The Digest
What’s Happening at KVCC
What’s below in this edition
ü Miller time (Pages 1/2) ü Streets’ history (Pages 10/11)
ü Extra clothes? (Page 2) ü $23,000 richer (Page 11)
ü For the troops (Page 2) ü Reading Together (Pages 11-13)
ü Grant deadline (Pages 2/3) ü Sweet Adelines (Page 13)
ü Spirit of the Mask (Page 3) ü 4-corners places (Pages 13/14)
ü Turbine timeline (Pages 3-5) ü Extra gym, shoes? (Page 14)
ü Thanks for the lube (Page 5) ü Calls to Santa (Pages 14/15)
ü Swap Meet (Pages 5/6) ü Thanks, callers (Pages 15/16)
ü Old cooking oil (Pages 6/7) ü Obesity, bipolar (Pages 16/17)
ü Exercise ‘opps’ (Page 7) ü Chemical Kim (Pages 17)
ü Music by Carmea (Pages 8-10) ü Free concert (Pages 17/18))
ü Surplus food? (Page 10) ü In the news (Page 18)
ü E-mail advice (Pages 10) üOld batteries (Pages 18/19)
ü And Finally (Page 19)
☻☻☻☻☻☻
64th graduation is Dec. 20 at Miller
The college’s 64th commencement ceremony is set for Sunday, Dec. 20, in Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus. Some 550 are eligible to receive diplomas or certificates.
Those who have been assigned specific roles for the event should report to the auditorium by 3 p.m., an hour before the program is to begin.
The faculty speaker will be instructor Deborah Bryant. Brittany Nielsen, an accounting major from Vicksburg, will speak for the graduates. Other faculty members involved include Kristin DeKam, Nancy Vendeville, Charissa Oliphant, and Sandy Barker.
The diploma-day celebration will be telecast live on the Public Media Network’s Channel 22 in the Charter lineup, and then rebroadcast three more times. The dates and times will be announced later.
Also scheduled to make remarks is Jeff Patton, chairman of the KVCC Board of Trustees.
Providing the music from 3 to 3:50 p.m. will be the KVCC Campus Band with conductor Chris Garrett and Michelle Bauman’s KVCC Choir.
In addition to Marilyn Schlack and Bruce Kocher, also performing roles as part of the graduation ceremony will be Delynne Andres, Carol Orr and Jaime Rix.
Dust-collecting winter clothes can do some good
Clean, “gently used” winter wear for men, women and children is being collected by the Student Success Center through Thursday (Dec. 17).
Donated coats, sweaters, sweatshirts, and scarves, as well as “new” gloves and hats, will be distributed to either needy students or to residents of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission.
Items can be dropped off in the Student Success Center (Room 1510) on the Texas Township Campus.
For more information, contact either Pamela Siegfried (extension 4825 or ) or Stefan Luke in the center.
Thinking of U. S. troops – in 2010
The KVCC Veterans Club will be orchestrating the sending of holiday gifts for U. S. military personnel serving away from their homes.
But instead of the normal push to collect the goodies in time for Christmas, the new wrinkle is to arrange for the collections to be shipped after the first of the year, once the yuletide is over, as a way to extend the holiday spirit.
"The Veterans Club endorses the idea of boxes to troops serving overseas," said Ferraro, a sociology instructor and one of the organization’s faculty advisers, "but have opted to start the winter semester with boxes so the troops get some after all the holiday boxes run out. We'll be deciding on appropriate inclusions for the boxes at the first club meeting of the year and will spread the word."
Next KVCC Foundation grant deadline is Dec. 23
For the 2009-10 academic year, the KVCC Foundation has established funding-request deadlines for internal grant proposals.
Those faculty and/or administrators seeking financial support from the foundation must make plans in advance and adhere to the established deadlines.
Here’s the schedule for the next round:
Proposal deadline: Dec. 23; decision by the KVCC Foundation Board of Trustees, Jan. 29.
