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K Honors Employees, Student Ambassadors at Founders Day Event

Posted on April 26, 2024April 26, 2024

Bruce Mills receives the Lux Esto Award of Excellence from Jorge Gonzalez — Professor of English Bruce Mills receives the Lux Esto Award of Excellence from Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez at the Founders Day community reflection.

Jessica Fowle receives Outstanding Advisor Award from Jorge Gonzalez at Founders Day — Director of Grants, Fellowship and Research Jessica Fowle ’00 receives Outstanding Advisor Award from Gonzalez at the Founders Day community reflection.

Alayna Lewis receives the First-Year Advocate Award from Jorge Gonzalez — Associate Director of the Center for International Programs Alayna Lewis receives the First-Year Advocate Award from Gonzalez at the Founders Day community reflection.

Professor of English Bruce Mills is this year’s recipient of the Lux Esto Award of Excellence as announced today during the College’s Founders Day celebration, marking K’s 191st year.

The award recognizes an employee who has served the institution for at least 26 years and has a record of stewardship and innovation. The recipient—chosen by a committee with student, faculty and staff representatives—is an employee who exemplifies the spirit of K through excellent leadership, selfless dedication and goodwill.

At K, Mills has taught classes on short fiction, identities, African-American literature, American literature from 1500–1790 and 1790–1865, and the life and legacy of James Baldwin. He also leads the digital humanities portion of the Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) project, a Mellon Foundation-funded effort combining classroom and in-person experiences in cities such as New Orleans, San Diego and St. Louis that seeks solutions to societal problems while promoting the critical role of the humanities in social justice work.

Mills has published creative nonfiction in The Georgia Review; New England Review; September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond; and Gravity Pulls You In: Parenting Children on the Autism Spectrum. He also co-edited the book Siblings and Autism: Stories Spanning Generations and Cultures. Further, his advocacy in relation to autism has led to presentations at numerous conferences.

Four of the College Singers perform — Alexa Wonacott, Amelie Sack, Maxwell Goldner and Zachary Ufkes of the Lux Esto Singers perform “Stand in That River” by Moira Smiley.

Student reading from a lectern at Founders Day — President’s Student Ambassadors Gabriel Coleman (pictured) and Grey Gardner read the Kalamazoo College land acknowledgement.

Founders Day anniversary honors recipient — Kalamazoo College employees, such as Center for International Programs Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft, who are celebrating milestone anniversaries were recognized at Founders Day.

Mills “has been dedicated to the campus community, with one nominator saying he has done wonders at making his classroom environment open, comprehensive and accessible to anyone, even in higher level classes,” Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said in presenting the award. “He meets students where they are, making sure that course content is easy to understand and that concepts can be applied to people’s own lives and their own academic understandings. At the same time, he pushes students to think bigger and think differently while making classes engaging, appropriately challenging and fun.”

In accordance with Founders Day traditions, two other employees received additional community awards. Director of Grants, Fellowship and Research Jessica Fowle ’00 was given the Outstanding Advisor Award and Associate Director of the Center for International Programs (CIP) Alayna Lewis received the First-Year Advocate Award.

Fowle is a key individual when it comes to referring K students and faculty to Fulbright’s U.S. Student Program and Scholar Program immersion opportunities. She recently was selected to be part of the inaugural Fulbright Program Adviser (FPA) Mentors Cohort. As an FPA mentor, Fowle is one of 20 experts from around the country providing virtual training and information sessions, presentations at the Forum for Education Abroad, and personal advice to new Fulbright program advisers who are looking to structure applicant support and recruitment at their own institutions. She has been a part of K’s staff in various roles for more than 20 years including nearly five as director of grants, fellowships and research.

“Advisors are academic mentors who work closely with our students, pay attention to their academic progress, and help them identify and fulfill their goals while working towards completing their degrees,” Gonzalez said. “As evidenced in the nominations received, she accomplishes all of this and more.”

