Category: Faculty & Staff

Living Legend

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Letitia (Tish) Loveless on a tennis court
Tish on the playing surface where her teams won 23 conference titles

On Saturday, September 12, Kalamazoo College will pause in its busy orientation week to honor a living legend: Professor Emerita, Coach Emerita, and Women’s Athletic Director Emerita Letitia (Tish) Loveless, Ph.D.

On that day the College will dedicate the “Tish Loveless Court” in the Anderson Athletic Center. A continental breakfast reception and court dedication will occur at 10 a.m. The volleyball match between K and Trine University will follow at 11 a.m.

Tish is considered the pioneer of women’s athletics at Kalamazoo College. She is the most successful coach of women’s teams in the history of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the oldest athletic conference in the country.

Tish’s teams won 28 league championships–23 in tennis, four in archery, and one in field hockey. Her 1986 women’s tennis squad finished third in the nation.

Tish came to Kalamazoo College in 1953 as an instructor of physical education. She rose through the ranks and was named professor of physical education in 1974. When she arrived, there was not intercollegiate schedule for women. By 1978, women competed in seven varsity sports. Tish served as director of women’s athletics from 1953 to 1986. On October 30, 1992, Kalamazoo College inducted Tish into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

Letitia (Tish) Loveless participates in a field hockey practice
Tish was a hands-on coach, shown here participating in a Hornet field hockey practice

Tish believed in the benefits of competition for all persons, regardless of skill level, and she worked tirelessly to ensure an opportunity to compete for all. She added new sports and classes, and not just those that reflected her own particular interests. She paid attention to what students wanted, and she learned and taught fencing, modern dance, folk dance, social dance, and swimming. On several occasions (basketball is an example), at the urging of passionately committed students, Tish would take on the head coaching role (educating herself on the fly) in the sport’s transition phase from club sport to varsity sport. She also served as a leader in the LandSea program and, true to the liberal arts marrow of the institution to which she dedicated her career, she sang in Bach Festival chorus and participated in the Faculty Readers’ Theatre.

Tish was a trusted counselor and source of support for students and colleagues alike. Her tenure at K made a difference in the lives of countless Hornet athletes and PE students. In 2008, Elaine Hutchcroft ’63 and her late husband Alan Hutchcroft ’63 established the Tish Loveless Women’s Athletic Endowment. Both Elaine and Alan competed as Hornet athletes, and both admired Coach Loveless.

Tish Loveless is the teacher/coach/administrator/human being with whom you could place your daughter, at any age, and be absolutely certain she would receive all the right messages about her worth!

WE Instead of THEY

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Former Associate Provost for International Programs Joe Brockington in commencement attireJoe Brockington, Ph.D., associate provost for international programs at Kalamazoo College, died on August 10, 2015. In addition to his post in the Center for International Programs, Brockington also served as professor of German language and literature. [NOTE: The memorial service for Joe Brockington will occur Monday, August 17, at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Saugatuck (296 Hoffman Street). The College will take one bus and two vans to the service. Faculty, staff and students interested in attending may register by emailing Renee Boelcke at Renee.Boelcke@kzoo.edu. Those taking the College transportation will meet on Academy Street, outside of Anderson Athletic Center at noon on Monday, August 17. The bus and vans will return to campus at the conclusion of the memorial service.]

Brockington earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D degrees from Michigan State University, and began his career at Kalamazoo College in 1979 as an instructor in German language and literature. During his 35-year career at K, Brockington served in several roles in the Center for International Programs before being named associate provost in 2000. He was recognized internationally as a safety and risk management expert in study abroad programming. During his career he served in various positions of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, including chair of the Section on U.S. Students Abroad and member of the International Education Leadership Knowledge Committee. He also served as a member of the founding board of the Forum on Education Abroad, the Association of International Education Administrators. Brockington published and presented numerous papers on modern German literature as well as a variety of study abroad topics, including orientation and re-entry, international programs administration, and campus internationalization. He led best practices workshops in legal and risk management issues and co-edited the third edition of NAFSA’s Guide to Education Abroad for Advisers and Administrators.

