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2019 Commencement Slated for Sunday

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Kalamazoo College’s 2019 Commencement will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 16, on the campus Quad. A total of 300 members of the class of 2019 are expected to participate in the ceremony with biology, psychology and business representing the most popular majors.

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The 2019 Commencement ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 16.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will welcome graduates along with about 2,000 family members and friends, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and community members. A livestream of the ceremony will be available.

This year’s class includes:

  • 174 Michiganders;
  • students from 26 states including Illinois and California;
  • students from eight countries including China and India; and
  • 117 double majors and one triple major.

Rain Location

If inclement weather forces the ceremony indoors, it will take place at Anderson Athletic Center, where tickets will be required for entry. Each senior will receive six tickets that will be distributed at the mandatory senior rehearsal at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 13. Some additional tickets will be available at the rehearsal if students need more. If events are forced indoors, graduating students will receive an email Sunday with that information. Such an announcement would also be made at K’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

2019 Commencement Parking

All faculty, staff and student parking lots will be available to families and guests. Click the link with the title of each lot below to see its location on our interactive map.

Vehicles must be parked in marked stalls. Permits are only required for handicapped spaces. If you choose to park in a surrounding neighborhood, please note all posted regulations, which are maintained by the City of Kalamazoo.

Handicapped Guests and Parking

Limited handicapped parking spaces are clearly marked and available throughout campus, both on streets near campus buildings and in campus lots. Handicapped spaces are reserved for vehicles with a state permit.

Due to limited handicapped parking, a designated drop-off area will be available on Campus Drive in front of Hoben Hall, accessible from Academy Street. Families may drop off guests for barrier-free access to the Quad before finding parking elsewhere on campus.

A designated seating area will be available for guests in wheelchairs on the northeast side of the Hicks Center. Families with guests in wheelchairs who would like to reserve seating in this area should contact Kerri Barker at 269.337.7289 or kerri.barker@kzoo.edu. Guests in wheelchairs who wish to sit with their entire party elsewhere on the Quad may do so.

Barrier-free restrooms are available at Olds Upton Hall at the south side of the building, near the main entrance at the Hicks Center, and in Stetson Chapel at the south side of the building.

Keynote Speaker

Kenneth G. Elzinga, Ph.D. ’63 will serve as the Commencement keynote speaker. Elzinga is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia and a leading authority on antitrust policy, writing for numerous journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Harvard Law Review. He has served as a special economic advisor to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and has testified in several precedent-setting cases including three U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Elzinga has co-authored murder mysteries under the pen name Marshall Jevons. His books feature a sleuth who solves crimes using economic theory. The books Murder at the Margin, The Fatal Equilibrium, A Deadly Indifference and The Mystery of the Invisible Hand were written with the late Trinity University professor William Breit.

K awarded Elzinga with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2000.

Honorary Doctorate

Author Leslie Jamison will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Jamison wrote the 2014 book The Empathy Exams, which the graduating class read as first-year students for the summer common-reading program. The book involves a collection of essays that ask how people should care about each other as she reflects on her own experiences of illness and injury.

Jamison — a Washington, D.C., native raised in Los Angeles — also wrote a novel titled The Gin Closet (2010) and a nonfiction book titled The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath (2018). She is a 2004 graduate of Harvard College and currently serves Columbia University as an assistant professor and the head of its nonfiction concentration. Her next book of essays, titled Make it Scream, Make it Burn, is due out in September.

Student Speaker

The 2019 Commencement student speaker is Angelica Rodriguez, who is graduating with majors in biology and critical ethnic studies. She studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary, and her Senior Individualized Project focused on using critical ethnic studies theories and frameworks to analyze biomedical research practices and explore both her majors. While at K, Angelica was involved in many activities, including the West African Percussion Ensemble and working at the Writing Center.

Senior Awards Ceremony

The Senior Awards Ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Stetson Chapel. The awards include honors in all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships and special non-departmental awards.

Baccalaureate

Baccalaureate, a non-denominational service with student and faculty speakers and musical performances, will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Stetson Chapel. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Conference, Faculty Catalyze Chemistry Students

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The opportunity to present to and learn from pharmaceutical professionals is normally reserved for graduate students, professional scientists and postdoctoral fellows. For Kalamazoo College chemistry students in Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge’s lab, attending the Great Lakes Drug Metabolism and Disposition Discussion Group annual meeting as undergrads is a tradition that opens doors and underscores their passion for science.

