Dec. 3, 2007

The DigestWhat’s Happening at KVCC

What’s below in this edition Graduation coming (Page 1) State Hospital (Pages 10/11)

The human services (Page 2) Transferring (Page 11) Cafeteria, coffee hours (Page 2) Feed the needy (Page 12) What’s up in Russia? (Pages 3/4) Concert at Lincoln (Pages 12/13) Travel abroad (Pages 4/5) Blackouts, Incas (Page 13) Wilsons dig it (Page 5) Molding your life (Page 14) Science careers (Pages 6/7) Nature’s harmony (Pages 14/15)

Our callers (Page 7) Printing needs (Page 15) Watch your stuff (Page 8) Tunes for tolerance (P-15/16)

Extra duds? (Page 8) Don’t junk ‘em (Pages 16/17) Toys? Food? (Page 8) Norwegian flic (Pages 15/16) PTK’s projects (Pages 8/9) Spread the news (Page 18) Defib training (Page 9) And Finally (Page 18)

☻☻☻☻☻☻Miller time for KVCC students is Dec. 20

The college’s 60th commencement ceremony is set for the evening of Thursday, Dec. 20, in Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus.

Those who have been assigned specific roles for the event should attend a 2 p.m. rehearsal that day on the Miller stage. For those who want to first come to the Texas Township Campus, a shuttle bus will depart for the WMU campus at 1:30 p.m. Students do not take part in the rehearsal.

Among those faculty members involved in the ritual are Denise Miller, Larry Taylor, Jean Snow and Bill Wangler. The faculty speaker will be English instructor Brian Olson while Yadira Hernandez, an elementary-education major from Hartford in Van Buren County, will speak for the graduates.

Faculty participants are asked to report to Miller Auditorium by 6 p.m. on Dec. 20. The ceremony will begin at 7.

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The diploma-day celebration will be telecast live on one of the Community Access Center’s five channels. Also scheduled to make remarks is Jeff Patton, chairman

of the KVCC Board of Trustees. Focus on human-service careers is next

Employment opportunities in the human services will be in the spotlight on the Texas Township Campus on Tuesday (Dec. 4).

“Exploring Career Pathways Destination: Human Services” is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. in rooms 4370 and 4380.

With a format similar to the Nov. 30 seminar on tech careers, this session will feature professionals engaged in social work, psychological counseling, education, coaching, law enforcement, criminal justice, fire science, and mortuary science.

Among the presenters will be: Jeff Shouldice, instructor in KVCC’s program in law enforcement. Marty Myers, a fire marshal for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety for

22 years and manager of the Southwest Michigan Fire Science Program based at KVCC. Dr. Larry Beer, director of Child and Family Psychological Services. Sue Benzinger, a social worker at the Van Buren Intermediate School District. KVCC volleyball coach Jason Reese. Educator Ruby Sledge. Joe Buysse, funeral director for Life Story Funeral Homes -- Rupert, Durham,

Marshal and Gren. KVCC counselor Gerri Jacobs.Those who would like to take part should call 488-4123 or e-mail

careercenter@kvcc.edu. Professionals in automotive technology, the construction trades, drafting,

welding, machine-tool technology and engineering made presentations on Nov. 30.Food-service, coffee-shop hours

After this week’s schedule of normal hours and the majority of the following week, the Texas Township Campus cafeteria and the Student Commons coffee shop will begins their holiday food-service timetables on Wednesday, Dec. 19.

Through Tuesday, Dec. 18, the cafeteria will be open for business Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday. The coffee-shop hours during those two time frames are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7:30 to 11 a.m., respectively.

Then things begin to change.Wednesday, Dec. 19, through Friday, Dec. 21: cafeteria – 7:30 a.m. to 1: 30

p.m.; coffee shop – 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19, but closed on the next two days.

Dec. 24-Jan. 1: KVCC will be closed for the year-end holiday break.Wednesday, Jan. 2, through Friday, Jan. 4: cafeteria – 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.;

the coffee shop will be closed on those three days.Back to normalcy beginning Monday, Jan. 7: cafeteria hours move back to

7:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on

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Fridays. The coffee shop resumes service from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and 7:30 to 11 a.m. on Fridays.

For more information, contact Muriel Hice at extension 4410.

From Russia, with perspectives A KVCC faculty member who spent 27 days in Russia in the summer of 2006

will offer his perspectives and viewpoints of what this former central cog in the former Soviet Union is becoming on Wednesday (Dec.5) on the Texas Township Campus.

As part of the annual series of presentations by the KVCC International Studies Program, instructor Theo Sypris, who heads the college’s program in international education while teaching courses in economics and political science, will share his observations from 2 to 3 p.m. in Room 4380.

The presentations, which will continue into the winter semester, are free and open to the public.

Part of a Fulbright-Hays excursion funded by the U. S. Department of Education, Sypris had an itinerary that took him to stops in the cities of Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Veliky Novgorod, and the St. Petersburg area. Each destination focused on certain topics – education, politics, the media, religion, folklore, agriculture, urban planning, social issues, entrepreneurship, culture, and the film industry.

There were tours of a variety of educational institutions, including Russia’s counterparts to America’s community colleges and K-12 schools, an establishment dedicated to youth creativity, a school of choreography, a school of economics, the country’s higher-echelon universities, an orphanage, monasteries, and a school concentrating on aviation technology,

Roundtables focused on teaching strategies in Russia, the evolution of local government, the situation in Chechnya, the interaction between central and regional units of government, contemporary medical care and health insurance, the status of relationships among the former Soviet republics, intercultural communications, and what Russia faces in coming to grips with urban planning. There was also a question-and-answer session with one of Russia’s top TV news anchors.

