struggles to find happiness once Alexander asks her to prioritize herself in a world that tells her to put him first. The unconventional relationships that develop in the wake of his decision are unchartered territory that Worthington explores through moments of unforgiving humor and emotional uncertainty.”

Worthington originally wrote Immobile for a playwriting class in her senior year. It was chosen for a showcase reading in the Student Playwrights Staged Reading Series at Kalamazoo College in 2014, and then featured in the Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival that same year. This month’s show is the first completely staged full production.

Says Worthington of her play, “I wanted to explore this idea of ‘selflessness,’ of putting others before yourself. What I found while writing Immobile is that every relationship in life forces us to make sacrifices but also provides unique gains. How do we reconcile those relationships that come into conflict with each other? If you’re a different person depending on the relationship you’re in, is one identity more authentic than another? In order to have a full sense of self, must we in fact be ‘selfless,’ and give up something we love or should we strive to ‘have it all,’ despite the pain it may cause others?”

The play opens in The Dungeon Theatre (139 Thompson Street) on Thursday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m.; continues Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, at 8 p.m.; and concludes with a final performance on Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5. All students, faculty/staff members of Kalamazoo College are invited to attend the performance at no charge. Tickets may also be purchased at the door one hour prior to performance. To make reservations, please call 269.337.7333. For more information, please visit the Festival Playhouse website.

Sweet Music in North Georgia

Calvert JohnsonIf you happen to be in the Atlanta area this weekend you might want to make your way to Jasper, where the Episcopal Church of the Holy Family presents internationally acclaimed organist Calvert Johnson ’71 in an organ concert of works from the Middle East, featuring music by Baboukas, Hovhaness and Hakim.

Johnson is the Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Music and College Organist Emeritus, Agnes Scott College, and Organist, First Presbyterian, Marietta, Georgia. At Agnes Scott, he taught courses in Sacred Music, Women in Music, Music before 1750, as well as organ and harpsichord lessons. Johnson earned the doctorate and master’s in organ performance at Northwestern University, where he studied with Karel Paukert.

At K, Johnson majored in music and studied abroad in Madrid, Spain. The concert occurs Sunday, April 17, at 3:30 p.m. It is the eighth in a season of free concerts. Holy Family is located at 202 Griffith Road in Jasper.

Diamonds in the Rough

Tom HigginsTom Higgins ’92 returned to his alma mater in early April as part of a visit coordinated by the Kalamazoo Section of the American Chemical Society. Higgins talked about “How Undergraduate Research Experiences Can Change Students’ Lives.” He should know.  Higgins and a number of collaborators have made great strides in cultivating future scientists by introducing undergraduate research experiences for students at two-year institutions. Known as STEM-ENGINES (Engaging the Next Generation in Exploring STEM), their research collaborative has enabled over 286 Chicago-area students, including many first-generation American citizens, to gain academic-year and summer research experience mentored by chemistry and biology faculty. Often these “diamonds in the rough” may not have envisioned research as a potential career path.

The K chemistry major cites his foreign study experience (Erlangen, Germany) as a source of insight and empathy into his own students’ discomfort in learning beyond their comfort zone. He sees community colleges as important part of the higher education landscape and his research demonstrates that small investments in a student can have a big payoff benefiting individuals, families, institutions, and communities.

Higgins is a program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education, and he also serves as a professor at Harold Washington College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago.
He began teaching at Harold Washington in 1998 after completing his Ph.D. at Northwestern. He never thought he’d be there as long as he has been, but–as he told an audience of students and faculty from K, Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College– the atmosphere created by small class sizes made it hard to leave.

Text and photo by Ann Jenks

Nights (and Days) in the Museums

Melany Simpson
Melanie Sympson

Join an evening of “Exploring Museum Careers with Kalamazoo College Alumni” on Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Dewing Hall Room 103. The discussion and Q&A comes from the inspiration of Professor Emerita of Art History Billie Fischer and Visiting Instructor of Art History Melanie Sympson. Sympson is teaching the spring term course “The Modern Art Museum,” and she has enlisted the three alumni panelists to visit her class in addition to sharing their stories with the general public. The alumni participants are John Cummins Steele ’83, Holly (Rarick) Witchey ’83, and Courtney Tompkins ’08. Each will speak about 10 minutes, sharing their from-there-to-here stories (where “there” is K and “here” is working in museums) and then take questions from the audience. The evening will be a true liberal arts fest, says Sympson, for museums are situated at the intersection of many disciplines. Steele is the director of conservation and conservator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He supervises conservation department staff in the examination, documentation, analysis, scientific research, conservation treatment, preservation, exhibition and interpretation of the DIA’s permanent collection. He earned his M.A. and certificate of advanced studies at Buffalo State College. At K he majored in history and earned a concentration in art history. He studied abroad in Erlangen, Germany.

