community

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

“A Year of Food in Kalamazoo” for Only $12!

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2014 "A Year of Food in Kalamazoo" calendar
“A Year of Food in Kalamazoo” wall calendar is only $12 and only at the People’s Food Coop in Kalamazoo!

A group of K students has a last-minute gift idea for you that will keep on giving throughout 2014: “A Year of Food in Kalamazoo” wall calendar. This partner project between K’s First-Year Seminar “Cultivating Community” and the People’s Food Co-op in Kalamazoo is colorful, useful, and full of recipes, profiles of local food entrepreneurs, and great ideas that will feed your inner foodie’s soul for a whole year. It’s only $12 and will encourage the efforts of 17 K students and their professor, Amelia Katanski. Available from the People’s Food Coop, 507 Harrison St. in Kalamazoo. Happy New Year, indeed!

College Honors Legacy of Nelson Mandela

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If ever there was a human being for whom the descriptor of sublime applied, that person is the late Nelson Mandela. His magnanimity was nonpareil; as was his capacity to unite that which seemed irrevocably divided. “It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of the former South African President,” said Lisa Brock, academic director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Brock knows the Mandela family, and she was interviewed about his legacy by WWMT-TV, WOOD-TV, Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive, WKZO radio, and the Chicago Tribune.

Mandela died on Thursday, December 5, at the age of 95. “After serving 27 years as a South African political prisoner on the infamous Robben Island, he emerged as a symbol of freedom to millions worldwide,” added Brock. “Revered as a hero and human rights leader, he will be dearly missed.” In honor of his legacy, the College will hold a vigil on Friday, December 6, at noon in front of Stetson Chapel. All are welcome.

David Barclay, the Margaret and Roger Scholten Professor of International Studies, shared his personal encounter with Mandela. “It was almost exactly twenty years ago, in 1993. I was sitting in Johannesburg airport, waiting to change planes,” Barclay wrote. “As I recall, it was a very long wait, and I was trying to finish some work. I vaguely noticed a group of four or five individuals as they sat down in the seats next to mine; but, as one does in airports, I didn’t pay any particular attention to them, continuing instead with my work. At one point I lifted my head and looked over at them, and suddenly I noticed that one of them was Nelson Mandela. I couldn’t help myself. I decided to be a crass American tourist and ask him for his autograph. I began to search for a blank piece of paper, and all I could find was the reverse side of a set of Kalamazoo College faculty meeting minutes! So I walked up to him and asked if I could bother him for his autograph. He very graciously stood up, asked me my name, and signed the K faculty minutes! We then spoke for about five or 10 minutes. I was a nobody, an autograph-seeker, a complete stranger, yet he spoke to me as though I were actually important. I was immensely impressed. This was in 1993, three years after his release from prison and one year before he became president, and he had absolutely no security detail of any kind. It turned out that he and his colleagues were waiting for another group of colleagues who were arriving on a delayed flight from London. At the head of that group was Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in 1999. So on that day, purely by coincidence, I saw two future presidents of South Africa.”

K Provost Mickey McDonald Supports Kalamazoo Communities in Schools “Promise Me” Campaign

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Six Promise Me Campaign participants
(From Left) KPS Superintendent Michael F. Rice, K Provost Michael McDonald, “Promise Me” Campaign Co-Chair and President of First National Bank of Michigan Larry Lueth, CIS National President Dan Cardinali, CIS of Kalamazoo Executive Director Pam Kingery, and WMU President John Dunn.

Kalamazoo College Provost Michael “Mickey” McDonald represented the College and delivered remarks at the recent Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo (CIS) Promise Me campaign public phase kickoff event. Mickey joined Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Michael Rice, Kalamazoo Valley Community College President Marilyn Schlack, Western Michigan University President John Dunn, students, parents, and local leaders who lauded CIS for its effort to help remove the barriers between disadvantaged children and their K-12 success. CIS addresses the academic and basic developmental needs of students by connecting existing community resources to students at school. The Promise Me campaign is nearly halfway to its $4.5 million fundraising goal and is seeking the support of the greater Kalamazoo community in reaching it.