Through the CIP, Lewis organizes international student orientation and its activities. She also helps students with F-1 and J-1 Visa regulations, and study abroad programs in Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Spain. Her passion for study abroad came from a trip to Spain while she was in high school and her own undergraduate experience studying abroad in Mexico.

Gonzalez noted that nominators said Lewis makes herself available to meet individually with students and listens well to help solve a variety of challenges with compassion. Beyond academics, she helps students by assisting in critical matters such as taxes and legal documentation. Plus, during winter break, many international students stay on campus with Lewis organizing grocery trips, meals and events, making being away from home much easier.

Members of the President's Student Ambassadors stand to be recognized at Founders Day — Members of the 2023–24 President’s Student Ambassadors stand to be recognized at Founders Day

Members of the 2024-25 President's Student Ambassadors stand to be recognized at Founders Day — Members of the 2024-25 President’s Student Ambassadors stand to be recognized at Founders Day.

Crowd applauds at Founders Day event — Founders Day attendees applaud Lux Esto Award recipient Bruce Mills.

Gonzalez also recognized the students who served as President’s Student Ambassadors in the 2023–24 academic year and introduced those who will serve the College beginning this fall in 2024–25. As student leaders, President’s Student Ambassadors serve as an extension of the president’s hospitality at events and gatherings, welcoming alumni and guests of the College with a spirit of inclusion. About 15 students serve as ambassadors each academic year. The students selected show strong communication skills; demonstrate leadership through academic life, student life or community service; and maintain a minimum grade-point average.

The 2023-24 ambassadors have been:

Madison Barch ’24
Gabriel Coleman ’24
Blake Filkins ’26
Grey Gardner ’26
Emily Haigh ’24
James Hauke ’26
Madeline Hollander ’25
Gavin Houtkooper ‘25
Renai Huang ’24
Lukas Hultberg ’24
Jessica Kaplan ’26
Alex Nam ’25
Blagoja Naskovski ’24
Isabella Pellegrom ‘25
Tyrus Parnell, Jr. ’25
Maxwell Rhames ‘25
Emmeline Wendel ’24
Ava Williams ‘25

The 2024-25 ambassadors succeeding this year’s seniors will be:

Jaylen Bowles-Swain ’26
Christopher Cayton ’25
Kyle Cooper ’25
Maya Hester ’25
Katie Kraemer ’25
Joaquin Martinez ’25
Isabelle Mason ’27
Addison Peter ’25
Emiliano Alvarado Rescala ’27
Amelie Sack ’27
Dean Turpin ’25

K President Named to ACE Board of Directors

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez was named today to serve on the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities. His term will start after the ACE annual meeting April 15 and run through September 2026.

ACE is a membership organization that mobilizes the higher education community toward shaping effective public policy and professional practice to benefit students, communities and the public good. More than 1,700 colleges and universities, related associations and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad make ACE the only major higher education association to represent two-year and four-year, public and private degree-granting institutions.

“I’m honored to be joining the ACE board as an institutional representative of the Council of Independent Colleges,” Gonzalez said. “I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues to support the work of ACE, an organization that advocates for educational innovation and champions equity and access to a high-quality education for all students.”

Gonzalez has served as K’s president since July 2016 and has been a fierce advocate of the liberal arts. He previously served Occidental College as its vice president for academic affairs and dean from 2010–2016. Before working at Occidental, Gonzalez was an economics faculty member at Trinity University for 21 years.

Gonzalez served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association in 2014. He is the president of the Board of the F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund and serves on the boards of the Annapolis Group, Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities, Michigan Colleges Alliance, Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

“I deeply appreciate Jorge’s service to the ACE Board of Directors and dedication to helping ACE carry out our mission to mobilize American higher education for the good of our students and communities,” ACE President Ted Mitchell said.

Read today’s announcement from ACE on its website.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez named to ACE Board of Directors — Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will serve on the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities.

