Category: Institutional Announcements

Kalamazoo College Wins Educational Impact Award

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Logo for the 2013 Catalyst AwardsKalamazoo College won a 2013 Southwest Michigan First Catalyst Award in the category of Educational Impact. K was one of 50 companies, organizations, and individuals that received awards for this year’s Southwest Michigan First Catalyst Awards.

Since 2005 Catalyst Awards have recognized contributions that help create jobs and economic growth in the Southwest Michigan area. The award is a hand-blown glass sculpture created by local artist Judith Konesni (Tidal Wave Glass); it symbolizes a commitment to excellence.

Founded in 1999 and comprised of eight Michigan counties, Southwest Michigan First promotes business growth by providing business-to-business marketing, supply chain recruitment, work force development, capital acquisition, site selection, consulting services, brand development, and efficient government. Its board of directors includes Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran.

Top 25!

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Rob Townsend stands with two students
“Recycle Rob” Townsend (center) with two student “RecycleManiacs.”

Kalamazoo College placed 24th overall in 2013 RecycleMania, a friendly (and eco-friendly) sustainability competition among colleges and universities that focuses on waste minimization and recycling. More than 600 schools in the United States and Canada participated this year. 2013 was an off-year for K compared to its performances of previous years; nevertheless, it finished in the top 25 in six of the competition′s eight measurement categories.

RecycleMania began in 2001 as a competition between two schools. More schools were invited in the following years. Kalamazoo College joined the fun in 2005 and quickly became a two-time first-place winner in the recycled bottles and cans category. The College won grand champion in 2008 and enjoyed three consecutive top-five overall finishes before 2013.

The K recycling program was started in 1992, with Rob Townsend–a.k.a. “Recycle Rob”–as its beloved leader. Sustainability is one of the pillars of the Kalamazoo College honor code. In 2007, President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Like K, Recyclemania is a small entity that makes a big difference. Calculations for the 2011 Recyclemania  results show the combined efforts of participants that year prevented the release of 127,553 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent to the release of greenhouse gas emissions from 25,000 passenger cars. That′s big!

At K, students can help the earth year round. They can use “The Bat Cave” in the basement of Dewaters Residence Hall. The Bat Cave houses the Resource Exchange Program where students have donated numerous items for reuse.

Bat Cave also is home to HUB (Helping Understand Bikes). HUB students fix and rent bikes. And don′t forget to bring your e-waste (computers, printers, cartridges, cell phones, calculators, etc.) to the Bat Cave. The recycling program is always looking for student workers. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Kalamazoo College Selects Winners of Its Inaugural Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership

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Four social justice leadership keynote discussion panelists
The Global Prize weekend included a keynote panel discussion on social justice leadership with (l-r) Arcus Center Executive Director Jaime Grant and jurors Angela Y. Davis, Cary Alan Johnson, and shea howell.

Kalamazoo College has announced the winners of its inaugural Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership, a juried competition that attracted 188 entries from across the United States and 22 other countries. Instead of awarding one Global Prize for $25,000, as had been planned, jurors awarded three Global Prizes for $10,000 each.
Jurors also awarded a $5,000 Regional Prize for a project originating in Southwest Michigan.
Sharing the top Global Prize (with links to their brief video entries) are:

  • Dalia Association: The Road toward Palestinian Self-Determination. Based in Ramallah, Palestine, Dalia Association is a Palestinian-led community foundation dedicated to civil society development, accountability and self determination through awarding local grants and eliminating reliance on international aid.
  • Language Partners. Based in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, Language Partners is a prisoner-created and led bilingual educational program that develops language, leadership, and job skills post incarceration in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • Building Power for Restaurant Workers. Based in New York City and with national impact, Building Power is a restaurant worker-driven wage justice project founded by workers displaced by the 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

Winners were announced by Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran on May 11 at the end of a three-day social justice leadership weekend where 18 Global and Regional finalists presented their project strategies and visions to jurors and an audience of campus and community members.

“You are all winners,” she said to the finalists, “because of what you do every day and by how you inspire us to believe that the just world we all seek is within our grasp.”

Longtime social justice activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis, who served as a juror, explained the jury’s decision to depart from the plan to award one $25,000 Global Prize. “We had no idea it would be so difficult to choose one winner” from among so many inspiring finalists. “We came down to three and asked if it would be possible to split the prize three ways for $10,000 each.”