Symphonic Band Does Spin

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Circles providing an optical illusion of spinningThe Kalamazoo College Symphonic Band presents its Fall 2013 concert: SPIN CYCLE: A Concert of Theme and Variations. The concert takes place on Friday, November 15, at 8 PM in the Light Fine Arts Dalton Theatre on the Kalamazoo College Campus. The event is free and open to the public. The Symphonic Band is directed by Professor of Music Thomas Evans and functions as a beloved creative outlet for woodwind, brass, and percussion students. The Symphonic Band holds one concert each quarter playing exciting arrays of band music both challenging and simple but–as Dr. Evans attests–never “simple-minded.” The band is a great favorite for both its members and its audiences, as the programs are usually coordinated around greatly diverse themes that allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and new. SPIN CYCLE selections include Fantasy on Yankee Doodle (Mark Williams), Pachelbel’s Canon (Calvin Custer), Variations on a Korean Folk Song (John Barnes Chance), Themes from Green Bushes (Percy Grainger), Variations on Scarborough Fair (Calvin Custer), Variations on a Shaped Note Tune (Johnnie Vinson), First Suite in E-flat (Gustav Holst), and Joyful Variations-Ode to Joy (Brian Beck). The concert is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.

REGENERATION Features Four Last Songs

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Graphic advertising Regeneration fall concertREGENERATION, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia’s Fall 2013 concert, features soprano Rhea Olivaccé, whose work as a concert and recital soloist has been widely recognized for her versatility of repertoire and medium. REGENERATION occurs Saturday, November 16, at 8 PM in the Light Fine Arts Dalton Theatre on the Kalamazoo College campus. Tickets are $5 general admission and $2 for students. The concert is free to Kalamazoo College students. Olivaccé and the Philharmonia will perform the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. The content of Four Last Songs features a solo soprano voice given remarkable soaring melodies against a full orchestra, and all four songs have prominent horn parts. The combination of a beautiful vocal line with supportive brass accompaniment references Strauss’s own life. His wife, Pauline de Ahna, was a famous soprano and his father, Franz Strauss, a professional horn player. The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will also perform Mahler’s First Symphony, referred to as “The Titan.” The symphony lasts around just under an hour, making it one of Mahler’s shortest symphonies. The Kalamazoo Philharmonia is under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler. The event is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.

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)

Countless Malalas

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President and Chief Executive Officer of Pathfinder International Purnima Mane
Dr. Purnima Mane, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pathfinder International

“Empowering girls with information and giving them a voice enables them to say ’no’ to early marriage, ’no’ to dropping out of school, and ’no’ to an early pregnancy or unsafe sex that might cost them their future.” So wrote Dr. Purnima Mane, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pathfinder International.

Next week Mane will visit the Kalamazoo College campus to give a talk titled “Catalysts for Change: Empowering Youth through Sexual and Reproductive Rights.” The event will occur on Tuesday, October 22, at 7 p.m. in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room. It is free and open to the public.

Pathfinder International believes that people everywhere have the right to live a healthy sexual and reproductive life. For more than 55 years, The organization has worked to expand access to quality sexual and reproductive health care to enable and empower individuals to make choices about their body and their future. “When people take charge of their life choices–such as if or when and how often to have children–they gain confidence and strength,” said Mane. “They can better pursue their education, contribute to the local economy, and engage in their communities.”

Mane is a distinguished diplomat, leader, manager, academician, and social activist, as well as an internationally recognized expert on HIV, maternal health, behavior change, gender, and population. Pathfinder International has more than 1,000 staff around the world, an annual budget exceeding $100 million, and sexual and reproductive health programs in more than 20 developing countries.

Mane’s visit to Kalamazoo College is co-sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement and the Office of Student Development.

Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on K’s Campus

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David Forsythe
David Forsythe

David Forsythe will deliver the annual Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Lecture at 8 PM on Tuesday, November 5, in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room at Kalamazoo College. The title of his address is “The United States and Torture after 9/11.” The event is free and open to the public.

Forsythe is University Professor and Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). His work focuses on international human rights, international law and organization, American foreign policy, and international relations.

His books include The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights in International Relations; The United Nations and Changing World Politics; American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World; and The Politics of Prisoner Abuse. He is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the recipient of many awards for scholarship. In 2008 he held the Senior Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair for Human Rights and International Studies at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students. The 13 men and women participating during 2013-2014 will visit 100 colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, spending two days on each campus to meet informally with students and faculty members, participate in classroom discussions and seminars, and give a public lecture open to the entire academic community.