Ripon Magazine Winter 2017

MAGAZINE WINTER 2017

Progress and change Catalyst gets off to a great start

Wellness center renovation on target for fall 2017

New study/classroom space opens downtown W I N T E R 2017

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Winter 2017 VOLUME 50, ISSUE No. 1

RIPON COLLEGE SOCIAL NETWORKS facebook.com/ripon.college flickr.com/photos/ripon_college instagram.com/riponcollege linkedin.com/company/ripon-college twitter.com/riponcollege vimeo.com/riponcollege youtube.com/riponcollegevideo

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Ripon Magazine (ISSN 1058-1855) is published twice annually by Ripon College, 300 W. Seward St., Ripon, WI 54971-0248. Postage paid at Ripon, Wisconsin. Copyright © 2017 Ripon College POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ripon Magazine, PO Box 248, Ripon, WI 54971-0248

Ripon College prepares students

Editor: Jaye Alderson, email: AldersonJ@ripon.edu, phone: 920-748-8364 Editorial Assistants: Melissa Anderson, Ric Damm and Mike Westemeier Student Assistants: Tessa Dillenbeck ’17, Mra Than ’17 and Megan Sohr ’18 Design: Ali Klunick Photography: Ric Damm and Jim Koepnick Office of Constituent Engagement: 920-748-8126

citizenship. Our liberal arts

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of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible and sciences curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education.

INSIDE 4 C ATALYST CURRICULUM EVOLVING With one semester of the new curriculum completed, Ripon College continues to adjust and develop new components to these innovative offerings.

8 W ELLNESS CENTER RENOVATION ON TRACK FOR FALL Week by week and step by step, the renovation and expansion of the athletics, health and wellness facility continues to progress.

10 C HANGING LOOKS OF

CAMPUS, COMMUNITY

The Ripon College campus and Ripon community have developed and grown side by side since the mid-19th century. Take a look at some of the changes through the years and how the two entities continue to support each other.

20 B IGGEST POLITICAL ISSUES OF YOUR ERA With a historic presidential election just behind us, Ripon College alumni recall the presidents who led our nation during their time at Ripon and the political issues that dominated the headlines.

28 A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF RALLY Rally the Red Hawk is only 5 years old, but Ripon College’s big red mascot has become a prominent and everwelcome visitor around campus throughout the year.

DEPARTMENTS 30 Sports 32 Around the Clocktower 36 Remarkable Ripon ON THE COVER: Rally greets Olivia Heck ’19, left, and Rachel Hawley ’19 at a game.

PHOTO: Sledding near Lane Library, ca. 1935 (?)

Correction from the Summer 2016 issue: The index page photo showed a pileated woodpecker, not a red-headed woodpecker — something several sharp alumni readers recalled from their student days at Ripon. Mea culpa.

PRESIDENT

A Nobel Prize Winner and an All-American

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liver Williamson and Ty Sabin don’t appear to have much in common on first blush.

Professor Williamson came to Ripon in 1950 from Superior, Wisconsin, on the 3-2 engineering program, and graduated from MIT in 1955. He went on to get his doctorate in economics and become a full professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He later moved to the University of California at Berkeley, and during his tenure there won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2009.

Ty Sabin is a senior exercise science major at Ripon College from New Berlin, Wisconsin. A four-year starter on the men’s basketball team, Ty was named a pre-season Division III AllAmerican. He broke the school scoring record earlier this year (with 20 games still to play) and has led his team to its best start in school history. At various times during his four years at Ripon, he has led the nation (that’s not a mistake, the entire nation) in scoring.

When I met with Professor Williamson at his home in California last year, he was kind and humble and remembered his years at Ripon with a special fondness. It was the place, he told me, where, as a young man from a small town in Wisconsin, he got his start. We have traded a couple of hand-written letters since my visit, and he maintains his unassuming and modest tone in prose, inquiring about developments at the College.

In November, I took my parents to watch the Ripon men’s basketball team play Loras College over the Thanksgiving weekend. I told my Dad (also a big basketball fan) that Ty was something special and had been named a pre-season Division III All-American. The first half was tough. Ty had a handful of points and turned the ball over a bunch of times. My father shrugged his shoulders and said to me, “I don’t see it.”

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But then, Ty played a second half like I have never seen in my 40-something years of watching basketball. He scored 45 points in the 20-minute half (finishing with 53, a new school record) and hit his last 12 shots in a row. My Dad turned to me at the end of the game, eyebrows arched, and said, “OK. I see it now.” Ty was featured on the front page of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sports page a couple of weeks later and said, “Every shot I took, looking back on it, was something I practiced thousands of times. It wasn’t anything too special. It’s just that I made them all in a row and we got the win.”

Separated by more than 60 years, both Professor Williamson and Ty Sabin came to Ripon from small Wisconsin towns. Both are respectful, hard-working and selfeffacing, and they made the most of their Ripon experience. And both are at the top of their game. Professor Williamson is one of the greatest economists of his generation and has made his mark on his field of study. For Ty Sabin, who will graduate this spring, the sky is the limit.

The more things change, as they say, the more they stay the same. At Ripon, we are in a season of progress: a new curriculum, a spectacular health and wellness center and a cool RC retail and study space downtown.

But at the same time, as we approach our 2017 graduation, we still are doing what we have done for generations: graduating future Nobel Prize winners and basketball stars, people who change the world and make it a better place by pursuing their passions to perfection.

ZACH P. MESSITTE, PRESIDENT

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139 years of track history digitized online When the field house addition to the athletic, health and wellness facilities is completed next summer, it will mark 139 years since Ripon College’s first field day in the spring of 1878. In the days before student-athletes were bused across the state and country to run faster, jump higher and throw farther than students from other schools, they competed against fellow Ripon students for these bragging rights on campus. Intercollegiate competition began 11 years later with a track meet against Lawrence University. The images here document the first years of track and field at Ripon College.

The entire collection of track and field and cross country images is now available online: ripon.edu/trackarchives.

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1. W omen’s relay The women’s track team was first organized in the spring of 1974.

Their first meet was April 10 when they competed against four University of Wisconsin schools at UW-Oshkosh.

2. R ipon-Hamline dual meet, 1909 This postcard pictures a meet at Ingalls Field when the teams tied at 58½ points each. Ripon was strong in the field events and Hamline in running events.

3. T rack team, 1893 “True enough he would like to break a record, but there isn’t one-half as much satisfaction in breaking a record as there is in beating Lawrence.”