Statement in Support of K’s Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander Community

Posted on March 19, 2021March 21, 2022

Dear Campus Community:

For the past year, we have borne witness to increased incidents of racism and harassment toward Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in this country. A report released this week from the organization Stop AAPI Hate revealed that nearly 3,800 hate and harassment incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to them in the last 11 months, and women made up the highest share of the reports, at 68 percent. While these types of incidents are—sadly—not a new phenomenon in our society, racist rhetoric being used around the pandemic has exacerbated these attacks. Frequent news reports of individuals being assaulted and the recent murders of eight people—including six Asian women—in Atlanta have put a glaring spotlight on these issues and they demand our attention.

We stand with our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander students, faculty, staff and alumni to oppose hate, discrimination and intolerance. We are an intercultural community, and we urge each person to show compassion and care toward those communities who are feeling vulnerable. Please check in with your peers and colleagues, stand with them and offer your support.

If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed hate or bias incidents, please note the places to report and additional resources below:

Reporting Harassment and Assault
Bias Data Gathering System
Kalamazoo College Counseling Center
International Student Mental Wellness Resources

Saludos,

Jorge G. Gonzalez
President

18th President Official News Release

Posted on January 12, 2016October 7, 2022

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez — Jorge G. Gonzalez

Kalamazoo, Mich. (January 12, 2016) – The Board of Trustees of Kalamazoo College has chosen Jorge G. Gonzalez, Ph.D., to become the institution’s 18th president. Gonzalez is currently vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Occidental College (Los Angeles, Calif.). He succeeds President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Ph.D., who announced her retirement in April 2015. Her last day at K will be June 30. Gonzalez will begin his new duties as K’s president on July 1.

“I feel my life has been a preparation for this incredible opportunity to advance the liberal arts and the K-Plan,” he said. “Kalamazoo College’s mission is a perfect match with my deeply held belief in the learning values and the life values of experiential education and international education.”

“The board’s vote was unanimous, and our excitement boundless,” said Board of Trustees Chair Charlotte Hall ’66, who led the presidential search committee. “Dr. Gonzalez is a passionate champion of the liberal arts and has an abiding commitment to the values embodied in the K-Plan: academic excellence, experiential learning, intercultural understanding and community engagement. Through all of his work, he has sought to make that powerful combination better and more accessible to diverse groups of students.”

Gonzalez won Trinity University’s most prestigious teaching award. He is widely published and a frequent contributor at professional and academic conferences. His research interests include international economics, political economy and development. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association (2014), and he was selected by the American Council on Education for its prestigious ACE Fellowship (2007-2008). He spent that academic year at Pomona College and visited and spent time with the leaders of about 30 other colleges and universities across the country.

Gonzalez grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (major in economics) from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). During his junior year he studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an experience, he said, “that changed my life!” He earned his M.A. (economics, 1986) and Ph.D. (economics, 1989) from Michigan State University.

Gonzalez is married to Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez, a Kalamazoo College graduate of the class of 1983. They have two children, a daughter (Kristina) who recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in international relations and is now working in commercial real estate in Los Angeles, and a son (Carlos) who is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in computer science.

The appointment of Gonzalez is the culmination of a seven-month-long national search process. Along with Hall, the search committee included trustees Jim Clayton ’78, Gwen (Van Domelen) Fountain ’68, Si Johnson ’78, Alexander Lipsey ’72, Jody Olsen, and Jon Stryker ’82; Alexandra Altman ’97, president of the Alumni Association Executive Board (and a member of the board of trustees); faculty members Arthur Cole, associate professor of physics, Kyla Day Fletcher, assistant professor of psychology, and Jan Tobochnik, the Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences; Victor Garcia ’97, grounds coordinator for facilities management; Tanush Jagdish, member of the sophomore class; Stacy Nowicki, library director; and Sally Arent, assistant to the vice president and dean of students and secretary to the search committee. The search committee was assisted by the well-known higher education search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu) was founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833 and is one of the oldest colleges in the United States. Located midway between Chicago and Detroit, 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.

xxx

K Announces 18th President

Posted on January 8, 2016March 23, 2022

The board of trustees of Kalamazoo College has chosen Jorge G. Gonzalez, Ph.D., to become the institution’s 18th president. Gonzalez is currently vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Occidental College (Los Angeles, Calif.). He succeeds President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, who announced her retirement in April 2015. Her last day at K will be June 30, 2016. Dr. Gonzalez will begin his new duties as K’s president on July 1.