“Joe interacted with generations of K students,” said President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, “and increased their opportunities for independent research and service learning abroad. He was a faithful advocate for international students at K, working with colleagues to ensure a full and productive K educational experience. Joe significantly expanded K’s reputation as a leader in study abroad and international programming. He will be missed by many in the K family and throughout the world.”

In the fall of 2008 Kalamazoo College celebrated its 50th anniversary of sending students abroad. Brockington devoted his career to that important educational tradition. Some 80 percent of K students have studied in programs ranging from China and Japan to India and Israel; from Kenya and Senegal in Africa to Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, and Mexico in South and Central America. Their options have included European programs in Greece, Hungary, Denmark, Italy, and England as well as the opportunities that have continued (since the program’s origins) in France, Spain, and Germany. Most students study in a foreign language and live with host families. And most participate in an Individualized Cultural Research Project that requires them to get out into a community, participate in a service project, and write a report about the experience. All of that is part of the legacy of Joe Brockington. “The goal,” he once said, “is to help the student look at other cultures, other peoples, and say ’we’ instead of ’they.’”

Dr. Brockington is survived by his wife, Catherine, and their three sons (and K alumni): Andrew ’04, David ’99, and Samuel ’01. Visitation will occur Sunday, August 16, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Dykstra Funeral Home in Holland, Michigan (188 32nd Street). A memorial service will take place Monday, August 17, at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Saugatuck (296 Hoffman Street). The College will take one bus and two vans to the service. Faculty, staff and students interested in attending may register by emailing Renee Boelcke at Renee.Boelcke@kzoo.edu. Those taking the College transportation will meet on Academy Street, outside of Anderson Athletic Center at noon on Monday, August 17. The bus and vans will return to campus at the conclusion of the memorial service.

Summertime means internships for K students

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Olivia Cares and Mike Ortega at Mike's desk
Olivia Cares ’15 is a K summer intern in the Kalamazoo law office of Mike Ortega ’78.

Every summer, Kalamazoo College students fan out across the globe for summer internships. They gain workplace experience, acquire relevant skills and competencies, and test the academic theories they’ve studied in campus classrooms. The educational value of summer internships is increasingly recognized by employers, many of whom set greater store in a candidate’s internship experience than GPA or major.

K student interns also see the educational value of their summer experiences. We know this because we require students to submit written reflections to K’s Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) on their summer Field Experience Program.

Here are some insights shared by this summer’s crop of interns:

“It is incredibly gratifying to realize how far I’ve come in such a short time. While it was hard to notice while the internship was happening, I often felt like I was constantly lost. I can now look at what I was fumbling around with the first week and laugh about it, because now it seems so trivial and easy. And the great thing about this knowledge is that it can be immediately applicable to any other job within industry.”

– Michael Lindley ’16, product development analyst intern at NextGxDx, Franklin, Tennessee; supervised by Gillian Hooker ’00, Director of Clinical Development in Bioinformatics)

“[In] my internship, whenever I hit a roadblock I was able to clearly analyze the situation and develop a solution. This is one of the most useful skills I think I’ve acquired and honed at Kalamazoo College.”

– Minhkhang Truong ’16, teaching intern at the Olympia Schools, Hanoi, Vietnam; supervised by Christopher McDonald ’89, Head of Schools.

“I can take on almost any tasked assigned. Yes, sometimes I may have to ask extra questions to gain all of the background information necessary to fully complete a project, but the reality is that my K education has taught me how to ask those questions in a way that provides the needed answers. K has taught me how to ask important questions that leads to relevant answers, a skill that is beyond useful when I am being assigned such a variety of projects.”

– Amanda Johnson ’17, sales and marketing associate at Youngsoft, Inc., Wixom, Mich.; supervised by Amy Courter ’83, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing.

“[T]he law is a living thing that is constantly revised and changed. This makes research, clear understanding, and communication the most valuable tools in the trade.”