The Fulbright-Hays travelers heard lectures on Russia’s evolving nonprofit sector, the status of environmental protection and conservation in the country, the social, political and cultural status of women, ongoing research in gender studies, the state of religious worship, media and politics in contemporary Russia, the prospects for social and economic development in the 21st century, U. S. foreign policy toward Russia in the new millennium, the nation’s agricultural practices, and its growing folk-crafts enterprises.

The group’s cultural experiences included puppetry theater, several ballets, art galleries and museums, concerts, folk-music presentations, exposure to the works of famed Soviet writers, Peter the Great’s palace, screenings of classic Russian movies, and museums dedicated to Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

One of the visits took the Americans to a forced-labor camp established in the Gulag Archipelago by Josef Stalin’s regime in 1946 to detain its political opponents. Another took them to caves famous for unique ice formations with frozen waterfalls and underground lakes, while a third was a boat ride on the Volga River.

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The group also sampled what working life was like at a Soviet automotive plant. Another museum put the spotlight on the life and times of nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, who, as a dissident, was forced into political exile.

Sypris has headed the KVCC International Studies Program since 1990 and spearheaded the development of the Midwest Institute, which seeks to infuse components of international education into courses in all fields and disciplines. More than 100 community colleges in the Midwest are linked to the institute. He took part in similar Fulbright-Hays excursion to Vietnam in the summer of 2002 and later to China.

Wrapping up the 2007 edition of the international presentations will be: The nations of Egypt and Israel on Tuesday, Dec. 11, from 11 a.m. to noon in

Room 4380 by biology instructor Jack Bley.

Want an out-of-country experience?KVCC students, faculty and staff are eligible to take part in some of the summer-

semester, short-term study-abroad programs offered through the Western Michigan University Diether Haenicke Institute for Global Education.

“Most of the 25 summer programs,” says Margaret von Steinen, a KVCC Honors Program graduate who is the communications officer at the institute, “are open to non-WMU students and to adults who are interested in travel and learning, and who are not currently attending college.”

She said some offer classes in a broad range of disciplines while others have focused topics. There are also some scholarship opportunities for the programs that run from two to eight weeks, offer varying levels of academic credit, and are eligible for financial-aid funding.

The deadline to apply for the majority of the opportunities is Feb. 15. Application information is available in the Study Abroad Office on the second floor of Ellsworth Hall next to the Bernard Center. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The office’s telephone number is 387-5890. The e-mail address is study-abroad@wmich.edu and the web page can be reached at www.wmich.edu/studyabroad.

Here is the roster of study-abroad destinations and topics during the spring and summer of 2008:

● Business relationships in London and Paris, April 27-May 11.● Tropical biology in Belize, April 28-May 16.● The Grand Tour of Europe (The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy,

Germany), April 28-May 26.● Quebec history and culture, July 7-Aug. 8.● Modern and contemporary art in Paris, May 4-22.● Engineering in Germany, May 4-24.● Engineering in China and Korea, May 8-25.● Business in China, May 10-26.● Health-care systems in Mexico, May 10-June 21.● Italian art and art history, May 15-June 21 and June 26-July 26.● Japanese language and culture, May 16-July 27.● Japanese religion and culture, June 2-14.

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● Fashion merchandising, business, interior design, engineering, media production in London, June 5-Aug. 15.

● Spanish language and culture, June 9-July 31.● Russian language and culture, June 16-July 2.● Business management in Norway, June 23-July 13.● Graduate courses in Mexico with an emphasis on teaching, June 23-Aug. 7● The Prague Summer Program in creative writing, Czech literature, Jewish

studies, photography, June 28-July 25.● Arabic language and culture in Alexandria, Egypt, June 29-July 31.● Nanotechnology research in Brazil, July 1-Sept. 1● Business and economics in The Netherlands, July 7-Aug. 15.● Chinese language and culture, Aug. 15-31.● Intensive training in Spanish in Costa Rica, July 7-Aug. 8.● University of Cambridge Summer School studying history, political science,

English literature, architecture, natural science, the arts, and British culture, July 7-Aug. 1.

Dinosaur dig had KVCC connectionThe sons of a pioneer KVCC faculty member and coach played roles in the

National Geographic Society’s latest mapping of the world of dinosaurs.Jeff and Greg Wilson were part of an international team of paleontologists who

found 110-million-year-old fossils of a “new” species during a dig in the west African nation of Niger in 1997.

They are the sons of Phil Wilson, who, although “retired,” is still teaching wellness and physical-education courses on a part-time basis.

The National Geographic Society unveiled the findings during a Nov. 15 news conference in Washington. The spotlight was on what has been called a nigersaurus, which Jeff Wilson called “just a strange-looking animal” that “really charts new evolutionary water for dinosaurs.”

According to the society’s conclusions, this particular dinosaur had a mouth that worked like a vacuum cleaner and grazed like a cow. Its mouth was filled with hundreds of tiny teeth aligned in 50 or more columns along the front edge of a square jaw. Equipped with paper-tin vertebrae, it was a plant-eating cousin of the North American diplodocus, researchers believe.

