Category: Campus

Since Tina Power’s departure to Disney World in May, Sodexo-run facilities on campus, such as the dining hall, Big Al’s, and Sandella’s have undergone various changes. Kathie Guyler, the new general manager, has been working in the college dining business for thirty-three years, with Houghton College being the sixth college she has worked at. Guyler said, “Honestly why I do what I do” is because “I really enjoy working with students.” Benjamin Hardy, a Houghton College ‘14 alumni and supervisor of student workers, said, “She has brought a few new perspectives on things, mostly on food safety”

The dining hall now has a self-service omelet bar where students can control ingredients being put into their eggs, portion size of ingredients, and how they want their eggs cooked. In addition, Sodexo has brought back the stir fry station. The revival of the station is already a “big hit” among students because of their increased participation in the creation of their meals. Guyler said, “Feedback they got [from surveys] was that students prefer to make it themselves.”

Big Al’s and Sandella’s also now have new hours. Big Al’s is only open at night for dinner while Sandella’s is open during lunchtime. Smoothies, however,  can be purchased at any time.

Big Al’s has its first event on September 14, “Wings with the Dean.” During this event students will have the opportunity to watch the Monday night NFL opening game for the Philadelphia Eagles with Dean Jordan. Wings will be sold for only twenty-five cents. Near the end of the September, the dining hall will have a fall event, “Apple Week.” This will use apples from a local vendor will food items such as apple pancakes, apple cakes, and caramel apples. Students will have the opportunity to bob for apples and make their own candy apples. As done in the past, there will be Wing Night every Friday at Big Al’s and events such as Barbeque Blues and Bodacious Burgers. There will also be a raffle for the Superbowl which will feature prizes donated by Pepsi such as a Mini Jambox, small wifi speaker, and an iFit.

James Ward, operations manager who oversees all retail operations in Java, Big Al’s, Sandella’s, and all catering events, said this year that they are focused on “enhancing their current program.” This year, Sodexo offered four marketing internships where students gain experience in sustainability, marketing, and wellness. “They help get messages out to students and connect with students on a more personal level,” said Ward. “I encourage students to start a conversation with me in the dining hall.”

Guyler encourages students to fill out comment cards and to send her emails. Her goal to get more feedback from students is to have open dinners where everyone is invited to come, have dinner in the dining hall, and ask questions about the health, safety, and choice of food being served. Sodexo also  issues a survey every year where students can voice their opinions and have the chance to win something through the giveaways.

Hardy said, “I enjoy working with the students, training the students, and providing quality food service for the students” and as a past student of Houghton College, he “tries to do for the students what he would’ve wanted done as a student.” In the past, student supervisors have recruited students from the previous year so that they would have plenty of workers in the fall. However, some workers graduated, moved, and got promoted so there are several spaces open for students interested in a job. The success of Sodexo depends on the student body so as it decreases or increases, so does their revenue.

Recently, interest in having a real mascot, complete with a full costume, has peaked among staff members and the athletic department. Currently Houghton has mascot garb including a plaid kilt and bagpipes for the Scottish highlander, but not a full costume and it has not been worn consistently in the past. The new mascot, according to Jeff Babbitt, director of marketing and communications, would be, “a real-feeling mascot, like an animal costume” and would similar to “one that you would recognize when you think of mascots like the Syracuse Orange or the Texas Longhorns.”

According to Babbitt, this past semester two focus groups were held. Twelve students were brought in and asked questions in regards to the idea of having a mascot, what a mascot could do, and the qualities a mascot should possess. From the students, they received quality feedback on the characteristics the mascot should have. First, students felt that the mascot should be gender neutral. The school thought about getting a mascot that looked like a Scottish man with the highlander garb for the sake of consistency, but it would be an accurate representation of the student body and the athletics program because most of Houghton’s students are women.

Also, the students mentioned the mascot needed to connect with the athletics branding Houghton already has in place. It became apparent a lion would perhaps work with that. Additionally, the idea of the lion would be unique because it would be different from other schools Houghton’s athletics teams often play against in the Empire 8 Conference. Lastly, students wanted the mascot to look professional and to be kid-friendly.

Houghton has never had an official mascot, but became the Highlanders in 1967 through a student vote due to the additions of intercollegiate sports the same year. According to Babbitt, in 2004 the athletics department undertook a rebranding project in which they brought in a company from the outside that specialized in logo design. Babbitt added, “It was a time where we needed a fresh look.” Ultimately the company produced the lion, Houghton’s current purple and gold colors, and the “HC” that appears in athletics and on Campus Store merchandise. Originally the lion was just meant to be a secondary logo, but it gained traction and began appearing on everything associated with Houghton. The rampant lion does tie into the Scottish heritage however, since it is the unofficial Scottish flag. It symbolizes bravery and courage and comes from a seal of Scottish nobility.