– Olivia Cares ’16, legal intern at Lewis, Reed & Allen, Kalamazoo; supervised by Michael Ortega ’78, attorney and shareholder.

The above experiences are among many that are funded each year through the CCPD’s Field Experience Program. Endowed funds provide $3,000 stipends to help defray the costs of unpaid summer internships. The CCPD recognizes with gratitude all the donors who have made these summer internship stipends possible, as well as all of the alumni who serve as internship supervisors for current K students.

For more information on K’s Field Experience Program, visit http://reason.kzoo.edu/ccd/

Submitted by Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development, Kalamazoo College

Book launches, annual colloquium concludes for Olasope Oyelaran

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Kalamazoo College Scholar-in-Residence Olasope O. Oyelaran
Olasope Oyelaran

Within a 24-hour period, Kalamazoo College Scholar-in-Residence Olasope O. Oyelaran, Ph.D., will see his new book launch and his annual International Colloquium at the National Black Theatre Festival close for another year.

Oyelaran, husband of K President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, edited “Gem of the Ocean: Essays on August Wilson in the Black Diaspora” with Kwame S. Dawes. The book launched August 7 at Winston-Salem State University where Oyelaran taught in the Department of English and Foreign Languages from 1990 to 2005.

In 1993, Oyelaran founded the International Colloquium at the National Black Theatre Festival at Winston-Salem and remains its coordinator. The colloquium, which runs concurrently with the Festival, provides a forum for black-theater scholars and professionals from black cultures worldwide to examine real-life issues through the lens of theater. “Gem of the Ocean” documents much of the 2007 Colloquium, which paid tribute to August Wilson and to festival founder Larry Leon Hamlin, who died that year.

The 2015 colloquium, titled “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Black Theatre and Performance,” concludes Aug. 8, one day following the book’s launch.

“August Wilson was all about access in the theater,” Oyelaran said in a recent Winston-Salem Journal article. “It is a coincidence that the book is coming out on Friday.”

I Can Garden and You Can Too!

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Master Gardener Jane Hoinville at the Jolly Garden
Master Gardener Jane Hoinville

Turns out I can weed a garden just as well as the next person! Who would have thought! Jolly Garden is located at 1324 Academy Street and needs volunteers just like you!

The College offers garden classes in the fall and spring and is maintained in the summer by Kalamazoo College students, faculty, staff members, and friends. Leading the efforts is Master Gardener Jane Hoinville, who “by day” works as a prospect research analyst in the College’s development unit. The garden first began in 2010 and is named after Seema Jolly ’07, the first instructor of the gardening course and a strong force behind the garden’s success.

Jane is also presenting master gardener information on vegetable gardening on July 30th at noon. Mark it on your calendar and see you at the Jolly Garden, where Jane can also answer any questions you may have about your own garden!

The garden is open for volunteer work on Tuesdays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. throughout the summer.

Text and photos by Mallory Zink ’15

 

Coming to the ’Zoo? Lucky You!

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Downtown KalamazooThat’s the theme of a recent (June 25) Washington Post article (“You’re going where? Kalamazoo is tired of your Creedence Clearwater jokes“) by freelance writer Maya Kroth. It’s a fun read, worth a slow pace all the way to the end–just like a good beer. And once you reach the end, you may wonder where’s the K connection. Well, the article quotes alumnus (and Bell’s Brewery founder) Larry Bell ’80 at length, and mentions National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell, a former Summer Common Reading author and creative writing professor at K. Bottom line: Kalamazoo is a great place to live. You’ll find lots of cool history in Kroth’s article. And perhaps the next time she’s in town, we’ll get her to visit the ’ZOO within the ’Zoo

Kalamazoo College People in the News: Professors Lindley and Menta talk arts, Tim Eastman ’90 leads a new high school, and Grace Lee Boggs turns 100

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Mattawan High School Principal Tim Eastman
Tim Eastman with Hackett high school students (Kalamazoo Gazette)

Tim Eastman ’90 is the new principal of Mattawan (Mich.) High School, about ten miles west of Kalamazoo. Tim spent more than 20 years as a teacher and principal (since 2002) at Hackett Catholic Prep in Kalamazoo. He has a master’s degree from Western Michigan University.

