Designed by world renowned architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, the architecture that houses Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership has inspired rave reviews by many. Perhaps no work better explicates the iconography of the space than the video that was commissioned by Studio Gang Architects and produced by Dave Burk. The piece features many persons from Kalamazoo College, including President Eileen B. Wilson Oyelaran and Trustee Jon Stryker ’82, whose gift made the building possible. Convening on behalf of social justice often has taken place in small and out-of-the-way spaces designed for other purposes. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College brings these discussions up from the basement, so to speak, and squarely into public consciousness.
The Arcus Center works to develop emerging leaders and sustain existing leaders in the fields of human rights and social justice. As a learning environment and meeting space, it brings together students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public for conversation and activities aimed at creating a more just world. We invite you to take the seven minutes to view this short film. Together, the space and the people who experience animate, and the film shows how.
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Winter 2015 academic term. Kudos to the entire group of some 300 students, and good luck in Spring Term, 2015.
Ayaka Abe
Benjamin Abreu
Melissa Acosta
Lucian Aitkins
Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti
Omid Akhavan-Tafti
Rachel Alworth
Rasseil Alzouhayli
Suma Alzouhayli
Abby Anderson
Katelyn Anderson
Steven Andrews
Jasmine An
Jill Antonishen
Carlos Arellano
Taylor Arney
B
Sara Babcock
Gordon Backer
Sarah Baehr
Shreya Bahl
Katherine Ballew
Caroline Barnett
Grace Barry
Julia Bartlett
William Bartz
Abraham Bayha
Blake Beauchamp
Rebecca Beery
Andrea Beitel
Kate Belew
William Bell
Hayley Beltz
Erin Bensinger
Hannah Berger
Anup Bhullar
Benjamin Blomme
Allison Bloomfield
Vanessa Boddy
Hannah Bogard
Sean Bogue
Serena Bonarski
Georgetta Booker
Madeline Booth
Olivia Bouchard
Kennedy Boulton
Grace Bowe
Jonathan Bowman
Zoe Bowman
Riley Boyd
Nakeya Boyles
Sarah Bragg
Andrew Bremer
Allie Brodsky
Drew Brown
Emerson Brown
Erin Brown
Maxine Brown
Taylor Brown
Thomas Bryant
Joel Bryson
Andrew Buchholtz
Elisse Buhmann
Camille Burke
Mary Burnett
Michelle Bustamante
Erin Butler
Shanice Buys
C
Nicole Caddow
William Cagney
Sonia Camarena
Angel Caranna
Dorothy Carpenter
Raymond Carpenter
Sheila Carter
Haley Cartwright
Marissa Cash
Alejandra Castillo
James Castleberry
Rachel Chang
Kristina Chetcuti
Siu Kwan Katherine Cheung
Chido Chigwedere
Madeleine Chilcote
Emiline Chipman
Jae Hyun Choe
Elina Choi
Jennifer Cho
Youngjoon Cho
Amelia Chronis
Joshua Claassens
Tyler Clack
Taylor Clements
Elizabeth Clevenger
Cody Colvin
Quinton Colwell
Riley Cook
Hannah Cooperrider
Dejah Crystal
D
Susmitha Daggubati
Anna Dairaghi
Christina Dandar
Joshua Daniel
Roger Darling
Natalie Davenport
Charles Davis
Cecilia DeBoeck
David Demarest
