Category: Institutional Announcements

New Arcus Center at Kalamazoo College Attracting Attention

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Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior sidingWood is used in one way or another on just about every home or building, from frame to trim, from siding to roof, and to finely crafted accents. But chances are you’ve never seen a building with log “bricks” laid with their circular ends showing, not stacked lengthwise, as you’d see on a typical log home.

That’s about to change.

Construction crews are busy at Kalamazoo College’s newest building, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, applying a one-of-a-kind cordwood masonry skin to this one-of-a-kind 10,000-square-foot building on the corner of Academy and Monroe streets designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Studio Gang Architects.

The wood is northern white cedar, and comes from a commercial forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, says Av Mulder, foreman for Burggrabe B and B Masonry out of Belding, Mich.

Mulder and his masons receive logs that have been cured and cut to size by the building’s construction management firm, Miller-Davis in Kalamazoo. They then form the logs in place with a special mortar that sets slowly to minimize shrinking and cracking.

Placing logs for Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership sidingThe end result is a seemingly random, yet intelligently designed, pattern that Mulder calls “a peak and valley effect.” The construction technique has been employed on barns and sheds in Northern Michigan and Canada for generations. But it’s believed to be the first time that a commercial building in the United States has been built with this type of facade.

Mulder stopped short of estimating how many individual “bricks” might be placed, but did say about 100 cords of wood would be used.

Masons attended a two-day workshop to learn how to apply the cordwood masonry. According to Mulder, a mason since 1971, neither he nor the other masons had ever worked with this technique before. He said his crew must always think about what size log to place next, in order to keep their placement fluid looking. Where the walls of the building bend and curve, masons have to customize the logs even further, making certain their angles correspond to the walls.

“This isn’t like laying a line down and building a wall,” Mulder says. “It’s kind of like working with fieldstone, but you can trim fieldstone. This is all eyeball, always thinking, especially around the windows. It’s like nothing I’ve ever worked on.”

Work has been hampered by the harsh winter the region has endured, but Mulder forecasts that the log-laying could be complete by April.

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior under construction“Cordwood masonry is an old construction technique that has been updated for a modern building,” says Paul Manstrom, Kalamazoo College associate vice president for Facilities Management. “The students, faculty, staff, and visitors who use the building will find that it’s both inspired by and suited to learning and social justice.”

According to Manstrom, the building is slated for a summertime completion and will be ready for classes in Sept. 2014. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will hold its With/Out Borders conference in the new structure in September.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was created through an endowment from the Arcus Foundation. Construction of the Center’s new building is funded through a gift from Jon Stryker, K alumnus (Class of 1982), trustee, and Arcus Foundation founder.

Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran Will Take a 10-Week Sabbatical in Winter 2014

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Kalamazoo College President Wilson-OyelaranKalamazoo College President Wilson-Oyelaran will take a sabbatical during the upcoming 2014 winter quarter from early January through late March.

It will be her first sabbatical since becoming president of the College in July 2005.

“I’m very grateful for the sabbatical opportunity granted me by the board of trustees,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “Typical of faculty and presidential sabbaticals, however, my time away will not all be time off. The sabbatical provides a much needed opportunity to catch up on reading and thinking. I am particularly interested in the impact that innovations in technology will have on teaching and learning and what that might mean for K.”

During the sabbatical Wilson-Oyelaran will travel to Thailand and Singapore. While in Singapore, she will visit with alumni and meet with prospective students at several international high schools. In Thailand, she will visit the Kalamazoo College study abroad program in Chang Mei where she will meet with program directors and K students to assess firsthand the facilities, program offerings, and student experiences. She will also accompany K students as they carry out their Integrative Cultural Projects, a key component of their study abroad experiences that might include a teaching assignment, internship, performance, civic engagement opportunity, or other immersive hands-on learning activity that reflects their academic, career, or extracurricular interests.

She will also deliver the 2014 Casanova Lecture at Claremont Graduate University School of Educational Studies in Claremont, California where she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

During the sabbatical, Wilson-Oyelaran will continue to focus on her duties as President of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), a year-long post she assumed in February 2013. NAICU represents more than 1,000 private nonprofit institutions of higher learning (including K) on policy issues with the federal and state governments, such as those affecting student aid, access, and government regulation.

