Category: Campus

Residence life is expanding housing options for upperclassmen by adding a townhouse floor to the basement of Shenawana (Shen) Hall starting fall 2016. The townhouse floor is a more recent option for living on campus that combines the rules of a townhouse with the setting of a dormitory.

A townhouse floor was added to Gillette in 2014. According to Jason Stephens, the Residence Director (RD) of Shen, a townhouse floor has all the benefits of a townhouse. Such benefits include extended open hours, more options when it comes to meal plans, not quite as much involvement from an RA, and a lower cost than a townhouse.

Last fall Stephens also took on the role as Assistant Director of Student Programs. Through his busy dual role with campus activities and as the RD of Shen, his time has been divided. “We were able to create an assistant residence director position (ARD) for next year to help with some of the tasks it was difficult for me to complete in Shen this year,” said Stephens.

Ian DeHaas ‘17 will take on the role as ARD and live on the townhouse floor.

Instead of putting the ARD on a floor with first-year students–where it would take time and energy to help them through their transition into college–the college decided to put him with the townhouse floor residents where he can be more of a support to students who already know have experience navigating  the Houghton college environment.

The townhouse floor setting is built to support the ARD, so he can still take on the RA role of a floor, but with residents who will not need his support as much. It has seven rooms, one being the ARD room. The basement of Shen also has a full kitchen and large lounge.

“I am really excited for the townhouse floor opportunity,” said DeHaas. “I am working with Jason to develop ways the upperclassman on my floor can pour into the underclassman on other floors in intentional ways. I want them to still be plugged in to Shen and connected with other guys.”

According to DeHaas, because the basement floor in Shen only has seven rooms, compared to the other 13 to 21 room floors, it is hard to get guys to sign up to live down there as people tend to want to be on a bigger floor. “Since the level of interaction is pretty low the basement is a hard floor to start out on because it is kind of isolating,” said DeHaas.

Chris Guntz ‘17, a future resident of the townhouse floor said, “I’ve always loved the

atmosphere of Shenawana Hall and all that it has stood for. I love the people and living in the dorms. I’m excited I get to exercise more freedom by living on the townhouse floor combined with being able to live in the dorms.”

New hire Samuel J. “Jack” Connell ’83 has begun his tenure at Houghton College as the Dean of the College and Vice President of Academic Affairs, continuing “the good work done by Professor Linda Mills Woolsey as she returns to the classroom,” President Mullen stated in a Houghton College press release.

Mullen noted Connell’s broad range of skills which, in the changing educational landscape of the twenty-first century, gives him “the ability to link academic programs strategically to admissions.” Connell’s vitae is illustrative of his broad and extensive skills and experience in various fields. According to his resumé, he graduated from Houghton College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with minors in Bible and Philosophy. He then went on to Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, earning a Master of Divinity, and then later a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Leadership and Biblical Preaching in 1997.  Recently he completed a doctoral program at the University of Rochester and became a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership.

While completing his graduate studies, Connell served as both an assistant and a senior pastor at three different Wesleyan Churches, including Houghton Wesleyan Church, from 1987-1989. Since 2006, Connell has held associate dean, professorial, and vice presidential positions at Asbury Theological Seminary, and Houghton College. For the last eight years Connell has held positions at Roberts Wesleyan College and Northeastern Seminary as both executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“[Connell] is the dean for this particular juncture in Houghton College’s history,” Mullen stressed. Mullen went on to state that the academic environment of the postmodern world demands Christian education to be affordable and accessible. The accessibility of college education is now broader than traditional, residential programs-including all-online two and four year degrees. Thus, academic deans in this particular time must be equipped to reach non-traditional students through online or cross cultural programs, as well as integrate the academic mission of Houghton into the campus community at large, beyond working with area deans. Even just several years ago, this was not the job description of an academic dean, but “we are in a new moment,” Mullen said. “[Connell’s] wide range of professional training allows him to ground Houghton College in the higher education landscape of this time.”

Even without Connell’s resumé to confirm this, his broad areas of education and training are evidenced through his long list of publications. Connell has written for journals, books, and magazines with titles ranging from “The Power of the Ask: 7 Fundraising Principles for Pastors” to “Human Nature as God Intended: A Creational Anthropology.”