Jeremy DePree
David DeSimone
Scott Devine
Dana DeVito
Eric De Witt
Seth Dexter
Green Dickenson
Cecilia DiFranco
Alexis Diller
Margaret Doele
Miranda Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Kelsey Donk
Ana Paula Dos Santos Dantas
Tuan Do
Lauren Drew
Querubin Dubois
Benjamin Dunham
Lotte Dunnell
E
Daniel Eberhart
Maya Edery
Adam Eisenstein
Ian Engstrom
Melissa Erikson
Samuel Ettwein
Andriana Evangelista
Angelia Evangelista
Samuel Evans-Golden
Kevin Ewing
F
Rachel Fadler
Jessie Fales
Abram Farley
Mario Ferrini
Alexis Fiebernitz
Jory Finkelberg
Tyler Fisher
Emily Fletcher
Joshua Foley
Samantha Foran
Delaney Fordell
Steven Fotieo
John Fowler
Maria Franco
Valentin Frank
Emma Franzel
Abigail Fraser
Annah Freudenburg
Maria Fujii
Lydia Fyie
G
Bridget Gallagher
Jacob Gallimore
Mauro Galus
Owen Galvin
Keith Garber
Joana Garcia
Brett Garwood
Katherine Gatz
Charlotte Gavin
Kathleen George
Mousa Ghannam
Camille Giacobone
Kelan Gill
Danielle Gin
Sarah Glass
Samantha Gleason
Daniella Glymin
Abhay Goel
Carter Goetz
Ellie Goldman
Emily Good
Anna Gough
Prachi Goyal
Janelle Grant
Claudia Greening
Lydia Green
Jackson Greenstone
Nya Greenstone
Kaitlyn Greiner
Ethan Grier
Adreanna Grillier
Jared Grimmer
Alexandra Groffsky
Brenden Groggel
Ellie Grossman
Daniel Grost
Guilherme Guedes
In Hye Gu
Yicong Guo
Rebecca Guralnick
H
Simon Haile
Marie Hallinen
Robert Hammond
Daniel Handley
Elizabeth Hanley
Jessica Hansen
Zihan Han
Hadley Harrison
Cheyenne Harvey
Andrew Haubert
Shannon Haupt
Evan Hayden
Veronica Hayden
Bonita Hazel
Stephanie Heard
Frances Heldt
Ashley Henne
Mariah Hennen
Jordan Henning
Kyle Hernandez
Mason Higby
Cassidy Hillis
Kelsey Hill
Louis Hochster
Megan Hoinville
Gabrielle Holme-Miller
Jenna Holmes
Daniel Holtzman
Se-Jung Hong
Drew Hopper
Elise Houcek
Allia Howard
Claire Howland
Jane Huffman
Jason Hugan
Siwook Hwang
I
Pinar Inanli
J
Jordan Jabara
Thomas Jackson
Dana Jacobson
Clare Jensen
Jon Jerow
YanYan Jiang
Lara Job
Amanda Johnson
Andrea Johnson
Katherine Johnson
Kourtney Johnson
Samantha Johnson
Tibin John
Samantha Jolly
Brittany Jones
Alexander Juarez
K
Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Elyse Kaplan
Abigail Keizer
Gwendolen Keller
Jack Kemper
Samuel Kepes
Kelsey Kerbawy
Rachel Keshishian
Anthony Ketner
Benjamin Kileen
Hannah Kim
Na Young Kim
Savannah Kinchen
William Kirchen
Sai Klein
Hannah Kline
Gabriel Klotz
Julia Koreman
Bharath Kotha
Emily Kotz
Emily Kozal
McKenna Kring
Matthew Kuntzman
L
Ariah Lacey
Lauren Landman
Jeremy Lantis
Bryan Lara
Tessa Lathrop
John Lawless IV
Hannah Lehker
Rachel Leider
Elizabeth Lenning
Jacob Lenning
Rebecca Lennington
Omar Leon
Phuong Le
Arianna Letherer
Sarah Levett
Emily Levy
Samuel Lichtman-Mikol
Rachel Lifton
Emily Lindsay
Bret Linvill
Xiang Lin
Kate Liska
Gordon Liu
Giovanni LoGrasso
Trenton Loos
Bailee Lotus
Chenxi Lu
Liam Lundy
M
Spencer MacDonald
Sydney Madden
Jessica Magana
Lucy Mailing
Hannah Maness
Grace Manger
Sarah Manski
Helena Marnauzs
Nicholas Marsh
Elizabeth Martin
Takumi Matsuzawa
Kelsey Matthews
Madison McBarnes
Karly McCall
Miles McDowall
Adam McDowell
Angus McIntosh
