Author: Thomas Eckert

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News

Biology Department to Hire New Faculty Member

The Biology Department is interviewing to hire a new professor for the fall semester of 2014, intending to fill the gap in its staff after losing Drs. Matthew Pelletier and Kurt Vandock. Pelletier left Houghton for Liberty University;Vandock, for a job at Bayer.

“The hire in biology is a critical need given the loss of two professors last year.” said Dr. Jamie Potter of the Biology Department, “We have one of the largest majors at Houghton. As we look to the future of the biology department, a hire in biology is necessary to meet the needs of our students, majors and non-majors, in their educational preparedness and to share in our roles as advisors and mentors.”

Having only three full-time faculty members makes both teaching and advising biology students difficult. There are roughly 100 declared biology majors. The classes that most demand to be filled are basic genetics, which is essential to a BS in Biology.

In the spring semester 2013, faculty in the department formed a committee consisting of the biology faculty and one member from outside of the sciences. This committee, after receiving approval from college administration, developed a posting for the job. It was listed by the CCCU and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The committee collected a list of those interested in the position. Each candidate was categorized as a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” by Dr. Aaron Sullivan. Members of the committee reviewed the teaching philosophy, faith statement, and curriculum vitae of each candidate to narrow the selection from 30 to nine possibilities. The initial culling is very easy. Oftentimes, applicants do not include a statement of faith when they submit for candidacy. This automatically results in their elimination from the pool of potentials.

From here, the nine candidates’ applications were parsed thoroughly by the committee. Members looked through written submissions and contacted the references listed by the applicants. After scrutinizing the applicants in detail, the members of the committee each ranked them from best to worst by their own criteria.

They met and discussed their rankings. Each member explained how they ranked the applicants and a loose consensus of ranking was reached. The applicants each scheduled an interview via Skype with the committee.

Following each interview, the committee conferred about the candidate in question. Members listed good attributes and poor ones in order to gauge how well the interviewee would do as a part of the faculty. By the time the candidates had reached this stage in the process, their qualifications are generally similar. These interviews focused more on the person as an individual. Are they personable? Are they going to be easy to work with? Will students be able to approach them?

After these meetings dismissed, the members of the committee were encouraged to pray about their decisions. Each took time to reflect on the candidates. No conclusions were to be reached until the follow-up meeting. In this meeting, the committee made cuts. They decided who to decline and who to invite to campus for one final assessment.

Of the 9 candidates interviewed, 2 were brought to campus the week before Spring Break. Because of the costs involved in flying someone to the school and accommodating them on their stay, the committee needed to make sure that the candidates they brought to campus were the right ones. They only chose the very best.

The candidates were led through a hectic day. It began with meeting the committee itself in person. Here, a more in depth interview took place. The candidates, in their own meetings, were asked to elaborate on their faith statement. They spoke on how they would integrate faith into their teaching, what their biggest challenges would as professors, and where their passion for science came from. They met with several important figures on campus, including Dean of Science and Mathematics, Keith Horn; Dean of the Chapel, Michael Jordan; Dean of Academics, Mark Hijleh; and President Shirley Mullen.

They then taught a biology class. Members of the committee sat in on the class to evaluate their teaching skills. These also candidates gave lectures that were open to all students at a separate time. They met with students personally, without the committee present.

At the end of the day, they could relax. On both visits, some of the committee members went to dinner with the candidates. At a local restaurant, members sat down with candidates and chatted casually about their days. The members of the committee who were present enjoyed the ability to see the interviewee in a less formal setting. Here, they could really tell if they could work with this person as a colleague.

The candidates have both returned home and now the committee is in the process of choosing which one of them will join their faculty next semester. Having their opinions in place after interviewing and meeting the candidates, members of the committee will take into account the opinions of students both by word of mouth and survey. Once the committee has agreed, the candidate chosen will be announced and will join Houghton in the Fall semester.

 

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Stories In Focus

Her, Questioning Relationships

In his latest film, Her, Spike Jonze invites his viewer into a pastel-colored future that will daze them in reflection for weeks following. Set in the near future, the film opens on Theodore Twombly (Joaquín Phoenix) working at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com, a ghostwriting service for the romantic and lazy. As he leaves work, he speaks a voice command to his phone, “Play melancholy song.”