(College Days, March 1893)

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4. H arold Osborn vists Ripon Ca. 1930, Ripon received a visit from Harold Osborn, the only person to win gold in both the decathlon and an individual event at the same Olympic games. He won in the high jump and decathlon at the 1924 Paris games.

5. F irst track meet: Lawrence vs. Ripon 1889 “These grounds were purchased in 1888, and named ‘Ingalls Park’ in honor of Mr. John G. Ingalls, an alumnus who started the movement to obtain the grounds by contributing himself and collecting from others the means which made the purchase possible. The Athletic Association entered heartily into the plan and assumed the responsibility raising a part of the money required.”

(College Days, March 1893) W I N T E R 2017 | 3

CATALYST T H E

F I R S T

Y E A R

Unique faculty collaboration propels new curriculum forward

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he first semester implementation of the new Catalyst curriculum has just concluded, but efforts to innovate continue, says Steve Martin, associate professor of communication and chair of the department. Martin is coordinating the development of the oral communication and collaboration skills that will be embedded in many of the Catalyst courses.

“I believe that few colleges would have adopted this model because of the need for close collaboration among faculty,” Martin says. “This says a lot about our faculty’s willingness to try cuttingedge solutions to the challenges that small liberal arts colleges are facing. It’s challenging because the implementation of this curriculum asks faculty members to design courses and to develop skills that could be far outside their typical disciplinary boundaries.”

An ongoing need will be to provide development opportunities to assist faculty in teaching courses and methodologies that might be far removed from their original degrees and pedagogical training, Martin says.

For example, he has been teaching faculty best practices for how to teach and evaluate oral communication skills and how to teach students to work collaboratively in groups. “Those are areas in which many faculty are not trained,” Martin says.

But with such challenges also come rewards. For many faculty, Martin notes, this is an opportunity to teach material that one might always have wanted to teach, but just would not fit into the 4

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needs of a given major or department.

For example, Martin is teaching a class on quantitative reasoning, focusing on how advocates use numbers and statistics to persuade the public. “That’s a course I’ve long thought about co-teaching with a statistics professor, but it just never seemed to fit into our schedules. Now, I have an opportunity to teach it in the Catalyst curriculum.”

Other faculty are able to take similar advantage of the design of the new curriculum. Joe Hatcher, professor of psychology, is teaching a course that explores the question about whether or not the world is becoming more violent.

Memuna Khan, associate professor of biology, is teaching about statistics and quantitative reasoning by examining some “first-year facts and fiction.” (Is the

“freshman fifteen” a real phenomenon?

Which major is best for the future?) And Henrik Schatzinger, associate professor of politics and government, is teaching students how to “unwrap the facts” we encounter every day.

“These are just a few examples of courses that faculty are teaching that likely never would have been envisioned without the direction and design of the new curriculum,” Martin says.

“Many more courses outside specific disciplines will be developed in the upcoming years, and it’s exciting to see the innovative approaches our faculty will devise. We’re requiring our students to become adaptable problem-solvers, so it only seems fitting that we need to be innovative and flexible, too,” he adds.

Michele Wittler, registrar and associate dean of faculty, says, “In designing and implementing the Catalyst general education curriculum, as a faculty we focused attention on the venerable goals of a liberal arts education. The distinctiveness and value of the Ripon College degree, in terms of knowledge, experiences and skills, has been clearly articulated for our students, their families, prospective employers, and professional/graduate programs.”

“We have to embrace the skills that we’re asking students to learn. Those are the kind of skills the world needs right now. This is a faculty that can make this work. We are willing to work together.”

Steve Martin, associate professor of communication, is coordinating teaching oral communication and collaboration skills to faculty.

Megan Gannon, assistant professor of English, is the coordinator for Catalyst 220; and Andrew Prellwitz, associate librarian-User Services and chair of the library, is the coordinator for information literacy.

Ed Wingenbach, dean of faculty, makes a point during a weekly meeting of the Catalyst Task Force.

McKenzie Lamb, left, associate professor of mathematical sciences, says, “The faculty teaching Catalyst courses are doing an excellent job developing shared resources. Student feedback on Catalyst 120 was very positive, on the whole.”

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CATALYST T H E

F I R S T

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Jean-Blaise Samou, assistant professor of French and francophone studies “I really enjoy CTL task force meetings because we are cordial and yet productive. Now that we are moving with assurance toward the end of the first year of CTL implementation, I am excited to see what the second year will look like, especially for the intercultural competence seminars that I am coordinating. What I truly value, besides each component of the Catalyst curriculum is the building, integration and transferability of skills through the three levels of the curriculum.”

Mark Kainz, professor of biology and Catalyst curriculum director, leads a task force discussion of skill scaffolding — skills learned in one course being reinforced or expanded in later courses.

Professor of French Dominique Poncelet reviews papers with students after a peer review session. “Students enjoyed the theme of my CTL 110, ‘Monsters, Deviants and Outcasts in French Literature,’ and they developed better writing skills. The most challenging part for me was to determine exactly what students needed to work on.

As first-year students, they all came with different backgrounds and started with different skills. Now I have a better idea of their needs.”

“The task force is currently analyzing the fall semester courses with the goal of making adjustments to each course to further refine and improve them.”

“Issues on the task force agenda for the near future include preparing 200-level Catalyst courses for rollout in fall 2017, developing the 300-level Applied Innovation seminar, facilitating faculty development opportunities to enhance faculty preparation for teaching courses in the skills-based curriculum that may be outside of their disciplinary expertise, and determining how best to serve transfer students to ensure that they develop the skills from Catalyst and graduate on schedule.”

For more information about Catalyst, including a video that answers the three biggest questions about the curriculum, visit ripon.edu/catalyst

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Tom Truesdell, visiting professor of English and coordinator of the Collaborative Learning Center, works with Jaime Camacho ’20 of Chicago, Illinois. “As expected, when classroom practice bumps up against curricular theory, there were a few adjustments, but nothing significant,” Truesdell says. “Part of my contribution is general, as we think our way through the 2017-18 additions to the curriculum; part is working with this semester’s 110 faculty, hoping to smooth some of the bumps we learned about in the fall.”

Jody Roy, professor of communication, shares a laugh with a student while discussing the revision process. “I really enjoyed teaching Catalyst 110 for the first time,” Roy says.

“It was nice to have the opportunity to focus so tightly on writing with first-year students. By the semester’s end, the students reported they felt they had improved greatly as writers. I agree: because they worked so hard and stayed focused, their progress was really impressive.”

Megan Gannon, assistant professor of English, discusses poems by Ripon’s Fall 2016 visiting writer Emily Perez in a fall Catalyst class.