Sara McKinney
Thomas McLravy
Molly Meddock
Jordan Meiller
Roxanna Menchaca
Franklin Meyer
Samuel Meyers
Emily Mickus
Sangtawun Miller
Suzanne Miller
Zach Miller
Ethel Mogilevsky
Gabrielle Montesanti
Daniel Moore
Tessa Moore
Madison Moote
Asia Liza Morales
Vanesa Morales
Alexandra Morris
Cody Mosblech
Chloe Mpinga
Tenley Mustonen
N
Victoria Najacht
Harsha Nand
Jacob Naranjo
Laetitia Ndiaye
Alissa Neff
Annie Nelson
Annie Nelson
Hallie Nerge
Mumo Nganu
Hang Nguyen
Hung Nguyen
Phuong Nguyen
Thi Phuong Lan Nguyen
Viet Nguyen
Perri Nicholson
Anne Nielsen
Nicholas Nizzardini
Rosemarie Nocita
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Mackenzie Norman
O
Bryan Olert
Stephen Oliphant
Hannah Olsen
Michael Oravetz
Eli Orenstein
Colleen Orwin
Alexandria Oswalt
Ty Owens
Justin Rabidoux
Yajaera Ramirez
Samantha Ramsay
Malavika Rao
Katherine Rapin
Anna Rayas
Shelby Retherford
Maria Rich
Melinda Rietkerk
Philip Ritchie
Annika Roberts
Madeleine Roberts
William Roberts
Camryn Romph
Samuel Rood
Jeremy Roth
Lyla Rothschild
Elinor Rubin-McGregor
Keigan Ryckman
Matthew Ryder
Connor Rzeznik
S
Minato Sakamoto
Amber Salome
Sharayu Salvi
Kira Sandiford
Andrea Satchwell
Gabriel Schat
Anselm Scheck
Maison Scheuer
Ashley Schmidt
Natalie Schmitt
Sarah Schmitt
Cameron Schneberger
Maxwell Schneberger
Kaitlyn Schneider
Aaron Schoenfeldt
Colleen Schuldeis
Robert Schultz
Lisa Sczechowski
Eli Seitz
Rachel Selina
Lauren Seroka
Jenna Sexton
Anthony Shaheen
Hannah Shaughnessy-Mogill
Dylan Shearer
William Sheehan
Ke Sheng
Tianqi Shen
Geon-Ah Shin
Louise Silverman
Petar Simic
Kaylah Simmons
Kylah Simmons
Kriti Singh
Kathryn Skinner
Emily Sklar
Claire Slaughter
Griffin Smalley
Colin Smith
David Smith
Grace Smith
Hayley Smith
Logan Smith
Sarah Smith
Maggie Sneideman
Cassandra Solis
Austin Sroczynski
Honora Stagner
Vethania Stavropoulos
Ernest Stech
Collin Steen
Marian Strauss
Savannah Stuart
Amanda Stutzman
Thomas Stuut
Michelle Sugimoto
Xin Sui
Caroline Sulich
Shang Sun
T
Emerson Talanda-Fisher
Kiyoto Tanemura
Aidan Tank
Emma Tardiff
Lauren Tartalone
Lilian Taylor
Karen Timm
Mary Tobin
Carolyn Topper
Alexander Townsend
Madeleine Tracey
Brooke Travis
Camila Trefftz
Dakota Trinka
Sydney Troost
Hassan Turk
U
Amanda Ullrick
Elizabeth Uribe
V
Asha Vadlamudi
David Vanderkloot
Caleb VanDyke
Kaela Van Til
Jessica Varana
Jordan Veillette
Elisia Venegas
Kierra Verdun
Rolf Verhagen Metman
Thomas Verville
James Villar
Anh-Tu Vu
W
Raoul Wadhwa
Jacob Waier
Alyssa Walker
Brigid Walkowski
Marley Walter
Ning Wang
Jacob Wasko
Connor Webb
Kenneth Weiss
John Wenger
Haley Wentz
Alexander Werder
Cameron Werner
Joseph Westerfield
Scott Wharam
Caitlyn Whitcomb
Elijah Wickline
Raphael Wieland
Abigail Wilcox
Carolyn Williams
Rachel Williams
Jordan Wiskur
Natalia Wohletz
Graham Wojtas
Camille Wood
Madeline Woods
Erika Worley
Lindsay Worthington
Kate Wynne
X
Anja Xheka
Cindy Xiao
Jie Xu
Jincheng Xu
Mingyue Xu
Some chemical reactions are simply impressive—the vibrant flash of light when magnesium is ignited or the blast and subsequent grains of salt that appear after mixing sodium metal and chlorine gas.
