Category: Campus

On Sunday, November 5, through a partnership with Kingdom Bound, Houghton will host a stop on three-time Grammy-nominated Christian rock artist Crowder’s “American Prodigal” tour. The concert will feature hits from Crowder’s most recent album, as well as performances by special guests Jimi Cravity and The Young Escape.

As a part of the David Crowder Band, Crowder earned a reputation for his fresh musicality, elaborate instrumentation, and sometimes contemplative, sometimes cheeky lyrics. His newest offering, according to a review in CCM Magazine, “features every flavor ever served up by David Crowder at one point or another and then some, a delicious array of musical styles brought together to his inimitable gift for melody. Only Crowder could get away with such a set list.”

Since the David Crowder Band disbanded in 2012, Crowder’s solo efforts have made him a household name on his own. The worship ballad “Come As You Are,” featured on his album Neon Steeple, was nominated for the Grammy award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance in 2015. American Prodigal debuted at #5 on Billboard’s Top Albums and #1 on the Christian & Gospel Album charts.

Hosting popular artists gives Houghton’s music industry students a valuable opportunity to learn how to organize large events. “The music industry department tries to help bring a major modern act to Houghton each year,” said Hendrick de Schmidt ‘19, who is on concert staff. “This fall continues that tradition, which has previously included Michael W. Smith and TobyMac. We look forward to helping Crowder’s team put on an excellent show for all in attendance.”

The college has hosted many prominent Christian music artists in the past, exposing students to the broad range of musical styles within the worship and gospel genres. “I’m not a huge concert-goer, so I always appreciate when Houghton brings in amazing artists like Crowder because it’s so easy to go with friends,” said Jessica Robinson ‘18. “When I’ve gone to the pass concerts like, Tenth Avenue North and Toby Mac, I have loved the experience of worshipping God with so much of the Houghton community.  It’s an amazing experience with so many people filling the KPAC with their voices raised to praise our amazing God.  I’m excited to see how God works through Crowder and others who are performing.”

The concert is also a part of Houghton’s Highlander Preview Day, which provides prospective students with a first taste of college life and events. “I’m really excited for all of the prospective high school students who will be coming to the concert and perhaps encountering Houghton for the first time,” said Emily Allen ‘20. “My first official visit day and tour were the weekend of the TobyMac concert in 2015, and I had a great experience. As a prospective student, it is encouraging to see Houghton bringing in a big name band like Crowder even though it is a small school. It shows how far-reaching we really are.”

Tickets to the concert can be purchased at the Kingdom Bound or Houghton websites. General admission tickets are $20. Gold tickets, which include early entry and an exclusive post-show, are $75. The doors of Wesley Chapel will open at 5:30 p.m., with the show starting one hour later.

The Symphony Orchestra will be introducing local children to classical music on Thursday, November 9th at a “Klassics 4 Kids” event.  

“Klassics for Kids is actually a brand new outreach program designed to give middle and high school students the opportunity to hear a more advanced level of music than they might be accustomed to,” said Kira Browning ‘18, a graduate assistant for the Orchestra.

Its event description for the school calendar explained, “It will provide them with the opportunity to hear an orchestra perform in an informal setting and will also include things like instrument demonstrations and some dialogue between the host and audience about historical or general fun facts about the pieces.”

“The Houghton Symphony Orchestra (HSO) is providing the music for this first event and we hope to have more ensembles participate in the future,”  added Browning.  “The HSO will be playing selections from the concert on the following night including Mozart’s ‘Overture to The Magic Flute’ and an exciting piece for strings called ‘Swamp Thang’ by Richard Meyer.”  According to the event description, “The works will be a preview of the Houghton Symphony Orchestra’s concert on the following night. The hope is that this event will engage the students and inspire them in their own music making.”

Monica Fargolia ‘19 recalled her early interactions with classical music and how she became familiar with it.  “I was introduced to classical music when I decided to play an instrument,” she commented.  “My music teacher liked to encourage us to practice by having us listen to the sounds we could potentially produce and educate us on the pieces we were playing.”

Browning emphasized the event’s intention to work with the kids in helping them to also appreciate and understand the music.  In addition to hearing the concert preview, “the students will be given some relevant background to the piece along with instrument demonstrations,highlighting the possibly unfamiliar instruments and important things to listen for during the piece.”  The visiting kids will have the opportunity to observe and learn from the college students.

“This program is inspired by educational performances put on by orchestras like the St. Louis Symphony, where students from all around come and hear the orchestra in an interactive concert setting… This sort of concert-going experience was inspiring when I was a student and our hope is that it will be the same for those who attend on the 9th,” concluded Browning.