McKenna Meza ’19 of Waupaca, Wisconsin, speaks in front of faculty to help them learn how to evaluate and teach best practices in oral presentations.

She participated in forensics in high school and took Public Speaking at Ripon with Associate Professor of Communication Steven Martin.

“Knowing I would be speaking in front of several professors I admired and looked up to was intimidating at first, but once I began speaking it felt natural and I enjoyed myself!”

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THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! Aerial view in early winter

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ith the start of the 2017 academic year just six months away, the renovated and expanded athletic, health and wellness facilities are beginning to take shape. Coaches already have moved into their new second-story digs, and preparations are under way for a late spring opening of the new practice gymnasium and north addition, featuring state-of-theart classrooms, a new center for fitness and weight training, healthy grab-and-go food selections, and a multi-purpose lobby for studying and relaxing.

Under the same roof, construction remains on schedule for the summer opening of the main performance gymnasium, the new 65,000-square- foot fieldhouse with Wisconsin’s best NCAA track and four performance courts, upstairs fitness studios and cardio balcony, athletic training center and locker rooms.

For more information and ways you can contribute — including a donation, locker sponsorship or joining a challenge to honor a Ripon great — contact the Office of Advancement at 920-748-8351 or advancement@ripon.edu; or visit ripon.edu/revitalize.

To view more construction photos, visit ripon.edu/construction 8

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The performance gymnasium with new bleachers, a view of staff offices, and the Red Hawks suite

Ryan Goggans, head coach of swimming/diving, in his new office

The new field house

Coaches tour the work-in-progress, starting in the tartan area, which will become a practice gym

The north addition, which will house a fitness center.

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Old look of the site at 329 Watson St.

Bovay’s Addition invoked in College’s new downtown hangout A new initiative in Ripon’s historic downtown is revitalizing an underutilized building, thanks to the vision and investment of Ripon College.

In January, the building at 329 Watson St. — formerly known as Gallagher’s Pub and adjacent to Ripon’s popular J’s BBQ restaurant — became home to the College’s newest venture, Bovay’s: Ripon College Study Bar and Mercantile.

The hip multi-purpose downtown location is just steps away from the Carnegie administration building and includes a 30-seat high-tech classroom, faculty office, ample study spaces, flexible campus and community event space, a retail store, and a performance stage and sound system. In response to student needs, Bovay’s is open late into the evening and features barista coffee service by Mugs Coffeehouse during peak study hours.

Student interns working in the space will benefit from hands-on experiential training in marketing, merchandising and small business management.

Bovay’s, in part, replaces the campus bookstore, which closed in early February.

Moving forward, students will order textbooks online using one of their own devices or an online kiosk located in Bovay’s.

An online apparel and gifts store will supplement the brick and mortar mercantile.

“We’ve been visiting college towns during the summer, and having this venue on Watson Street will serve as an anchor,” said

Alvan Bovay 10

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Zach Messitte, president of Ripon College.

“We feel the location, partnership with J’s BBQ and concept are an ideal fit for our campus and community.”

Bovay’s takes its name from Alvan Bovay, founder of Bovay’s Addition to the early town, which created the south end of Watson Street and paved the way for the founding of Ripon College. Bovay’s life exemplifies active citizenship and public service. He played a central role in Ripon’s development and was a founder of Brockway College (later Ripon College) and of the Republican Party, founded in Ripon in 1854.

“Bovay’s is yet another example of why the success of Ripon College and the city of Ripon are interconnected,” Messitte says.

“More activity downtown is good for the college and the community.”

College and Main Street officials hope the new venture will help with the continued growth and revitalization of downtown while also serving to bolster Collegecommunity ties and meet the needs of the student body.

Bovay’s opens in downtown Ripon.

Some faculty already have started to use the classroom at 329 Watson St. for spring courses. Mary Unger, assistant professor of English, says, “I’m excited to use the Bovay classroom for my course on ‘Beyoncé & Black Women’s Writing’ this semester because the space ‘thinks outside the box’ of a traditional classroom. Both the space and the technology that the location offers allow faculty to experiment with new pedagogical strategies to engage students.

“By having class downtown, moreover, it’s my hope that my students will not just think of themselves as members of Ripon College, but also as members of the community.

Likewise, I hope that the Bovay classroom will be a space where community members feel welcome for gatherings, exhibits and other events. Ultimately, I think that the space will be most successful if it benefits more than just the college, but also the larger Ripon community (I know I, for example, would love to use the space to host community read-ins or book clubs at some point in the future).”

To learn more, visit ripon.edu/bovays.

“Bovay’s is yet another example of why the success of Ripon College and the city of Ripon are interconnected. More activity downtown is good for the college and the community.”

Zach P. Messitte, President

Associate Professor of English Mary Unger opens her English 260: Topics in Cultural Identity class at 329 Watson St. on Jan. 19.

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PICTURE THIS:

Historic Ripon T H E N A N D N O W

Diedrich’s Drug Store, 209 Watson Street, ca. 1902-1908

Since the mid-19th century, Ripon College and historic downtown Ripon have grown and developed side-by-side. Just a stone’s throw apart, the College and the downtown have worked together to support each other through boom and bust economies.

Today, Ripon and small college towns across the United States are looking for ways to strengthen their economies, provide better quality of life, and build on local assets.

Throughout the decades, the face of business on Watson Street has changed rather dramatically. Long gone are the general stores, public houses and fancy supper clubs. Today, visitors will see a spate of new specialty clothing stores, new startups like Knuth Brewing Co. and J’s BBQ, and furniture and gift shops.

Many of the downtown buildings retain their original historic architectural charm, although donning updated facades and signage to reflect their current-day uses.

Homecoming parade, ca. 1920

This April, Ripon College will host the second annual Wisconsin Thriving College Towns Summit, a meeting of college administrators and town officials from across the state who will share best practices on topics ranging from event collaboration, obtaining the right business mix for students and alumni, and appropriate ways to support downtown development projects.

The inaugural summit was held last spring on the campus of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.

Take a stroll through downtown Ripon, then and now, and see details from the past merge with the emerging community needs of today.

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The Public Library was built in 1905 with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation. After the library was moved, this building across from the Village Green was home to Pearl’s House of Fashion through the 1980s; and now houses administrative offices for Ripon College, including the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Faculty, and the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Carnegie Library

Biegick Brothers Auto Garage, late 1930s

The Spot, ca. 1976

Bovay’s: Ripon College Study Bar & Mercantile and J’s BBQ. J’s BBQ is known for all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesdays

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A predecessor, Big Al’s Tap, in 1967.

Knuth Brewing Co. at 221 Watson St., with owner Dave Knuth ’08, 2017

The site previously housed a dry goods business, drug store, and department store.

Campus Cinema, 103 Watson St., in 1954, celebrating Ripon alumnus Spencer Tracy ’24

The building was converted to a theatre in 1935 by Ben Marcus. It was the first of nearly five dozen Marcus Theatres throughout the Midwest.

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Roadhouse Pizza, 102 Watson St., currently

A predecessor, Gus’s Pizza, ca. 1970s

100 Block of Watson Street, east side, ca. 1901-1908

200 Block of Watson Street, looking southwest, 1870s

Evening event at the Square in front of First National Bank, after 1930

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OUTSTANDING ALUMNI

MIKE SNYDER ’74 16

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Puzzles challenge optical engineer

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nconsciously, I had been drawn to puzzles since I was a kid,” says Mike Snyder ’74 of Rochester, Minnesota.

Snyder boasts a collection of 1,753 unique puzzles at the time of interviewing. He collects, builds and trades puzzles, and has for nearly two decades. Some of his puzzles have ended up around the world, several are featured in a museum in Mongolia and others at the University of Indiana.

Snyder’s passion for puzzles was awakened 25 years ago while he was working as an optical engineer. After working for four days straight at a conference in Cambridge, he needed a break.

“I went to the MIT Museum, there was a temporary puzzle exhibit,” he says. “All of these puzzles were owned by one person who collects puzzles, and I thought, ‘I’d like to do that.’ So I came home and said I’d like to collect puzzles, and my family said, ‘We already knew that.’ ” Two years after his interest was sparked, Snyder became connected with the international puzzle community. He met the man whose collection had inspired him two years before, and Snyder, along with other puzzle enthusiasts, were invited to the collector’s home for dinner. This has blossomed into an annual international event known as the International Puzzle Party. Each year, puzzle enthusiasts from around the globe gather for a week to discuss and exchange puzzles. Now, up to 100 people attend the meetings which have

been held in the United States, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Puzzle exchanges have a simple rule, Snyder says: give collectors something they do not already have. Puzzle enthusiasts build their own new custom puzzles to give out in the exchange. Snyder, wanting to join in on the exchange, started building his own puzzles.

At Ripon, Snyder double-majored in mathematics and physics and worked quality testing as an optical engineer.

His honed ability to think geometrically came in handy as he began designing and building his own puzzles. “For me, the process is a little different each time I go about it,” Snyder says. “I can’t say where the next one will come from. I just come up with very different things each time.”

Everything from materials to shape to difficulty will factor into what the final puzzle looks like.

Through the puzzle exchange, Snyder has seen puzzles from various cultures and time periods. “You do sometimes learn where some puzzles come from, some puzzles have gone around the world,” he says. Some have been passed down for so long, their origins are unknown, one puzzle in the exchange cannot be traced back beyond 600 years. Others have been more carefully documented.

that if you couldn’t manipulate the rings and wires, you couldn’t unlock it and open a gate or chest.” Another is a matchbox puzzle traced back to the Civil War. Because matches often were stolen, one soldier invented a matchbox that requires some manipulation to open.

Now retired, Snyder has devoted more time to his passion. But, he also enjoys other forms of artistic expression. He is in a local woodworking club and paints everything from murals to benches for the local library.

He currently is looking forward to the next International Puzzle Party, and bolstering his collection.

When it comes to puzzles, Snyder has this to say, “Seven days without puzzles makes one weak.”

For more information about the International Puzzle Party, visit PuzzleParty.org.

MEGAN SOHR ’18 Oshkosh, Wisconsin

“One that some people know is sometimes called Chinese Rings, or a Patience Puzzle,” he says. “It started out as a type of lock

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OUTSTANDING ALUMNI

TAMARA BROWNE ’80

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Alumna helps facilitate law that helps U.S. agencies regulate trade

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he way trade is conducted in the United States is an ongoing issue, and Tamara Browne ’80 of Washington, D.C., had a hand in working toward the goal of evening the odds for U.S. businesses. A new law that she helped facilitate, The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2016, was signed into law in February 2016.

Browne started working in Washington in the 1990s, representing the steel industry at the legal and lobbying firm of Schagrin Associates. She currently serves as director of government affairs. About 10 years ago, the firm became aware of a massive flaw in the way trade is conducted, one that was having severe impacts on American business.

“What we discovered (was that) millions of dollars in duties were never collected by the government,” Browne says. “If they had been, the marketplace would have been more balanced.”

Global trade has exploded over the last decade, and customs in the United States had not been able to keep up with collecting duties on imported goods. This led to countries like China doing something known as “dumping” — selling imports to American industries at prices so extremely low that products made in the United States were not able to compete. Sometimes, these cheaper imported products were even falsely marketed as American-made — products such as honey and notebook

paper. This skewed the market and harmed American industries.

Fraud concerning edible products like honey is especially concerning, Browne says. “It was being labeled as American-sourced, which it was not, and the Chinese had added other additives to extend shelf life. It was very serious from a safety perspective.”

Such fraud goes back several years, she says.

“We started this task force around 2008 around pipes and tubes. Over time, others joined and it became a collective effort.”

is to address these issues and remedy them.”

She says it was a long and difficult process to get the law enacted, but for her, it was worth the struggle. “We have strength in this democracy,” she says. “We have an incredible opportunity to engage with the issues that we think are important.”

MEGAN SOHR ’18 Oshkosh, Wisconsin

For the past eight years, Schagrin and other coalitions worked to pass a bill to expand funding and customs personnel, create new provisions to ensure investigation of each claim, and provide restitution to American industries when necessary. Passing the bill was a difficult process as work had to be done with Congress where members come and go. Browne found herself having to re-introduce the issue multiple times over three Congresses.

Finally, the act was signed into law in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama.

This bill gives American industries a way of combatting dumping. “It’s designed to provide the tools for U.S. industries — anyone who has been harmed by fraud or illegal trade, or if a product has a duty on it that should be paid to customs and isn’t paid,” Browne says. “The premise of the bill

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ALUMNI MEMORIES

PRESIDENTS AND THE POLITICAL ISSUES OF THEIR DAY Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers, once said: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” — and we might add politics of one form or another.

Major political issues topped the headlines during the recent presidential campaign and election, and they continue to dominate. Here, Ripon College alumni share who was the president or presidents during their four years at Ripon, and the major political issues they faced.

The U.S. president: My first year saw the last of the Eisenhower administration and then the Kennedy years.

The biggest political issue while I was at Ripon was the Cuban Missile Crisis. A large group of us gathered around the one television at Sigma Nu to find out if our duck-and-cover practice from our early years was now going to be put to use.

On the subject of political issues of that time (academic years 1959-1960 through 1962-1963), I would include these: There was interest in joining the cause of racial integration by sitting in at a lunch counter — then we remembered that Ripon, Wisconsin, did not have a lunch counter. During the time of the Kennedy-Nixon election, the city of Ripon had a large banner across the main street supporting the Constitution Party of America and its platform that declared putting fluoride in drinking water was a Communist plot to poison our body fluids. This subject was revisited in the movie “Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

A last note: The national debate topic for 1960-1961 was about national health insurance for all Americans. Our country is still working on this last issue — sad to say.

Vernon Cronin ’63 Wilmington, North Carolina

I graduated from Ripon in 1957, and I believe that Dwight Eisenhower was president. If memory serves me correctly, the big issues and fear were involved with the spread of communism and the Cold War. One of my memories of Ripon was of the torch-lit parade we had in 1954 to commemorate and honor the schoolhouse where the Republican party was founded.

Joan Anderson Bachus ’57 Penn Valley, California

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United States president: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson Biggest political issue: The effect the assassination of President Kennedy would have on the country and the world, combined with the constant reporting of the work of the Warren Commission and the conspiracy theorists.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy occurred during my sophomore year.

Also, the great civil rights march in Selma (I think) took place, and some of Ripon’s students went along with the Rev. Jerry Thompson.

Bob Newman ’64 Voorhees, New Jersey

Jennifer Lloyd Maxson ’65 Riverwoods, Illinois

Ripon’s war memorial

John F. Kennedy died in my junior year at Ripon. I, along with a busload of Ripon students, heard about the shooting when we arrived at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin. We were there for a student leaders’ conference. We had dinner and spent the night, but the conference was called off.

I believe that the Vietnam War was the biggest issue of the time. I remember that the son of a well-respected professor left the country to avoid the draft. His family did not believe war solved problems.

Despite my profound respect for this gifted teacher, mentor, friend, I thought his son was a coward. Looking back, how I admire this once-young man’s bravery.

Wingspread

JFK was shot my freshman year — will never forget that I had gone back to the dorm, Wright Hall, and had the radio on as the first announcement came over. We all kind of wandered around campus in shock.

Civil rights was the issue of the day — thought we had won that war, but today’s politics tell me differently.

Marty Stende Knutson ’67 Hot Springs, South Dakota

Whenever I visit family in Wisconsin, I stop by the College’s war memorial and share thoughts with Rick.

Nixon was president my entire time (’69-’73) at Ripon. He was re-elected in ’72 when he beat George McGovern in a landslide. In 1972, 18-year-olds were allowed to vote in a presidential election for the first time, so there was plenty of debate regarding the candidates and issues.

I would say the biggest political issue was the Vietnam War.

I was in ROTC Transportation Corps.

I remember arriving at Ripon College in fall of 1969; mandatory Army ROTC, and Richard M. Nixon was the commander in chief. Three items for 1969/’70: Vietnam War (Ripon College had anti-war demonstrations); Watergate/impeachment etc.; and my new draft number was #25 in the 1970 drawing. That said, a quick trip to the on-campus Navy recruiter and my life direction changed!

Larry Mahoney ’67 White Bear, Minnesota

Jeff Drew ’73 Tomah, Wisconsin

Major issues were Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War.

In 1999, Rick’s Vietnam company commander, Capt. Jeff Wilcox, wrote a tribute to Rick. This is the link: goo.gl/jgXe79.

Marcus Disbrow ’71 Cumming, Georgia

Jane Person ’65 Petaluma, California

POTUS when I was at Ripon (1963-1967) was JFK and then LBJ.

Big issues of day: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., April 1968. Assassination of Bobby Kennedy, June 1968. The ongoing death toll of the Vietnam War. Walter Cronkite’s February 1968 editorial about the war. And the death of fellow student and my close friend, Rick Leroy Scott ’71.

Rick was killed in Vietnam, July 1970.

Dave Bunten ’73 Lake Zurich, Illinois

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ALUMNI MEMORIES

My freshman year at Ripon coincided with what seemed to be the relatively tame 1972 presidential election in which Richard Nixon was seeking his second term, running against George McGovern (the significance of the Watergate break-in and Nixon’s dirty tricks was only starting to emerge that fall).

What made it exciting for me was that the voting age had just changed (in summer 1971) from 21 to 18, and with my birthday falling on When I entered Ripon College as a junior in 1972, the war in Vietnam Nov. 5, and the first Tuesday after the first Monday falling relatively late was raging. Many on campus professed anti-military views. Knowing I (Nov. 7), I would be able to vote by just 48 hours. I was pretty stoked. was a ROTC faculty wife, several professors refused to speak to me when (Coincidentally, the 1968 election had fallen on Nov. 5, so I got Nixon I greeted them at social events. It seemed I had to not only defend myself, for my 14th birthday – not a great gift for a card-carrying member of but also the fact that ours was a service family. Undeniably, the on-campus the Young Democrats of Waukesha County (Wisconsin). demonstrations were a microcosm of the turmoil churning across our I don’t recall a lot of political activity on campus that fall – I was too nation over the duration of the Southeast Asia conflict. new to Ripon – but I proudly displayed my McGovern poster in the Richard Nixon was serving as our nation’s 37th president. News of the window of my room on third floor Wright Hall.

Watergate conspiracy, break-in, coverup, and resulting scandal dragged Fortunately, Nixon was president for only the first two of my four on during this period. The subsequent hearings in Washington laid bare years at Ripon before resigning in disgrace. Gerald Ford was president shocking revelations, culminating in President Nixon’s resignation on the last two. Six months after I graduated, Jimmy Carter and Walter August 9, 1974, just a few months after I graduated.

Mondale were elected – not on my birthday, but close enough.

Personally, I enjoyed some fascinating outcomes from that period. After such wrong treatment by certain Ripon faculty for merely being an Army Julie Carlson ’76 Greenfield, Wisconsin wife, albeit also a student, I pursued my studies with academic vigor, resolving to “show” them. My efforts resulted in graduating at the head of my class. Before leaving Ripon, our family formalized the adoption of our Vietnamese baby daughter, who arrived to join our family shortly before my graduation. A year later, after moving to Washington, D.C., I briefly encountered President Gerald Ford, our 38th president, who succeeded Mr. Nixon in an unprecedented changeover of national office.

My time in Ripon was a tumultuous one, filled with the anxiety of unfair rejection by some, and the warm welcome of others. This was all buoyed by the exhilaration and gratitude, at age 31, of receiving my bachelor’s degree from such a prestigious and excellent institution of higher learning.

And for the entire learning experience, both academic and personal, I will always be indebted.

Elizabeth Henderson Barratt ’74 Carmel Valley, California

In front of Tri-Dorms. Carlson is third from left in the front row, with long dark hair, V-neck vest and “trying to look cool by not wearing my glasses.”

Bernie Adams was president of the College when I was a student at Ripon between 1971-75. He was not at all like the U.S. president, Richard Nixon. The Vietnam War was winding down but still controversial. The nation began wallowing in Watergate shortly after the 1972 election. Because the nation had not yet invented 1’s and 0’s, burglars had to break in to an office and physically photograph paper if one wanted to learn someone else’s secrets. This “two-bit break-in” eventually culminated in Nixon’s resignation from office in August 1974. (Bernie remained as Ripon’s president for another decade, give or take.)

Watergate building

Bernard Adam

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Richard J. Lewandowski ’75 Madison, Wisconsin

Richard Nixon was the U.S. president. The biggest issue was Watergate. Either Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein was supposed to speak on campus, but due to the breaking Watergate story he did not come. Instead, in his place, Brit Hume (now of Fox News) came and spoke. He was working for political columnist Jack Anderson. I often think of that time when I see Hume’s photo, name or on TV.

Jimmy Carter was president for most of my time at Ripon College between 1977 and 1981. I remember having some interesting discussions with classmates about the Iran hostage crisis. That was probably the biggest issue of the day. It was impressed upon me as a young man the menace of a country like Iran and the profound dangers inherent in a theocracy of any kind.

Jeffrey McAndrew ’81 North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Andrea Topetzes Mann ’76 Bainbridge Island, Washington I came to Ripon from a family of Jewish northeastern democrats when Jimmy Carter presided over a thoroughly depressed nation, and the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis were in full swing. At the beginning of my second year, Reagan was elected, the hostages released and the nation embarked on the second-largest post war economic expansion in its history. Were it not for my liberal arts education at Ripon, especially my experience in Professor (Douglas) Northrop’s Critical Analysis class along with philosophy classes with the likes of Seale Doss, Vance Cope-Kasten and Robert Hannaford, I might today be as politically ignorant as I was in August 1979.

I suspect that my political views likely differ considerably from those among my professors, though I nevertheless owe them a debt of gratitude. For it is they who taught me critical thinking and how the proper use of language can make possible intellectual self-discovery and self-actualization. As a real estate developer highly dependent on favorable interest rates, I cannot imagine how my industry withstood the Carter years with rates over 20 percent. Looking back on it, the geo-political circumstances and Reagan’s opposition during his first term was nearly as tumultuous as things are today.

Daniel D. Plotkin ’83 East Longmeadow, Massachusetts

The biggest political issues at the time were abortion rights, the falling of the Berlin wall; it was also the time of the Tylenol killer and the Unabomber. There was also a major student sit-in on campus demanding to use laundry machines for free instead of paying 25 cents per load.

I was observing Ramadan (fasting) and asked the cafeteria manager at the time to take away my food at dinner time in order to break the fast later. The manager simply replied: “We only accommodate major religions.” I went to President William R. Stott’s office, and he called the manager and asked him, “What is the major religion in the world?” And he waited for a moment and then said, “Islam is the major religion in the world; please serve the guy.” Apparently, the manager did not know what to say.

Redouan El Younsi ’90 Tetouan, Morocco

The first election I voted in was during my first year at Ripon. We watched the election results in the TV lounge together as residents of the building. I went to bed with Al Gore as president and woke up to George W. Bush as the winner. Those darn hanging chads in Florida!

For additional alumni political memories, visit ripon.edu/MemoriesW17.

Carolyn Duven ’04 Boone, Iowa W I N T E R 2017

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Remembering William “Willie” Lyons ’62

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A letter recently received at Ripon Magazine:

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hile going through a recent Ripon Magazine (Summer 2015), on page 18 the article caught my attention. The two very famous alumni, Al Jarreau ’62 and Harrison Ford ’64 were noted with pictures of them as students, but the larger picture showing students sitting around the dorm was also interesting. The photo showed no names of those pictured. The student standing up to the right smoking was a high school classmate and fraternity brother of mine (DU), Willie Lyons ’62. Willie was special!

Willie and I both attended Banning Union High School, which was located in a very small town in southern California called Banning. It was 20 miles east of Palm Springs, California, right on present-day I-10. Our high school had around 250 students at that time. Willie was a Morongo Native American and lived on the Morongo Indian Reservation.

This reservation was created by President Ulysses S. Grant by executive order in 1876 and covered more than 35,000 acres in the San Gorgonio Pass, at the foot of Mount San Gorgonio and Mount San Jacinto. The reservation was and is directly adjacent to Banning and in the 1950s, the area was mostly undeveloped, and those living there were struggling. Willie was the oldest of four children living with his mother on the reservation. His father had passed away. They had a two-bedroom small house, no indoor plumbing, and Willie’s mom cooked all the family meals on an outside wood fire. In those early days, there were no food stamps nor any other help from anyone. They were really poor!

The Banning Union High School athletic director at that time was the late Art Linden, and it turned out he was an alumnus of Ripon (1951). He was a talented and enthusiastic person, and it made the athletic department hum at Banning. I played basketball at Banning, and during my senior year at Banning we were without a basketball coach, so Art hired a brand new “never-coached-basketball” coach, Frank Burk; and with the help of Art and great coaching from Frank, we went on that year to win the State of California (called the California Interscholastic Federation - CIF) state

JERRY BARR ’61

basketball championship southern division, beating schools more than 10 times our size. Because of the size of California, the state was divided in two, southern and northern divisions.

I was fortunate to be part of that team and was awarded first string forward on the all California state basketball team for that year.

Willie Lyons played baseball at Banning. Willie was a great baseball player, making the all-Riverside County baseball team. He also was an enthusiastic student, having very good grades in academic studies.

Both Willie and I were without funds to attend a school like Ripon. So, upon graduation from Banning Union High School, Art was able to get a scholarship which enabled Willie and I to attend Ripon College. I can never express my gratitude to Art Lindon and Ripon College (and I respectfully speak for Willie) for what we were given. I graduated in 1961 and was sworn into the military as a commissioned officer. Willie graduated a couple years later and was sworn into the military as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. Willie was probably the first Morongo Indian to achieve these goals.

Willie went to Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and tragically was killed in action at the very beginning of this war — at great loss to his family, friends and, probably most of all, for the people of the Morongo Indian Reservation.

His enthusiastic approach to life and the good he could have accomplished for the people of the Morongo Indian Reservation is incalculable.

That photo in Ripon Magazine sure needed Willie’s name on it as a man who answered the call and gave his all — a great American hero.

Best regards, JERRY BARR ’61 Kissimmee, Florida W I N T E R 2017

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POLITICS PROVIDE PLATFORM FOR SAM KAY’S PASSIONS Classes and activities at Ripon College created a strong base of leadership skills for Sam Kay ’15 of Milwaukee Wisconsin.

“I was active in Student Senate, the College Democrats and Amnesty International — liberal causes I was really drawn to,” she says. There were a lot of different classes that were really helpful — being able to talk with people regardless of their political beliefs and finding a point where we can both agree. It was empowering to organize around issues.”

SAM KAY ’15 Special Graduate Trustee

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Kay majored in politics and government, and philosophy, with a minor in history. From December 2015 through December 2016, Kay worked for the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group. For most of the year, she worked in nonpartisan issue advocacy surrounding environmental issues, such as protecting clean water, public lands and national parks.

“I WAS ACTIVE IN STUDENT SENATE, THE COLLEGE DEMOCRATS AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL — LIBERAL CAUSES I WAS REALLY DRAWN TO. THERE WERE A LOT OF DIFFERENT CLASSES THAT WERE REALLY HELPFUL — BEING ABLE TO TALK WITH PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF THEIR POLITICAL BELIEFS AND FINDING A POINT WHERE WE CAN BOTH AGREE. IT WAS EMPOWERING TO ORGANIZE AROUND ISSUES.”

“I was genuinely interested in working on environmental issues, and this was a really good way to do it with grassroots mobilization around those issues,” she says.

In August, the group’s focus switched to campaign work to support Hillary Clinton, whose policies most closely matched the viewpoints of the group. Kay moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to rally support and train volunteers to motivate voters with similar interests to come in and make phone calls, knock on doors and take action, she says.

Kay says motivation is strongest when she can connect people to a personal story. Her own story started in Wind Lake, Wisconsin, where she grew up on Long Lake. Both her parents did nonprofit work, her father with homelessness and her mother with hunger.

Her surroundings also had an impact. She grew up fishing, swimming and boating on

Long Lake and was able to observe firsthand the effects of various impacts to the environment. “I can see what we have to lose if we don’t take action on some of these issues,” she says. “The lake I grew up on could dry up. Developers could take over if we don’t protect those lands. It’s literally in my backyard. I want my kids to experience the same great outdoor recreation that I had.

I want to be able to share that story with other people and have people share their own stories, too. Finding people and making those voices heard is really important to me.”

Although her current job has ended, Kay plans to continue in the same vein. “I’m considering moving to Washington, D.C., and staying active in politics,” she says. “I will continue to fight for what individuals care about. I want to make sure that people can make their voices heard.”

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RIPON’S SPIRITED AMBASSADOR

National Hug Day, observed Jan. 20, 2017

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ith a giant red presence and enthusiasm, Rally the Red Hawk “hatched” as the official mascot of Ripon College in 2011. Rally now pops up at campus and community activities throughout the year — including sporting events, Alumni Weekend, Homecoming, National Hug Day, and mascot kickball games at Fox River Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Although Rally never speaks in public, he has plenty to say about his role at Ripon College. “People are really excited to see a mascot,” he says. “It adds an extra sense of school spirit. Before me, people wore Ripon red and were really supportive at games, but I add some cheer to it. It’s the cherry on top of the cake.”

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When he first came on the scene, Rally says, not everyone got him. “ ‘Are you a cardinal?

Are you a robin? What ARE you?’ C’mon people — we’re the RED HAWKS!” Rally says.

“Everything I do in the suit is two times bigger than what you do in life. When I wave, my whole arm gets into the act. When I nod, my whole body goes up and down, up and down. Sometimes, kids are a little scared of my big eyes, but I can be shy, too. If I act a little timid, they’re not so scared anymore.

“It’s really great to be king — I mean Rally,” Rally says. “I’m a big, silly goofball. I like to tease people who are bald and pretend their heads are big, shiny mirrors. I like to dance.

And I have that big tail feather, and it’s hard not to shake it.

“I like to do fist bumps and make kissing sounds when I give hugs. When I hug kids, I get down on their level and they get lost in my feathers. Their parents love that. When I give hugs to college kids, some prefer highfives and some will pick me right up. People love hugs and taking pictures with me.”

Rally says that sometimes he is challenged about who is in the suit. “I just point to the name Rally on my jersey,” Rally says. “Most people see the character and go along with the idea that Rally is Rally, not someone in a mascot suit. Rally brings people joy, and that makes me really happy.”

Rally shares the love at Homecoming and Family Weekend.

Taking selfies with visitors during Alumni Weekend

Rally waves the Ripon flag after each Ripon touchdown.

Rally Hour event at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, with Anthony Tausig ’15

National Hug Day, observed Jan. 20, 2017

Rally relates on everyone’s level.

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SPORTS

SHATTERING RECORDS TY SABIN MAKES HISTORY ON BASKETBALL COURT Ty Sabin is the greatest scorer in the 119year history of the Ripon College men’s basketball program. On Dec. 2, 2016, the senior guard from New Berlin, Wisconsin, scored his 1,872nd career point, breaking Ripon’s scoring record. He also shattered Ripon’s single-game scoring record earlier this season, scoring 53 points, which broke his own record of 51.

He currently leads the NCAA across all divisions in career scoring average and continues to record eye-popping numbers.

Media across the country have taken notice, and he and he is just the third player in the MWC history to score 2,300 points.

He is on pace to finish his career as the conference’s second-leading scorer.

For a full interview with Sabin, visit ripon.edu/tysabin.

To see phenomenal shots from this season, visit ripon.edu/sabin and ripon.edu/sabin53.

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Record holder at Ripon College As of February 1, 2017

2,300

CAREER POINTS

429 points more than the second-highest total.

AV E R A G E P O I N T S P E R G A M E more than four points per game higher than the next-highest total.

POINTS IN A GAME Is the only player in school history to score 50 or more points in a single game (doing so twice).

25.6

11

SINGLE-GAME RECORD FOR THREE-POINTERS

+

53

SINGLE-GAME RECORD POINTS

50

2 ND IN SCHOOL HISTORY

6 TH

2 ND

IN SCHOOL HISTORY

IN SCHOOL HISTORY

247

45.7%

85.5%

CAREER 3-POINTERS 30 shy of the school record.

THREE-POINT PERCENTAGE The school record is .492.

FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE The school record is .871.