“The kind of education Houghton provides is needed now more than ever,” Connell stated in a Houghton press release. Connell has strong connections to the Houghton community, his grandfather was once the Chair of the Board of Trustees, and his uncle formerly  served as the Academic Dean. “Members of my family have been impacted by Houghton for four generations now, and so this return to my alma mater is a source of great personal joy and much gratitude to God,” he said.

As previously reported by the Houghton Star, previous Dean of the College, Linda Mills-Woolsey, will continue her teaching career in the English and Writing department, while also making time to finish a manuscript of poetry. “Linda has been a done a great deal to lay a foundation for Dr. Connell’s success,” Mullen said, noting Mills-Woolsey’s efforts in broadening Houghton’s vision in online and off-campus education. That, combined with the college’s overall readiness to take hold of comprehensive market opportunities, will allow Connell and Houghton to succeed in the “missional setting” of higher education, said Mullen.

Over the weekend of March 12-15, more than 400 young adults gathered in Washington D.C. for the Friends Committee on National Legislation Spring Lobby Weekend in order to lobby Congress on the issue of Mass Incarceration.

During the first three days of the trip, students attended informative lectures on the issue of prison reform, briefings on the legislation being presented, and workshops on lobbying Congress both directly and from home.

The final day was spent on Capitol Hill attending meetings with congressmen and staffers, urging them to co-sign either H.R. 3713 Sentencing Reform Act and H.R. 759 The Recidivism Risk Reduction Act, or S. 2123 The Sentencing Reforms and Corrections Act.

These bills look to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, non-violent drug offences. The purpose of this legislation would be to reduce the recidivism rate by helping people to overcome addictions rather than locking them away for years at a time, separating them from their families and supportive communities. According to the Urban Institute the total cost of the federal imprisonment system takes up nearly 25% of the entire Department of Justice budget. Yet, the Pew Charitable Trusts reports, prison alternatives such as rehabilitation are proven to be more effective in treating addicts. In a statement before the U.S. House of Representatives, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Charles Samuels Jr. claimed unnecessary mandatory minimums have become fiscally irresponsible and contribute to the high levels of overcrowding in prisons.

The cost of keeping one inmate in prison for one year averages $30,000. That amount of money could fund rehabilitation centers, community outreach, and re-entry programs. These alternatives to incarceration would reduce the recidivism rate (thus reducing the amount of money directed toward these systems) and make for healthier and more productive citizens. Imprisonment does not stop drug addiction from occurring and spreading, this is exemplified by the recent heroin epidemic plaguing our nation. However it is not the leaders of organized drug crime that end up incarcerated, rather it is the street-level sellers and local users that take the brunt of the punishment. These individuals end up behind bars for upwards of fifteen years (totaling $450,000 spent on federal imprisonment per person). The passage of this bill would give power pack to judges by allowing them to exercise discretion in low-level cases and look at drug offenders individually and holistically.

While in D.C., Republican representative Tom Reed listened to the stories and concerns of Houghton students on this issue. Criminal justice reform is on the minds of many congressmen and women, and it is up to the people to call on their representatives to act. The Sentencing Reforms and Corrections Act works towards a bipartisan solution that saving money and lives. This bill takes key steps towards giving judging authority back to judges, reducing mandatory minimum sentences, and reducing the high populations of federal prisons.

On April 6, Professor Laurie Dashnau and five students selected by the English and Writing Department will travel to the University of North Carolina at Asheville to present research at the annual National Council for Undergraduate Research conference (NCUR).

In 2011, Dashnau led a group of five Houghton students to present the NCUR conference, which was hosted by Ithaca College, and is thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to a new group of students. This year’s trip was made possible with money from Houghton’s Van Gorden Chair, which provides funding for a variety of collaborative projects in the fields of English, Writing, and Communication.

The five students selected for the program have spent the last two semesters pursuing independent studies alongside Dashnau, in which they investigated a topic related to the study of English and composed a research paper. The students then adapted their paper into a 15-minute oral presentation. These brief presentations are the culmination of a seven-month exploration of their topics, which range from literary analysis to psychological study to writing methodology.