Chemistry Students Attend Drug Metabolism Conference
Three chemistry students attended the Great Lakes Drug Metabolism and Disposition Discussion Group on May 9 and 10 in Ann Arbor with Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge (second from right). The students are Kevin McCarty ’20 (left), Cydney Martell ’19 (second from left) and Michael Orwin ’20 (right).

Three students attended the spring meeting on May 9 and 10 in Ann Arbor. Furge’s students, known for their research excellence, have had several opportunities in recent years to show off their work regarding the P450 enzyme, which catalyzes drug-metabolism reactions, with implications toward drug discovery.

This year’s K representatives included Cydney Martell ’19 of Gull Lake, Michigan; Kevin McCarty ’20 of Clarkston, Michigan; and Michael Orwin ’20 of Portage, Michigan.

“I feel I was really fortunate to get into (Furge’s) lab,” said Martell, whose connection with Furge also helped her secure an internship last year with Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis and committed to discovering medicines for people around the world. “The most rewarding thing about the conference is our ability to network with individuals and build important relationships. It’s nice to be able to have that connection and be on equal ground. It’s a love of science that facilitates our ability to work across experience levels.”

Martell will seek a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Northwestern University beginning this fall.

The poster presentation McCarty made from his research in Furge’s lab will evolve into his Senior Individualized Project this summer, he said, which is a testament to Furge’s guidance.

“Instead of telling you how to do things, she’ll ask you questions, engaging you in the work,” McCarty said. “She gives you the freedom to do every part of the research you can by yourself, which helps you understand and take away what’s important.”

In fact, McCarty has been so happy with his experiences in the chemistry program at K, the drug-metabolism conference and in Furge’s lab, he’d tell prospective students considering K to also major in chemistry.

“I would tell them, ‘you’d be surprised by all the opportunities you’ll have,’” McCarty said. “When I first considered K, I heard all about our small class sizes and the faculty. What they didn’t tell me is how many opportunities there would be to work with faculty members like Dr. Furge or in a lab like hers.”

Orwin echoed his peers’ excitement for attending the conference and appreciation of Furge’s leadership in their lab at K.

“I really loved attending the conference and it was a great undergraduate experience being able to present my work to industry professionals,” Orwin said. “Overall, I find the most exciting part of research is the ability to contribute to our collective knowledge alongside being able to share one’s passion with others. I find myself very fortunate for being able to have this experience.”

Kalamazoo Promise Fulfills its First Class at K

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Kalamazoo Promise Student Druanna Darling with a dog
Druanna Darling ’19 said she had not considered attending Kalamazoo College until the Kalamazoo Promise was extended to Michigan Colleges Alliance schools in 2015. Photo by Catalina Gonzalez.

When students in the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) receive their diplomas, 92 percent of them are eligible for an outstanding graduation gift: a tuition-free post-secondary education thanks to the Kalamazoo Promise.

KPS graduates who have lived in the district and have been students for at least four years can have as much as 100 percent of their in-state tuition and fees paid for thanks to the Promise, a program funded by anonymous donors. The program is applicable to community colleges, public universities, and since 2015, to 15 private institutions in the Michigan Colleges Alliance, including Kalamazoo College.

Fortunately for Druanna Darling ’19, this promise was made at just the right time.

“I remember there being a press conference during the summer before my senior year (in high school) and my mom was the one who showed me the Promise was being extended” to private schools, said Darling, whose family moved to Arizona when she was 6, only to return because of what the Promise offered her. “We had heard a lot of great things about Kalamazoo College and it was a part of our community, but it never seemed accessible to me. K wasn’t even on my radar.”

A chance to attend K with smaller class sizes and one-on-one opportunities to work with professors was extraordinarily appealing. The opportunity to have her tuition covered convinced her to visit campus. Two campus tours and an overnight stay later, Darling was sure she had found her second home.

“It felt like the students were more of a priority at K,” she said. “Elsewhere, the colleges accepted a huge group of students and the students paid their tuition. At K, faculty and staff were more personal and invested in students. I felt accepted immediately.”

Darling, a psychology major and Loy Norrix alumna, applied to the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Western Michigan University. Ultimately, she decided K was the only place she wanted to experience college. That college experience will culminate Sunday, June 16, when she will be one of eight KPS graduates to graduate from K, representing the College’s first class of Promise-eligible students.