Courtesy of collider.com
Courtesy of collider.com

He walks out onto the streets of a bustling Los Angeles, making his way back to his apartment. He is in a slump – lost in daydreamed memories of his estranged wife who is seeking a divorce from him. The world Theodore travels through is not unlike our own. Those around him tinker with gadgets on the train, exploring their own unique and pixelated realities.

The world painted by Jonze is believable because it reflects the world of today. It does not indulge in science fiction tropes of latex jumpsuits and flying cars. It seems a very accurate prediction of the world we will soon inhabit. The devices that make our lives wonderfully convenient today have become staples in Theodore’s time.

The film ignores the limits of its genre. It does not show the viewer a future for the sake of its own self-indulgence. Rather, it uses the vantage point to weave a human love story. At the same time, it examines issues of human connection without seeming preachy or superior.

After seeing an advertisement for an artificial intelligence, OS1, in a subway terminal, Theodore picks up a copy for himself. Alone in his apartment that night, he activates his purchase. After a few basic questions and a loading screen, it springs to life with a cheerful, “Hello? I’m here.”

“Hi?”, Theodore responds.

Awkward at first, their stilted introduction eases into laughter. The OS identifies itself as female. Theodore asks for her name. She comes up with one on the spot, “Samantha”.

The role of Samantha is played by an unseen Scarlett Johansson. Imbued with programmed personality, she helps Theodore through his trepidations about the world. Together, they grow. As they become fonder and fonder of each other they begin to form a relationship that will change the both of them by the end of the film.

This relationship is beautifully scored by a collaboration between Arcade Fire and Karen O, orchestrated by Owen Pallett. The soundtrack mixes melancholy acoustic instruments with humming electronic sounds. It fits unobtrusively into the story, adding to it in subtle ways. When Samantha composes music to express her deeper feelings, her compositions grow more varied and detailed as she grows in intelligence and complexity.

As a viewer, Jonze’s future will challenge your view of what a relationship truly is. Thematically, the film is a love story. Soft music and bloom seep smoothly into the narrative. These are balanced by a story that shows a deep relationship with flaws and imperfections. It poses a question to the viewer. Why do we indulge ourselves in connecting to others?

Is it so we can lay our burdens on another and take theirs in return?
Is it so we can experience the edges of our human limits in both serenity and frustration?
Is it so that we can learn something new about ourselves?

 

Categories
Stories In Focus

Secret of Mim

Mim Case is the reason that the Paine Center for Science has not yet imploded. By her title, she is the Academic Coordinator for Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

In her day-to-day life, she makes sure that everything in the building is running smoothly so that the professors are able to focus on their teaching. She may find herself orchestrating building maintenance or researching new programs. Sometimes, she proctors exams for students when they fall behind on work.

Mim moved to Houghton with her husband, Jon Case, in 2005. Prior to their residence in Fillmore, they lived in Melbourne, Australia. Jon had met several Houghton professors through the school’s Down Under program while teaching at Kingsley College. During a furloughed trip to the United States, they got a call – “If you’re stateside, come see us at Houghton.”

The move was a huge change for the family. Melbourne is a city of 4 million people. Fillmore is a town of about 600. Mim is used to changing scenery. Although she self-identifies as a Texan from birth, she has held drivers licenses in seven different states.

Even still, Fillmore is a new experience for her. “I’m not really a country kind of person, so this has been a really different experience, but I’m learning all kinds of things,” she said in our interview. Being an avid baker, she is happy that she can get fresh ingredients from local farms through community supported agriculture.

Case_Mim

At home, she has quit cooking, “My husband does all that,” she says, “He’s a great Punjabi chef. This year he’s beginning to try Chinese and Thai.”

One thing that might catch your eye as you walk by Mim’s office is Mim herself, standing upright in front of her computer. When she first came to Houghton, she found that she was in a lot of pain at the end of her workday. Doing some research, she discovered that her desk was too high for good posture. Her solution, however, was to get an even higher one.

Mim began using a standing desk, supplementary to her sitting one. If you ask her, she’ll laud its use,”It’s great! I use it so much that one day, I came in the morning and set my things on my chair and by four o’clock I realized they were still there. I had gone the entire day standing and didn’t even notice it!”

Even if it weren’t for her desk, Mim would spend much of her day on her feet running around just keeping the department working properly. Despite her busy schedule, she still finds time to make Paine a brighter place. She very proudly tells me about an idea she executed alongside Dr. Brubaker – a mosaic of Houghton science majors which together form a single image of the Paine building. Mim collected the photos and found a company to design it. It is hanging by the second floor entrance to Schaller Hall.