Sarah Lindley stands next to her 3D art
Sarah Lindley and “Exposure Pathways” (Allegan County News)

Sarah Lindley, associate professor of art, and some of her recent K art students needed an estimated 800-1,000 hours to assemble “Exposure Pathways,” an art exhibit in Plainwell, Mich., north of Kalamazoo on view through July. The exhibit coincides with a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian called “The Way We Work.” Read about Professor Lindley and her exhibit in the Allegan News. Watch her talk about it on the Lori Moore Show, a Kalamazoo-area television talk-show. AND listen to her talk about her exhibit on WMUK (102.1 FM) radio.

Ed Menta, James A. B. Stone College Professor of Theatre, was a recent guest on “The Lori Moore Show” television talk show to discuss Tony Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron ’83, television stars Steven Yeun ’05 (The Walking Dead) and Jordan Klepper ’10 (The Daily Show), and other K alumni who have gone on to successful careers in theatre, television, and film.

Grace Lee Boggs turns 100
Grace Lee Boggs turns 100! (Deadline Detroit)

Grace Lee Boggs recently celebrated her 100th birthday. The Detroit-based author, civil rights activist, and labor organizer received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from K in 2007. She’s visited campus numerous times in the past 10 years to meet with students, faculty, staff, and community members. Read about Grace Lee Boggs in Deadline Detroit: http://bit.ly/1dA7pRb

People in the News: RoboLobsterman, K Streeter, Top Baker…and a beloved professor

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Read all about it! These members of the Kalamazoo College community are People in the News!

Kalamazoo College alumnus Dan Blustein tinkers with RoboLobster
Dan Blustein ’06 and RoboLobster

Dan Blustein ’06 earned his Ph.D. degree in January from Northeastern University in Boston where he helped to build and perfect a robotic lobster (no kidding) to help the United States Navy detect underwater mines near shorelines. His “RoboLobster is a robot with eight legs (each with six wires to contract or extend the robot’s leg “muscles”) and an acrylic, cylindrical body containing an electronic circuit board (the brains of the operation). Besides potentially helping the Navy, the new and improved robot can run computational neuroscience models, enabling researchers to test biological theories by programming the robot with certain hypotheses, seeing what happens, and comparing it to real world observations. Dan is now headed to the University of New Brunswick in Canada to research new ways that patients control prosthetic limbs. Currently, amputees must look at their prostheses to move them. Dan is interested in finding what sensory information about joint movement can augment visual cues.

K street lobbyist Sage Eastman
Sage Eastman ’96, K Street lobbyist.

Sage Eastman ’96, the longtime right-hand man to former U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), is now a lobbyist at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen Bingel and Thomas. Sage got his start in GOP politics roughly two decades ago with then-Gov. John Engler of Michigan — now himself a K Street mainstay at the Business Roundtable. After working for Engler, he worked a few more campaign cycles in Michigan before moving to Washington in 2003 to work in Camp’s personal office. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbyist-profiles/245059-k-street-cultivator

Sister Pie owner Lisa Ludwinski with a friend
Lisa Ludwinski ’06 (left), 2015 Eater Young Gun.

Lisa Ludwinski ’06 has been named one of the best chef’s in the United States by Eater, which bills itself as a national source for people who care about dining and drinking in the nation’s most important food cities. Lisa, owner of Sister Pie Bakery in Detroit, was honored as one of the best in Eater’s national Young Guns contest. She and 16 other rising culinary stars from across the country were fêted at a gala celebration in June in Los Angeles.
http://www.eater.com/2015/6/9/8751385/eater-young-guns-party-2015#4763400