Jeff Wilson, an assistant professor of geological sciences at the University of Michigan, said the typical nigersaurus was about 18 feet long and weighed between four and six tons – akin to a contemporary elephant. Its height could reach six to eight feet.

Jeff Wilson graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1987 and earned his degree from Kalamazoo College four years later. It was there he became hooked on the digging for dinosaurs by reading a book by paleontologist Paul Sereno.

Wilson met Sereno during his studies for a doctorate at the University of Chicago, which is where he was invited, along with brother Greg, to join Sereno on the dinosaur hunt in Niger.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Jeff Wilson told The Kalamazoo Gazette. “In a way, it’s a feeling like bringing something back to life. This animal would remain unknown to

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most of the world. You have an incredible feeling of power and bringing something to light.”

Crossing ‘Bridges’ to science careersInstructors should begin to alert their minority students about taking advantage of

an opportunity to sample careers in science this summer. Seven KVCC students earned $11 an hour for a 30-hour work week as

undergraduate research assistants last summer. They were part of a 13-student contingent taking part in the 2006-07 National Institutes of Health’s “Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program” through the Western Michigan University Department of Biological Sciences.

The program liaisons at KVCC are chemistry instructors Robert Sutton and Charissa Oliphant.

In addition to the 30 hours of experience that will pay $10 per hour this coming spring and summer, students can also be assigned up to 15 hours per week during the academic year. Applications can be submitted now for the next installment of the program. The deadline is April 30.

More application information and directions are available by contacting Sutton at extension 4175 or rsutton@kvcc.edu or Oliphant at extension 4402 or coliphant@kvcc.edu.

The mission of “Bridges” is to offer minorities enrolled in community colleges the opportunity to relevantly explore scientific fields, enhance their academic accomplishments in science courses, and smooth the path toward a degree in a science field at a four-year university.

Taking part in this kind of endeavor teaches higher-order thinking skills, which is an important component of anyone’s education.

“Bridges,” which promotes institutional collaborations between community colleges and four-year universities, is a function of the National Institute of General Medical Studies, one of the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to KVCC, taking part in the NIH Michigan Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program at WMU are Grand Rapids Community College, Henry Ford Community College, Kellogg Community College, and Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. The WMU experience focuses on careers as biomedical and behavioral scientists who would spend their working years seeking the causes of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and other biologically impacted maladies.

“Bridges” seeks to nurture minority students to consider careers in these fields because of the growing need for trained scientists in one of the fastest-growing industries in the U. S. economy. Similar programs in Michigan are based at Wayne State University and the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids.

While KVCC has been involved several years, last summer’s contingent included: Jealyn Foston of Cassopolis; Ruben Galvan, an international student living in Kalamazoo; Martin and Carmen Kuchta, who were both home-schooled; Jerbor Nelson, a graduate of Portage Central High School; Delicia Powell, an alumna of Kalamazoo Central High School; and Matthew Watson, a Comstock High School graduate.

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The other six students hailed from Grand Rapids, Henry Ford (four), and Lake Michigan. All participants wrapped up their assistantships by creating posters on the research they pursued.

Heading up the “Bridges” initiative at WMU is Gyula Ficsor, a native of Hungary who came to the United States in 1957 and went on to serve in the U. S. Army. Now an emeritus professor in the WMU Department of Biological Science, Ficsor came to WMU as a biology instructor in 1967. He has a bachelor’s in crop science from Colorado State University and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Missouri. His program assistant at WMU is Olivia Smith.

Gentlefolks (all 86), start your touchtonesEighty-six KVCC’ers will take part in the college’s calling campaign this week to

contact enrolled students who have not yet paid for 2008 winter-semester classes. Pitching in from the Arcadia Commons Campus will be: Kris Bazali, Patricia

Pallette, Jackie Cantrell, Jill Storm, Jim Ratliff, Chasisty Hayden, Sheila White, Lisa Peet, Amy Winkel, Kim Campbell and Barbara VanZandt.

Stepping forwarded from the M-TEC of KVCC are Lauren Beresford, Brenda Moncreif, and Pat Wallace.

Doing their touch-toning from the Texas Township Campus will be:Gloria Norris, Karen Way, Steve Doherty, Gerri Jacobs, Denise Baker, Stella

Lambert, Cindy Tinney, Amy Louallen, Marylan Hightree, Joyce Zweedyk, Michael McCall, Laura Cosby, Jackie Howlett;

Ruth Baker, Mary Johnson, Deb Bryant, Lynne Morrison, Mike Collins, Betty VanVoorst, Cynthia Schauer, Kandiah Balachandran, Theresa Hollowell, Amanda Hackenberg, Ann Lindsay, Rose Crawford;

Diane Vandenberg, Robyn Robinson, Patrick Conroy, Bonnie Bowden, Rita Fox, Andrea Gallegos, Candy Horton, Nancy Roberts, Ciara Salefske, Jack Bley, Kathy Anderson, Melissa Harris, Pam Siegfried, Carol Targarat;

Patricia Sulier, Ken Bouma, Laura Stout, Bonita Bates, Laurie Dykstra, Chris Stroven, Denise Linsley, Brian Graening, Leona Coleman, Cathleen Mahoney, David Lynch, Kevin McKinney, Pedro Soto, Jenny Bussey;

Mary Lindsley, Jackie Zito, Lanette Ballard, Colleen Olson, Tammy Saucedo, Karen Phelps, Lisa Gruber, Louise Wesseling, Tarona Guy, Tom Thinnes, Karen Visser, Pat Pojeta and five student advocates in the Student Success Center.