Outside of school, Mim is very involved with her church, Houghton Wesleyan. She leads the missions convention work team. The church is looking to work more with Buffalo refugees in the next year. The focus of such missions work, aside from ministry, is to enable refugees with tools or skills that help them become more self-sufficient. She says,”It’s great to see a different side of the city and to see how you can help.”

When I asked Mim what she looks forward to in the upcoming year, her face lights up. Meic Pearse, professor of history, has asked her to be a part of the East Meets West travel team. This May, she’ll get to go to the Balkans with the honors program in order to provide logistical support. When she goes, she will bring her husband and daughter, Carolyn, too.

Mim’s hard work is invaluable to keeping Paine together. If you have ever enjoyed a math or science class, stop by her office this week and thank Mim for making it possible.

 

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News

Addie’s Ice Cream Coming to Houghton

This April, Addie’s Ice Cream is expanding its business to Houghton.

The company, cofounded by Houghton College alumni Addie and Andrew Silbert, began serving the town of Findley Lake, NY in May of 2009. By April of this year, they plan to open a new location adjacent to the fire hall parking lot. It will take the space that was formerly “Personal Effects” at 9746 Route 19. The space is their second location.

Addies“We plan to offer a variety of 16 flavors at our Houghton location,” Addie said, “We also plan to offer our homemade waffle cones, waffle bowls, sundaes, banana splits, milkshakes, floats, a variety of novelties, fresh brewed coffee and some baked items.”

Addie and Andrew met at Houghton College. Addie graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in business, and Andrew in 2008 with a B.A. in communications. In 2009, they opened a family restaurant and ice cream parlor near Addie’s hometown after moving there a year prior. Set two hours west of Houghton, Findley Lake became the stage for the couple’s entrepreneurial upstart.

The restaurant on Sunnyside Rd. (paralleled by Shadyside Rd. on the other side of the lake) became a beloved part of the community. As their shop grew, Addie and Andrew noticed that the product people kept coming back for was not their hot food, but rather their frozen treats. After two years of business, they decided to refocus solely as an ice cream shop. Until this year, their expansion has only reached out to vendors – including Houghton College’s Campus Store and 5Bites.

The company began to offer its product through 5Bites in late September of last year. Bradley Oliver (’15) works with Addie’s, managing stock and shipments of their ice cream to 5Bites. He says, “Addie’s really cares about our business’ success which was manifested in their deliveries and payment schedules. Addie and Andrew are both genuine people and are really passionate about their business.”

While many of the company’s products are available on campus already, the Houghton location offers new opportunities to the college and the community. With this space, Addie’s can get involved with the college’s students by providing employment opportunities that are currently few and far between outside of campus. In addition, Addie’s is interested in a potential relationship with the business program at Houghton, providing internships that will feature hands on experience in an entrepreneurial environment.

When asked what the couple’s impetus for opening a location in Houghton, Addie answered, “One of the reasons was the desire to begin to give back to a community that we both cared about. We wanted to contribute to the economic development of the Houghton community.”

Addie’s hopes to become an integral part of life for both students and non-students alike in the Houghton area. Look for their frozen treats to arrive as Houghton thaws this April.

 

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News

College Looks to Hire Forest Manager

Houghton_Forest_CMYK

This month, Houghton College is interviewing to hire a forest manager. Tasked with culling mature tree growth on the college’s 533 acres of forested land, they will produce and execute a plan that increases revenue and pays mind to the local environment.

The four-man panel directing this operation consists of Dr. James Wolfe, Dave Smith, Brian Webb, and Don Haingray. Their intent is to take on tree harvesting in the forests as both an economic and environmentally benefiting endeavor. “While logging is typically thought of as a negative in ecological terms, it can actually be good for a forest if done correctly,” said Brian Webb, Sustainability Coordinator for the college. Don Haingray echoed this statement, “This is about the health of the forest.  It is the right thing to do if we are to be good stewards of the land.”

In a meeting with the college’s board of trustees, the panel described their goals for forest management: improve forest health by cutting and selling overgrowth, facilitate sustained timber production at 15-year intervals, minimize logging-related erosion, improve and protect wildlife habitats, and avoid disturbing everyday use of the property.