Welcoming Michigan, a regional partnership that seeks to educate and organize across immigrant and U.S.-born communities throughout Michigan, earned the $5,000 Regional Prize. Based in Kalamazoo at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Welcoming Michigan carries out its work across the state with an emphasis on Southwest and Southeast Michigan. Its message—“When Michigan welcomes immigrants, Michigan thrives”—can be spotted on billboards and in other media region-wide.

The biennial Global Prize competition honors innovative and collaborative leadership projects in the pursuit of social justice and human rights around the world and in Southwest Michigan. Leadership teams submitted 8- to 10-minute video entries by a March 8 deadline. Fifteen global and three regional finalists were selected. More information about the Kalamazoo College Global Prize competition and video entries of all finalists is available via www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice and K Facebook.

In addition to Davis, jurors included former Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Cary Alan Johnson and lifelong scholar/activist shea howell, whose work has focused on social justice education and grassroots empowerment in Detroit.

Several Kalamazoo College students, faculty, staff, and community partners also served as jurors.

The Global Prize competition was administered by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 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) was founded in 1833 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, located midway between Detroit and Chicago. K 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.

K Receives Accreditation News

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On April 22, 2013, the Higher Learning Commission Institutional Actions Council continued the accreditation of Kalamazoo College. So concludes an exhaustive evaluation process that began in 2009 with preliminary planning focused on the project. The next reaffirmation of accreditation will occur in academic year 2022-23. “We are delighted that accreditation continues with no monitoring required,” said Professor of Mathematics Eric Nordmoe, who chaired the Re-accreditation Committee, which formed in 2010. The process involved a comprehensive self-study book written by Assistant Professor of Journalism Marin Heinritz. The self-study book was based on evaluation input gathered from the entire campus community by some 40 employees associated with the self-study. The re-accreditation process continued with a three-day visit in October by a team of higher education professionals working on behalf of the HLC. Each member of that team had read the self-study book. During their campus visit team members interviewed the campus community and observed the K learning experience in action. Then, based on the self-study book and the visit, the HLC team wrote its report. The Institutional Actions Council based its decision to continue accreditation on that report, and the HLC board ratified that decision on April 22. According to Nordmoe, the report cited many things K does very well and suggested some opportunities for improvement. The College will study and act on both. “I’m happy about the decision, of course,” said Nordmoe. “But I’m most grateful for the process. It was a chance for K to think about our work and about the way we assess the outcomes of our work. That was very valuable. A kind of ’Know Thyself’ moment–or years of such moments–in order to live an examined (and therefore worthy) learning experience.”

Kalamazoo College Announces Finalists for $25,000 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to announce the finalists for its inaugural $25,000 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership.

Fifteen finalist projects are collaboratively led by scholars and activists from eight U.S. cities (Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Los Angeles; New York; Oakland, Cal.; Olympia, Wash.; South Bend, Ind.; and Urbana, Ill.; and ten nations including Germany, Honduras, Hungary, India, Malawi, Palestine, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. One of these projects will earn the $25,000 Global Prize.

Three finalists—two from Kalamazoo and one from Marshall—are eligible for a $5,000 Regional Prize for a project that originates in Southwest Michigan.

All finalists will present their work May 9-11 in Dalton Theatre on the K campus to jurors and attendees who will discuss and deliberate over the course of a three-day “Prize Weekend.” Global and Regional Prize winners will be announced by Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, on Saturday, May 11 at 7:15 in Dalton.

“The Kalamazoo College Global Prize creates an opportunity for our students, faculty, and the local community to interact with scholars and activists who are at the leading edge of collaborative social justice leadership practices around the country and around the world,” Wilson-Oyelaran said.

“The Global Prize also matches up with K’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world,” she said.

Visit https://reason.kzoo.edu/csjl/clprize/finalists  to see a brief description of each finalist and link to its video entry. Facebook users may also view each video and “Like” their favorites (https://www.facebook.com/GlobalPrizeFinalists).

Each Global Prize applicant submitted a video (8-10 minutes) describing a social justice project, its innovative approach, and its collaborative leadership structure. A total of 188 entries were received from 23 countries and 25 U.S. states (including 14 from Southwest Michigan) by the March 8 deadline.

“The Global Prize undertaking truly presents an excellent opportunity for K students and the entire community to see social justice theory in action and to reflect on what we see as promising practices in the pursuit of a more just world,” said Lisa Brock, academic director of Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, which is administering the Global Prize competition.

