The Digest
What’s Happening at KVCC
What’s below in this edition
Graduation coming (Page 1)State Hospital (Pages 10/11)
The human services (Page 2) Transferring (Page 11)
Cafeteria, coffee hours (Page 2) Feed the needy (Page 12)
What’s up in Russia? (Pages 3/4) Concert at Lincoln (Pages 12/13)
Travel abroad (Pages 4/5) Blackouts, Incas (Page 13)
Wilsons dig it (Page 5)Molding your life (Page 14)
Science careers (Pages 6/7) Nature’s harmony (Pages 14/15)
Our callers (Page 7) Printing needs (Page 15)
Watch your stuff (Page 8) Tunes for tolerance (P-15/16)
Extra duds? (Page 8)Don’t junk ‘em (Pages 16/17)
Toys? Food? (Page 8)Norwegian flic (Pages 15/16)
PTK’s projects (Pages 8/9) Spread the news (Page 18)
Defib training (Page 9)And Finally (Page 18)
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Miller time for KVCC students is Dec. 20
The college’s 60th commencement ceremony is set for the evening of Thursday, Dec. 20, in Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus.
Those who have been assigned specific roles for the event should attend a 2 p.m. rehearsal that day on the Miller stage. For those who want to first come to the Texas Township Campus, a shuttle bus will depart for the WMU campus at 1:30 p.m. Students do not take part in the rehearsal.
Among those faculty members involved in the ritual are Denise Miller, Larry Taylor, Jean Snow and Bill Wangler. The faculty speaker will be English instructor Brian Olson while Yadira Hernandez, an elementary-education major from Hartford in Van Buren County, will speak for the graduates.
Faculty participants are asked to report to Miller Auditorium by 6 p.m. on Dec. 20. The ceremony will begin at 7.
The diploma-day celebration will be telecast live on one of the Community Access Center’s five channels. Also scheduled to make remarks is Jeff Patton, chairman of the KVCC Board of Trustees.
Focus on human-service careers is next
Employment opportunities in the human services will be in the spotlight on the Texas Township Campus on Tuesday (Dec. 4).
“Exploring Career Pathways Destination: Human Services” is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. in rooms 4370 and 4380.
With a format similar to the Nov. 30 seminar on tech careers, this session will feature professionals engaged in social work, psychological counseling, education, coaching, law enforcement, criminal justice, fire science, and mortuary science.
Among the presenters will be:
Jeff Shouldice, instructor in KVCC’s program in law enforcement.
Marty Myers, a fire marshal for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety for 22 years and manager of the Southwest Michigan Fire Science Program based at KVCC.
Dr. Larry Beer, director of Child and Family Psychological Services.
Sue Benzinger, a social worker at the Van Buren Intermediate School District.
KVCC volleyball coach Jason Reese.
Educator Ruby Sledge.
Joe Buysse, funeral director for Life Story Funeral Homes -- Rupert, Durham, Marshal and Gren.
KVCC counselor Gerri Jacobs.
Those who would like to take part should call 488-4123 or e-mail .
Professionals in automotive technology, the construction trades, drafting, welding, machine-tool technology and engineering made presentations on Nov. 30.
Food-service, coffee-shop hours
After this week’s schedule of normal hours and the majority of the following week, the Texas Township Campus cafeteria and the Student Commons coffee shop will begins their holiday food-service timetables on Wednesday, Dec. 19.
Through Tuesday, Dec. 18, the cafeteria will be open for business Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday. The coffee-shop hours during those two time frames are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7:30 to 11 a.m., respectively.
Then things begin to change.
Wednesday, Dec. 19, through Friday, Dec. 21: cafeteria – 7:30 a.m. to 1: 30 p.m.; coffee shop – 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19, but closed on the next two days.
Dec. 24-Jan. 1: KVCC will be closed for the year-end holiday break.
Wednesday, Jan. 2, through Friday, Jan. 4: cafeteria – 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; the coffee shop will be closed on those three days.
Back to normalcy beginning Monday, Jan. 7: cafeteria hours move back to 7:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Fridays. The coffee shop resumes service from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and 7:30 to 11 a.m. on Fridays.