Promise-eligible students have added a perspective of their own to K’s student body, Director of Admission Suzanne Lepley said. They are smart, well-prepared for college and know the community well, although most just start to learn of K’s distinctive offerings—including the K-Plan, the College’s approach to the liberal arts and sciences—shortly before applying.

“They have been educated in the richly diverse KPS system and that learning perspective transfers to the community at K,” Lepley said. “Despite being raised in the city, many spend little, if any time on our campus before attending. They tend to experience the College in a special way as they explore a part of the community they might not have known.”

Darling said she will graduate with a very limited amount of debt that she feels won’t be a burden thanks to the Kalamazoo Promise. And four years after first falling in love with K, her passion for K hasn’t changed.

“I keep thinking I might want to declare a second major and stay for a fifth year,” she joked. “I don’t think my view of it has changed at all. As an entering student, I was overjoyed. The environment is so warming. I have felt supported every day.”

Much of that support has come directly from the faculty. Darling worked with Assistant Professor of Psychology Brittany Liu in Liu’s research lab, and she has received assistance from professors in applying for jobs and graduate school as she hopes to one day work with autistic children.

“Personally, I know a lot of individuals who went to big universities,” Darling said. “There are a lot of things their education has lacked such as an opportunity to learn about social justice issues. At other universities, you might learn about physics or writing a good paper. But at K you learn about how to be a better citizen.”

Holocaust Survivor to Speak at K

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Irene Butter — a Holocaust survivor, author and University of Michigan professor emerita — will visit Kalamazoo College on Monday, May 13.

Holocaust Survivor Irene Butter
Holocaust survivor Irene Butter will visit Kalamazoo College to talk with students at the Book Club Cafe and speak at Stetson Chapel.

Butter will discuss her experiences in two concentration camps, how they changed her life and why it’s important to keep telling stories about the Holocaust in an appearance sponsored by the Jewish Studies Department, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Religion Department and Hillel, the organization for Jewish students at K.

Butter’s schedule will include conversations with students over coffee from 1:15 to 3:15 p.m. in the Book Club at Upjohn Library Commons, and her main speaking presentation at 4:30 p.m. in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall, which is open to the entire K community. Her book, Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story, will be available for $20 in the Book Club and can be paid for in cash or by check.

Butter was born Irene Hasenberg in 1930 in Berlin, Germany, and grew up as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Europe, where she lived with her parents, John and Gertrude; and her brother, Werner. She had friends in common with Anne Frank after moving to Amsterdam in 1937 when her dad accepted a job with American Express. There, her family felt safe from the growing threat of Nazis until Germany invaded in 1940.

Holocaust Survivor Irene Butter and Her Brother as Children
Holocaust survivor Irene Butter and her brother, Werner, as children.

Her grandparents, who were still in Germany, were taken to Theresianstadt concentration camp in 1942 and Butter never saw them again. Her immediate family was rounded up in 1943. She survived Camp Westerbork and Camp Bergen-Belsen before coming to the U.S., arriving in Baltimore in 1945.

Upon arrival, Butter was told not to talk about her experiences, so she focused on high school, graduating from Queens College in New York City, and becoming one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. She married Charlie Butter and both became professors at the University of Michigan.

“I didn’t ask to go through the Holocaust,” she says on her website, “but I was saved through the miracles of luck and the love and determination of my Pappi (father). I owe it to him and everybody who suffered to talk about what I learned because suffering never ends, so our work must continue.”

“Twelfth Night” Coming to Festival Playhouse

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A Shakespearean comedy featuring a shipwreck, a love triangle and a secret identity is coming soon to Kalamazoo College. The Festival Playhouse will present Twelfth Night, known as one of Shakespeare’s liveliest comedies and a complex look at love and gender identity, as its spring production.

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Sophie Hill ’20, Jorence Quiambao ’21, Trevor Loduem-Jackson ’21 and Kate Kreiss ’19 rehearse for their roles in the Festival Playhouse production of Twelfth Night.

In the play, Duke Orsino of Illyria falls in love with Olivia, who rejects him. Viola shipwrecks on Orsino’s shores. With the help of a captain, Viola disguises herself as a man, calling herself Cesario to enter Orsino’s service. Orsino sends Cesario to woo Olivia for him not realizing Cesario is really Viola, who begins to fall in love with Orsino. As Cesario charms Olivia, Olivia falls in love with Cesario, again rejecting Orsino.