“I feel my life has been a preparation for this incredible opportunity to advance the liberal arts and the K-Plan,” he said. “Kalamazoo College’s mission is a perfect match with my deeply held belief in the learning values and the life values of experiential education and international education.”

Gonzalez said immersion in the liberal arts is the most powerful and life-enriching form of undergraduate education when students have opportunities to apply their academic work in a variety of extra-curricular experiences. As a professor and an administrator Gonzalez has created innovative combinations of liberal arts academics and experiential applications, programs that cross borders and cultures. At Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas, 1989-2010), where he worked as a professor of economics and special assistant to the president, he organized and helped develop: summer travel-study programs related to economics coursework in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg; summer student internships in Madrid, Spain; a travel-study program in Vietnam; a partnership between the Tec de Monterrey (Mexico) and Trinity University; and a “Languages Across the Curriculum” program in which courses are taught in the language most germane to the course content.

At Occidental College (2010-2016) he has continued to help create and support experiential learning programs that allow students to engage in the world in ways that draw upon their liberal arts education. Several of these programs involve students in the issues and environs of greater Los Angeles and in discussions and applications of social justice.

A gifted professor, Gonzalez won Trinity University’s most prestigious teaching award (2003), the Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship. He is widely published and a frequent contributor at professional and academic conferences. His research interests include international economics, political economy and development. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association (2014), and he was selected by the American Council on Education for its prestigious ACE Fellowship (2007-2008). He spent that academic year at Pomona College and visited and spent time with the leaders of about 30 other colleges and universities across the country.

Gonzalez grew up in Monterrey, Mexico and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (major in economics, 1984) from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). During his junior year he studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an experience, he said, “that changed my life!” He made the Dean’s List at Wisconsin, and he graduated first in ITESM’s economics class. Gonzalez earned his M.A. (economics, 1986) and Ph.D. (economics, 1989) from Michigan State University, where he achieved the institution’s “Highest Scholarship Award,” given to the graduating M.A. student in economics with the highest grade point average. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled “Essays in the Theory of International Factor Mobility.”

“The board’s vote was unanimous and our excitement boundless,” said Board Chair Charlotte Hall ’66, who led the presidential search committee. “Dr. Gonzalez is a passionate champion of the liberal arts and has an abiding commitment to the values embodied in the K-Plan: academic excellence, experiential learning, intercultural understanding and community engagement. Through all of his work, he has sought to make that powerful combination better and more accessible to diverse groups of students.

“Thank you to the members of the presidential search committee for their diligence and wisdom during this important task,” Hall added. “They have served Kalamazoo College well, and K will reap the benefits of their hard work.”

Along with Hall, the search committee included trustees Jim Clayton ’78, Gwen (Van Domelen) Fountain ’68, Si Johnson ’78, Alexander Lipsey ’72, Jody Olsen and Jon Stryker ’82; Alexandra Altman ’97, president of the Alumni Association Executive Board (and a member of the board of trustees); faculty members Arthur Cole, associate professor of physics, Kyla Day Fletcher, assistant professor of psychology, and Jan Tobochnik, the Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences; Victor Garcia ’97, grounds coordinator for facilities management; Tanush Jagdish ’18, member of the sophomore class; Stacy Nowicki, library director; and Sally Arent, assistant to the vice president and dean of students and secretary to the search committee. The search committee was assisted by the well-known higher education search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel.

Gonzalez is married to Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez, a Kalamazoo College graduate of the class of 1983. They have two children, a daughter (Kristina) and a son (Carlos). Kristina recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in international relations and is currently working in commercial real estate in Los Angeles. Carlos is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in computer science. Articles on Dr. Gonzalez and his family will appear in upcoming issues of BeLight Magazine (February) and LuxEsto (April).