For more information, contact Muriel Hice at extension 4410.
From Russia, with perspectives
A KVCC faculty member who spent 27 days in Russia in the summer of 2006 will offer his perspectives and viewpoints of what this former central cog in the former Soviet Union is becoming on Wednesday (Dec.5) on the Texas Township Campus.
As part of the annual series of presentations by the KVCC International Studies Program, instructor Theo Sypris, who heads the college’s program in international education while teaching courses in economics and political science, will share his observations from 2 to 3 p.m. in Room 4380.
The presentations, which will continue into the winter semester, are free and open to the public.
Part of a Fulbright-Hays excursion funded by the U. S. Department of Education, Sypris had an itinerary that took him to stops in the cities of Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Veliky Novgorod, and the St. Petersburg area. Each destination focused on certain topics – education, politics, the media, religion, folklore, agriculture, urban planning, social issues, entrepreneurship, culture, and the film industry.
There were tours of a variety of educational institutions, including Russia’s counterparts to America’s community colleges and K-12 schools, an establishment dedicated to youth creativity, a school of choreography, a school of economics, the country’s higher-echelon universities, an orphanage, monasteries, and a school concentrating on aviation technology,
Roundtables focused on teaching strategies in Russia, the evolution of local government, the situation in Chechnya, the interaction between central and regional units of government, contemporary medical care and health insurance, the status of relationships among the former Soviet republics, intercultural communications, and what Russia faces in coming to grips with urban planning. There was also a question-and-answer session with one of Russia’s top TV news anchors.
The Fulbright-Hays travelers heard lectures on Russia’s evolving nonprofit sector, the status of environmental protection and conservation in the country, the social, political and cultural status of women, ongoing research in gender studies, the state of religious worship, media and politics in contemporary Russia, the prospects for social and economic development in the 21st century, U. S. foreign policy toward Russia in the new millennium, the nation’s agricultural practices, and its growing folk-crafts enterprises.
The group’s cultural experiences included puppetry theater, several ballets, art galleries and museums, concerts, folk-music presentations, exposure to the works of famed Soviet writers, Peter the Great’s palace, screenings of classic Russian movies, and museums dedicated to Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
One of the visits took the Americans to a forced-labor camp established in the Gulag Archipelago by Josef Stalin’s regime in 1946 to detain its political opponents. Another took them to caves famous for unique ice formations with frozen waterfalls and underground lakes, while a third was a boat ride on the Volga River.
The group also sampled what working life was like at a Soviet automotive plant. Another museum put the spotlight on the life and times of nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, who, as a dissident, was forced into political exile.
Sypris has headed the KVCC International Studies Program since 1990 and spearheaded the development of the Midwest Institute, which seeks to infuse components of international education into courses in all fields and disciplines. More than 100 community colleges in the Midwest are linked to the institute. He took part in similar Fulbright-Hays excursion to Vietnam in the summer of 2002 and later to China.
Wrapping up the 2007 edition of the international presentations will be:
The nations of Egypt and Israelon Tuesday, Dec. 11, from 11 a.m. to noon in Room 4380 by biology instructor Jack Bley.
Want an out-of-country experience?
KVCC students, faculty and staff are eligible to take part in some of the summer-semester, short-term study-abroad programs offered through the Western Michigan University Diether Haenicke Institute for Global Education.
“Most of the 25 summer programs,” says Margaret vonSteinen, a KVCC Honors Program graduate who is the communications officer at the institute, “are open to non-WMU students and to adults who are interested in travel and learning, and who are not currently attending college.”
She said some offer classes in a broad range of disciplines while others have focused topics. There are also some scholarship opportunities for the programs that run from two to eight weeks, offer varying levels of academic credit, and are eligible for financial-aid funding.
The deadline to apply for the majority of the opportunities is Feb. 15. Application information is available in the Study Abroad Office on the second floor of Ellsworth Hall next to the Bernard Center. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The office’s telephone number is 387-5890. The e-mail address is and the web page can be reached at
Here is the roster of study-abroad destinations and topics during the spring and summer of 2008:
● Business relationships in London and Paris, April 27-May 11.