According to Brock, a wide variety of social justice issues are addressed among the finalists, including: education access and equity, environmental sustainability, food sovereignty, health inequities, human rights violations against prisoners and LGBTQI people, immigration, international development, racism, workers’ rights, and more.

“Several finalists involve projects and partners that cross state and international borders,” Brock said. “One project from India, for example, includes partners in Columbus, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. And the project from South Africa includes collaborators in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.”

More than 50 people, including K students, faculty, and staff members, as well as social justice advocates in Kalamazoo and elsewhere, juried the semifinal round of the competition and selected the 18 finalists. Jurors included: author, political activist, and University of California-Santa Cruz scholar Angela Y. Davis; former Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Cary Alan Johnson; and shea howell, Detroit-based author, educator, columnist, and board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

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.

Kalamazoo College Will Host a Ceremonial Groundbreaking for New Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

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3D model of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College
A 3D model of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will be on display in Upjohn Library Commons through Spring Quarter 2013.

EDITOR′S NOTE: DUE TO RAIN, THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY WILL BE MOVED INDOORS TO LOUNGE OF TROWBRIDGE HALL, IMMEDIATELY TO THE EAST OF TROWBRIDGE LANE.

Kalamazoo College will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership on Friday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. The ceremony is open to the public and will take place on the construction site located at the corner of Academy St. and Monroe St. on the K campus. Attendees are asked to gather on Trowbridge Lane that runs south off Academy St. along the east side of the construction site.

K students, faculty, staff, alumni, and board members will participate in the ceremony along with representatives of Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects.

An Arcus Center staff member and Studio Gang architect will discuss the building’s use and design in the lobby of Upjohn Library Commons at the corner of Academy St. and Thompson St., at 12:15 and 3:00 p.m. on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony. On display will be architectural drawings, a 3D model, and a sample section of the distinctive wood masonry siding planned for the building.

Construction for the single-story, 10,000 sq. ft. building began in late fall 2012 with contractor Miller-Davis Company of Kalamazoo. The building is scheduled to be completed in late winter 2014 at a cost of approximately $5 million—paid through a generous gift from K alumnus and trustee Jon Stryker.

Upon completion, the Center will be the world’s first purpose-built structure for social justice leadership development and will support the College’s mission in multiple ways. It will feature study, meeting, and event space where students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in scholarship, dialog, and activities aimed at creating a more just world.

The Center is sited to engage its three immediate contexts—the K campus, a residential neighborhood, and an old-growth grove of trees—by drawing their topography into the building and outwardly projecting the activities taking place within through transparent façades.

The gently curving walls connecting these façades are constructed with wood masonry, a low-carbon, highly insulating building method traditional to the upper Midwest, updated to respond to the needs of a contemporary institutional building for the first time. A LEED Gold rating is targeted.

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 new social justice center 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, learning by practice, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years, so students can do more in a lifetime.

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Special Day Marks Transition from Tuition to Donations

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Buzz the mascot celebrates Tuition Freedom DayOn Wednesday, April 10, more than 200 signs will dot Kalamazoo College’s pathways as part of the second annual Tuition Freedom Day.

Tuition Freedom Day marks the point in the school year when tuition stops paying for the cost of a K education and support from donors takes over. Students are encouraged to visit the Hicks Student Center between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to sign thank-you cards.

Tuition Freedom Day is about showing appreciation for the alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends who make a K education possible. Generous gifts through the Kalamazoo College Fund support scholarships, faculty excellence, and K’s greatest needs.

Alumni and others can also take part in Tuition Freedom Day. Let everyone know why you support K by donating your Facebook status on Wednesday, April 10. You can also make the Tuition Freedom Day Hornet (above) your profile picture for the day.

Kalamazoo College Raises Curtain on 50th Anniversary of Festival Playhouse

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K Professors Margo Bosker Light (German), Gail Griffin (English) and Mark Thompson (Religion)
K Professors Margo Bosker Light (German), Gail Griffin (English), and Mark Thompson (Religion) rehearse a scene from the Little Shop Around the Corner for a Festival Playhouse “Readers Theatre” production in Spring 1985.