Everybody got that? Welcome to the final installation in this season’s Playhouse theme, Assumption and Confusion.

“With Shakespeare, you know (the comedy) is going to be funny,” said Rebecca Chan ’22, who is serving as the play’s dramaturg. “You just never know how much until you act it out. Both (Director Karen Berthel) and the actors have been good at finding those moments. People love Shakespeare, but this play is one of Shakespeare’s more accessible works.”

In her role as a dramaturg for Twelfth Night, Chan is responsible for working with the director on background research and how current events and perspectives might inform or shape the production. Chan will oversee a lobby display, which will promote the idea that queerness isn’t a modern phenomenon, emphasizing the character Viola, who poses as Cesario. Chan said she hopes the display will be educational and help debunk some misconceptions about gender and queerness, while contextualizing those themes for the audience.

“In classic literature, many characters were gender queer or presented differently from how you would expect,” Chan said. “The myth is that queerness is a modern concept. It’s really as old as time.”

The play will run from Thursday, May 16-Sunday, May 19. Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m. The Sunday show will start at 2 p.m. All shows are at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse Theatre, 139 Thompson St.

Tickets are available through the Playhouse’s online box office. They cost $15 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and older, and $5 for students. Tickets for Kalamazoo College students, faculty and staff are free when they present K-IDs at the door.

For more information on the play, visit the Playhouse’s website.

 

K Student Selected for National Theatre Event

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A top-honors finish in a recent theatre regional event led Rebecca Chan ’22 to an even bigger stage in April.

Rebecca Chan and Three Other Students at National Theatre Event
Rebecca Chan ’22 (second from right) was one of two first-year students and four students overall selected to attend the Kennedy Center American College Theatre event in Washington, D.C.

Chan, a theatre major from Howell, Michigan, has returned from the week-long Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Festival in Washington, D.C., where she was one of only four students from around the country to participate in its Institute for Theatre Journalism Advocacy (ITJA) events. There, Chan engaged in a series of seminars with well-known journalists from publications such as the Washington Post, American Theatre and National Public Radio, focusing on theatre criticism and how it’s changing with technology.

The opportunity meant extending the experience she received at the regional festival in Madison, Wisconsin, where she wrote deadline-oriented critiques and responses about shows she watched each night. The event, which included students from across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, was where Chan received her first experiences in theatre journalism and became one of just eight students from around the country to earn top honors. From those eight students, four were chosen to attend nationals.

“I was taken aback by the opportunity,” Chan said. Before this year, “I didn’t have a background in journalism. This validated my experience from regionals on a second level. I felt really blessed to have the opportunity. The fact that the seminars sparked so much conversation was something I enjoyed. I loved to see people sorting through my ideas.”

Chan credited her theatre classes in her first year at K for helping her develop the skills that enabled her to write so successfully.

“I took three theatre courses involving fundamentals of acting, playwriting and stagecraft,” she said. “Those three prepared me to evaluate a lot of different things, including the technical aspects and structures of a play. They really bolstered what I was able to do.”

From there, Chan ensured she maintained her skills independently from the end of regionals until nationals.

“I made sure that I practiced writing every so often,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how to practice specifically for theater journalism, but I made sure I had a good foundation going.”

The ITJA aims to develop arts journalists who can advocate for excellence in the arts through a variety of media—web, print and broadcast. Chan was one of two first-year students selected to attend the national event among the four participating. The other two were seniors, including one from California who soon will pursue a Ph.D., and one from Missouri who majors in journalism.

“I liked having (the journalism major) in the room because she had that student perspective and she’s in the process of finding a job,” Chan said. “It was neat to be on an equal playing field with someone with so much experience in the field.”

Chan said she would like to pursue another opportunity with the Kennedy Center events in the future. As a first-year, she’s not certain which area of theatre will be her focus, but “journalism is another form of writing for me to play with and explore,” she said. “I like to stay open to possibilities.”

Outdoor Leadership Conference Provides Adventure

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Outdoor Leadership Conference Attendees Ready for an adventure
Eighteen Kalamazoo College students traveled to the eighth annual Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where they affirmed K’s standing among its peers as a leader in environmental education.

Adventures are common for Kalamazoo College student organizations, and one February adventure was notable for stirring Outing Club’s devotions to pursuing outdoor activities and professions. The student group of 18 traveled to the eighth annual Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where they affirmed K’s standing among its peers as a leader in environmental education and met peers with similar passions from around the region.