Witchey is director of the Wade Project at the Western Reserve Historical Society. The Wade Project is a multi-year collaborative effort to create a model for studying individual family histories. She also teaches museum work related courses for Johns Hopkins University. Witchey earned her Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University. At K she majored in political science and art history. She studied abroad in Muenster, Germany.

Tompkins is assistant to the program of research, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. CASVA is a research institute that fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film worldwide from prehistoric times to the present. Tompkins earned her M.A. at American University. At K she majored in art history, and she studied abroad in Rome, Italy.

Better than a “Night at the Museum” is an evening exploring museum careers with these three distinguished alums. The event is free and open to the public.

Four Awarded Fellowships for Research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced that four Kalamazoo College alumni have been awarded 2016 Graduate Research Fellowships. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. GRFP fellows are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

The four K alums are Amanda Mancini ’14, Jared Grimmer ’15, Patricia Garay ’11 and Monika Egerer ’13. Mancini, Grimmer and Egerer majored in biology at K, Garay majored in chemistry. For the 2016 competition, NSF received close to 17,000 applications, and made 2,000 award offers. Mancini will focus her research in biological anthropology, Grimmer and Egerer work in the area of ecology, and Garay conducts her explorations in the neurosciences. All four studied abroad at K and in different countries–Mancini in Ecuador, Grimmer in Spain, Garay in Costa Rica, and Egerer in Thailand. Congratulations, Hornet science graduate students!

National Science Foundation 2016 fellowship grants will support the graduate school research of four K alumni in ecology, neurosciences and biological anthropology.

K-Plan and the Peace Corps

William Schlaack and a fellow learner
William Schlaack ’12 and a fellow learner

Kalamazoo College ranks 14th among small colleges and universities nationwide in terms of the number of graduates who volunteer to serve in the Peace Corps. Since the agency was created in 1961, 288 K graduates have served overseas. Currently, nine K alumni are serving worldwide. One of them is William Schlaack ’12, who has served in Mongolia as an education volunteer since 2014 (see interview below). William majored in German and religion. He participated in the Farms 2K student organization, worked for K’s library and studied abroad in Erlangen, Germany.

Two other Michigan school received recognition on the large school list. University of Michigan ranked sixth (48 volunteers) and Michigan State University ranks 22nd (33 volunteers).

Kalamazoo College is no stranger to the Peace Corps. In 2006, it ranked as the eighth top volunteer-producing school among small universities and colleges. One of the most moving stories about the Peace Corps experience is shared by alumnus David Easterbrook ’69. You can hear him tell it (“When You See Rose Kennedy in the Market“) on Story Zoo.

What are your main volunteer projects and secondary projects?
(William Schlaack) I teach at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Darkhan aimag (province). Most of my time is spent co-teaching, lesson and curriculum building and leading extracurricular activities such as English club, teacher’s club and hiking club.

For secondary projects, I’ve been working with local non-governmental organizations and schools on regional Special Olympics competitions. So far two regions have held their first ever events. One other project I have been working on is life skills classes at the regional prison, so far I’ve been able to give workshops on anger and stress management that have been highly rewarding.

Outside of planned projects I think one of the best aspects of Peace Corps is the daily cultural exchange that takes place between volunteers and host country nationals. These interactions go beyond projects and really build great friendships and foster understanding between cultures.

How did your alma mater help prepare you for international service, or lead you to Peace Corps?
(WS) Kalamazoo provides wonderful study abroad and service learning opportunities that really help shape a global perspective that’s oriented toward service on a local and global scale.

What/who inspired me to serve in the Peace Corps?
(WS) I became inspired to serve in the Peace Corps as a result of volunteering with Books to Prisoners (a program that provides free books to Illinois inmates and also helps operate two jail libraries in the Urbana-Champaign area) and Project READ (an adult ESL program run out of Parkland Community College in Champaign, Illinois). I wanted to take some time off after earning my master’s degree to participate in some sort of national service that would combine international experience and allow me to leave a positive impact on a new community.

What are your career aspirations?
(WS) After Peace Corps I plan on working in a library, but also continuing my volunteer work in whatever local community I wind up in. Peace Corps has strengthened my project management skills and given me unique problem solving experiences that I hope to bring to my future workplace and community.

What’s been your favorite part of service?
My favorite part of service has been serving and growing in a community so rich with tradition and culture which has given me the opportunity to experience so many amazing encounters and find common interests and passions. Day-to-day life is often so surprising and hardly a day goes by that I don’t learn more about myself and my community.