● Tropical biology in Belize, April 28-May 16.
● The Grand Tour of Europe (The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany), April 28-May 26.
● Quebec history and culture, July 7-Aug. 8.
● Modern and contemporary art in Paris, May 4-22.
● Engineering in Germany, May 4-24.
● Engineering in China and Korea, May 8-25.
● Business in China, May 10-26.
● Health-care systems in Mexico, May 10-June 21.
● Italian art and art history, May 15-June 21 and June 26-July 26.
● Japanese language and culture, May 16-July 27.
● Japanese religion and culture, June 2-14.
● Fashion merchandising, business, interior design, engineering, media production in London, June 5-Aug. 15.
● Spanish language and culture, June 9-July 31.
● Russian language and culture, June 16-July 2.
● Business management in Norway, June 23-July 13.
● Graduate courses in Mexico with an emphasis on teaching, June 23-Aug. 7
●The Prague Summer Program in creative writing, Czech literature, Jewish studies, photography, June 28-July 25.
● Arabic language and culture in Alexandria, Egypt, June 29-July 31.
● Nanotechnology research in Brazil, July 1-Sept. 1
● Business and economics in The Netherlands, July 7-Aug. 15.
● Chinese language and culture, Aug. 15-31.
● Intensive training in Spanish in Costa Rica, July 7-Aug. 8.
● University of Cambridge Summer School studying history, political science, English literature, architecture, natural science, the arts, and British culture, July 7-Aug. 1.
Dinosaur dig had KVCC connection
The sons of a pioneer KVCC faculty member and coach played roles in the National Geographic Society’s latest mapping of the world of dinosaurs.
Jeff and Greg Wilson were part of an international team of paleontologists who found 110-million-year-old fossils of a “new” species during a dig in the west African nation of Niger in 1997.
They are the sons of Phil Wilson, who, although “retired,” is still teaching wellness and physical-education courses on a part-time basis.
The National Geographic Society unveiled the findings during a Nov. 15 news conference in Washington. The spotlight was on what has been called a nigersaurus, which Jeff Wilson called “just a strange-looking animal” that “really charts new evolutionary water for dinosaurs.”
According to the society’s conclusions, this particular dinosaur had a mouth that worked like a vacuum cleaner and grazed like a cow. Its mouth was filled with hundreds of tiny teeth aligned in 50 or more columns along the front edge of a square jaw. Equipped with paper-tin vertebrae, it was a plant-eating cousin of the North American diplodocus, researchers believe.
Jeff Wilson, an assistant professor of geological sciences at the University of Michigan, said the typical nigersaurus was about 18 feet long and weighed between four and six tons – akin to a contemporary elephant. Its height could reach six to eight feet.
Jeff Wilson graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1987 and earned his degree from Kalamazoo College four years later. It was there he became hooked on the digging for dinosaurs by reading a book by paleontologist Paul Sereno.
Wilson met Sereno during his studies for a doctorate at the University of Chicago, which is where he was invited, along with brother Greg, to join Sereno on the dinosaur hunt in Niger.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Jeff Wilson told The Kalamazoo Gazette. “In a way, it’s a feeling like bringing something back to life. This animal would remain unknown to most of the world. You have an incredible feeling of power and bringing something to light.”
Crossing ‘Bridges’ to science careers
Instructors should begin to alert their minority students about taking advantage of an opportunity to sample careers in science this summer.
Seven KVCC students earned $11 an hour for a 30-hour work week as undergraduate research assistants last summer. They were part of a 13-student contingent taking part in the 2006-07 National Institutes of Health’s “Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program” through the Western Michigan University Department of Biological Sciences.
The program liaisons at KVCC are chemistry instructors Robert Sutton and Charissa Oliphant.
In addition to the 30 hours of experience that will pay $10 per hour this coming spring and summer, students can also be assigned up to 15 hours per week during the academic year. Applications can be submitted now for the next installment of the program. The deadline is April 30.
More application information and directions are available by contacting Sutton at extension 4175 or or Oliphant at extension 4402 or .
The mission of “Bridges” is to offer minorities enrolled in community colleges the opportunity to relevantly explore scientific fields, enhance their academic accomplishments in science courses, and smooth the path toward a degree in a science field at a four-year university.