The conference, conducted annually at a different higher-education institution each year, provides undergraduates interested in outdoor-recreation careers a chance to learn from each other while networking, developing their leadership skills and building new technical skills.

“To most of the colleges attending this conference, a small college has about 5,000 students,” said Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner, noting K’s student body of just over 1,400. “Attending this program differentiates us as a liberal arts school because the students are keeping their interest in it alive by dedicating their time. Other colleges are blown away that this is something our staff can handle with just the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our students, who receive no academic credit for it.”

All attendees are encouraged to serve as presenters during the outdoor leadership conference, including Riley Gabriel ’21 and Matt Giguere ’21, who presented on linking the principles of Leave No Trace, dedicated to leaving wild places the way others would like to find them, to everyday life. Kit Charlton ’21 also was among K’s representatives, and all of them noted how K stands out among schools attending the conference as a leader in environmental education.

“We have an emphasis on sustainability, plus comprehensive composting and a hoop house,” said Gabriel, an English major with a concentration in environmental studies from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, mentioning just a few of K’s environmental projects. “A lot of the programs we have undertaken aren’t available at other schools.”

Workshops over the conference’s two days included lessons in best practices for hiking, diversity and inclusion in outdoor education, and methods for adaptive recreation activities such as rock climbing. The event fits well with the Outing Club’s mission of providing K students with environmental awareness while teaching how to lead outdoor activities and wilderness trips.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have a committed group over the years,” said Charlton, an English and critical ethnic studies major from Berkley, Michigan, referencing K’s participation in seven of the conference’s first eight years.

The Outing Club allows K students to continue where many leave off with LandSea, the College’s outdoor orientation program offered to incoming students through Outdoor Programs. LandSea, conducted in Adirondack State Park in New York State, helps students meet their peers, gain self-confidence, earn a partial physical education credit and develop classroom skills, even before moving to campus. Outdoor Programs also offers wilderness trips over student breaks, outdoor-themed physical education classes, equipment rental and opportunities to learn wilderness first aid.

Horner “reminds us often of the differences between Outdoor Programs and Outing Club,” said Giguere, a biology major from Portage, Michigan, who attended the conference for the second consecutive year. Outing Club “encourages other students by example to get outdoors, and the support we’ve had from LandSea and Student Development has been exciting.”

Outing Club, Outdoor Programs and the Center for Environmental Stewardship will work together to extend the College’s reputation for environmental education next February as they host the Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference Feb. 7-9 at K. Although organizers have just started making plans, they say they will incorporate K’s dedication to diversity, inclusion and social justice into their conversations.

“We’re excited to draw on the resources we have at K to bring social justice ideas into the conference and view it through that lens,” Charlton said.

Two Ensembles to Perform Winter Concerts

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Fortune tellers, wanderers, hobbits and mermaids … meet them all through music when Kalamazoo College presents two public winter concerts this Friday and Saturday in Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts.

Academy Street Winds Winter Concerts
Music Professor Thomas Evans will lead the Academy Street Winds in one of two winter concerts scheduled for this weekend.

The Academy Street Winds will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, March 1, featuring a theme of “Rogues and Vagabonds.”

The Academy Street Winds is a wind ensemble providing a performance outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion students. Community musicians joined the ensemble in winter 2016 to expand the group’s sound and capabilities. Conducted by Music Professor Thomas Evans, the group performs one concert each term, playing exciting arrays of challenging band music. The ensemble is a favorite of audiences as the programs are coordinated around diverse themes, which allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and contemporary. Admission is free.

The Kalamazoo Philharmonia, directed by Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 2. Tickets to this concert are $5 each for the public, $2 for students and free for Kalamazoo College students who present their College IDs.

This orchestra unites professional and amateur musicians, including Kalamazoo College students and faculty, along with many from the community. The concert is titled “A Tale of Two Cities” and will compare works from Johannes Brahms’ “Symphony No. 1” and Alexander Zemlinsky’s “The Mermaid.” Both composers had ties to Vienna, Austria.

The Kalamazoo Philharmonia won the 2014 American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming and has produced several CDs. It also has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, and collaborated with the Bach Festival Chorus, as well as many renowned soloists. Listen to some of its recorded concerts at our website.

For questions about either of the winter concerts, call 269.337.7070 or email susan.lawrence@kzoo.edu.