Equally impressive is the reaction to the chemistry major at Kalamazoo College in recent years.
Sixty-eight students—41 males and 27 females—declared chemistry as their major at Declaration of Major Day. The annual event, held the fifth week of winter quarter, requires sophomores to declare their majors, minors, and concentrations.
“Fifteen percent of the sophomore class [the class of 2017] chose chemistry,” says Laura Lowe Furge, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry and current chair of the department. “On a per capita basis, it probably makes K the largest chemistry program in the country.”
To accommodate the growth of chemistry majors, a new faculty member will join the department this fall, and additional classes and lab times have been added to the schedule, Furge explains.
“It’s a good problem for us to have,” she says.
Space, she admits, is an issue as labs and lecture halls in the 23-year-old Dow Science Center were built to house a much smaller student population. In 1998, for example, only six students at K graduated with a chemistry degree.
“We’ve had to make some allowances,” she says. “The hope is to eventually expand the building to provide additional lab space, classrooms, and faculty offices.”
While the number of recently declared majors is impressive, it is part of a growing trend. The class of 2016 includes 55 chemistry majors and this year’s senior class will graduate 30 students with degrees in chemistry.
According to Greg Slough, professor of chemistry, the faculty has worked to change the perception of difficulty associated with a chemistry major.
“We’re making chemistry doable for students,” Slough explains. “There is a real student focus among every faculty member. The students know that we’re here for them, we’re approachable, and we’re here to help when the work gets tough.”
Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Bartz adds that the department’s deep commitment to evidence-based education has helped it evolve.
“Every class changes, every single year,” Bartz explains. “We’re not teaching students the same thing, the same way, year after year.”
One of those students is Bryan Lara, a sophomore from California, who selected chemistry on Declaration of Major Day.
“Every chemistry professor knows my name,” Lara says. “I’m not just a number. There is a real sense of community among the faculty and students.”
He adds that extracurricular chemistry activities such as the Dow Open, a miniature golf event held inside the Dow Science Center, the October 23 Mole Day celebration, and the annual Dow-B-Q help keep students engaged and excited about the major.
And if recent years are any indication, this excitement won’t be waning anytime soon. (Text by Erin Dominianni ’95)
Good ideas will be spread across (and via) Kalamazoo College this spring when a descendant of the popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks series comes to campus as TEDxKalamazooCollege.
First-year student Tanush Jagdish, of Bangalore, India, is the main organizer of the inaugural event, to be held May 16, and thereafter (hopefully) to occur annually. Jagdish says he came up with the idea after being impressed with the cooperation and collaboration he saw between students and faculty at the College, in everything from research to planning campus events.
Concentrating on biology and chemistry, he is already working on high-level research in the lab of Dr. Michael Wollenberg, assistant professor of biology.
“Even as a first-year, I am already learning fantastic things,” Jagdish says. “I have been so impressed with the College. I figured, why not showcase K? Holding an event like this that is known worldwide will help to build the image of the school. A TED event is a great way to go about doing that.”