Long awaited renovations to Paine may be coming soon after visiting architects presented plans to the Board of Trustees for Phase 2 of updates.  According to promotional material released by the Office of Advancement, Phase Two contains five separate projects.  The projects focus on the addition of a fifth floor, remodeling space on the first and second floors for “engineering classrooms, laboratories and offices as well as intentionally designed space for Science Honors”, remodeling the Chemistry and Biology labs to allow for teaching laboratories, and creating new spaces for Computer and Data science.

“It’s been in the works for years,” explained  Karl Sisson, Vice President for Advancement and External Relations.  “We’ve been driven by two things:  we’ve had the need, but do we have the finances, from fundraising, to do it?  And the move into engineering precipitates expansion.”  The Board of Trustees recently decided Houghton would take on no new capital projects with new capital debt.  All of the money for the new updates, then, must come from gifts and grants.  To complete all aspects of Phase Two, Houghton would need $8.5 million.  We currently have about $2.9 million in gifts and commitments.

Also inspiring the new changes is Houghton’s hope to gain state approval for a new engineering major.  “This is the one area that has consistently grown as far as attracting number of students.  The number one most desired major that we don’t have currently,” explained Karl Sisson.  “We know there’s an incredible history of the sciences.  We know that it’s very stable and that it’s a distinguishable strength of ours, and there is a potential for growth.  And that is why it rose to the surface as a priority for the campaign overall and for the college.”

“Engineering will allow us to prepare students for one of the most practical areas of service to our world,” said President Mullen.  “Just as Houghton graduates have been prepared for generations to serve in the professions of medicine, law, teaching, clergy—so it would be natural for us to be preparing engineers for service in both this country and around the world.”

If approval does come through to add an engineering major, the plan is to add a fifth floor onto Paine.  The math department would move to the new top floor, leaving the second for engineering.  The expectation is to hear back from the state on approval in early December of this year.  If the state does grant approval, plans will continue for the full, $8.5 million project including adding a new floor.  If not, work can start sooner on simply renovations, which would come in at about $5.5 million.

“The upgrades to the Bio and Chemistry area upgrade to the way our faculty wants to teach,” explained Chief Business Officer Dale Wright.  “Our professors have been involved all along the way and it creates a lot of what we call ‘teaching laboratories’.”  An informational brochure explained, “Science and math at Houghton use an experience-based approach to develop talented young people dedicated to using their God-give gifts to actively think about and solve problems with real-world applications.”  President Mullen commented, “This investment will communicate even more intentionally Houghton’s ongoing commitment to excellence in the sciences.”

She went on to add, “Houghton College has been a leader in Christian higher education in preparing graduates in the natural sciences since early in the 20th century.   In this moment, when there are more opportunities than ever for scientists to make a difference in our world for both good and ill, we want to ensure that Houghton continues to provide an excellent context for the sciences to flourish.“

When it comes to student retention rates, Houghton is choosing to focus less on the numbers and more on how many students choose to return to campus.

“Percentage of students withdrawing has gone up, but you have to check that in relation to enrollment” noted  Rob Pool, Vice President of Student Life. According to the data distribution site College Factual, Houghton College has freshman retention rates above the national average of 71.2%. In February, Houghton reported its retention rate for 2017 at a little over 86%, 15% higher than the national average. While this does still show a slight dip from the numbers reported for the period between 2012 to 2015, which ranged from 87-88%, this metric is up from 86 percent in the 2016 academic year.

Pool’s focus, however, has fixed on examining how Houghton kept students coming back.  “We had a pretty good rift last semester,” explained Pool at a recent SGA discussion forum on current retention rates.  “We had a lot of students who were concerned about how the college was responding to, developing, supporting all of our students, certainly our students from underrepresented populations.  How are we helping those students navigate, find support, feel integrated into the entire student population, and welcomed?  These are questions that we’ve been working with pretty intensely since last spring.”

Last semester, Houghton began considering changes that, according to Pool, were “much more programmatically based.  How are we allocating our resources?  How are we shaping our policy?  What do we need to be doing to make all of our students, especially students of color, feel more welcome?”

One of the answers was renovating the basement of the campus center to include an intercultural campus center.  “You’ll see programming down there.  You’ll see a rotation of faculty and staff holding office hours in that space,” explained Pool.  “It’ll be decorated differently—we’ll actually have furniture that people can lounge it.  Student organizations can have some meetings, do some planning, even some programming down there with small discussion groups.”

Outside of the events that student groups will be able to host in the new space, administration already has plans for special programming to celebrate the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  There will be no classes, but a full day’s worth of activities, speakers, and possibly social events will be incorporated.