NAACP Cites Work of College, President

Posted on November 16, 2015March 23, 2022

On any given day you can find a Kalamazoo College student playing ping pong, shooting baskets or serving up a hot meal at the Douglass Community Association.

A center for social, recreational and community development activities in the city’s Northside neighborhood, the Douglass Community Association has served Kalamazoo residents for nearly 100 years.

“For decades, I’ve watched Kalamazoo College students come by the bus full to volunteer at the Douglass,” says Dr. Charles Warfield, president of the Metropolitan Kalamazoo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “As a more than 70-year resident of Kalamazoo, I have consistently seen Kalamazoo College support the efforts of the black community and be front runners in the area of social justice.”

Each week during the academic year, many of the more than 100 K students who work in the local community through service-learning courses or co-curricular programming coordinated by the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement head to Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood, home to many members of the city’s black community. K students work with teachers and elementary age students at Woodward School and with families who are part of Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), a grassroots organization that provides tutoring services to children residing in the Interfaith Neighborhood Housing community. Since its founding in 2001, K’s Center for Civic Engagement, through service-learning courses and student-led programs, has engaged more than 6,500 K students in long-term, reciprocal partnerships to foster academic learning, critical problem-solving, and a lifetime of civic engagement while strengthening the Kalamazoo community.

This long-standing community partnership, in addition to the work of Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Warfield says, contributed to the recognition of both the College and its president with the Vanguard Award at the NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.

The Vanguard Award honors an organization or group of people whose forward thinking has significantly affected the lives of all people, and specifically people of color in Kalamazoo. Past recipients include the City of Kalamazoo, Sid Ellis and the Black Arts and Cultural Center, and the philanthropists of the Kalamazoo Promise.

“We have outstanding people in our midst who make it their business to make a difference in the lives of those in need,” Warfield says. “We need to honor organizations and people who invest so unselfishly in our community to make this a better place to live now and for the future.”

During President Wilson-Oyelaran’s 10 years at the College, she has worked tirelessly, Warfield asserts, in the name of social justice.

“Kalamazoo College has always been one of the bright lights of social justice,” he says. “Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran stepped in and didn’t miss a beat. I can’t think of anyone or anyplace more deserving of the Vanguard Award.”

During her tenure at the College, President Wilson-Oyelaran has helped the College make its campus and educational experience more diverse—increasing the number of first generation, low-income, international and domestic students of color who study here.

President Wilson-Oyelaran’s commitment to social justice and leadership development, however, may be most evident in the creation of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL), a formal program that integrates the academic experience with social justice activism geared toward helping students make communities and the world more equitable for all.

The ACSJL, opened in 2009, supports initiatives proposed by students, staff and faculty; provides forward-thinking programming; offers fellowships for emerging and veteran social justice leaders; and hosts annual signature events with global reach.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive the Vanguard Award and accept it on behalf of Kalamazoo College,” says President Wilson-Oyelaran. “It is really gratifying to have the community recognize the many years of investment in the Kalamazoo community by our faculty, staff and students and to take note of the College’s efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive community.”

The NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet was held November 7, 2015 at Western Michigan University’s Bernhard Center.

Article by Erin (Miller) Dominianni ’95; photo by Keith Mumma

Book launches, annual colloquium concludes for Olasope Oyelaran

Posted on August 7, 2015December 19, 2022

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.”

Kalamazoo College President Announces Retirement

Posted on April 9, 2015April 5, 2023

President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran today announced her retirement from Kalamazoo College, effective June 30, 2016. She made the announcement at the College’s spring term all-campus gathering, a meeting of faculty and staff.

President Wilson-Oyelaran was unanimously elected the 17th president of Kalamazoo College by the board of trustees on December 11, 2004. She began her duties in July of 2005. Prior to the presidency of K she served as vice president and dean of the college of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

A native of Los Angeles, President Wilson-Oyelaran earned her undergraduate degree (sociology) from Pomona College, a liberal arts school in Claremont, California. She studied abroad in England as an undergraduate, and used a postgraduate fellowship to study in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania) for 16 months.