Deadline: April 23; decision, May 7.
For more information, contact Steve Doherty, KVCC director of development and foundation executive director, at extension 4442 or .
Earlier this semester, the foundation board approved a $2,200 grant, submitted by Marie Rogers, Helen Palleschi and Daniel Cunningham, on behalf of the Instructional Development Advisory Committee.
It will co-fund a three-hour workshop for faculty on “What the Best College Teachers Do to Promote Inclusion” next Jan. 7 and the purchase 50 copies of Beverly Tatum’s book titled “Can We Talk About Race.”
It will help lay the groundwork for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosting a major exhibition on race in the fall of 2010. The exhibit will be the focal point for a communitywide examination of the racial issues that too often tarnish the nation’s democracy and Constitution.
Masks illustrate cultures, not hide them
You could learn a lot by ignoring the advice in Jim Croce’s lyrics and pulling “the mask off the old Lone Ranger,” but so much more insight is possible by experiencing a mask and the culture it represents than seeing who is behind it.
That’s the idea behind “Spirit of the Mask,” a 95-item collection that is viewable in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s first-floor gallery through Feb. 14.
It is the work of Carla Hanson who realized that masks and “masking” were special the first time she dressed for Halloween in her hometown of Waterville, Kan. After taking anthropology classes at Kansas State University and meeting people from other cultures, she purchased her first ethnic mask, soon to be followed by many more.
Her collection now numbers in the hundreds, representing more than 40 countries and many Native American nations.
Masks have been used in diverse cultures on every continent except for Australia. They are composed of natural and man-made materials mask-makers usually find locally. While some are intricately decorated and some are very rudimentary or abstract, others can be lifelike as evidenced in Hanson’s collection.
Masks are ceremonial or theatrical, with functions ranging from entreaties for worldly interventions on the part of a deity or ancestral spirit, to assertions of social control to advance a particular culture’s mores.
Masks can serve a singular purpose in a specific celebration, but often they are used for multiple functions. Healing, fertility, and good fortune are a few examples of masking themes. Mask wearers traditionally are nearly exclusively men, even when female characters are depicted.
“The masking traditions can teach us how these cultures deal with their lives and their environment,” Hanson says. “While masks traditionally have specific purposes, they are so beautiful and powerful that they can be appreciated as works of art as well.”
Among the masks that are part of the Kalamazoo exhibit are those originating on five continents from indigenous people in more than 50 countries, including Bali, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Nigeria, India, Brazil, Bolivia, Germany, the Ivory Coast, New Guinea, Mexico, Mali, New Guinea, Zaire, Russia, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland. Masks from a dozen Native American tribes are also included.
They range in age from 10 to 60 years old, and are made from such materials as palm froth, root dye, stains, wood, papier-mâché, polychrome, cloth, leather, natural pigments, and white clay.
“Masks tell stories,” said Elspeth Inglis, the museum’s assistant director. “They don’t hide them.”
Late-December installation for student-built turbine likely
As students for decades have taken automotive courses to design, build and repair their own cars, so are their modern contemporaries concentrating on what many see as the nation’s energy future - wind turbines.
Designing a wind turbine, fabricating its components, assembling the power-generating unit, and making certain it produces electricity constitutes the mission of a new course that will be offered for a second time winter semester.
Meanwhile, the fall-semester edition of this course is winding down and students are in the process of completing their design and fabrication of the blades.
As they wrap up their interior chores, work is scheduled to begin – weather willing – on Monday (Dec. 14) to pour the student-built turbine’s foundations and to install the necessary electrical conduit. The site will be in the vicinity of the 145-foot turbine in operation on the west end of the Texas Township Campus.
Regarding the actual installation, lead instructor Howard Carpenter says that “it looks like we will be doing that in late December or early January, depending on when the mast is delivered. Most of the students will probably be there for that event, while the new class might have the chance to see what they can accomplish.”