There are still some small details to be worked out, but the tentative theme for the talk is “Breaking Borders,” Jagdish says. The talk is to have nine speakers: two students, one alumnus, and six K faculty. Shannon Haupt ’16 will speak on “Fossil fuel divestment campaign as a model for a multi-issue, dynamic, and collective force for change.” The title of senior Tibin John’s talk is “Implications of computational simulation and dynamical systems theory for biomedical research.” Liberal arts polymath and ArtPrize finalistLadislav Hanka ’75 is “can’t miss” with “Collaborating with bees to produce works of art that explore and reflect the sublime quality of nature.”
Faculty presenters include:
• Tim Kailing (Biology)—Biological Principles and philosophies of instruction and education
• Jeanne Hess (Physical Education)—Sportuality: the transcendental power of blending sport, spirit, and education
• Jan Tobochnik (Physics)—Using computational models to display and predict wealth distribution
• Carol Anderson (Religion)—Exploring the relationship between religion, gender, and sexuality
• Jim Langeland (Biology)—Constructing advanced modelling techniques for understanding aspects of genetics, including chromosomal recombination
• Bob Batsell (Psychology)—Application of learning theories in helping cancer patients undergo chemotherapy
Jagdish saw that the College encouraged the cross-pollination of ideas between diverse academic disciplines, and he wanted to highlight this unique take on learning, he says. At K, he says, ideas are allowed to swirl and be discussed openly.
“The talk will focus on breaking the boundaries between the liberal arts and sciences,” he says. Speakers will discuss the environment, sustainability, the liberal arts, and other topics.
TEDx was created in the spirit of the mission of the popular TED Talk series, which is to promulgate ideas worth spreading.” TEDx supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community. Those interested in hosting a TEDx event must wade through a rigorous application process and climb a mountain of application material.
Jagdish submitted the application in December, and heard back in January with the go-ahead. It’s very rare for an institution of higher education to receive permission from the organization to host an event, he says.
“It usually takes long time to be granted a license to host a TEDx event. But I think they liked the idea of a small liberal arts college hosting a talk. It’s a very prestigious thing to be granted a license.”
Adding to Jagdish’s enthusiasm for the TEDx event is that the push to host it has been almost entirely student led. That autonomy, he says, highlights the faith and freedom College officials place in K students and is a testament to the culture of self-led learning that the College is so well-known for.
“It’s amazing, really,” he says. “I think it shows how the College is focused on building leadership skills in its students. I have already seen leadership develop among those students involved in organizing this event. Now, hopefully, the world can see what K is all about, too.” Text by Chris Killian
Senior computer science major Jae Hyun Choe presented a poster at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Research Competition. The title of his presentation was “ACEit!–Android app to Assist Children in Learning to Read English.” The work was based on his Senior Individualized Project, which was supported by the Hough Foundation Natural Science and Mathematics SIP grant last summer, according to Associate Professor of Computer Science Pam Cutter, who served as Choe’s SIP supervisor. “Jae Hyun competed with 16 others,” said Cutter, “and although he didn’t make it to the next round of the competition, he said that making and presenting the poster as well as explaining what he did and getting ideas and feedback from others were very valuable experiences. The competition was held in Kansas City, Missouri, during the ACM’s Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education technical symposium. The College’s computer science department has been busy with meetings preparations. Six women computer science students plan to participate in the upcoming Michigan Celebration of Women in Computing, which will be held in Ann Arbor. One of the students will present her SIP work there.
Kalamazoo College seniors Jasmine An and Allison Kennedy will receive a $10,000 DavisProject for Peacegrant to implement a five-week creative writing and leadership workshop for previously incarcerated individuals in Kalamazoo. Both women are fellows at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL). The workshop aims to reduce the stigma of incarceration and promote peace and stability in the community. The two also serve as Civic Engagement Scholars for the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE). In fact, it was a CCE creative writing partnership with the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative that formed the basis of the project that was awarded the Davis Project for Peace grant. (According to CCE Director Alison Geist, nearly every K recipient of a Davis Project for Peace grant has been a Civic Engagement Scholar, and all have been leaders in CCE programming).