And from the ranks of KVCC’s honored retirees and making her second appearance as a caller with that status – Elizabeth Miller.

All these volunteers will be making their telephone calls to prospective students prior to batch cancellations during the workday at their work stations. The deadline for payment is 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 10.

The results of the counterpart effort for fall semester tell the story – some 6,000 enrolled students facing the prospects of losing their classes because of not yet meeting the payment deadline, and, after 60 volunteers making the calls, about half of them taking advantage of the friendly alert to meet that deadline.

The payoff was an increase of 3,370 credit hours on the books.Callers will be delivered a list of prospects, each's telephone number, and a

suggested script for the conversation.

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The results of each call can be easily recorded on the document. Contact coordinator Pat Pojeta at extension 4018 for more information.Thievery takes no holiday

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, it is time to increase awareness about precautionary measures regarding protecting one’s belongings, reports security coordinator Jeff Roseboom.

“Petty thefts always increase during this time of year because of the tendency to carry more money in purses or wallets,” he advised. “This is generally accompanied by our desire to pay cash for a lot of Christmas gifts that are purchased.

“To avoid the unnecessary loss of Christmas money, a couple of simple practices should be followed,” he suggested.

$ Never leave articles unattended. $ If leaving the office, always lock articles away out of sight in a desk, along with

securing the area when departing. “A little extra time and awareness will make the holiday season more enjoyable,”

Roseboom said. Because of the age of technology and constant communications, a growing

favorite target for thieves is a cell phone.“People tell me that they just put it down a moment ago and when they looked

back, it was gone,” Roseboom said. “That’s because it takes less than a moment to steal it.”

Do you have any surplus winter apparel?Clean, “gently used” winter wear for men, women and children is being collected

by the Student Success Center through Monday, Dec. 17.Donated coats, sweaters, sweatshirts, and scarves, as well as “new” gloves and

hats, will be distributed to residents at three locations:♥ the YWCA’s Domestic Assault Shelter, The Rickman House, and Ministry

with Community.Items can be dropped off in the Student Success Center on the Texas Township

Campus or in the front office of Anna Whitten Hall on the Arcadia Commons Campus. For more information, contact either Pamela Siegfried or Diane Vandenberg at the center at extension 4825.

How about some extra food, usable toys?The Salvation Army Citadel that serves the Kalamazoo area will be the

beneficiary of a collection effort being orchestrated by Mary Johnson in the Student Commons.

She is looking for folks to drop off some of their surplus food and workable toys no longer being used at Room 4220 in the Commons. Boxes are also being located around the Texas Township Campus as collection bins.

The food, playthings and games will be collected through Dec. 14 at which they will be taken to the citadel located at 1700 S. Burdick.

And then there are PTK’s holiday projects

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The Kalamazoo Family Shelter and the Kalamazoo Deacons Conference will be the targets of KVCC generosity through the holiday-season projects of the college’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter that will run through Dec. 13.

“Project Graduation,” which is the international initiative through Phi Theta Kappa, involves the donation of children’s books and nonperishable food items that can be dropped off at the KVCC Bookstore on the Texas Township Office, Mary Johnson’s office in the Student Commons, at the faculty-receptionist area in Room 7320, or at Anna Whitten Hall on the Arcadia Commons Campus.

These items will be donated to the Kalamazoo Family Shelter. Designated for the Kalamazoo Deacons Conference at 1010 N. Westnedge are

new or gently used winter coats. These can also be donated at the same four locations. The conference describes itself as a Christian ministry that is “sharing Christ’s

love with people in need” in Southwest Michigan. In addition to clothing, this agency provides donations of household items,

furnishings and appliances, financial assistance, and community outreach. It also has links to food donations, employment readiness, community-service obligations, and various congregations.

For more information, go to this web page at ptk@kvcc.edu or call PTK adviser Natalie Patchell at extension 4362.

Training in how to restart a heart Introductory training in the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) in cases of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is available at three sessions this week on the Texas Township Campus.

Here is the schedule:♦ Wednesday (Dec. 5) from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

♦ Friday (Dec. 7) from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. ♦ Friday (Dec. 7) from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

These sessions will cover the basics of an AED, how it works, how to use it, and where one can be located in the event of an emergency.

In the event of a SCA that can happen to people of all ages, the only quick response is defibrillation provided by an AED.

In the United States, more than 350,000 people die each year from SCA before reaching a hospital.

In many cases, SCA can be reversed with early defibrillation, which involves shocking the heart with an electric current that allows it to re-establish a normal rhythm.

To be most effective, defibrillation must occur as soon as possible after the onset of the cardiac arrest.

The chance of survival decreases by 7 to 10 percent per minute until defibrillation. AEDs have been shown to be easy to use (by non-medical personal), are safe, and are effective in saving lives.

It is as important to know the techniques of utilizing an AED as it is to know the techniques of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation).

There are three ways to register: call the registration hotline at 488-4640; e-mail workshop@kvcc.edu, or tap into the college’s staff-development calendar to reach the

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automatic on-line system -- http://home.kvcc.edu/hrmain/StffDev/Calendars/calendar_link_page.htm

Sunday Series looks at Kalamazoo’s ‘asylum’ “The Michigan Asylum for the Insane” is the Dec. 2 installment of the

Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s “Sunday Series” presentations about the history of Southwest Michigan.