President Wilson-Oyelaran will return to the K campus for the 2014 spring quarter that begins Monday March 31.

In her absence, Kalamazoo College Provost Michael “Mickey” McDonald will serve as acting president, and Dow Distinguished Professor in the Natural Sciences Jan Tobochnik will serve as acting provost, a role he filled for nearly a year before McDonald was hired in 2008.

 

Kalamazoo College Launches “Praxis Center” Online Resource for Social Justice Scholars, Activists, and Artists

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Kalamazoo College today announced the launch of “Praxis Center,” an online resource for social justice practitioners hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Accessible via www.kzoo.edu/praxis, Praxis Center contains scholarly articles, teaching resources, images, and links to videos, blogs, and other websites, as well as information on conferences, events, publications, research, and other items of interest to social justice scholars, activists, and artists.

“There are many single-issue resource sites available online, but few such as Praxis Center where multiple issues and resources intersect,” said Lisa Brock, Praxis Center senior editor and Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) academic director. “Praxis Center is a crossroads where social justice leaders can learn, share, and connect across disciplines and issues.”

Praxis Center is arranged around seven themed sections, each with a contributing editor: Science and Social Justice; Race, Class, and Immigration; Human Rights; Global Health; Genders and Sexualities; Environment, Food and Sustainability; and Art, Music, and Pop Culture.

Under each themed section are five action buttons: Posts (an archive of previously posted articles), Teach (where teachers can post social justice course syllabi and teaching tools), Read (a list of social justice bibliographies), Watch/Listen (videos and other audio visual materials), and Act (listings and links to upcoming social justice events, conferences, and other engagements.)

Praxis Center editors will update the site weekly, while encouraging comments and contributions from an engaged readership. Original artwork (changed monthly) that matches the themed sections is also featured.

“We envision Praxis Center to be a marketplace for the free and open exchange of information and ideas on all social justice issues,” said Brock. “From action research and radical scholarship to engaged teaching and grassroots activism, from community and cultural organizing to revelatory art practice, Praxis Center will make visible all the critical social justice work being done today across the country and around the globe.”

Iranian Cultural Center Graffiti Action 2009
Photo: “Iranian Cultural Center Graffiti Action 2009” by Naeem Mohaiemen, a writer and visual artist working in New York City and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Chicago-based educator, cultural organizer, activist, and writer Alice Kim serves as Praxis Center editor. ACSJL Program Coordinator Karla Aguilar is managing editor. Read all editors’ bios at www.kzoo.edu/praxis/about.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the ACSJL will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

Winter Term Will Open January 8

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Kalamazoo College will open for winter term classes on Wednesday, January 8. The Wednesday schedule of classes will be in effect.

Some students and faculty members may not be able to reach campus by Wednesday. Everyone should provide the greatest degree of flexibility, understanding that some may be delayed in their return.  Students: if you are not able to be in class, please communicate via email with your professors to let them know.  Faculty: if you are unable to make it to campus, please notify your students.

The campus is in good shape for pedestrian traffic, thanks to the excellent work by the Facilities Management team. Please check weather reports throughout the week (especially for Wednesday) and dress appropriately.

Winter Quarter Opening UPDATE

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Pedestrian traffic conditions on campus are good and we anticipate opening winter quarter on Tuesday, January 7. That said, we will continue to monitor the weather, surrounding transportation conditions, and campus parking in order to make a final decision tonight or early tomorrow morning regarding the opening of winter quarter.

We will inform students, faculty, and staff of that decision tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Even if we do commence winter term classes tomorrow (Tuesday, January 7) we will ask that all faculty and students provide the greatest flexibility, understanding that some may be delayed in their return.  Students: if you are not able to be in class, please communicate via e-mail with your professors to let them know.  Faculty: if you are unable to make it to campus, please notify your students.  Staff: if you are unable to make it to campus, please notify your supervisor.

We know that there has been a great deal of disruption in travel, especially airline and bus cancellations.  We ask that everyone use appropriate discretion regarding their travel plans and make your return to campus when you feel it is safest to do so.

College Will Be Closed on January 6

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Due to the weather emergency, Kalamazoo College will be closed on Monday, January 6. Only essential employees should report to campus.

Dining Services will be open for students.

Winter quarter will open on Tuesday, January 7, WITH TUESDAY’S CLASS SCHEDULE. Students are encouraged to check their e-mail accounts often because faculty may choose to contact students via e-mail with information pertinent to classes.