An and Kennedy will partner with Michigan United, a local organization that addresses incarceration and re-entry challenges faced by individuals in Kalamazoo. The ACSJL will donate space and supplies. The work will culminate in an anthology of work that highlights how Kalamazoo is confronting incarceration. An article on the seniors’ workshops appeared in the February issue of BeLight.
Projects for Peace invites all undergraduates at the 91 American colleges and universities that are partners in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to compete for these grants. A total of 127 projects were awarded implementation in the summer of 2015.
Jasmine An
K’s history with the program is a successful one. Kalamazoo College students have used these awards each of the past seven years to conduct projects in Thailand, Kenya, Pakistan, Jamaica, Haiti, and Kalamazoo. An’s and Kennedy’s project will be the second carried out in Kalamazoo.
In 2007, Projects for Peace was the vision of philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Until her death at 106 in 2013, Mrs. Davis was intent on advancing the cause of peace and sought to motivate tomorrow’s promising leaders by challenging them to find ways to “prepare for peace”.
In recent weeks, three separate events embedded in a much broader historical context have brought to light the need for greater attention and resources devoted to shaping our campus climate and continuing to foster a community that is safe and inclusive for all.
First, during the weekend of Feb 21-22, an anti-Semitic comment was posted anonymously to a social media site similar to ones aimed at colleges and universities nationwide on which anonymous posters post all sorts of hate-filled speech. K has no control over what is posted there, and the post in question may well have originated with someone unassociated with K. The content of the entry, however, was antithetical to Kalamazoo College and to its Honor System. Moreover, members of the K campus community suffered unnecessarily as a result of this attack. K President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran urged the entire campus community to stand in solidarity by rejecting this action and any action that dehumanizes members of our community.
Second, at the February 23 Student Commission meeting, a K student asked StuComm to support his effort to allow him and others to carry a concealed weapon on campus, part of a national campaign for concealed carry on college campuses. StuComm declined to support his effort. Some Commissioners have reported that the student visibly displayed an empty gun holster and made threats to individuals and/or groups. The meeting made some students feel unsafe. The following day, students expressed these safety concerns via a social media campaign and directly to College administrators and trustees. The student advocating for the concealed-carry measure cooperated with a search of his residence hall room and vehicle. No weapon was found. The Campus Security Director performed a threat assessment, and determined that this individual did not pose a threat to the community or individuals on campus.
Weapons are not, and will not be, allowed on campus.
No weapon was involved in any of the events of the past two weeks. The wearing and showing of an empty holster is not against the law or the Kalamazoo College code of conduct. Nor does the action in and of itself constitute bullying and harassment. Nevertheless, we know that some felt bullied or harassed. That concerns us deeply.
The third event occurred last week (March 3) when College officials were informed that a highly inflammatory entry had been placed in a Student Commission Google Doc, a document repository hosted on Google servers which allows for anonymous group editing and sharing online. The entry was racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic. It also contained a direct threat for March 5 aimed at “faculty at Kalamazoo U, that will teach them the value of campus carry.”
The College and the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) consider the inflammatory entry a hate crime, and KDPS is investigating it as such. Police investigators have also enlisted the FBI‘s support in the matter. Investigators are seeking to determine the identity of the source of the anonymous entry; the likelihood of such an identification not known.
Kalamazoo College and KDPS take all threats seriously. The initial assessment of KDPS was that the threat was not credible and was unlikely to be acted upon. However, patrols by campus security and Kalamazoo police officers were increased around and on campus, including plain clothes officers, on March 5. As police officials expected, no incident of violence occurred on campus that day. Nevertheless, the matter was and is unnerving for many people, and we are taking precautions and measures to address the concerns of those who feel uneasy. Being safe and feeling safe are two different things. Both are important, particularly for students of color, international students, first-generation students, and students from low income families who have traditionally been underrepresented and underserved at K and by higher education generally.