Kalamazoo College lifts the curtain early for the 50th anniversary season of its celebrated Festival Playhouse theatre arts program. Although the anniversary takes place during the 2013-14 academic year, the celebration begins May 16-19 with the staging of Into the Woods, the groundbreaking musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, produced in collaboration with the K Department of Music.
“Our history is so rich and our celebration events so numerous, we had to start this spring in order to do it justice,” said longtime Professor of Theatre Arts and Festival Playhouse Director Ed Menta, who will stage the show. “And we are thrilled to start the celebration with Sondheim’s masterpiece.”
Into the Woods will be performed in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse on Thursday May 16 at 7:30 p.m., Friday May 17 and Saturday May 18 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday May 19 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15/Adults, $10/seniors and $5/students.
Professors of Music Tom Evans and James Turner will serve as musical and vocal directors, respectively.
This Tony, Drama Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Award winning show “helped change the ‘American Musical,’” Evans said. “Sondheim shows are special. They combine in the most masterful way, music, lyrics, and plot. Perhaps what I like most about his work is his ability to create multilevel meanings simultaneously.”
Into the Woods features memorable songs such as “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony,” and “Children Will Listen” sung by iconic characters such as Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.
“And it puts a contemporary twist on the timeworn fairy tale ending,” Menta said, “What happens the day after they all lived happily ever after?”
Kalamazoo College Professor of Theatre Arts Nelda K. Balch established the first season of Festival Playhouse—with generous support from the Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation—in 1963-64, with a schedule of groundbreaking modern dramas such as Max Frisch’s The Firebugs, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and a revival of Balch’s own 1958 production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (the first time a college in the United States had produced this landmark Absurdist play).
Beginning this spring and running through the 2013-14 season, the College will celebrate and renew the original goals and spirit of Festival Playhouse with events that include: the grand re-opening of the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse; the return of internationally known performance artist and K alumna Holly Hughes ’77; “An Evening of Kalamazoo College Theatre Alumni Scenes;” a season of three classics of Modern Drama, including Strindberg, Ibsen, and a restaging of a rarely produced early Absurdist comedy from the original Festival Playhouse season staged by professional director and K alumna Nora Hauk ’04; a special “Talkback” series led by K theatre alumni; and much more.
“From the beginning, Festival Playhouse sought to produce provocative and thoughtful theatre by combining the talents of K students, members of the greater Kalamazoo community, and professional artists,” said Ed Menta.
“The 50th anniversary season will live up to that standard.”
Dates, locations, and more details about the 50th anniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College can be found by visiting www.kzoo.edu/theatre.
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.

 

Kalamazoo College Global Prize Entries Total 188

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to announce receipt of 188 entries for its inaugural Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership. Entry deadline for this juried competition was March 8.

Applicants hailed from 25 states and the District of Columbia, and from 23 countries. Numerous entries came from Michigan, including 14 from Southwest Michigan and the Kalamazoo area. A handful of entries came from Kalamazoo College students and alumni.

“We are awestruck by the number and scope of entrants, and at the same time not surprised by the incredible outpouring of brilliance and innovation among our applicants,” said Jaime Grant, executive director of K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) which is coordinating the competition.

Lisa Brock, ACSJL academic director noted that, “Movements for social justice all around the globe are making daring experiments and breathtaking commitments to their vision for a more just world. This is clearly reflected in the entries we received.”

Brock reported that entries came from Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India (3), Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal (2), Palestine, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa (2), Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda (2), and Yemen.

Applicants submitted 8- to 10-minute videos describing their collaborative structure, vision, and strategic approach to addressing a variety of human rights and social justice issues including: mass incarceration, health inequities, economic injustice, youth empowerment, food justice, racism, environmental sustainability, healing and self-determination, arts and theatre activism, educational access and equity, faith organizing, workers’ rights, immigration, micro-lending and social entrepreneurship, community organizing, indigenous activism, restorative justice, housing rights, LGBTQ liberation and peace and conflict resolution.

Finalists will be announced April 15 and invited to the Kalamazoo College campus for a two-day event, May 10-11, during which their work will be presented, discussed and voted upon by audience members and jurists. Two winners—one to receive a $25,000 Global Prize and one to receive a $5,000 Regional prize from Southwest Michigan—will be announced on Saturday, May 11 at 7:15 pm by Kalamazoo College President, Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran.

Jurors for the $25,000 Global Prize include author, political activist, and University of California—Santa Cruz scholar Angela Y. Davis; former Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Cary Alan Johnson; and Detroit-based author, educator, and columnist shea howell. Howell is also a board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, in Detroit.

Jurors for the $5,000 Regional Prize include members of the Arcus Center Advisory Board, a panel of K students, faculty, staff, and Kalamazoo community members.

More information about the Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership is available at www.kzoo.edu/SocialJusticeLeadershipPrize.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice) 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.