Sponsored by the Council for Undergraduate Research, the NCUR conference is an interdisciplinary affair, showcasing student projects in the sciences and humanities as well as the visual and performing arts. Reflecting this diversity, this year’s conference will feature plenary speakers like David George Haskell, biologist and writer whose work blends ecological research with the long tradition of contemplative nature writing, and Bryant Terry, an award-winning culinary educator who has written extensively on nutrition and food justice.

“In general,” Dashnau said, “I think that the wider one’s audience is the more one realizes the importance of gearing one’s work toward people with a variety of interests and from a diversity of backgrounds.” She emphasized the flexibility to adapt one’s message to suit a specific audience is increasingly necessary in an today’s diverse academic environment.

In Asheville, Jonan Pilet ’17 will be presenting his piece “Dahlian Villain Creation: A Proven Methodology for Producing Compelling Postmodern Villains—or, How to Make Villains the Roald Dahl Way,” an examination of Dahl’s method of character creation. Kimberly Logee ’17 will focus closely on the fiction-writing process with her piece “Adapting the ‘Snowflake’ Novel- Writing Method in Order to Write Literary Fiction.” Carina Martin ’18 will be giving a presentation titled “Love in the Dark: Mentalities of Fear in Wide Sargasso Sea,” an exploration of . Jessica Guillory ’16 will speak on “Adolescent Identity in Young Adult Fiction: A True Portrayal?” Which aims to explore “the processes of identity formation experienced by teenage characters in young adult fiction.” Sophia Ross ’17 will present “From the Home Front to the War Front: Women Writing Anti-War Literature in the Twentieth Century,” which she describes as an examination “of the treatment of female characters in three novels about war written by women.”

Dashnau places a high value on presenting at a conference outside one’s customary academic environment. She pointed out that a successful presentation was the culmination of “taking a paper and turning it into a presentation vis a vis visuals, reconsidering the structure of the work, and engaging people more through questions and answers,” all of which are invaluable skills. Carrying off a presentation at a major academic conference, in front of a large audience, requires a combination of solid writing talent and aptitude in communication, both of which are quickly becoming indispensable assets in the workplace. “And it definitely has a fringe benefit,” Dashnau offered. “A healthy sense of pride in one’s work, confidence, and inspiration to take something beyond the college.”
This sense of pride is “I think the most rewarding part is seeing all of the different components of my research come together,” Guillory shared about her work. “It’s been quite satisfying to be putting the final touches on a project that I’ve been working on for almost a year.”

This Monday, April 11, through Wednesday, April 13, students, faculty, staff, and community members will be facilitating campus-wide Take Back the Night events.

Take Back the Night (TBTN) is a nonprofit organization, which according to the organization’s website, seeks to “end sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual abuse and all other forms of sexual violence.” Worldwide statistics show that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men are survivors or victims of sexual violence. In light of this, the organization has done well to galvanize over 600 colleges, universities, and communities into greater awareness and activism.

The annual events that take place during Take Back the Night are student organized, with faculty and staff cooperation. One of the events include a viewing of the film “Flirting With Danger” followed by a discussion. The discussion will be led by Marc Smithers,Assistant Dean of Residence Life and Programming, and theology professor Dr. Kristina LaCelle Peterson. The film and discussion will take place on Tuesday, March 12  from 7-9 p.m. in the Chamberlain Center, room 123.

According to Allyson Murphy ‘16, one of several student coordinators, the theme for this year’s event is  “every walk of life.” The theme was chosen in an attempt to communicate that “even if things like this doesn’t happen as much on this campus [compared to others], it does still happen here, and it happens to people in all walks of life, regardless of economic status, gender, etc.” Murphy said, “ We hope that Take Back the Night will help people understand the prevalence of sexual abuse and domestic violence.,”

Another student coordinator has worked  to draw in community support for this year’s Take Back the Night. Hannah Makin ’17, a psychology student, is currently interning at Allegany County Community Opportunities and Rural Development (ACCORD). Part of ACCORD’s mission is to address and prevent sexual and domestic violence/abuse in Allegany County. Makin’s efforts have provided Take Back the Night with the opportunity to kick-off the event with a dinner discussion with Heather Kunz, Makin’s supervisor and an employee with the ACCORD Center for Domestic Abuse and Violence. The dinner discussion will take place in the South End dining hall from 6-7 p.m on Monday, March 11.