These recent events have generated new conversations, renewed previous discussions, and sparked protests on the subjects of safety and institutional progress toward a learning environment that is equitable inclusive for all students. The conversations, discussions and protests have involved students, faculty, staff, President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran and other senior administrators, and the Board of Trustees. On the matter of an equitable and inclusive learning environment for students traditionally underrepresented and underserved by K and in higher education generally, the College has made some progress and still has further to go. Progress in and of itself is not our end goal. Instead the achievement of an equitable and inclusive learning environment is the end goal.
Toward that end we have dramatically changed our representational diversity. We have increased our percentage of domestic students of color and international students, becoming the most racially diverse school in the Great Lakes Colleges Association, which includes Hope, Oberlin, Kenyon, Wooster and eight other small top colleges.. We need to do more. We have trained more than half of our faculty and staff (and some students) using the VISIONS, Inc., multicultural training and ERAC/CE anti-racism training. This training is ongoing; we need to evaluate its effectiveness and expand it. We have listened to the campus experience of our students of color and from that focus group work we must continue discussions and develop or refine recommendations that will eliminate or change institutional practices and structures that inhibit an equitable and inclusive learning environment. A recent result of this ongoing effort was the creation last quarter of the “Sense of Belonging” Task Force charged to make specific recommendations to achieve that learning environment. We have recently secured a grant from the Mellon Foundation that will allow us to hire additional staff in student development and to reconfigure our intercultural work there. We’ve also approved a new major in Critical Ethnic Studies, and have secured an endowed gift to support a faculty line in this area. The Mellon Foundation Grant will also be used for faculty development and further curriculum development on behalf of educational practices and a learning environment that is equitable and inclusive.
In regard to that goal the events of the past weeks have allowed us to take a critical look at our roles, and in doing so the duress and struggle associated with our discussions and self-criticism are signs of health. We are committed to building an equitable and inclusive learning environment. We’ve made progress. And we have further to go. Both of those statements are true. Progress requires hard work, struggle, and occasionally pressure from our community. All of those phenomena–work, struggle, and pressure–are signs and part of progress. We will not content ourselves with progress alone. We are committed to the goal no matter how difficult it is to get there.
Five Hornet members of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving team have qualified for the 2015 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Qualifiers are Tristyn Edsall ’17, Ellen Neveux ’17, Colleen Orwin ’17, Christina Park ’17, and Will Guedes ’15. The championships take place March 18 through March 21 at the Conroe Natatorium in Shenandoah, Texas. In addition to the national competition, there will be an opportunity to meet the K swimmers, divers, and coaches in an informal dinner setting on Saturday, March 21. The Office of Alumni Relations will host a complimentary dinner immediately following the competition at Guri Do Sul Brazilin Steakhouse (1400 Research Forest Drive, The Woodlands, Texas). Please confirm your attendance no later than Monday, March 16, by contacting Kerri Barker, assistant director of alumni relations (269.337.7289). Tickets for the championships are $80 for an all-session pass, which includes prelims and finals on all four days.
Kalamazoo College students host two forums this week focusing on race and ethnicity on the K campus.
“Konsciousness” (Wed. March 4, 7PM, Banquet Room, Hicks Student Center) is a structured discussion open to K students, faculty, and staff to hear what students talk about and experience on campus regarding race and ethnicity.
“Stories You’ve Never Heard Before” (Thu. March 5, 7:30PM, Connable Recital Hall, Light Fine Arts Building) is a “Think Tank” event also open to K students, faculty, and staff, that will allow young men of color on campus to tell their stories.
These two events are not open to the general public.
“Konsciousness” grew out of an independent study course that K seniors Asia Morales and Bronte Payne had with Assistant Professor of English Shanna Salinas, Ph.D. Asia and Bronte will facilitate Wednesday’s discussion.