The first step in this process is contacting the Department of Environmental Conservation and meeting with the New York State Forester, Robert K. Davies. Davies has reviewed the college’s extant forestry plan from 2002 and surveyed the property. He verified the current plan to be in depth and needing only minor revision. He also provided the college with a list of cooperative foresters to be interviewed for the role of forestry manager.

In mid-November, the panel will meet with several candidates to decide which one is right for the position. While each member of the board has his own concept of an ideal forest manager, the overall consensus seems to focus on sustainability as a priority. “Hiring a forest manager who is committed to sustainable forestry practices will enable us to preserve the long-term value of our woods – not just economically, but ecologically as well,” said Webb.

The selected candidate will take on the role of forestry manager and several key responsibilities. These include updating the college’s 11 year-old forestry plan, marking trees that will be harvested, managing bidding and contracts with a logging company, and overseeing the actual logging process with a mind towards protecting the environment. The forestry manager will be paid a percentage of the earnings from harvesting.

Updating the forestry plan will involve working through about 100-pages of documentation and editing its contains based on current observations of the forested land. Before now, said Webb, “Our forests really hadn’t really been maintained.” There is very little growth due to older trees dominating the ecosystem. This logging process will help to remove those older specimens and encourage new ones.

Once trees are marked to be logged, the forest manager will take bids from logging companies to enter into contract with the college. Special considerations will be taken to ensure that the college is hiring a company that will preserve the forest’s natural ecology. The company that will win the bid will be the company that best balances monetary investment with environmental provisions.

The panel is approaching this process with caution, however. There have been many instances, both locally and nationally, of logging practices being poorly handled. Oftentimes, the harvesting process can damage roadways, habitats, and soils. Smith, said that he will not permit a logging company to treat the land that way, “We don’t see any benefit to clear cutting our forests to make some temporary money. That’s not our goal.”

Properly executed, the panel would set up a sustained process for small-scale timber production in the forest. At 15-year intervals, the forest will be reexamined much as it is today. At such time, logging practices will be enacted only where it is both ecologically and economically sensible. The panel sees a long-term investment as far more beneficial than a short-term payoff.

In Webb’s words, “While this process was initiated by a desire to create income through logging, I believe we can do so in a manner that maintains the beauty, as well as the ecological health of the Houghton woods. My goal is to ensure that we demonstrate responsible stewardship by caring for the forest that God has blessed us with.”

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News

Houghton Alumni Awarded ‘Alumnus of the Year’

Houghton alumni Dr. Myron Glick and Dr. Joe Harvey received Alumni of the Year awards on Wednesday October 2, 2013. Glick was honored for his work with refugees in Buffalo, NY and Harvey for his medical work in the Republic of Congo.

The Alumnus of the Year award is an annual honor that highlights graduates who have taken the knowledge and wisdom gained from their time at Houghton and used it to better the world in a significant way.

Dr. Myron Glick
Dr. Myron Glick

Dr. Myron Glick is a 1988 graduate of the college. He founded Jericho Road Family Practice in 1998 and now operates as its CEO. Jericho Road works to provide medical care to a wide range of Buffalo residents including, as its website states, “[the] medically underserved, people in poverty, refugees and immigrants.” It seeks to treat patients without regard to their insurance status or ability to pay. It supports this endeavor through donations from the community.

Since its inception, the outreach has provided health care to over 35,500 patients. It currently employs 3 physicians, 4 nurse practitioners and 1 physician assistant at 2 sites in the city.

Beyond medical care, Jericho Road also values the education of the refugee community in order to better its health and well-being as a whole. It believes that helping the community by providing services now will allow the residents to grow self-sufficient and independent in the future.

The practice spurred the founding of a sister organization, Jericho Road Ministries, as a counterpart devoted to fulfilling the spiritual needs of the refugee community. This organization was also founded by Dr. Glick, inspired by a need for spiritual healing for refugee residents.

In 2012, Dr. Glick also received the Community Leader Award from Houghton for his significant contributions to the diverse community he serves in Buffalo.

Dr. Joe Harvey is also a 1988 graduate of the college. He is the founder and medical director of Pioneer Christian Hospital. The hospital is located in the heart of the Congo River Basin Rainforest. It has 60-beds for providing general care to locals. The local Congolese it serves number about 300,000 individuals.