Taking part in this kind of endeavor teaches higher-order thinking skills, which is an important component of anyone’s education.
“Bridges,” which promotes institutional collaborations between community colleges and four-year universities, is a function of the National Institute of General Medical Studies, one of the National Institutes of Health.
In addition to KVCC, taking part in the NIH Michigan Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program at WMU are Grand Rapids Community College, Henry Ford Community College, Kellogg Community College, and Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. The WMU experience focuses on careers as biomedical and behavioral scientists who would spend their working years seeking the causes of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and other biologically impacted maladies.
“Bridges” seeks to nurture minority students to consider careers in these fields because of the growing need for trained scientists in one of the fastest-growing industries in the U. S. economy. Similar programs in Michigan are based at Wayne State University and the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids.
While KVCC has been involved several years, last summer’s contingent included: Jealyn Foston of Cassopolis; Ruben Galvan, an international student living in Kalamazoo; Martin and Carmen Kuchta, who were both home-schooled; Jerbor Nelson, a graduate of Portage Central High School; Delicia Powell, an alumna of Kalamazoo Central High School; and Matthew Watson, a Comstock High School graduate.
The other six students hailed from Grand Rapids, Henry Ford (four), and Lake Michigan. All participants wrapped up their assistantships by creating posters on the research they pursued.
Heading up the “Bridges” initiative at WMU is Gyula Ficsor, a native of Hungary who came to the United States in 1957 and went on to serve in the U. S. Army. Now an emeritus professor in the WMU Department of Biological Science, Ficsor came to WMU as a biology instructor in 1967. He has a bachelor’s in crop science from Colorado State University and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Missouri. His program assistant at WMU is Olivia Smith.
Gentlefolks (all 86), start your touchtones
Eighty-sixKVCC’ers will take part in the college’s calling campaign this week to contact enrolled students who have not yet paid for 2008 winter-semester classes.
Pitching in from the Arcadia Commons Campus will be: Kris Bazali, Patricia Pallette, Jackie Cantrell, Jill Storm, Jim Ratliff, Chasisty Hayden, Sheila White, Lisa Peet, Amy Winkel, Kim Campbell and Barbara VanZandt.
Stepping forwarded from the M-TEC of KVCC are Lauren Beresford, Brenda Moncreif, and Pat Wallace.
Doing their touch-toning from the Texas Township Campus will be:
Gloria Norris, Karen Way, Steve Doherty, Gerri Jacobs, Denise Baker, Stella Lambert, Cindy Tinney, Amy Louallen, Marylan Hightree, Joyce Zweedyk, Michael McCall, Laura Cosby, Jackie Howlett;
Ruth Baker, Mary Johnson, Deb Bryant, Lynne Morrison, Mike Collins, Betty VanVoorst, Cynthia Schauer, Kandiah Balachandran, Theresa Hollowell, Amanda Hackenberg, Ann Lindsay, Rose Crawford;
Diane Vandenberg, Robyn Robinson, Patrick Conroy, Bonnie Bowden, Rita Fox, Andrea Gallegos, Candy Horton, Nancy Roberts, Ciara Salefske, Jack Bley, Kathy Anderson, Melissa Harris, Pam Siegfried, Carol Targarat;
Patricia Sulier, Ken Bouma, Laura Stout, Bonita Bates, Laurie Dykstra, Chris Stroven, Denise Linsley, Brian Graening, Leona Coleman, Cathleen Mahoney, David Lynch, Kevin McKinney, Pedro Soto, Jenny Bussey;
Mary Lindsley, Jackie Zito, Lanette Ballard, Colleen Olson, Tammy Saucedo, Karen Phelps, Lisa Gruber, Louise Wesseling, Tarona Guy, Tom Thinnes, Karen Visser, Pat Pojeta and five student advocates in the Student Success Center.
And from the ranks of KVCC’s honored retirees and making her second appearance as a caller with that status – Elizabeth Miller.
All these volunteers will be makingtheir telephone calls to prospective students prior to batch cancellationsduring the workday at their work stations. The deadline for payment is 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 10.