Houghton’s student run literary magazine, The Lanthorn, is also doing its part to promote awareness of sexual/domestic violence. According to co-editor, Sophia Ross ’17, the first evening of Take Back the Night will feature a coffee house sponsored by The Lanthorn, to be held in Java 101. From 8-10 p.m. on Tuesday March 12, there will be music, poetry and prose readings, along with a release of The Candle (a mini-version of The Lanthorn). This edition of The Candle will include student work related to surviving sexual assault, abuse, or domestic violence. Students who attend are also invited to bring a t-shirt, on which they may have the Take Back the Night logo printed.

Unlike years past, there will not be a nighttime march around campus. Instead, there will be a candlelight vigil, accompanied by hymns, poetry, and reflection on the statistics of sexual and domestic abuse which plague many. Murphy stated,  “The candle lighting is a shift in emphasis more suitable to this particular campus.” Murphy went on to discuss that our campus does not deal with a widespread and heavy drinking culture, which  means individuals tend to feel relatively safe on our campus. Therefore, a candle lighting seeks to provide yet another safe place for both women and men to gather in recognition that awareness and support for those who are victims and survivors both on our campus in other places. Furthermore, while Murphy did state that Houghton is generally assumed to be safer than other college and university campuses, there being no statistics to prove it- yet. “Title IX [the Office of Civil Rights] is conducting a campus wide survey and evaluation. The results should be available in April,” Murphy said.

Houghton’s own Title IX coordinator will speak to the campus on the final day of Take Back the Night. Nancy Murphy, who also does counseling at the Counseling Center, will address students and faculty during chapel on Wednesday, March 13. Nancy Murphy will focus on how sexual or domestic violence affects many subsets of people, bringing to the community’s attention a more inclusive concept of abuse and violence.

Matthew Young ’18 plans to attend Take Back the Night. While he admitted that to his knowledge he has no personal connection with a sexual abuse survivor, he noted that men especially have a responsibility to take a stand against abuse and violence, despite possible discomfort. “There is absolutely no excuse for [sexual or domestic violence]; it’s never the victim’s fault, and never a matter of the perpetrator ‘losing control’ or any other ridiculous excuse,” he said. “Whatever our response, it should include outright condemnation of all sexual violence, and a commitment to confronting our peers about unacceptable behavior.”

After teaching for twenty-seven years, Associate Professor of English, James Wardwell will return to Maine to spend more time with his family. “I am as old as this building,” Wardwell joked. He chuckled as he went on to recall the lack of doors on the freshly built Chamberlain Building  a week before classes started in August of ’89. Wardwell’s response about his future is similar to that of recent graduates: he truly does not know whether he will be getting another job, going into service and volunteer work, or teaching again. According to Wardwell, there is no definite plan. His face brightened when discussing living closer to his family and being able to return to the place he calls his home. “I’m not really retiring, I’m just leaving,” said Wardwell.

During his tenure at Houghton, Wardwell taught a variety of classes ranging from Modern and Contemporary Drama to Major Author: Shakespeare to Literature in the Age of the Enlightenment. Additionally, for twenty years he has taught numerous online classes for the college and Adult Education (formerly PACE) Business Writing classes in Olean, Dansville, Buffalo, Jamestown, Williamsville, and Lockport. Wardwell has also served as the Chair of the English and Writing department and Associate Dean for Arts and Letters for five years.

Wardwell also started the First Year Honors program at Houghton along with professors Cameron Airhart and Christopher Stewart in ’97 after a trip to London in ‘95. Since then he has taught semesters in the humanities honors program: East Meets West, Contemporary Literature Honors, and Honors in London. Faculty and students alike agree that Wardwell has been influential in the English curriculum by starting an Introduction to Literary Studies course and teaching other classes that have been added to the English major. “I think [Professor] Wardwell had a big role in offering classes in certain subject areas that no other professor could, or would,” said Lex Dakin ’16. “Classics and foundational texts in English literature are important subjects to study for any literature student, so his presence and capabilities have been necessary in our department.”

“When I think of the department with [Professor] Wardwell, I think of Shakespeare,” said Emily Loomis ’16. Wardwell has pioneered Shakespearian literature at Houghton, for English and writing majors the two names are almost synonymous. Loomis added, “He absolutely loves Shakespeare, and the passion that he has for the plays and sonnets and such simply oozes from him when he talks about it.” Wardwell refers to himself as an English Renaissance Literature specialist and a Literary Dramatic specialist. “Basically anything before 1800 is my passion,” Wardwell commented. “I enjoy creative writing and I write plays in my free time.” In the past, he was involved with the Shakespeare Players (Encore) dramatic performances by serving as an advisor.