Dr. Joe Harvey
Dr. Joe Harvey

According to its website, the hospital most commonly provides treatment for, “malaria, sexually-transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, HIV/AIDS, leprosy, meningitis, monkey pox, and other infectious diseases.” Aside from these, pregnancy, hernia, hypertension, gastritis, diabetes, and trauma are also common.

In addition to its medical services, Pioneer also benefits the community by employing paid Congolese staff in obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, consultation, laboratory, medical imaging, pharmacy, chaplaincy, administration, maintenance, and security. The paid staff work alongside missionary volunteers. To cover the costs of materials and staff, the hospital itself relies on funding from its partners as well as from donations.

Pioneer is also making an impact in the religious culture of the region by providing spiritual services to those it treats. Through these actions, it has reduced the number of preventable deaths and diseases as well as allowed for an inflow of Christian philosophy and doctrine into the region.

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News

Field of Solar Panels: Houghton to Install Green Technology

Houghton College plans to build an 11-acre solar panel installation in the Field of Dreams. The panels will reduce the College’s dependence on non-renewable sources of electricity by supplying over 50% of the energy that the College uses annually. The project is set to begin construction in December with completion by the end of Spring Semester 2014.

“As a signatory to the President’s Climate Commitment, Houghton has committed itself to carbon neutrality by 2050. This solar project, and the accompanying purchase of renewable energy certificates, represents our first major step toward achieving that goal,” said Brian Webb, Sustainability Coordinator for Houghton College, adding,“The clean energy produced by this array is the equivalent of annually burning 1,500 fewer tons of coal or removing 400 cars from the road.”

The President’s Climate Commitment is a collective effort by almost 700 colleges in the United States to reduce carbon emissions and imbue upon students the importance of protecting our natural ecology. A school that has signed the Commitment agrees to take inventory of their carbon emissions, set a target date for becoming climate neutral, take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and integrate sustainability into the educational experience.

This solar installation is one part of Houghton’s commitment. The array will be constructed in the Field of Dreams, north of the playing fields. As it will replace the hay fields currently occupying the area, it is not expected to obstruct the playing area. The array will be surrounded by a chain-link fence and each panel will be elevated 9 feet above ground level. It will be one of the largest installations on a college campus in New York State. At press time, the installation of the panels has been reviewed and confirmed at local, county, and state levels. The College is in the process of acquiring permits to begin construction.

Courtesy of maximumsurvival.net
Courtesy of maximumsurvival.net

Houghton is working with Smart Energy Capital (SEC) to assemble the installation. SEC will fund the building of the installation, which will be constructed by Borrego Solar. The panels will be owned and operated by SEC. Their construction will not be a direct cost to the college; rather, the College is in contract with SEC to purchase the energy generated by the panels for the next 25 years. Any surplus energy generated by the panels will be sold by the school to Rochester Gas & Electric at market value. After the 25-year contract expires, Houghton will have the option to bid for and purchase the panels themselves.

The opportunity to build the panels comes as a result of a Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative which provides $46 million for large-scale solar projects. This grant will cover much of the construction costs for the array and ensure that Houghton will get a reasonable fixed rate for the energy produced.

Houghton’s ecological sustainability, including the installation of these panels, is managed by the Creation Care Committee. The Committee’s mission is to reduce the carbon footprint of the College. It accomplishes this by reducing both use of non-renewable resources and waste production. It also works to educate students and faculty about our local and global environment.

Beyond the installation of the solar panels, the Creation Care Committee is working on several other initiatives. These include updating the HVAC systems in campus buildings, increasing the energy efficiency of the school, and exploring alternative energy resources such as wind and geothermal.

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News

Appointment of Dean Michael Jordan is “Slam Dunk” for College

Courtesy of www.houghton.edu
Courtesy of www.houghton.edu

After serving as Interim Dean of Chapel for the past semester, Dr. Michael Jordan has decided to accept the position permanently.

“I look forward to helping to shape Houghton’s spiritual life. I especially look forward to helping people see that our spiritual life is not something the administration creates for the students, but something that we create together as we give ourselves over to the rhythm of worship and work, study and rest, prayer and play.” said Dean Jordan.