He also reports that there is a possibility the student-built turbine will be painted before it goes up by a volunteer and will be decorated by KVCC decals.
With no technical prerequisites or prior knowledge of computer-aided drafting, machining, welding or electrical technology needed, the eight-credit, multidisciplinary offering (Mach 282) with a lecture-lab format is open to 18 enrollees on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lectures are slated for Mondays and Wednesdays from 3 to 4: 20 p.m. while lab sessions are booked for Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 to 10 a.m., and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
All will be held in the college’s technical wing on the Texas Township Campus in the shadow of the college’s turbine that has been generating electricity since early March. The 2009 fall semester ends Monday, Dec. 21. The 2010 winter semester begins on Monday, Jan. 11.
The fee follows the college’s normal tuition rate -- $71 per credit hour for KVCC in-district residents, $113 for those out of district, and $152 per credit hour for non-Michigan residents.
In addition to Carpenter (machining), the other lead instructors are Rick Garthe (drafting and design), Erick Martin (welding and fabrication), and Bill Wangler (electrical technology).
“The goal is to produce a functioning wind turbine that generates one to three kilowatts of electricity,” said Carpenter, the project leader who advanced the concept and received a two-year, $90,000 Innovative Thinking grant from KVCC to proceed with planning, equipment purchase and course design over the summer.
The enrollees perform the basic functions and tasks in the design, critical machining and welding phases that produce shafts, blades and other components. But the more detailed and complex jobs are handled by the instructors and advanced students. The electronics will be purchased units.
“It’s the process that is important for the students to see and understand,” Carpenter said. “The turbine we build will produce electricity, but that’s not the main function. Its function is to demonstrate the basic design, manufacturing, welding and electrical skills that are needed in making a turbine.”
Course components include what a practical electrical output would be for a turbine in a variety of locations, wind-energy terminology, how to connect a unit to the existing electrical grid, the basics of electricity, the wiring required, metallurgy, how to optimize efficiency through design variations, fabrication techniques, how to prevent corrosion, and how to incorporate a small wind turbine into existing structures and buildings.
“We think this course will target anybody who has an interest in wind turbines,” Carpenter said, “whether to build one yourself or buy one. It will provide answers to questions about what to consider and how to evaluate what is on the market.”
The lead instructors prepared for the prototype course by purchasing instructional equipment and software that will also be applicable to other technical courses at KVCC. They joined forces last summer to build the training components that are key parts of the instructional process.
The course-concluding wind turbine, which will have at least three blades that will each be six to eight feet long and stand as high as 30 feet off the ground, will find a spot on KVCC property to serve as a promotional prop for future eight-credit courses.
To register for this course and the winter-semester edition, contact Sue Hills at (269) 488-4371 or go to this web site: www.kvcc.edu/schedule.
Student project warrants gift of synthetic lubricant
The student-built wind turbine that is scheduled to be installed on the Texas Township Campus later this month or in early January will be smoothly rotating piece of equipment, thanks to a gift to the college.
The AMSOIL Corp., based in Superior, Wis., has donated a one-gallon container of its latest high-tech synthetic lubricating material for gear mechanisms for KVCC to use in the course in which students are designing, fabricating, assembling and installing a working wind turbine.
One of the students is an AMSOIL customer and the word worked its way up from his dealer to corporate headquarters about what the course is all about, and that generated a gift of a gallon of this synthetic lube for use in the turbine. Apparently, the new stuff is even available for sale yet. AMSOIL won’t even sell it in quantities less than 55 gallons so it had to make special arrangements for the gift.
AMSOIL was founded by Albert Amatuzio, who, as the commander of a squadron of jet fighters, had ample opportunity to witness synthetic lubricants in action. These oils are used exclusively in jet engines because of three performance characteristics: an ability to reduce friction and wear on engine components, an ability to function dependably at severe temperature extremes, and an ability to withstand rigorous and lengthy engine operation without chemical breakdown.