The Lakeland College
"Our job is only to hold up the mirror - to tell and show the public what has happened." -Walter Cronkite
Issue Highlights Features
SINCE 1936 VOLUME Spring, ISSUE 5
WWW.LAKELANDMIRROR.COM
THURSDAY, April 26, 2012
The era of Dr. Stephen A. Gould ends Final Malawian teachers graduate from Lakeland PAGE 5
Sports
Senior softball player's stellar career nears completion PAGE 8
Online
International Night again a success
INDEX OPINIONS
Page 4
FEATURES
Page 5
FUN HOUSE
Page 9
SPORTS
Page 10
After 42 years at Lakeland, President Gould to retire By Danny Spatchek Editor-in-Chief spatchekd@lakeland.edu
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r. Stephen Gould, Lakeland College’s president since 1998 and one of its top administrators for much of his four decades-plus career whose cumulative contribution to the college is considered among the greatest of any single man in the institution’s history, will retire in May. Gould announced he would retire in 2010 after his kidneys failed and his doctor told him he didn’t have much longer to live. “I needed to retire so that the college wouldn’t be without leadership, and it takes a while to find a new president,” he said. He eventually got a transplant. He remained president for another year, after the college failed to find a replacement for him in the first year of searching. Gould began his 42-year career at Lakeland as an Instructor of German in 1970. He immediately gained the respect of his colleagues and rose through the faculty ranks, until in 1979 he crossed into administration when he agreed to take over an infant program with 100 students in which adults would attend classes during the evenings. By 1990, its students numbered 1,700. A decade later he was assigned to start a campus in Japan, another chancy endeavor which nearly 50 other American colleges would try but
Lakeland says goodbye to President Stephan Gould after 42 years.
fail to do. Lakeland and one other school are the only two that tried and succeeded. And in 1998, Dr. Gould became President Gould, and his touch only continued to yield gold as he increased the main campus’ enrollment by nearly 300 students, tripled the endowment, built six buildings (Laun, Kurtz, Wehr Expansion, Brotz, South, and Deland Child Care Center) and the front entrance, and reno-
vated two more buildings (Nash and Chase). “Someday there will be a new history of Lakeland College,” said Instructor of General Studies and Chinese David Lynch. “There will be all sorts of names of people that you know and that I know that deserve all sorts of credit for what they’ve done, and among many others, I’d say that Dr. Gould deserves his own chapter.”
“He was a critical key man in a key situation for Lakeland in the same way George Washington and Lincoln were for the United States during their times,” Vice President for Finance Joe Botana said. “Steve was in that type of role for Lakeland in his time, and he executed that role consistently in a magnificent way.” SEE GOULD/PAGE 2
Live together, retire together
Susan Gould, registrar and President Gould's wife, to retire
By Danny Spatchek Editor-in-Chief spatchekd@lakeland.edu
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The Mirror is an award winning member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Collegiate Press, Wisconsin Newspaper Association and College Media Advisers.
DANNY SPATCHEK/SPATCHEKD@LAKELAND.EDU
usan Gould has announced her plans to retire from the position of Lakeland College registrar at the end of May. She will retire in concurrence with her husband, President Stephen Gould. A graduate of Lakeland’s undergraduate program, Susan began her career at Lakeland as a counselor in Lifelong Learning in 1979, and continued on in that position until 1992. At that time, she joined her husband at a fledgling Lakeland College Japan and taught English reading. She returned to the main campus after
a year and was appointed by thenpresident David Black to serve as Lakeland’s registrar in 1993. Susan said her responsibilities as registrar were to “make certain that all of the college’s academic policies and regulations are adhered to.” She added that being registrar, in some ways, helped her better perform the role of President Gould’s wife. “Because I know many of the students so well, I think I’ve had a little bit of an advantage in my relationship with the president in what I can bring to all of the activities in which he and I participate. “I feel that he and I have made a good team. He’s someone whom I have profound respect for. I con-
tinue to be impressed with him. I get choked up as I say it, even. He’s a marvelous person. He loves this place and I do as well. It’s actually going to be hard for us to retire. It’s going to be bittersweet,” she said. In interviews for the story in this issue about President Gould, several faculty members referred to him and Susan as a tandem. “I love the combination of Steve and Susan,” said Lucretia Crawford, associate professor of English. “They’re sort of like Lakeland’s royalty.” “For the time that he reigned as president, I can’t imagine another person capable of getting us through a really, really tough time,” Fessler Professor of Writ-
ing and Poet in Residence Karl Elder said of President Gould. “Some of that has to do with his wife, too. Because she loves the place, too. That’s really important. They love their work.” Susan said Lakeland College means to her what it means to her husband. “I know it sounds corny, but Steve always says, ‘It’s a place that is home.’ This community, every member of this community, matters to me and to Steve. There isn’t an aspect of the community that we don’t feel some connection to. No matter what, each one of us has a role. We feel so comfortable and so happy here, and it’s going to be hard to leave.”