According to Babbitt, there will be tryouts for the mascot in the fall. The mascot will then be launched at an event like Homecoming. The student chosen to portray the mascot would be compensated through a work study job, or a similar form of compensation. Babbitt said, “[We] want someone who is energetic, has athletic ability to jump around and dance, could help develop the personality of the mascot, would pump the crowd up, and would mingle with people at events.” The mascot would be present at sports games, events such as Homecoming, Purple and Gold Week, Help day, campus visit days, and Kingdom Bound. According to Babbitt, the true test of success of the mascot will be if people try to take selfies with their mascot because that means they are excited to see it.

Houghton College’s English, Writing, and Communications departments are conducting a search for a Theater Workshop Director who would produce a spring 2016 theater production. Communication Professor, Douglass Gaerte said, “This new initiative is intended to bring a bit more continuity as well as professionalism to the drama offerings on campus.”

Although there has never been a stand-alone theater department at Houghton, there are two theater related classes, Introduction to Theater and Oral Performance of Literature, which students can be involved with. Students interested in being in the college play can sign up for the one credit class, Comm 236: Theater Workshop, and try out for the play in the fall. According to Gaerte, in the fall of 2015, the director will have auditions for actors, assign the parts, and interview others interested in being crew members for the production. This will allow students to begin working on their lines in preparation for the spring semester.

In the spring of 2016, the director would then teach a theater workshop where they would work with the cast and crew for about a month, running through rehearsals and preparing for the public performance of the play that would happen at the end of the month. English Professor, James Wardwell said, “[We are] inviting a different voice into our community…This person will be really in touch with outside experiences and [will] bring that voice in and give that voice a means to communicate with the entire community.”

Over the years, Houghton has had various student theater groups who performed some original productions of dramatic pieces they wrote. This has allowed students to have more opportunities to direct and perform. According to Gaerte, in the past, there were around eight or nine drama productions on campus consisting of School of Music productions, college plays, series of one-acts directed by students, and a Broadway musical revue directed by students. According to Kaitlyn McKinney ‘17, there was a collection of skits put on by a drama club last year that lasted for about thirty minutes in the recital hall. However, not many people attended. McKinney, who starred in the “Odd Couple” at the Fire Hall last year said one of the reasons she loves theater is, “You build a family in theater and become really close to the people in the production.”

According to Gaerte, a student Shakespeare club was formed from a Shakespeare class that Wardwell taught. Wardwell believes theater is a “potentially marvelous community building activity where people interact with one another in significant ways about significant ideas” and then “invite a larger community [an audience] to come in and interact with those relationships through a performance.”

The English, Writing, and Communication departments hope that bringing a guest director to campus each spring to direct a play will help get more students interested in theater here at Houghton.  Wardwell hopes, “this can stimulate a growth path that can lead to something legitimate academically in theater.” Gaerte said, “We will be advertising for this position, as well as reaching out to our alumni who work in theater as we try to identify good candidates for this position.” According to McKinney, an individual who knows how to advertise and get people interested in theater will help develop the theater program.

This past year, the Campus Store has set up a selection of their inventory in the Kerr-Pegula Field House (KPFH) during highly attended sports events like the Section V and Section VI track and field meets. The arrangement is still being treated as an experiment, but it has the potential to allow for the Campus Store to increase its revenue on weekends and at special events, as well as to increase exposure for the Houghton brand.

Since the KPFH officially opened in October of 2014, the building has hosted approximately 18,700 guests for multiple events held by outside groups, a figure that does not include Houghton College students, faculty or staff. However, these guests do not necessarily travel from the KPFH to the college’s main campus during their visits. Anticipating this, Campus Store Director Heléna Oden asked to meet with Executive Director of Athletics Harold “Skip” Lord to see if plans might include space for a storefront in the KPFH at the time of the building’s design. While there was no room in the plans for a permanent store, they agreed that the Campus Store should have a presence in the KPFH, especially at events attended by non-Houghtonites.

“To my mind, our main goals have been to increase revenue for the store, as well as to increase brand exposure for the college,” said Lord. Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, agreed the arrangement could help advertise Houghton.

“It’s a way to get the Houghton name out there,” he said. “It’s strange, because when you get outside of Allegany County, not many people have heard of Houghton College unless they have some sort of formal connection through family or a close friend; it’s just not in the consciousness, even in Buffalo. Getting the word out there, getting the exposure is a key opportunity.”

Oden agreed with this statement, adding that the set-up would also allow for Houghton families to find apparel even on weekends when the Campus Store has limited hours. With these goals in mind, Oden and Lord worked to find a trafficked area in the KPFH to set up a temporary space. They decided it would be best for Oden to set up her stock at the brick wall between the men’s and women’s restrooms by the concessions stand.