If We Build It, They Will Come

K alumna and bee expert Rebecca Tonietto ’05
Becky Tonietto ’05, Ph.D., on a bee search. (Photo by Robin Carlson)

K alumna and bee expert Rebecca Tonietto ’05 is interviewed in the Huffington Post on the ways humans can help address colony collapse among bee populations. Tonietto is a postdoctoral David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow exploring urban bee communities, pollination and conservation through the Society for Conservation Biology at Saint Louis University.

The interview is fascinating. Did you know there are over 20,000 species of bees, more than all species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians combined. That may be a very good thing given the pressure on honeybee populations from herbicides and the loss of plant diversity to agricultural expansion. Enter wild pollinators and, yes, urban environments. Turns out the patchy habitat of urban settings–with a little help from human friends–can, from a bee’s perspective, look at lot like the norm in meadows and prairies. As cities shrink, more green space is added. Humans help with flower boxes, landscaping, by leaving a limb or log about and holding back on some of the mulch, and allowing those dandelions and clover to keep on dotting the lawns.

Cities are a respite from agricultural pesticides and plant monoculture, and natural pollinators need and love that. And bees benefit city dwellers in many ways beyond pollination of food and flowers. Bee habitat is beautiful, says Tonietto, making urban areas more aesthetically pleasing. “And there is a measurable psychological benefit from urban biodiversity,” she adds. “Just the bees being there is a benefit in and of itself.” Yes! Tonietto earned her B.A. at K in biology.

An Eye to Space Grows Ears

Jax Sanders installation work for the LIGO project
Jax Sanders’ installation work for the LIGO project (photo by Corey Gray, LIGO Hanford)

Jaclyn (Jax) Sanders ’09 is one member of a large team of scientists who today announced experimental confirmation of gravitational waves. Proof came by way of sound (sort of), making the LIGO scientific team a group of astronomers with an ear (rather than an eye) turned to space. Again, sort of.  “We didn’t literally hear the waves,” explains Jax. “Sound is only an extended analogy–we observed shifts in the relative time of flight of two laser paths, which happened at frequencies between 50-350 Hz. If you translated those frequencies to sound, that would be about the range of a tuba.” Sight or sound (“We’re very sure that this signal is good,” says Jax), the observation work was for the purpose of detecting ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by the collision of two black holes a billion light-years away. The New York Times ran an in depth article on the magnitude of the discovery and its implications.

The waves (or ripples) were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago when he developed his general theory relativity, which recast human perception of the universe from a Newtonian fixed and static framework to a more accurate model of flux deriving from a mathematically predictable dance of matter and energy and disturbances to both. If the general theory of relativity is indeed the key to the universe’s origin, shape and (perhaps) its eventual demise, then actual observation of gravitational waves would be one more empirical confirmation. They should exist, despite being invisible to the eye. And today, after decades of effort, it was announced that the waves have indeed been observed.

Jax’s personal involvement was as part of the commissioning team at LIGO Hanford (LIGO is the acronym for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). “I focused on the alignment and control system for the interferometer arms–solving the problem of how you keep two mirrors two and a half miles away from each other very still and pointing directly at each other, all without being able to physically touch them.”

“We’ve been watching the press conference here in the physics department,” said Professor of Physics Tom Askew.  “It all looks great, a big day for physics. It’s nice for K that Jax started her work on gravitational wave research as a Senior Individualized Project eight years ago.”  Jax explains: “I did my SIP research at LIGO Hanford, where I worked on a prototype system for synchronizing the outputs of two lasers located far away from each other using fiber optics. Although this system wasn’t necessary for use in the arm control system I worked on as a graduate student, I learned many of the basic skills I use to this day–radio frequency electronics, laser experimental skills, and signal analysis.”

Jax Sanders
Jax Sanders (photo by Amy Manley, Syracuse University

Jax earned her B.A. at K in physics and studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary. In December she received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan, and she is currently working as a postdoc at Syracuse University. “Coming from a school like K gave me the opportunity to diversify my intellectual experience,” she says, “giving me a rich background to draw from when constructing public talks and scientific analogies, and giving me the freedom to learn about new and exciting fields through independent studies.” She appreciates her undergraduate professors as well. “Dr. Askew definitely encouraged me to continue working in experimental hardware, and I appreciate all the support I received as an undergraduate.”

Long ago Einstein wrote that the driving force of interrogations of nature at the edge of understanding was “the longing to behold a pre-existing harmony.” Nice to have a liberal arts educated K alumna working at that far boundary.”I’m thrilled to be a part of this discovery,” says Jax, “and can only hope to report back on more exciting research soon!”