Tom Dietz, the museum’s curator, will talk about the establishment of the state’s first asylum in Kalamazoo that promoted humane treatment of those with mental illnesses through it becoming a virtual “city within a city.”

The 1:30 p.m. program is free and begins at 1:30 p.m. in the museum’s Mary Jane Stryker Theater.

Dietz traces the community’s mental-health legacy to Aug. 29, 1859, when the Michigan Asylum for the Insane, as it was first known, opened in Kalamazoo.

The Michigan Legislature had authorized the facility a decade earlier but lawmakers failed to provide sufficient funds for its construction. The asylum was a response to efforts by reformers such as Dorothea Dix, who advocated more humane treatment of the mentally ill.

According to Dietz’s research, in 1848, Gov. Epaphroditus Ransom of Kalamazoo appointed a panel that proposed that Michigan establish an asylum. When local citizens donated $1,500 and 10 acres of land for the project, the committee, which included Ransom’s law partner, Charles E. Stuart, recommended the hospital be built in Kalamazoo.

The original site was on land north of Main Street between Elm Street and Stuart Avenue. Many felt this was too close to town so the decision was made to sell that property and buy land in what was then the country along Asylum Avenue, now Oakland Drive.

Dr. John Gray of New York was the first superintendent but he was unable to persuade the legislature to pay for the construction of the asylum. When he resigned in 1856, his assistant, Dr. Edwin H. Van Deusen, was appointed his replacement. Dr. Van Deusen oversaw the construction and the formal opening of the hospital.

The main building, designed for 300 patients, was not fully completed until 1869. That would later house female patients when a new facility for men was completed in 1874. Although the two buildings were designed to accommodate 550 patients, they housed more than 700 by 1880, Dietz learned.

Over its first century, the hospital continued to expand. By 1960, it was virtually a city within a city. There were more 40 buildings, including a chapel, power plant, water system, bakery, laundry, cannery, kitchen, garage, greenhouse, and various shops. At its peak in the early 1950s, there were more than 3,500 patient and nearly 900 employees. In 1969, the former state tuberculosis sanitarium on Blakeslee Street was acquired to care for elderly patients with dementia.

The hospital featured two architectural jewels, both of which still stand. In 1880, a gatehouse for a resident gatekeeper was built at the north end of the campus.

Dietz reports there is no evidence it was ever used for that purpose and by 1885 the house, built in the “carpenter gothic” style, was used as a residence for a dozen female patients.

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In 1895, noted architect B. F. Stratton designed a 175-foot, 15,000-gallon water tower to supply the hospital’s needs. The tower dominated the Kalamazoo skyline. As a local landmark, it was visible evidence of the asylum’s significance in the community.

In the 1970s, when the tower was threatened with demolition, local citizens raised preservation funds and it was subsequently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As new theories and treatment options developed in the latter half of the 20th century, the number of patients declined significantly. Many of the buildings were demolished and by 2000, most of the hospital property had been turned over to WMU.

Today only a small number of patients remain at a facility that marked Michigan’s efforts to provide humane treatment for those suffering with mental illnesses.

Dietz’s “Sunday Series” continues into 2008 with these presentations:● “The Things of History: Artifacts and Their Stories” – Jan. 13: Museums

collect objects, artifacts and things that help tell a place’s history. This program will examine some of the more intriguing artifacts in the Kalamazoo museum’s collection.

● “Edward Israel: Kalamazoo’s Arctic Pioneer” – Jan. 27: Kalamazooan Edward Israel died on an ill-fated Arctic trek in the 1880s and this is his story.

● “Charles B. Hays – Home Builder” – Feb. 17: This explores the whys and wherefores of one of Kalamazoo’s most important developers of commercial, industrial and residential properties in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

● “Poetry Artifactory IV” -- Feb. 24: Thanks to the Friends of Poetry in Kalamazoo, poetry and history come together as the members’ use of words help tell the story of regional artifacts in the museum’s collections.

● “The Architectural History of Kalamazoo” -- March 9.● “The Sins of Kalamazoo” – April 6: Poet Carl Sandburg wrote metaphorically

about “The Sins of Kalamazoo,” but this program examines the reality, the community’s pool halls, bars, gambling houses, and other entertainment outlets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and what local “reformers” did to clean up these “sinful haunts.”

● “The Academy of Music” – April 20: The community’s first “grand” performing-arts center was dedicated on May 6, 1882, and was eventually destroyed in a fire.

For more information about the presentations, contact Dietz at 373-7979.

Tips on how to transfer to a 4-year schoolRepresentatives from six colleges and universities will be at Kalamazoo Valley

Community College this week to smooth the transfer of students to their institutions. Spokesmen from Cornerstone University, Davenport University, Robert Miller

College in Battle Creek, Siena Heights College, Spring Arbor University, and the University of Phoenix will gather on Tuesday (Dec. 4) in Anna Whitten Hall’s Room 128 from 5 to 7 p.m. to talk about their respective transfer requirements and admission procedures.

They will repeat the process on Wednesday (Dec. 5) from 5 to 7 p.m. in Room 4370 on the Texas Township Campus.

Faculty and staff should inform students that those who would like to talk to any of these representatives should call the Transfer Resource Center at 488-4779 by Dec. 3.

Light refreshments will be served.

