Briefs BRIEFS BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MOVES TO CARNEGIE The business administration department once again is known as the business management department, reflecting a change in common terminology. The department also has moved to the lower level of the Carnegie building. The new space lends itself to the efficient operation of the Creative Enterprise Center, a student ledconsulting organization, says Mary Avery, chair of the department. There is a waiting area, two student workstations and a conference room. There also is room for the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) student organization. The Creative Enterprise Center and SIFE both are active in the greater Ripon community, and the move to downtown makes a lot of sense for both organizations, says Avery. The Office of Community Engagement, formerly housed in Carnegie, now is on the top floor of Harwood Memorial Union, sharing space with the Ethical Leadership Program and the Ripon Forensics Team. The Bonner Program has grown to nearly 40 students, each of whom commits to 300 hours of service every year to serve their communities.
FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER ALLEN SPEAKS AT RIPON Richard V. Allen, former national security adviser to Ronald Reagan, presented “National Security and National Interest: Steering a Realistic Course” Sept. 23. In addition to serving as national security adviser under the Reagan administration from 1981-82, Allen was also a senior staff member of President Nixon’s National Security Council in 1968 and served various Republican administrations in the intervening years. “9/11 awakened the entire electorate to the importance of national security. It is a topic that is a concern to all Americans, regardless of their political leanings or party,” says Lamont Colucci, assistant professor of politics and government, and national security studies coordinator.
14 RIPON MAGAZINE
assistant professor of Spanish, participated in a Jamaican Maymester service trip. The group had two missions: education and economic development, according to Avery. “The education team worked directly with students in the Minto School,” she says. “They Ed Students Help Alumna Jaunita also had three teacher inBaatz services that helped the ’05, left, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Adalbert Elementeachers to develop stratetary School in Milwaukee, accepts a check for $247.15 gies for classroom from Kristen Swoboda ’10 on behalf of Ripon’s management. Student Education Association (SEA). Swoboda performed clinical work in Baatz’s classroom and asked “The economic develthe SEA to raise funds for her classroom, since the opment team did three largely Hispanic school has very little discretionary small business seminars money for classroom materials. SEA raised money and consulted individualthroughout the year in a variety of ways, but mostly by ly with four existing and selling candy bars on campus. According to a statement one start-up enterprise. on Baatz’s Adopt-a-Classroom Web site, the money will We also worked with a be used “to provide appropriate reading materials to women’s group that is assist students in meeting their academic goals and to making handbags out of promote the love of reading and writing.” trash bags.” Avery says that experiencing a different culture is of great benefit to the students. “Even those [of our students who] struggle with the lack of American-grade sanitation, transportation and living arrangements [in Jamaica] say, ‘I now know how much I have and how much others don’t,’ ” she says. “ ‘I know that if there is to be change in the world, it is up to me.’ ” The group also transported nearly $5,000 worth of donated articles to the area. Most of these donations were black shoes for school children, who must have uniforms to attend school. Shoes are often the biggest barrier.
MERRIMAN HOUSE TO BE VACATED Merriman House, the longtime home of Phi Kappa Pi fraternity, will be vacated effective at the end of the current academic year in May 2010. The Board of Trustees approved the measure at the recommendation of the College administration. The building was constructed in 1939 and opened as a residence hall for members of the fraternity in 1940. While the College has always owned the building, the Merriman Club financed its construction and was responsible for its maintenance. In 1988, the Merriman Club and the College agreed that the maintenance responsibility for the building would reside with the College. While maintenance projects have been completed to the building during the past 69 years, no major renovations were undertaken. “Eventually, the need for major repairs and maintenance developed to the point where Merriman no longer Merriman House