She returned to the U.S. to earn a master’s degree and Ph.D. in child development and early childhood education (Claremont Graduate University) and then taught in the departments of education and psychology at the University of Ife in Nigeria for 14 years. She married Olasope (Sope) Oyelaran in 1980, and they have four children—Doyin, Oyinda, Salewa, and Yinka.

The family moved to the United States in 1988. President Wilson-Oyelaran taught or served in administrative leadership positions at North Carolina Wesleyan College and Winston-Salem State University prior to joining the faculty of Salem College.

At K she led the development of a 10-year strategic plan for the college that, among other priorities, focused on the re-imagination and integration of the elements of K’s internationally renowned curriculum, the K-Plan. “We’re helping students integrate and reflect on the building blocks they use to construct their own unique K-Plans,” said President Wilson-Oyelaran: classroom explorations in the liberal arts, study abroad, career internships and networking opportunities, civic engagement, social justice leadership, and the capstone experience that is the senior individualized project. “Those elements, alone and in concert, enhance the four years that students spend at Kalamazoo College and will enhance students’ lives for years to come,” added President Wilson-Oyelaran.

Other curricular improvements during her tenure include revised graduation requirements, implementation of the Shared Passages Seminar Series (which helps students reflect upon and integrate their academic and experiential opportunities), three new academic majors (business, women and gender studies, and critical ethnic studies), two new intercollegiate sports (men’s and women’s lacrosse), the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, and new career and professional development programs such as the Guilds of Kalamazoo College.

President Wilson-Oyelaran helped envision and implement another key focus of the College’s strategic plan: building a campus community whose diversity reflects the world where K students will live and work. She acknowledged that much work remains to be done in order to create a learning environment that is equitable and inclusive for each member of K’s diverse learning community–the most diverse in its history. In this the 10th year of her tenure, 26 percent of K students identify as U.S. students of color. International students (degree-seeking and visiting) are nearly 10 percent of the student body. Fifteen percent of K students are the first in their families to attend college; and one in four comes from a family of modest income.

President Wilson-Oyelaran has reinvigorated campus spaces that students and employees use to solidify the sense of community that characterizes Kalamazoo College. Not since Presidents Hoben and Hicks has the physical campus made such extraordinary gains in beauty and utility. New spaces that have been renovated or erected during President Wilson-Oyelaran’s tenure include the Hicks Center, the athletic fields and field house, and the extraordinary work of architecture that houses the social justice center. In addition to these spaces, construction of a new fitness and wellness center will begin at the end of summer, and preliminary design of a new natatorium is complete.

Also, per the strategic plan, enrollment has grown to nearly 1,500 students (the 2017 goal specified by the plan), and the College has implemented an ambitious alumni engagement plan. President Wilson-Oyelaran also has led the most successful fund-raising campaign in the College’s history. That effort, called the Campaign for Kalamazoo College, is in its final stages, having raised $123 million of its $125 million goal.

Chair of the Board of Trustees Charlotte Hall ’66 said that the search for a new president would begin immediately. She noted that the search committee would include trustees, alumni, students, faculty, and staff. The 18th president of Kalamazoo College is expected to assume those duties on July 1, 2016.

That new president will have big shoes to fill. “Eileen, we are so grateful for all the ways you’ve helped prepare K for its future,” said Hall. “I know I speak for the entire K community, the Kalamazoo Community, and all the people you have touched throughout your time in higher education when I say we hope the best for you and Sope.”

President Wilson-Oyelaran cited the “singular honor” of serving at Kalamazoo College and shared her belief that, K, “the very best is yet to come.”

Her legacy here is truly a blessing for our entire community. More than a decade ago, when she was considering the decision to move from Salem Academy and College to Kalamazoo College, Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran was seeking some sort of sign to tip the scale. She found it when she learned that the great abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth had once met with kindred spirit Lucinda Hinsdale Stone (head of the female department at K, which was one of the first colleges in the country to provide higher education for women). “Ever since I was a child,” President Wilson-Oyelaran said in 2004, “Sojourner Truth has been an icon for me.”