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What’s cooking at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission?KVCC faculty members and students who have served meals at the Kalamazoo

Gospel Mission earlier this fall are looking for more assistants when they repeat the volunteerism on Wednesday (Dec. 5).

College employees interested in joining the KVCC contingent can sign up on the KVCC Faculty Association bulletin board by the faculty lounge, or send an e-mail to Natalie Patchell.

Students can sign up on the Service Learning bulletin board. Those who participate can park in the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission lot across from

the new bus depot/train station in downtown Kalamazoo and enter through the center doors to the cafeteria no later than 4:45 p.m. The mission is located at 448 N. Burdick St. in downtown Kalamazoo.

“Dress casually and somewhat cool as we work in a warm kitchen,” said Patchell, who has been accompanied on previous cook-ins by counselor Gerri Jacobs.

Signed up for Wednesday’s spirit-of-the-season act, in addition to Patchell, are Jacobs and Roxanne Bengelink, a member of the business faculty.

Earlier this month, math instructor Tim Kane orchestrated a Saturday full of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.

He was joined by Candy Horton in the president’s office and Nancy Vendeville, a member of the math faculty.

Fund-raising holiday concert is tonightTonight’s Christmas-concert fund-raiser Friday to benefit the Senior Ecumenical

Center and the New Direction Outreach Center is being coordinated by Robyn Robinson, who is an office specialist in the college’s Focus Program.

The second-annual event featuring an evening of fun and music will begin at 7 p.m. (Nov. 30) in the Lincoln International Studies School’s auditorium at 912 N. Burdick St.

Admission is free, but a free-will offering will be collected with the proceeds designated for the two human-service agencies.

The idea is the brainchild of Robinson and her husband, Howard, who co-host a Saturday-morning program of gospel music on 1560 AM "The Touch."

Initially, she said, the concept was generated by community residents who wanted to stage the event to show their appreciation for the Robinsons, but that morphed into shifting the show of gratitude to two organizations “that serve the community, but that struggle, especially at this time of year,” Robinson said.

The concert performers will be: ♫ gospel-music recording artist Marlyce Roberson McCants, a former Kalamazoo resident who now lives in Ohio. Her grandfather, the Rev. B. A. Roberson, was the pastor of the Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Kalamazoo.♫ Michigan Nightingales, a quintet of gospel singers started a generation ago by the fathers of the current members ♫ the Kalamazoo Community Choir♫ singer Darek Cobbs♫ the Bible Baptist Hand Bell Choir♫ performances by dance ministries including one from the Christian Life Center.

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The Ecumenical Senior Center, located 702 N. Burdick, serves meals, offers a variety of classes, and provides a host of other services to seniors, primarily from Kalamazoo’s Northside neighborhood. The New Direction Outreach Center at 308 W. North St. is an outreach of the Faith Temple Church of God.

It provides free breakfasts on Sunday mornings and runs a computer center for the community in its basement.

For more information, call (269) 341-4500. Robinson can be contacted at extension 4779.Major storms, epochal societies, conserving the planet

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s series of three documentaries about weather phenomena, magnificent civilizations, and the greening of the world are continuing on Sunday, Dec. 9.

Free and open to the public, the “Inclement Weather” episodes are being shown at 1:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater.

This series ties into the museum’s nationally touring exhibition, the kids-friendly "The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm."

“Magnetic Storm” retraces how a magnetic storm in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which was triggered by a solar flare on the Sun’s surface 90 million miles away, caused a major power blackout in Canada and America’s northeast states.

“Magnetic Storm” is the Dec. 9 attraction.Here’s the rest of the "Inclement Weather" schedule:● “Mystery of the Megaflood,” Dec. 16.● “Tsunami: The Wave That Shook the World,” Jan. 6.● “The 1980 Kalamazoo Tornado,” Jan. 20. The other Sunday documentary series examine the civilizations of ancient history

and the economics of environmental consciousness.The eight-part production about civilizations of yore is being shown at 3 p.m. on

Sundays:♦ “The Incas,” Dec. 9 – Six hundred years ago, the Incas of present-day Peru

forged an empire equal to that of the Greeks and Romans. They build their empire by treaties, not military might.

♦ “America’s Prehistoric Civilizations: The Mound Builders,” Dec. 16.♦ “Egypt’s Golden Empire” (Part One), Jan. 6.♦ “Egypt’s Golden Empire” (Part Two), Jan. 20.Actor Brad Pitts narrates the PBS series, “design:e2” with each segment slated to

start at 4 p.m. on these Sundays: “China: From Red to Green,” Dec. 9 – This nation’s soaring population and

rapid industrialization have created a boom in urbanization unprecedented in human history, a boom that carries possibly catastrophic environmental offshoots.

“Deeper Shades of Green,” Dec. 16.More information about each of these events and attractions is available by

checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling Jay Gavan, the museum’s special-events coordinator, at 373-7414.Perspectives from a life coach

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The non-academic resources available to any KVCC student are being covered in a series of workshops and presentations sponsored by the Student Success Center during the fall semester.

The free sessions are being held in either the theater or forum in the Student Commons.

Refreshments are part of the attraction to learn about life resources and how to avoid the every-day barriers that can negatively impact on academic success.