“As students, we believe there has been a severe lack of physical space to have difficult conversations such as this one,” Asia and Bronte wrote in a Feb. 24, 2015 editorial in The Index, K’s student newspaper. “Our hope is that in providing this space, we as a community can take steps forward together on important issues which affect all of us.”
In their editorial, Asia and Bronte state that students will be at the center of the discussion, with faculty and staff forming a silent audience, with the opportunity to submit written questions to students.
“We have chosen this format because we feel strongly that this will serve as an opportunity for faculty and staff … to hear what students are talking about and what students are experiencing on this campus outside of the classroom and the office.”
“Stories You’ve Never Heard Before” is sponsored by the K student organization Young Men of Color. In an email invitation to the campus community, they stated that they invite students, faculty, and staff, to “Come hear the unique experiences we have gone through both in our communities and on K’s campus.
“We would like to share our perspectives and life experiences with the campus community to spark productive dialogues among our peers, administration, and faculty and staff, as well as help our campus community gain a better understanding of our identity as young men of color.”
Young Men of Color, according to their mission statement, “seek to provide the leadership that establishes a safe space of brotherhood, social support, and a common sense of fellowship on campus. Through these collaborative efforts we will unite the young men of color while encouraging internal accountability, eradicating negative stereotypes at large, and inducing academic excellence.”
The following message was emailed to Kalamazoo College students, faculty, and staff this afternoon, and posted on the Colleges Intranet site:
At the Monday, February 23, Student Commission meeting a K student asked StuComm to support his effort to allow him and others to carry a concealed weapon on campus. The commission declined to support his effort. Some have reported that the student visibly displayed an empty gun holster and made threats to individuals and or groups. The meeting made some students feel unsafe.
On Tuesday students expressed safety concerns via a social media campaign and directly to college administrators and trustees. On Wednesday morning the College’s security department asked the student who displayed the empty gun holster on Monday to allow a search of his residence hall room and car. He cooperated, and no weapon was found. Our Director of Campus Security did a complete threat assessment of the situation and the individual with the empty holster. The director has extensive training in this area through the FBI and the Michigan State Police. In his professional judgment, this individual did not pose a threat to the campus community or to individuals on campus.
Weapons are not, and will not be, allowed on campus. No weapon was involved in any of the events of the past three days. The wearing and showing of an empty holster is not against the law or the Kalamazoo College code of conduct. Nor does the action in and of itself constitute bullying and harassment. Nevertheless, we know that some felt bullied or harassed. That concerns us deeply.
We also are concerned about a much deeper issue—our institutional progress toward building an inclusive, safe environment for all students, particularly students of color. On Wednesday afternoon we met with students who expressed safety concerns stemming from Monday’s StuComm meeting. About 100 students attended and we have heard very clearly that many have concerns about feeling safe on campus, and that these feelings are not only predicated on Monday’s incident, but also arise out of a broader set of concerns, including not being heard, not feeling included within our campus community, and at times being targeted as an individual or as part of a group.
Creating a campus that is safe and inclusive for all is a top concern of ours. The events of this week remind us that while we have made many strides (including diversifying the student body, adding a new major in the curriculum, and with training and on-going work on campus climate and student support) there is much more that must be done to meet our aspiration of a campus that is fully inclusive. We pledge to keep the lines of communication open. We invite all members of the campus community—students, faculty, staff—to consider our individual roles in creating a safe and inclusive community, including how we interact with each other in person and on social media. We also commit to continuing to examine and eliminate or change institutional practices and structures that inhibit a truly inclusive community.
Designed by world renowned architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, the architecture that houses Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership has inspired rave reviews by many. Perhaps no work better explicates the iconography of the space than the video that was commissioned by Studio Gang Architects and produced by Dave Burk. The piece features many persons from Kalamazoo College, including President Eileen B. Wilson Oyelaran and Trustee Jon Stryker ’82, whose gift made the building possible. Convening on behalf of social justice often has taken place in small and out-of-the-way spaces designed for other purposes. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College brings these discussions up from the basement, so to speak, and squarely into public consciousness.