Institutional policies will also undergo adjustments in the hopes of establishing a more welcoming campus environment. “The college is in the process of approving and adopting a new diversity statement,” said Pool. “We actually haven’t articulated yet what we want mean by diversity, what we want to include in that statement, and how we want to come together as a community around that.  So a pretty substantial diversity statement has been drafted.  Right now it’s in the Student Life Council. Then it’ll go to the Student Government and the faculty on to the Board of Trustees this year.”

Pool said he often hears students asking, “Why is it so important?  Why it so important that we have program space, faculty, staff, trainings?” In reply, he answered that issues of acceptance become “a compounding problem for our students from diverse backgrounds when we have a lack of faculty or staff who have innate common experiences and who have the life experience to provide and some council.”  He mentions that the administration’s newest initiative is to attract and retain faculty from a diverse background, despite the challenges of finding candidates for a position in s rural an area.

College Factual reportsed that the median cost to recruit a student is “$2,433 for private colleges and $457 for public colleges.” Each time Houghton loses a student, the college loses its return on investment simply because of the amount spent on recruiting them.

Another consequence of frequent dropouts is the affect it has on a school’s graduation rates and, subsequently, funding.  Despite the percentage of students who do not remain past their first year, the College Factual report confirmed that “Both the on-time (two or four years depending on the degree) graduation rate of 66.0% and the overall rate of 72.7% rank Houghton College among the best in the country.”  The majority of students who do not graduate chose to drop out.

Compared to expected national trends, students at Houghton “are graduating at a rate that is 15.3% higher. Therefore, Houghton College is among the highest performing schools nationwide in graduating students when their anticipated academic achievement is factored in.”

In recent months, Houghton has reported recognition already received from outside organizations. “Houghton College was recently ranked as having the fifth-best freshman retention rate for rural, four-year private nonprofit institutions, according to the Chronicle for Higher Education,” the college announced. Additionally, “Of the 118 member schools of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), Houghton ranked first among the 10 rural institutions included.”

“Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.” So begins world-renowned Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s seminal poem “Kindness.” This Friday, Oct. 27, Nye will visit Houghton College to share her insights on the art of poetry writing and her experience as a child of many cultures.

Though Nye makes her current home in San Antonio, Texas, she has frequently described herself as “the wandering poet.” And for good reason. The child of a Palestinian refugee father and a German-Swiss American mother, she spent her early years in San Antonio and Ferguson, Missouri, playing with African- and Mexican-American children. When her father’s mother became ill, he brought their family back in the West Bank, to a house on the tumultuous road that stretched between Jerusalem and Ramallah. It was at the age of six that she wrote her first poems, which focused on everyday subjects like friends and animals. Since then, her writing and speaking has carried her through Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

This perennial fascination with heritage and obsession with the ordinary unfolds itself in Nye’s poetry. In her writing, Nye frequently lends a freshly surprising perspective to the humdrum, powerfully evoking the emotions and nostalgia that accompany familiar people, comfortable places, and household objects. “I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole,” she writes, “not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.”

Embracing a diversity of subjects—from the cultural functions of storytelling to the role of the writer in a fragmented contemporary society—Nye’s poetry is known for its unornamented language and striking imagery.

In an interview with The Observer in 2014, Nye reminisced on her connection to Ferguson and the West Bank, two epicenters of social and racial conflict. “I felt like if I didn’t say something, what kind of writer am I?” she said. “Maybe the connection is slight, but I think the connection of domination and injustice is strong.” By focusing on the similarities between Jew and Palestinian, white and black, she aims to spark conversations about the loves we share.  

Naomi Shihab Nye’s books of poetry include Poems of the Middle East, Red Suitcase, You & Yours, and Words Under the Words. She has also published several essay collections, including Never In A Hurry and Are You Okay? More recently, she has begun to move into children’s literature with her children’s novels Habibi and Going Going, and her picture books Baby Radar and Famous. In all, she has authored or edited thirty volumes of poetry and fiction, and is currently working on a collection called Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners.

Over the years, Shihab Nye has been honored by many prominent arts organizations. She is Guggenheim Fellow, a Lannan Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (through the Library of Congress); and the recipient of four Pushcart Prizes and a Lavan Award. She was recently named a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Nye has also made a name for herself as an educator, traveling around the world to lead lectures and workshops on the craft of poetry-writing and the nuances of cross-cultural communication.

“Nye’s ethic of care and compassion never ceases to inspire and challenge,” Houghton professor of writing Dr. Laurie Dashnau said. “I need to help others, my students especially, to experience ‘the tender gravity of kindness.’”

Students, faculty, and staff are invited to enjoy lunch with Shihab Nye at 12-12:45 p.m. in the Lennox Dining Room, immediately followed by a question and answer session in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall. A select group of English and writing students will also participate in a poetry workshop led by Nye later in the afternoon.