Here’s the schedule of topics and presenters for the remainder of the semester: “Creating the Life You Want Is an Inside Job” on Wednesday (Dec. 5) at noon

– Kathy Herron, a life coach from Royal Oak, Mich. “No-Excuse Exercise” on Thursday, Dec. 6, at 10 a.m. – Shelia Rupert of the

KVCC Fitness and Wellness Center.For more information, call extension 4825.

Nature’s wonders through singer Tom HodgsonTom Hodgson, who teaches the secrets of science and the wonders of nature

through music, is next in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s series of Saturday concerts and performances for pre-schoolers and families on Dec. 1.

Hodgson, who performed in this series at the museum in November of 2005, will share his “Great Animal Songs and Stories” from the woods and waters of Michigan in a pair of performances in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater on the museum’s first floor.

The 10 a.m. attraction is targeted to pre-schoolers while the for-family show begins at 1 p.m. Both have $3 admission fees.

Hodgson, as a naturalist for this state’s system of parks, discovered the power and effectiveness of music as an interpretive tool 35 years ago and has performed his "Music For Mother Earth" concerts for more than 250,000 children and adults at schools, nature centers, libraries and festivals in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. His performances are geared to family audiences with songs and stories that can be enjoyed by listeners of all ages.

For five summers Hodgson toured with the Michigan Humanities Council's "Great Outdoor Culture Tour." His "Songs and Stories of the Great North Woods" featured both humorous and sensitive material dealing with the human experience in the outdoors.

While director of the Dahlem Environmental Education Center in Jackson from 1980 to 1995, Hodgson expanded his musical offerings to include summer day-camp songs to complement his "Music For Mother Earth" repertoire.

He retired as director of the Dahlem Center in 1995, but that retirement was short-lived when he was invited to teach at Eastern Michigan University. For eight years he taught a course called "Life Science For Elementary School Teachers,” a hands-on methods class for seniors in elementary education. He included a unit on "Teaching Science Through Music" to encourage future teachers to use music as an educational tool.

In 1995, the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education named Hodgson the state’s “Outstanding Environmental Educator.”

While telling the tall and true tales of Michigan outdoors, Hodgson will deliver

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all kinds of interesting information about how people can help wildlife, such as lending a hand to help birds make their nests in the spring.

He suggests hanging a net bag, such as the kind that onions and oranges come in at the store, in a tree where the birds can be observed later. Here’s what to put in the bag as nest-building materials – straw, small scraps of cloth, lint from the clothes dryer, leaves, strands of hair from a hairbrush, feathers, twigs, wooden Popsicle sticks, dried grass, short pieces of ribbon, dental floss, string or yarn, wrapping or tissue paper, facial-tissue or toilet-paper pieces, scraps of construction paper, and twist ties from bread bags.

The museum's programs for entertainment for pre-schoolers and families continue on these dates with these performers:

Feb. 2 -- New York City-based performer Louie, accompanied by musician Jerry Joy.

March 1 -- Storyteller Adam Mellema, who splits his residency between Kentwood, Mich., and Burbank, Calif.

April 5 -- Percussionist Carolyn Koebel.With limited seating in the Stryker Theater, tickets can be purchased any time in

person or by calling (269) 373-7990 or (800) 772-3370. Early bird gets the printing worm

With fall semester winding down, KVCC's Printing Services is asking that end-of-semester printing requests be submitted as soon as possible

According to Terry Coburn, media services manager, there will only be six working days between the end of the fall semester and the start of the winter term.

"In order to have any chance at all to get the winter-semester work ready for you, we need you to input your printing request soon," he said. "Don't make delays for yourself. Get your printing in now. Please place your requests, with due dates, reflecting when you are going to use the work. This will facilitate the work being spread out over time rather than all being due on Jan. 7.”

Coburn can be reached at extension 4215. Those who wait until after the holiday break? Well, one can almost hear both the moaning and the gnashing of teeth.

Larrieu concert aimed at promoting toleranceA KVCC instructor and a student who performs under the name of Ferron will be

the headliners in a fund-raising concert seeking to build bridges of tolerance between faith-based organizations and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender community on Sunday (Dec. 2).

English instructor Gloria Larrieu and Ferron will be performing music and offering stories from a gay perspective at 7 p.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, located at 10441 Shaver Road, which is just south of the Shaver intersection with Oakland Drive in Portage.

Ferron Foisy, who hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, came to Southwest Michigan to open a peace and poetry retreat in Three Rivers.

As a guitarist and vocalist in the Dylan tradition, she composes her own music and has eight CDs to her credit. She has taken literature and writing courses at KVCC.

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Larrieu, who is also a guitarist and vocalist, is comfortable in a variety of musical genres, including folk, folk rock, jazz and even the classics. Both she and Ferron blend stories in and around the music they sing.

The concept of “Building Bridges of Understanding” was formulated by an organization called Renaissance Enterprises, which has a local address at 901 Lay Boulevard.

It was the recipient of a $15,000 grant from the Arcus Foundation Gay and Lesbian Fund in Kalamazoo to structure a series of 40 events and outreach programs at mainstream churches, college campuses, forums and other venues, with each designed to promote a tolerant perspective through music, poetry and other forms of expression.

One of the themes of the Sunday-night concert, which is free and open to the public, is: “An enemy is someone whose story you haven’t heard.”

Those who attend will be asked to donate $5 or $10 to the church’s Rainbow Youth Ministry.

Lorraine Corran will interview both performers and play songs from their current CDs when she interviews them about the concert and the grant’s purpose on WMUK’s local version of “All Things Considered” at 5 p.m. Friday (Nov. 30).