Those who don’t know Wardwell personally may find him intimidating, but students and colleagues would say that he’s actually a very caring, passionate, and fun professor. “[He] challenges us, he puts us on the spot, he helps us articulate our ideas” said Loomis. “He has a passion for his field and wants to cultivate that passion in others.”

“I’m thankful and grateful for gainful employment” Wardwell remarked. “I will miss reading in preparation for class and thinking deeply about literature.” He mentioned he will also miss the dear friends he has made here and what a great place Houghton is to raise a family. Wardwell will be missed by many in the Houghton community. “We wish him well as he reunites with extended family and friends in Maine, with us knowing we’ll miss him, but also being excited for him as well as grateful for everything he has invested in us, the department, and the College” said Dashnau.

This spring, Houghton College’s Board of Trustees approved professor of mathematics Rebekah Yates and professor of intercultural studies, biology, and Earth science Eli Knapp for tenure, the culmination of a multi-year evaluation process by Houghton’s Rank and Tenure Committee.

According to Linda Mills Woolsey, Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs, faculty members hired into Houghton’s tenure track go through three tenure evaluations over their first six years at Houghton. In their second year, faculty face a departmental review, which includes faculty peer review and an evaluation by the department chair. Faculty members are evaluated again in their fourth and sixth years, both by their department and by the Rank and Tenure Committee, which is chaired by Mills Woolsey.

According to professor Douglas Gaerte, a member of the Rank and Tenure Committee, the committee goes over all the material that has been collected for a given faculty member, including peer reviews, self-evaluations, and teaching evaluations done by students.

Each candidate for tenure is assigned a case manager from the Rank and Tenure Committee, said Gaerte, who served as Yates’ case manager. Gaerte interviewed members of Yates’ department, as well as eleven different students, including both upper-level math majors and first-years. Likewise, Gaerte said that when he was up for tenure, his case manager interviewed not only communication majors, but also students who had taken a communication class with Gaerte for integrative studies credit. According to Gaerte, this allows the Rank and Tenure Committee to determine whether the tenure candidate is qualified to teach both entry and upper-level classes.

Once the Rank and Tenure Committee has performed its final evaluation and met with the tenure candidate, the Mills Woolsey makes a recommendation to Houghton’s president, Shirley Mullen. “If the president agrees with the recommendation,” said Mills Woolsey, “the Dean’s summary of the case and recommendation are given to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees. If the AAC votes for tenure and promotion, the names are taken to the full Board who vote to confirm the tenure and promotion.”

According to Yates, the Rank and Tenure Committee assesses faculty members’ suitability for tenure on a number of factors, including disciplinary competence and relevance, such as how well a professor knows, and is up-to-date on, his or her field, as well as integration of faith into a professor’s teaching, scholarship, and service.

“For the final tenure review,” said Yates, “the faculty member has to also submit some form of scholarship addressing the integration of faith and learning in the faculty member’s discipline; this often takes the form of a paper but can also be a sermon, a performance, a work of art, etc.”

Gaerte said fewer colleges nationwide are offering tenure. “The vast majority of [Houghton’s] faculty are full-time professors,” said Gaerte, adding that this encourages professors to commit themselves to Houghton and to their students.

Mills Woolsey said tenure “strengthens an institution by providing a means of mutual commitment between faculty members and the institution they serve.” She added that the tenure evaluation process is designed both to determine whether professors are a good long-term fit for their position, and to help committed faculty members improve.

“When faculty members are not doing as well as we would like,” said Mills Woolsey, “the review process often helps them to make thoughtful decisions about improving their work or  looking for a position with a better fit.”

Yates commented on her experience as a newly-tenured faculty member, “Having had tenure for about a week and a half now (and technically it doesn’t really start until next academic year, but the decision is already made), I don’t feel terribly qualified to answer how being tenured affects my role.”

However, she added, “It’s a nice confirmation that the work I have been doing at Houghton that I feel is what God has called me to do is also valuable enough to the College that they want me to stay long term.”