David Scarrow, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, is the namesake for the 2015 Scarrow Friday Forum lecture series at Bay View, the resort community by Petoskey in northern Michigan. The series hosts leading professionals in areas pertinent to local, national, and world issues. The series is named in honor of Professor Scarrow, a long-time Bay View resident who recruited outstanding speakers to the Bay View campus for more than 15 years and remains active with the Bay View Education Committee and the Bay View American Experience Lecture week. www.petoskeynews.com/news/community/scarrow-forums-begin-june/article_fa653d10-ffd7-531f-8a27-3c319d0a10a5.html

 

Professor of Chemistry Jeff Bartz is the new Kurt D. Kaufman Chair at Kalamazoo College

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Professor of Chemistry and Kurt D. Kaufman Chair Jeff Bartz with some of his students in K's Dow Science Center
Professor of Chemistry and Kurt D. Kaufman Chair Jeff Bartz with some of his students in K’s Dow Science Center…

Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Bartz, Ph.D., is Kalamazoo College’s new Kurt D. Kaufman Chair. His appointment—made at the recommendation of Provost Mickey McDonald and confirmed by the College’s board of trustees—becomes effective July 1, 2015, and runs through June 30, 2020.

The chair was established through a gift by late Kalamazoo College Trustee Paul Todd ’42 in recognition of Kurt Kaufman’s significant leadership and wide influence as a faculty member at K. It’s awarded to a K faculty member to “recognize and honor campus leadership and excellence in teaching.” Regina Stevens-Truss (Chemistry) has held the Kaufman Chair for the past five years.

“I offer my warmest congratulations to Professor Bartz,” said K President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran. “Provost McDonald’s recommendation highlights Professor Bartz’s ongoing excellence as a teacher in the classroom, in the laboratory, and as a mentor. He is known as a teaching innovator on campus and for mentoring and supporting students of color and first-generation students.”

Professor Jeff Bartz with three students at K's laser lab
…and in the College’s Laser Lab.

Jeff Bartz joined the K chemistry department as an assistant professor in 1997 and became a full professor in 2011. He teaches courses in physical and general chemistry and works with K students in the research laboratory. His research is in the area of chemical dynamics.

He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Southwest Minnesota State University in 1985 and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.

Visit Professor Bartz’s webpage.

Kurt Kaufman was a professor of chemistry at K from 1956 to 1980 who was lauded by students and faculty colleagues as an accomplished researcher and gifted communicator who loved to teach. He died in 2008.

Hornets and Bears, Oh My!

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Advertisement for K Night at the Kalamazoo Growlers gameKalamazoo College poet (and professor emeritus of English) Conrad Hilberry once wrote a poem about kids playing sandlot baseball, noting that, after a hit, the run from home to (hopefully) home again was counterclockwise—in other words: against time, a circle-sprint (maybe even ending in a dramatic slide) in the general direction of that magical place called when-we-were-younger.

Well, dust off your old baseball hat, it’s time for some time travel and everything else associated with an evening at the ballpark.

Kalamazoo College, and the Kalamazoo Growlers baseball association, presents “K Night” at Homer Stryker Field (undoubtedly the most aptly named baseball park in the country!) on Friday, July 17, at 7:05 p.m. And to throw in a little mythology to go with all that poetry, “K Night” activities include Star Wars Night and a raffle of Chewbacca-themed jerseys. Whoopee! Or, should we say: WOOKEE!

At the game, the College’s first class of Promise students will be introduced. And, speaking of firsts, the first pitch will be thrown by Kalamazoo College head softball coach Melanie Hamlin, the four-year collegiate standout from the University of Redlands. (After that first pitch, we wouldn’t be surprised if the home team asks her to stay on the field.)

Fireworks follow the game, and tickets ($12) include a new Growlers hat, which means you can throw out the old one you dusted off, or start a collection.

Bring your friends and family to support both Kalamazoo College and the Kalamazoo Growlers.

To get your tickets contact Lynsey VanSweden (269.337.7082) in the Athletic and Physical Education office. Last day to purchase tickets is Friday, July 10. Cash or check is accepted. Go Hornets! Go Growlers!