Hailing from southern New Jersey, Jordan entered college at Houghton for undergraduate studies where he earned a B.A. in History and Bible with a minor in Linguistics. There he met his now wife, Dr. Jill Jordan, mathematics. After graduating from Houghton in 1999, he went on to attend Eastern Baptist (now Palmer) Theological Seminary where he graduated with a Masters in Divinity in 2002. He was a pastor at Exton Community Baptist Church in Exton, Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2009. During this time, he studied to receive his P.H.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. In 2009, he left his position as a pastor to come back to Houghton after Jill was offered her current professorship.

Jordan enjoys working at the college in a position of religious leadership. He said,”I’ve always enjoyed both preaching and the academy. Pastoring had a lot of the latter without the former; the people in my church didn’t always get my drive to study. Teaching as an adjunct on the other hand is great, but doesn’t let me explore my full pastoral side. The dean position will be great in allowing me to mix and enjoy both the academic and pastoral parts of my role here at the college.”

Dean Jordan hopes to serve the community as a “spiritual tone setter.” He wants to take chapel in a direction that is more deeply liturgical with a focus on worship and connection with God. Instead of having a chapel focused on information, he wants to see one focused on formation. He plans to provide more opportunities for communication between students and chapel speakers.

Jordan’s view of chapel in the next year is one that moves away from a previously consumerism-like model. As it stands currently, students tend to choose which chapels they attend based on who is speaking, who is playing worship, or any other small aspect of the service and decide whether or not that chapel will interest them. In the future, Jordan wants to make chapel into a practice and experience that allows the students at Houghton to take some time out of their day to give back to God and refocus on His teachings.

He jokingly refers to this as taking time to “paint pictures for God’s refrigerator” through our worship and, more seriously, as taking the time to lift our voices up to Him and devote our hearts to His glory.

When asked what he enjoyed seeing this past semester in chapel, Jordan recalled several highlights including faith journeys, the gospel choir’s performances, and the support he has received from the students as he has taken on the position. He remarks that even the complaints about chapel that he receives do not give the impression that they are personal, but rather critical of the institution of chapel as a whole.

In some ways, this worries the Dean. He would like the chapel to move from being a faceless body and towards being an accessible and organic part of campus. While he has avoided shaping the structure of chapel in his interim period as the dean, Jordan hopes that he can more deeply integrate chapel into the lives of students as something they can openly discuss and feel that their opinions are heard.

When discussing how Houghton has changed since his time here (’95-’99), Jordan remarks that very little has changed. “There is still the same mix of academics and Christianity that was present when I attended,” he said. One change he notes is the increase in mobility and accessibility to the outside world. The college is a lot less isolated than it was in the past.

 

When asked about social justice movements at Houghton, Jordan replied,“I’m a social justice guy.” The seminary he attended is very well known for its unique focus on social justice, which has shaped his views on Christians in society. Defining his goals for social justice at Houghton, he wants to call out sin to rectify it and, in his words, “make a world here that Jesus will recognize as good when He returns.”

Academically, Jordan would like to see more engagement with students about social and political issues. One source of engagement he views as being successful is the meeting of panels on social issues including same-sex attraction and sexual assault. The topics of these panels are often controversial and harsh, but Jordan sees them as bringing about positive change through open discussion.

“I hope students find me invitational: I know that they will not always agree with what I say, or my ideas, but I’m very open to the input of others and want to help us find our best way together,” expressed Jordan.

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News

Science Honors Launches Balloons

After a year of hard work and long coffee-fueled nights, the 14 students that make up Science Honors have launched weather balloons they have constructed to take measurements of the upper atmosphere.

Leading up to the launch, Science Honors student Jonathan Yuly remarked, “It will be really exciting to watch what happens with our year’s project, and how future years will move forward with it.”

Each balloon was outfitted with its own set of sensors and instruments. The sensors were run by onboard processing chips called a BASIC Stamp Boards. These boards act as the brains of the boxes. They tell the sensors how to work and then deliver the information they collect to a radio that sends it back to the students at Houghton.

Four teams were collected from the students to design an experiment that would use the balloons and sensors to analyze data about climate change. Groups did experiments that ranged from measuring CO2 to the refraction of light through clouds and how it affects the sun’s rays hitting Earth.

The balloons were launched on Tuesday, April 23rd at nine in the morning after a short press conference. Unfortunately, as science is wont to do, the live experiment was met with many challenges. On the night before the launch, two of the radios on the boxes were fried after being overcharged with current.

R.D. Marek’s radio was one of the two that was ruined. At 2 am, in the Paine building, he was quoted as saying “I’m looking for a ‘Lazarus moment’.”