Now, in turn, Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran can be an icon for us.

Spring Break Update and Message From Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran

Posted on March 16, 2015March 23, 2022

Spring Break 2015 at Kalamazoo College begins Wed. March 18 at 12 noon. The following message was sent to all K students, faculty, and staff on Monday March 16…

Dear Members of the Campus Community:

As some of you prepare for Spring Break I wanted to provide an update to recent campus events and concerns.

The investigation into the identity of the persons who posted hate speech and a specific threat in the StuComm document continues. We are hopeful that the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and the FBI can determine the perpetrator(s), and we are mindful that sufficient evidence to pinpoint with certainty the individual or individuals responsible may not be discoverable.

Throughout the week I have had an opportunity to talk with many of you regarding your thoughts on how effectively we have handled the most recent threats. Your feedback has been extremely helpful, and the campus crisis management team will make changes in light of your comments and suggestions.

Many of you have also offered suggestions regarding the various ways K might move forward in light of the multifaceted reality of students who feel marginalized at K. This will be difficult work and everyone on campus must play a part.

Very early in spring term I will outline the process—a process co-developed with a small group of students, faculty, and staff—that we will use to address the marginalization that some of our students experience. That process will allow us to get to work quickly and to enlist the minds and hearts and actions of everyone at the College in productive and creative ways. The work will be demanding, and some of the changes will be structural and fundamental. The work will yield actions, some of which we hope to implement very quickly.

I thank you and hope that each of you find some time for rest and reflection during the Spring Break. Several of you requested possible resources to consult. I can think of none better than “In Their Own Words” (a report in the voices of K students from the K student focus groups of April and May 2013) and an article referenced in that report: “Talking About Race, Learning About Racism: The Application of Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom,” by Beverly Daniel Tatum.

At K, we share many things in common, and we differ from one another. Engaging fully with those truths, with compassion and empathy, will get us where we need to be as a larger community.

Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran

Holiday Greetings from Kalamazoo College

Posted on December 8, 2014March 23, 2022

Dear Friends:

Happy holidays and warm wishes for 2015. This is a very exciting time at K. We welcomed an outstanding class of 2018: 362 students from 30 states and 17 countries. The class is one of the most diverse in the College’s history. Thirty-two percent of its members identify themselves as domestic students of color. Ten percent are four-year degree-seeking international students. Many are the first in their families to attend college.

In September we dedicated the beautiful piece of architecture that houses our Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, and one week later the center convened its first biennial conference, gathering our learning community with social justice scholars and activists from across the globe. The purpose of the center folds beautifully into the goals of a liberal arts education at Kalamazoo College, one of which-as articulated by President Allan Hoben in the 1920s-is for each of us to identify a “charter of service” for humankind. To engage in that important pursuit, we study widely and with rigor. We cultivate the courage it requires to ask big questions and act upon the answers even if they differ from conventional wisdom. What a vibrant environment in which to live and work!

Kalamazoo College is in the final seven months of the most ambitious fund-raising campaign in its long and storied history. We are seeking to raise $125 million to support the priorities that will help ensure that the Kalamazoo College of tomorrow is every bit as strong, every bit as vibrant, and every bit as willing to grapple with the big questions, as we are today. This holiday season is a perfect time to give thanks for the incredible support we have received from alumni and friends.

I am grateful to all of you for what you do on behalf of K. You are making a difference in the lives of our students; helping them to learn and to act on their inclination to make the world a better place.

I hope you enjoy this holiday greeting. Its original music was composed by alumnus Robert Severinac ’85 as part of his Senior Individualized Project. Today, he is a renowned plastic surgeon and entrepreneur who does pro bono work with families of children with cleft palates. And he continues to enjoy and make music! The roots of such breadth and service lie in the power of the liberal arts at K.

President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran