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On Campus
OnCampus
"Earth Mirrors" sculpture installed on Morningside College campus
A new outdoor sculpture by artist Andréa Stanislav was installed in April near the Eppley Fine Arts Building on the Morningside College campus. “Earth Mirrors” consists of 10 two- to four-ton limestone rocks that have mirror-polished stainless steel plates attached to them. The rocks, which form a triangle, are positioned so that the mirror surfaces reflect each other, Eppley and the surrounding area. Stanislav said she created the sculpture to respond to the site in which it was placed, and to be in conversation with the site. “I was very concerned about the piece being harmonious with the site and also working as a connector between this particular area and the rest of the university,” she said. The process of developing the sculpture started with a sketch and several visits to the site. Stanislav was interested in using the actual landscape, which meant the rocks would be sitting on a hill. She also wanted to use stone indigenous to Iowa. “Originally, I was thinking of using granite, and then I started to talk to the geology department at Iowa State University about indigenous stone to Iowa and to the area,” she said. “Technically, granite boulders are not indigenous to Iowa because they come from the glacial shift. It’s limestone. There’s an Iowa limestone. It’s not Indiana limestone, but it’s Iowa limestone and it has a much warmer color.” So Stanislav decided to go with Iowa limestone, which is the same color as the façade of Eppley Auditorium. She was referred to a limestone quarry in Anamosa, Iowa, where she obtained the rocks for the sculpture. The rocks originally came in block form, but Stanislav told the facility how to break the stones to make them look more organic. Then she traced by hand where she wanted a mirror to be placed on each stone, and she sent that information to a laser company in Minneapolis that cuts steel. Finally, she took the stainless steel plates to Anamosa to be attached to the rocks. The stones were shipped to Morningside on a truck and placed on cement footings that go four feet down. Steel pins even go up into the rocks to make sure they cannot be moved. “They’re not going to come out,” Stanislav said. “Nobody’s going to push them over. They should be happy for hundreds of years here.” Under Stanislav’s direction, the sculptures were put in place on April 13, and a dedication ceremony that evening marked completion of the installation. The sculpture, commissioned by Morningside College, was the final element put in place for the college’s Hilker Campus Mall. Stanislav said the sculpture is appropriate for an educational institution like Morningside College because it is a place of discovery. “It’s very much about the viewer’s engagement as you move about the piece, sort of changing and shifting your visual perspective,” she said. “Once you walk into it, the idea is that there is this unexpected experience or surprise in the reflections. My hope is that it becomes sort of a destination where people will congregate.” Stanislav is a contemporary artist whose work includes sculpture, video installation, collage constructions and public art. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions around the world.
Artist Andréa Stanislav cleans the mirror-polished stainless steel plate on a three-ton limestone rock that was installed as part of the "Earth Mirrors" sculpture. This photo shows a portion of the "Earth Mirrors" sculpture installation near the Eppley Fine Arts Building.
OnCampus
Students recognize faculty and staff members
Faculty and staff members were recognized for their service to students in April during the 2011 Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) Honors Assembly. ODK is a national leadership honor society that recognizes and encourages superior scholarship, leadership and exemplary character.
Faculty Person of the Year
Dr. Leslie Werden, assistant professor and chair of the writing and rhetoric department, was voted by the student body as the Faculty Person of the Year for her outstanding contributions to Morningside and its students. Werden teaches courses in the writing and rhetoric and English departments. She also serves on several national composition committees and coaches Morningside’s speech team.
First-Year Teaching/Advising Award
The First-Year Teaching/Advising Award went to Karmen Ten Napel, coordinator of exploring students/learning disabilities specialist. The award, presented with assistance from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, is given to an exemplary teacher who has helped first-year students succeed in making the transition to college. In addition to working with students who are exploring options for an academic major and tutoring students with learning disabilities, Ten Napel also teaches a section of the first-year seminar course and advises freshmen.
Staff Member of the Year
The Rev. Kathy (Olson) Martin 2000, chaplain and director of church relations, received the Staff Member of the Year award. Martin has organized and led several Morningside mission trips to assist with ongoing reconstruction efforts in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana after 2005’s Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She also led mission trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the summer and fall of 2008 to help with flood recovery efforts.
Faculty member is recognized by her peers
Terri P. McGaffin, associate professor of art, received the 2011 Lucille and Charles Wert Faculty Award for excellence in teaching. Presented during commencement, this award recognizes the faculty member judged by his or her peers to best exemplify the ideals of the academic teaching profession at Morningside. McGaffin joined Morningside as a full-time faculty member in 2004. She has been active in faculty and student-related committees on the Morningside campus. She also has been a visiting professor of art at South Dakota State University in Brookings, a teaching assistant at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, and an instructor and artist-in-residence at the Sioux City Art Center. McGaffin has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of South Dakota.
President John Reynders presents Terri P. McGaffin with the 2011 Lucille and Charles Wert Faculty Award during this year’s commencement ceremony.
Alumni recognize outstanding seniors
The Morningside College Alumni Association honored three members of the college’s 2011 graduating class with outstanding senior awards. Recipients of the senior awards were Andrew Gerodias of Laurens, Iowa, a counseling psychology major; Terence Hancock of Malvern, Iowa, a computer science major; and Heather Nielsen of Ida Grove, Iowa, a business administration major. A committee of Morningside faculty and staff selected the senior award recipients based on a student’s commitment to campus life, academic achievement and service to the Sioux City area.
David Holub 1970, president of the Morningside College Alumni Association Board of Directors, presented the outstanding senior awards. They were presented in the name of the late Brooke Simmons-Goodwin 1999, who had served as a member and past president of the alumni board.
Did you know?
EVENTS, HONORS & OTHER NEWS FROM MORNINGSIDE Comedian presents hit show
Seth Rudetsky, an actor, musician, writer and Broadway host for Sirius Satellite Radio, visited campus in February and performed his multimedia comedy show “Seth Rudetsky’s Deconstructing Broadway.” The show has toured all over the United States. In New York, it continued to sell out in every Manhattan venue in which it was performed. His visit to Morningside College was made possible in part by a grant from the Gilchrist Foundation.
Judge discusses same-sex marriage ruling
Polk County District Court Judge Robert B. Hanson, whose ruling in a lawsuit opened the door to same-sex marriages in Iowa, presented a lecture at Morningside College in February. His lecture focused on his decision in Varnum v. Brien that Iowa’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed marriage only between a man and a woman, violated the state’s constitution. The Iowa Supreme Court later unanimously upheld Hanson’s ruling.
Self-proclaimed environmentalist and “No Impact Man” Colin Beavan presented a lecture at Morningside College in April focusing on how people can reduce their impact on the environment through lifestyle changes. It was based in part on Beavan’s book “No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process” and the movie “No Impact Man” that documented his family’s efforts to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year.
Author talks about “Living Biblically”
Author A.J. Jacobs presented a lecture at Morningside College in March that was based on his best-selling book “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.” He visited Morningside as part of the Goldstein Lecture series, which is sponsored by Morningside College, the Jewish Federation of Sioux City and Congregation Beth Shalom. The Goldstein Lectures at Morningside College are made possible through a permanent endowment provided by the Harold and Bernice Goldstein Foundation.
Choir performs at Carnegie Hall
The Morningside College Choir and the Morningside College Choral Union toured three states in May, with the culmination being a performance on the main stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City. Along with two performances in New York City, the singers performed in Batavia and Springfield in Illinois, and Akron and Seville in Ohio. Also performing during the concerts was Morningside’s Eclectix Vocal Jazz Ensemble, a group of a cappella singers who perform a mix of jazz, show and pop tunes.
College is named to community service honor roll
It was announced in May that Morningside College was admitted to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for engaging its students, faculty and staff in meaningful service that achieves measurable results in the community. Higher education institutions are selected for the honor roll based on a series of factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service. To learn more about service at Morningside, turn to page 20.
Jazz concert helps Japan
Morningside College senior music major Keisuke Mukai from Tokyo, Japan, was a featured performer at the Morningside College jazz concert in May that raised money for disaster relief in Japan. Donations collected at the concert went to the American Red Cross for eventual use in Japan as the country continues to recover from the March earthquake and tsunami. Performing during the concert were the Morningside College Jazz Band, Morningside’s Eclectix Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Reggie Schive Big Band. Mukai played tenor saxophone with the college’s jazz band.
OnCampus
Morningside College presented three honorary degrees, 255 bachelor’s degrees and 190 Master of Arts in teaching degrees during its 113th spring commencement exercises. The college presented honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to Dr. Richard J. Light, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and the John F. Kennedy School of Government; Lucy (Yoshioka) Buhler 1956 of Edmonds, Wash., a retired vocal music educator/consultant; and Carolyn B. “Tigger” Jensen, a longtime Sioux City resident and community volunteer. Light’s work in higher education has had a profound impact on colleges and universities throughout the United States and on the lives of countless students. Morningside College has directly benefited from his counsel, guidance and expertise as it has searched for ways to improve the educational journey for students. For more than two decades, Harvard’s Seminar on Assessment project, which Light created and chaired, has focused on how faculty members can most effectively help students learn and on how innovations in the classroom can be encouraged and assessed. Light’s book “Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds” provides valuable insight to those who care deeply about teaching, learning and college life, and his work as founder and chair of the Spencer Foundation’s Forum for Excellence and Innovation in Higher Education has developed several innovations that are in use on campuses around the nation. Buhler is a longtime friend and supporter of Morningside College. As a member of the board of directors from 2000 to 2010, she played a key role in reshaping and rebuilding Morningside into the exciting and thriving institution it is today. Buhler served on the steering committee for the “This is Our Moment” campaign that raised more than $45 million for facilities improvements, scholarships and endowment funding. As chair of the annual scholarship fund, she also was instrumental in helping to raise nearly $11 million for the annual fund during the campaign. Buhler has supported Morningside’s music program and students in many ways, most visibly through the Buhler Outdoor Performance Center that graces Morningside’s Hilker Campus Mall. But her dedication to music, the arts and education reaches far beyond the Morningside campus. Countless organizations around the world have benefited from her leadership and generous support. Jensen was recognized for her public and behind-the-scene accomplishments as a community volunteer. She and her husband, Irving, have been involved with many of the major cultural and educational initiatives in Sioux City, such as the new Sioux City Public Museum and the Orpheum Theatre renovation. She also has shared her time and leadership skills with many other Sioux City organizations and civic groups. Jensen and her husband are longtime advocates for education. As an example, the two generously underwrite a program that each year sends a group of Sioux City teachers to the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute to learn techniques that will bring American history to life in the classroom. Her family has longstanding ties to Morningside College. In addition to providing scholarships for students and awarding grants to academic programs, the Jensen family made the naming gift for the Elizabeth and Irving F. Jensen Softball Complex. Jensen and her husband also have a grandson, Alex Kent, who is among this year’s graduates. There is a story about a man who was walking along the road and came across a builder who seemed to be slowly piling some bricks on top of other bricks. And he really did not look very happy with what he was doing. “What are you building?” asked the fellow who was walking by. “Can’t you see,” snarled the builder, “I am simply building a wall…” A few miles later, the walker noticed another person who seemed to be starting a similar project, piling stone upon stone. “And what are you building, sir?” asked the walker. “Why, can’t you see?” replied the builder, eyes glowing with pride and pleasure, “I am building a cathedral…” This is a simple story. Others have told it also, yet it contains so much wisdom. Morningside College has prepared you well to go out and be successful in this modern world, however you choose to define success. Take life and grab it and live it to the hilt. Second bit of advice, remember what matters in life. I think over time you will find that what really matters the most in your life is love. As you spend time with your family, who love you so much, and as you make new friends in coming years, and as you keep in touch with the friends you have made here at Morningside, I urge you – just pour in more and more love. If you work at it and you get it right, it will make you happier than anything else you do in your life.