Eventually, he got it when his radio resumed normal function. The other radio did not however and that group’s balloon was not able to launch.

The teams prepared to launch 3 balloons from the quad on Tuesday morning when they were met with several unforeseeable misfortunes.

The first group to launch had no issues in launching their balloon. However, once it was up in the sky, they found that although it was transmitting data to the computer on the ground, the computer was not properly recording the data.

The next group was disappointed when their cut-down system, meant to release the box from the balloon in case of an emergency, was activated by a faulty radio transmission and cut the balloon from the box as it was beginning to lift off the quad.

Lastly, the third group found themselves similarly unlucky. When released, the knot that tied their balloon to the box came undone and the team watched as their balloon floated away.

The balloons, costing around $300 each, were not able to be replaced immediately and the two launches that failed were not able to relaunch.

Despite these issues, the crowd watching the launch still enjoyed getting to see the experiment unfold. Said freshman, Myra Mushalla,“I got to see many science honors students work on their balloon projects for a long time and getting to watch the launch off the quad was very satisfying, even for me; so I imagine it was great for them.”

The teams retired to the Science Honors Lab after the launch to watch the one successful launch travel northward on a GPS tracker that was linked to the box. Once the balloon showed that it was in a constant position for several minutes, the teams piled into three Houghton vans and drove to Dansville, NY to retrieve it.

A woman who owns the property where the box landed led the teams up into the woods where they found the box 50 feet up, hanging on a tree limb, unable to be retrieved. With this last disappointment, the teams got back into their vans and went out for ice cream.

Plans to retrieve this box have been set into motion, but at the present time, it is still swinging away from the top branches of a tree in Dansville.

news_sciencehonors

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News

SGA Transfer of Powers

With another year over and the 69th Houghton Senate at its close, the College Cabinet looks forward to new changes as senators move in, move up, and move out of their elected positions and on to greater things.

Courtesy of houghton.edu
Courtesy of houghton.edu

The 70th Senate will welcome President Benjamin Hardy, Vice President Andiana Sidell, Chaplain David Bruno, and Treasurer Josiah Evans. Other positions have yet to be filled. When asked what he looks forward to most in this coming year, President Benjamin Hardy said, “I’d like to streamline policies, operations, and procedures to make it easier for future student leaders to do their job. One way we hope to do this is through committees and councils in the SGA by prioritizing them more that we have in the past.”

Hardy is no stranger to the student government, he served as the Vice President for the 69th Senate, a college senator for the 68th, and class president in the 67th.

President of the 69th Senate, Joel Ernst, says incoming president Hardy will bring a new set of strengths to the College Cabinet; he said, “Ben has the potential to have a great year as SGA President. He has a lot of expertise as an SGA member.” Ernst believes that Ben has a good understanding of the College’s needs and will provide a good link between the students and administration. His strong opinions and boldness will enable him to be an effective leader.

Each member looks eagerly towards the opportunities their positions allow them. Dave Bruno, the incoming Chaplain, said, “My biggest hope for this position is that through serving as SGA Chaplain I will be able to help facilitate greater unity among the many spiritually focused groups on campus as well as a greater awareness of all the opportunities for spiritual growth that Houghton offers. Imagine if we were all able to be unified and work together for the spiritual growth of our campus. What could we see happen?”

Josiah Evans, incoming SGA Treasurer, hopes to be able to work for students who are involved in planning activities. He would like to help them figure out the best way to fund their events.

As new members, filled with both anticipation and excitement, prepare for this upcoming year, the previous year’s Cabinet looks back on a year of hard, yet rewarding, work.

Speaker of the 69th Senate, Joshua Mertzlufft, reflected on a Cabinet that he found to be pleasantly close-knit. He enjoyed the healthy debate that the Cabinet fostered as opposed to the argument and disquiet that previous years have harbored.

In tracing back through the year, Mertzlufft reflected that the Cabinet may have spent too much time on political matters and not enough on action. He would like to see this upcoming year’s Cabinet stretch out of its comfort zone more and act rather than deliberate. He said he would also enjoy seeing more collaboration between the senators outside of meetings.

One of the changes already set in motion for this coming year is the recent restructuring of Senate. The restructuring has added new positions for both academic and athletic senators.

While some of the new cabinet members are looking forward to this change, others are