With help from her intern, Lauren Campbell ‘16, Oden then selected items from the store’s inventory to sell at events. At first, they chose mostly brand name products, but they quickly received feedback that attendees would prefer less costly options. In response, the duo included Houghton foam fingers, blankets, hats, and less expensive t-shirts to lower the price. In order to increase the variety of stock, Oden and Campbell tried setting up an iPad to display their website so that visitors could see the store’s full inventory. Visitors were also given the option of ordering an item on the website while at the event, and then picking it up at the store when they opened again the following week.

“We’ll do more of that in the fall, too,” said Oden. “We also thought we could make specific t-shirts for certain events, or even more specifically athletic related items. That way we don’t have exactly the same inventory moving in both locations. It’s still a big work in progress.”

This work in progress will continue next year at other major events hosted at the KPFH, including Homecoming and other sporting events.

The new solar array, which will save the college over four million dollars over 25 years, will be dedicated will be April 17 at 1 p.m. at the Field of Dreams, followed by a tour. The event is open to the public and “is a chance to mark the significance and formally recognize the start of the solar array,” said Brian Webb, Houghton’s Sustainability Coordinator. State Senator Cathy Young, representatives from Groundwater and Environmental Services (GES), and President Shirley Mullen, will be there as well. After the dedication, there will be a guided tour of the array for those interested in seeing the solar panels up close and finding out how renewable energy works.

Over the array’s lifetime of 25 years, it will save the college approximately $4.3 million in energy costs. Not only is this structure a representation of a cost savings for the college, but it will also allow the community to “interact with God’s creation in a responsible way,” said Webb.

According to Webb, the array will take a huge chunk of energy from a renewable source, the sun, turn it into electric energy which will then power about half of the college throughout the year. The funding, provided by GES, will allow for the maintaining and owning of the solar array for the next 25 years. Webb explained in the end, “Houghton wins out because we have lower energy costs with no cost to build the structure in the first place.”

However, the solar array has raised some concerns regarding if Houghton will actually benefit from the array. Houghton senior, Katherine Tomlinson, said when she first heard of the project, she was skeptical, “I was concerned about the habits it would possibly be destroying, specifically honey bees since they are endangered than the benefits it would be bringing to campus.” However, Webb explained Houghton was the perfect spot for the solar array; there was no natural habitat such as streams or trees the college would have needed to clear. “The area was not needed for Houghton or any critical wildlife. The only environmental impact I could see would be what happens to the panels after we are done using them” said Webb.

Solar energy, along with other renewable sources of energy, help promote a healthy global climate. “It has everything to do about how our actions impact the world,” said Webb. In addition, Tomlinson explained it was not until she learned more about climate change this past and found, “the solar array is an important step for our community [Houghton] to purify our energy use and lessen our contribution to the problem [climate change].”

Twenty-five years from now, Houghton will have some different options for the array. The array can be removed from the Field of Dreams or Houghton can buy the array from GES for a low rate. Webb’s prediction for the future of the array is if it is still producing a reliable source of energy after 25 years, the college will buy it.

On April 16, there will be a forum in Java to talk about Faith and Sustainability to tie into the dedication of the solar array. This event will be in partnership with Student Government Association and have a panel of Dean Jordan, Brian Webb, and one other student. Complimentary coffee will be provided for all who attend.

On Feb. 19, 2015 President Shirley Mullen officially became a United States citizen. Her previous citizenship before this date was in Canada, where she was born and grew up.

Mullen has been living in the U.S since 1966, but chose to wait to gain citizenship partially because she has a sentimental attachment to where she grew up. She also felt there was a chance she would go back to Canada at some point in her life. She stated, “As I’ve realized that I’m probably not going to go back to work in Canada ever, it just seemed like the sensible thing to do, to make the change by becoming a citizen.”

Mullen explained that while she was waiting for her interview, which happened in Buffalo, she was surrounded by people who were seeking citizenship to gain refuge in America. She shared that it was a fascinating experience. “I was more affected by the process than I thought I would be,” said Mullen. “There were people from 16 different countries represented the day of the interview. It was moving to see the value of American citizenship through the eyes of people who in a sense needed this… We take safety and freedom for granted.”

To become a U.S citizen one must undergo a process called naturalization. Some of things that can come along with citizenship include taxation, voting rights, military service, and jury duty. According to the official website of homeland security, one must firstly fill out an application which includes questions about family, traveling, and other practical questions. The next step in the process is a background check where they take fingerprints. After this  is a test of American history, which is followed by an interview. The last step of the process is a formal swearing in.

Mullen said the experience was a great realization for her of the culture that we experience every day in the U.S and too easily take for granted. People from all over the world are blended together in the same place to find freedom. In most countries there is a sense of never giving up citizenship, but the American citizenship is seen by many as more of a man-made process. Anyone can come to find hope of a bright future.

President Mullen was also reminded that although our citizenship to a country is important, “Our citizenship to a country is always secondary to our citizenship in God’s Kingdom.”