Year: 2015

This past Thursday, students from the Houghton College Physics Department had the chance to tour the radiation research facilities at the University of Maryland (UMD). The students were given cats-eye marbles that had been irradiated by the university’s gamma ray irradiator, turning them a pitch black. The color will slowly fade to clear glass over the course of a few decades.

On the tour, students were given a look at a three-meter diameter rotating sphere filled with molten sodium metal for studying the development of magnetic fields of planets. They saw the linear accelerator (LINAC) and watched it deposit charged particles in pieces of acrylic. When the surface of these acrylic pieces was cracked, the particles surged towards this weak point, producing a lightning-like pattern called a Lichtenberg Figure.

Students peered into a 6-inch diameter hole, at a glowing Cobalt-60 source beneath 15 ft of water. Gamma rays emitted from the source launch electrons that travel faster than the speed of light through water. They produce a visual “sonic boom” that emits an intense sky-blue glow. This process is called Cherenkov radiation. The source is used for many applications including artificially aging technological components and radiation hardness testing.

The next stop was UMD’s 250 kW nuclear reactor, MUTR. The reactor is used as a source of neutrons for experiments including cancer research in radiology, neutron detector development, and materials science. The core is housed in concrete and submerged beneath 17 ft of water, it is a research reactor and it does not produce electricity. It transfers its thermal power into its 6000 gallon natural water pool. The reactor utilizes the special TRIGA (Training, Research, and Isotopes by General Atomics) fuel that cannot meltdown because an increase in fuel temperature will reduce the fission reactions that limits the achievable power. This core glows even more blue than the cobalt source due to Cherenkov radiation.

The final stop on the trip was to the University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER). This complex machine is at the “intensity frontier” of particle accelerator research. A low energy accelerator sends a high throughput of electrons into the ring. Experiments are performed on the self-interactions of the electrons in the ring as they accelerate in high densities.

Starting next year, residence hall open hours will be extended on the weekends. Included in the changes, Thursday nights will become the only night without open hours. This all in response to the Residence Life Student Satisfaction Survey.

According to Marc Smithers, director of residence life & housing, starting in the 2015-2016 school year, all residence halls will have open hours extended to 1am on Friday night and extended until 12am on Saturday nights. In surveys for the last several years, Smithers said, “Students [have been] asking for an updated open hours policy, especially talking about wanting to stay later on the weekends.”

Saturday open hours will now start at 7 p.m., instead of 4 p.m., to reduce confusion, add consistency throughout the week, and compensate for later hours on Friday and Saturday according to Smithers.

Additionally, open hours will now be in effect on Monday nights in only the men’s dorms, Rothenbuhler and Shenawana. On Wednesday nights, only the women’s dorms, Lambien and Gillette, will have open hours. This is based on a staggered model used at Taylor University according to Smithers.

A way to remember the days is “Monday men’s, Wednesday women’s,” said Smithers.

This will benefit students in many ways. One of these ways is more interaction cross hall among the students according to Krista Maroni, Lambein resident director. She said, I’ve noticed that students tend to stick to visiting one building of the opposite gender (whichever that might be for any given couple or friend group).”

Jon Craton, Rothenbuhler resident director, said in addition to listening to the majority, Residence Life also wants to “respect the smaller constituency on campus that appreciates the privacy and freedom that comes from not having opposite gendered students on their floor every night.”

School night open hour times on Sunday through Wednesday will remain the same from 7-11 p.m. This leaves Thursday the only night with no open hours in the dorms.

Addressing the the potential student concern for the change’s effect on quiet hours, Smithers said, “We don’t see when hours are not quiet hours all the other hours as ‘loud hours.’ There’s a healthy respect for community in both non-quiet hours and quiet hours.”

Part of the decision is also budgetary and practical, said Smithers, because these open hours will now reflect the hours of the proctor desk. “This will be reflecting the lounge hours, so the lounges will close at the same time that the desk close, at the same time open hours close,” he said. “We are trying to make it less confusing.”

Responding to requests for open hours all hours of the day, Smithers said, “we value the kind of community we can build in the residence hall and so when we have this constant pressure to invite people into our residence hall that takes away from the floor community and the hall community that can be built.”

“We like to set aside times when we can open up the residence halls to outside visitors,” said Smithers. “But we also like to have the bulk majority of our time be for the residence, for the hall, for the floor.”

Overall, Residence Life expects students to respond positively, as well as benefit from the changes. Maroni said, “There will always be push back, any change no matter the size has some, but I think this will benefit the student body overall. They’ve been given more trust, freedom and hopefully more ownership over their ability to effect campus rules and policy.”

Last fall, several new faculty were hired in the music, math, and communication departments. Brandon Bate, Sarah Hutchings, and Madison Murphy were hired in the fall of ‘14 and will continue on as part of the faculty in the fall of ‘15. According to the Dean of the College, Linda Mills Woolsey, both Bate, assistant professor of mathematics, and Hutchings, assistant professor of music theory and composition, “will be returning, moving from interim positions to longer term positions.” Both Bate and Hutchings will be on the Full Time Tenure Track. Bates, an ‘04 Houghton College alumni, is excited to continue on in the math department, “I feel blessed to be able to continue with the college in a tenure-track position.”

Also on the Full Time Tenure Track is newly hired Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, Jason Bintz. Bintz, who graduated from Covenant College in ‘03, will begin teaching applied math in the fall of ‘15.

Murphy, a Houghton College ‘11 alumni and interim assistant professor of media arts and visual communication, will also be staying on as a second year interim professor. Murphy, specializes in 3D visualization and animation, will continue to assist the communication department.

In addition to newly hired faculty returning, there will be more hires within the math, recreation, and biology departments. Laura Alexichik, who has taught for Houghton before and is an ‘01 Houghton alumni, will begin the fall of ‘15 as an Interim Adjunct Professor of Recreation. Also new to faculty next fall will be Rebecca Williams. Williams, who graduated from the University of Windsor in ‘08, will be an Assistant Professor of Biology.

The college had a total of 11 faculty searches for this academic year. There were two failed searches, one in the communication department and another in the science department. Woolsey said, “We did not have a strong enough candidate pool for Web Design and we made an offer in Biochemistry but the candidate declined the offer.”

Offers have also been made to candidates in art, accounting, finance, and one will soon be made in voice. The college is currently awaiting answers from the potential faculty members.