For more information about Renaissance Enterprises, call founder and program director Bob Rowe at 381-4887.

Don’t chuck those old batteriesKVCC is continuing its initiative to recycle used and unused rechargeable and

alkaline batteries, and keep them out of landfills where their assets will be lost forever.Recycling boxes for both rechargeable batteries as well as alkaline batteries are

located in the following areas: the M-TEC Facility Shop; the Arcadia Commons Campus Facility Shop; Texas Township Campus Facility Services; the museum’s carpentry shop; the college’s audio-visual department; the automotive-technology and heating-ventilation-air conditioning labs; and in Computer Services.

The lead-acid batteries used in cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and other motorized equipment can be recycled by taking them to the Household Hazardous Waste Center operated by Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services at 1301 Lamont Ave.

This drop-off center is on the edge of the county fairgrounds. Information about what else can be deposited there is available by calling 383-

8742.The recycling containers are provided by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling

Corp. (RBRC). RBRC's Charge Up to Recycle!® program is designed to keep rechargeable

batteries out of the solid-waste stream, adhering to the federal and state laws requiring the proper disposal of some types of used rechargeable batteries.

This program offers community and public agencies the tools to implement a simple, no-cost recycling plan.

This program is funded by the rechargeable power industry. The boxes are replenished once received from the participating agency or organization.

These batteries are commonly found in cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote-control toys. RBRC

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recycles the following battery chemistries: nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH), lithium ion (Li-ion) and small sealed lead (Pb).

‘The Bothersome Man’ has ‘1984’ ring to it“The Bothersome Man,” a Norwegian comedy/drama released earlier this year, is

booked for a Thursday (Dec. 6) showing, and will be the last of the foreign films slated at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for this calendar year.

It will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Tickets are $3. The storyline goes something like this:The 40-year-old main character arrives in a strange city with no memory of how

he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment -- even a wife. But before long, he notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem

cut off from any real emotion, and communicate only in superficialities. The ominous ”Caretakers,” who make certain the city runs smoothly, keep an

increasing watch over him once they find he doesn’t fit in. When he makes an attempt to escape the city, he discovers there’s no way out.

Andreas meets a soul mate, who has the same longings as himself. The fellow has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack. Maybe it leads to “the other side?” A new plan for escape is hatched, and the plot moves on from there.

Stated one reviewer: “’The Bothersome Man’ describes a world not unlike our own – a sarcastic and

tinted view of our affluent lives in the Nordic countries; a society where all problems have been ironed out. Empathy has become surplus – an empty friendliness has taken its place. Kitchen furnishings have replaced love, and social rituals have replaced friendship. It’s normality in all its grotesqueness.”

The main character, in his new environment, finds neither death nor dreams, and no love either. In this society, everything has been laid out for him. He is given a place to stay, a job and clothes. He is handed a life.

“Not unlike the destiny of a refugee coming to Norway,” the reviewer wrote. “The film describes total loneliness in a world that has everything. But that’s also all it has. A society that has lost something along the way in its quest for perfection – a dead society.”

“The Bothersome Man” takes place in a parallel universe, or the life after death. The main character is the only one who seems human, with his feelings and needs intact. Through his desperation and despair, viewers can relate and maybe take a look at how they lead their own lives.

The foreign-film bookings will continue on Jan. 24 with Canada’s “A Simple Curve.” This is the story of a small-town, woodworking entrepreneur who is determined to keep his business afloat in the spite of the relentless idealism of his father, who is an aging hippy, and his business partner, a draft dodger.

More information about events and attractions is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling Jay Gavan, the museum’s special-events coordinator, at 373-7414.

Spreading the word

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OK, your new program, project, activity, community service or happening has been given the green light by the powers-that-be. Or, you have been selected to make a presentation at a statewide or national conference.

Your next telephone call or e-mail should be to Tom Thinnes (extension 4280, tthinnes@kvcc.edu) to begin spreading the word both around the college and around the community.

Don’t – REPEAT – don’t wait around until the week before to contact those whose duties include public relations, promotions, marketing, communication and dealing with the news media. Thus, Karen Visser and Tarona Guy should also be in the loop.

What’s important to remember is that members of the news media and other vehicles of communications don’t sit on their hands waiting for calls giving them clues on what to do.

As with all of us at KVCC, they have schedules, full platters, agendas and days, and plenty to do. They appreciate as much advance notice as the rest of us so that they can properly apply their resources and their responses.

The same modus operandi applies to those who organize and present annual and repeating events. They, too, are often just as newsworthy and require as much advance notice in order to generate the public exposure many of them deserve.

Helpful Hint No. 2 – There is no such animal as contacting this trio too early.

And finally. . . A woman was preparing a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband when he rushed into kitchen, saying “Careful” and then a re-emphasized “Careful!.”

That was followed by a series of instructions about not using enough butter, cooking too many eggs at once, when to turn them for the over-easy request, when to apply salt and how much, and making certain they would not stick to the pan.

“Careful, careful,” he said. “You never listen when you’re cooking.“Turn them,” he yelled. “Turn them now. Are you crazy? Have you lost

your mind? “You know you always forget to salt them,” he said. “Use the salt! Now!”

Finally, the wife had had enough. “What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?”

The husband – now the epitome of calm – replied: “I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'

☻☻☻☻☻☻

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