Additional snow is predicted for Sunday night and into Monday. Frigid temperatures are in the forecast. Everyone should try to stay inside, stay warm, and stay safe.

Weather and Winter Quarter Start

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We have been carefully monitoring the weather conditions locally as well as regionally and nationally.  Facilities Management staff have focused their priorities today on clearing roads and parking lots as well as areas around residence halls and the Hicks Student Center.

We have not yet made a determination whether classes will be postponed tomorrow, but we will do so later today or early tomorrow and will communicate any postponement via the K-Alert system as well as on the College website.  We know that there has been a great deal of disruption in travel, especially airline and bus cancellations.  We ask that everyone use appropriate discretion regarding their travel plans and make your return to campus when you feel it is safest to do so.

Even if we do commence winter term classes tomorrow,  we will ask that all faculty and students provide the greatest flexibility, understanding that some may be delayed in their return.  Students: if you are not able to be in class, please communicate via email with your professors to let them know.  Faculty: if you are unable to make it to campus, please notify your students.  Staff: if you are unable to make it to campus, please notify your supervisor.

Thank you for your understanding, and please be safe.

– President’s Staff

Posse at K Turns Four; Nationally, 25

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Kalamazoo College graduated its first group of Posse students in June 2013, its four-year orange-and-black anniversary in a national program that, in November, celebrates its silver anniversary.

K was the first Michigan school to partner with the Posse Foundation (with the organization’s Los Angeles chapter). The program finds students with academic and leadership potential who might otherwise be overlooked by traditional admissions metrics, gives them several months of training, and sends them off to elite undergraduate institutions in groups of 10 to 12 other students from the same city. The program also provides support for the students once they are on campus. Seeing K’s first 10 Posse graduates and their parents—and their tears—at K’s 2013 commencement, says Jon Stryker ’82, was very moving. “It’s not often you can give a gift that changes a life.” Stryker made a gift to K to support the first five years of the program. Posse at K will persist beyond those five years, and support for the program is a focus of K’s fundraising effort, “The Campaign for Kalamazoo College.”

In late October, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article about the Posse Program’s 25th anniversary (“A Quarter-Century of ’’Posses’’ Underscores the Power of the Cohort,” by Libby Sander). The article quotes Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran.

Sesquicentennial Stand

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Kalamazoo College pioneer Lucinda Hinsdale Stone
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone

A 150th anniversary in the College’s history approaches–one, perhaps, lesser-known, but nevertheless vital to the spirit of the place.

On November 5, 1863, James and Lucinda Stone had led Kalamazoo College for twenty remarkable years, from its infancy to its state charter and a stellar reputation. They embraced evolutionary theory, espoused abolitionism and women’s rights, introduced coeducation, taught modern language and literature alongside the classical curriculum, and brought to the classroom a vibrancy and intensity that powerfully shaped their students’ minds. But these policies and practices, though fully in keeping with 19th-century progressive tendencies, were not uncontroversial. In the late 1850’s, the leadership of the local American Baptist Church, which retained control of the college, shifted sharply in a conservative direction. A rigid, parochial spirit took hold—anathema to the Stones’ goal of creating, in Mrs. Stone’s words, “an educational institution, not merely a Baptist College.” She herself was particularly suspect as an example of that dangerous creature, the educated woman. She later described her situation: “Harassed and hindered and trammeled in my work, the time finally came when I felt that I could never, there, realize my ideal of what teaching should be—more—I could not retain my own self-respect and my position at the College.”

Kalamazoo College pioneer James Andrus Blinn Stone
James Andrus Blinn Stone

Growing financial troubles made matters worse and were blamed on Dr. Stone’s management. The Civil War drew off a large proportion of the male students, deepening the crisis. Finally, the trustees met on November 4, 1863, and heard a call for new leadership. The next morning, Dr. and Mrs. Stone submitted letters of resignation.

More than anything else, the student response testifies to the Stones’ influence: some 60 to 75 percent withdrew from school. Although many returned the following term, the College entered a period of decline in quality and reputation. It recovered only in the next century, reviving the Stones’ values and sustaining much of their vision into the 21st century. (Text by Gail Griffin; photos courtesy of Kalamazoo College Archives)