Has started all 90 games during his career with the Red Hawks, scoring in double figures in each game.

Leads Ripon in scoring (29.9 ppg), rebounding (5.6 rpg), and steals (1.6 spg).

29.9

5.6

1.6

3 assists per game, while shooting 55% from the field, 44% from 3-point range, and 86% from the free-throw line.

Also has recorded

TWO-TIME

THREE-TIME

TWO-TIME

MIDWEST CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

DIVISION III NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

ALL AMERICAN

25.6 Leads the NCAA across all divisions in career scoring average with 25.6 points per game.

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AROUND THE CLOCKTOWER 1

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CATALYST 1. Thomas E. Caestecker receives 2017 Founders’ Day Award

3. Ripon receives $800,000 grant to support Catalyst curriculum

5. Ron Ernst releases four-set instructional video promoted nationwide

Honorary Life Trustee Thomas E. Caestecker was honored Jan. 31 with the 2017 Founders’ Day Award by Ripon College. He was recognized for his longstanding and numerous active and financial contributions to Ripon College and the Ripon and Green Lake communities.

Ripon College received a four-year, $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support implementation of the College’s new core curriculum, Catalyst. Catalyst, which launched with the class of 2020 entering this fall, places at the center of a Ripon education the continuous development of the intellectual and practical skills valued by employers and essential to human flourishing and career success.

Ron Ernst, head coach of football, professor of exercise science and assistant athletic director, has completed a four-set DVD coaching instructional video for Championship Productions.

The Caestecker family has long enjoyed an association with the Green Lake and Ripon areas as there are now five generations who have enjoyed time at property owned on Green Lake.

“Today, more than ever, we need something in our lives that is more human,” he says. “We are living in a technological age, and that will continue. But to be a fully educated person, you need exposure to the fine arts.”

2. Student activities director has piece published about biracial identity Sharon Jackson, Ripon College’s new director of student activities and orientation, has an opinion piece, “Sorry, Mom” (goo.gl/YQ3Hve) published on the website of NASPA, the leading association for the advancement, health and sustainability of student affairs administrators in higher education.

She discusses her experiences in being biracial and frustrations in filling out inadequate forms.

The Mellon funds will support the creation of up to 140 new Catalyst seminars designed to develop transferable skills that will be applied to problems of significance, provide robust faculty development support, and ensure deliberate and careful oversight of implementation. The funds also will support visits by external experts, and allow Ripon College to send faculty to national conferences to share the lessons of our work with a broader audience of peers.

4. Top Trump foreign policy adviser speaks at Ripon College Lt. Gen. Michael A. Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke Nov. 21, 2016, to a standingroom only crowd in Ripon College’s Great Hall.

Flynn has been selected by President Donald Trump to serve as his national security adviser. He also served as the vice-chair for Trump’s transition team and assembled the Trump’s national security team.

Flynn’s appearance drew widespread media attention to Ripon College. It was sponsored by two student-led organizations, International Relations Club and Young Americans for Freedom. An archive of Flynn’s speech can be viewed in its entirety at ripon.edu/live-events.

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The titles of the DVDs are: • 3-3 Alignments and Creating Havoc for Offenses • Stopping the Run with 3-3 Stack Pr inciples • Surface Read for 3-3 Defenses in Stopping the Run • 3-3 Disguises and Pressures in Attacking the Passing Game The four-set video is included in the most recent Championship Productions Video catalog which goes out to coaches around the nation and globally.

Ernst earned the 160th win in his 25-year career Nov. 14, 2015. All his wins have come at Ripon. He has recorded the highest number of victories of any coach in the 95-year history of the Midwest Conference, and is the only coach in the 124-year history of the Ripon College football program to win more than 100 games. He has compiled a winning percentage of .635 in his 255 career games.

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LYDIA POMEROY

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MADESON WALGENBACH

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RIPON COLLEGE

6. Student, alumna honored by foreign language teachers association Lydia Pomeroy ’17 of Hilbert, Wisconsin, and Madeson Walgenbach ’16 of Ripon, Wisconsin, received the Future Foreign Language Teacher Award in November from the Wisconsin Association for Foreign Language Teachers.

Pomeroy is majoring in French and educational studies and is planning to become a French teacher.

Walgenbach received degrees in educational studies middle childhood/early adolescence and Spanish. She teaches Spanish at Waupun Junior/Senior High School.

7. Theatre professor, Robert Amsden, wins theatre festival award Robert Amsden, professor of theatre, has been selected as a winner of the 2016 Faculty Service Award of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region 3. The award was presented at the festival on Jan. 13, 2017, in Indianapolis.

New Leadership in Advancement, Marketing and Communications, Finance Ripon College announced the appointments of Tracy Muirhead as vice president for Advancement, Melissa Anderson ’02 as vice president for Marketing and Communications, and Karl Ivan Solibakke as vice president for finance.

8. President Messitte contributes to new book Zach Messitte, president and professor of politics and government, is an editor of the book Buon Giorno Arezzo: A Postcard from Tuscany, published by the University of Oklahoma Press. His chapters in the book include the introduction, “The Liberation of Arezzo” and “The Modern Politics of Arezzo.”

9. Ripon places highly in national rankings Ripon College has been recognized as one of the most affordable private colleges in the country by Money Magazine.

Ripon was ranked 26th of 50 schools on the list and second among all private colleges in Wisconsin.

Washington Monthly’s annual College Guide and Rankings included Ripon among the nation’s best colleges serving the public good and providing a marketable return on investment; ranked Ripon the highest in Wisconsin across all ranking categories and the only college in Wisconsin to make the magazine’s Top 20 for value in the Midwest and for overall quality within its category; third among all colleges in the Midwest for “Best Bang for the Buck”; and 18th nationally among liberal arts colleges for improving the social mobility of its students and engaging a high number of students in community service work during college.

U.S.News & World Report included Ripon among its “Great Schools, Great Prices” list.

Milwaukee Business Journal ranked Ripon first among all private liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin for “best value.”

10. Students, professor visit Al Jarreau ’62 during awards ceremony Professor of Music Kurt Dietrich and students Kate Cichon Myszewski ’19 of Appleton, Wisconsin, and Mitchell Eithun ’17 of New London, Wisconsin, attended an October celebration by the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music.

Acclaimed jazz singer Al Jarreau ’62 received a lifetime achievement award at the celebration. He was born and raised in Milwaukee.

11. Students honored by national math association for research Michael Gableman ’16 and Mitchell Eithun ’17 attended the annual Mathematical Association of America MathFest in Columbus, Ohio, in August. Each presented research, and both received Pi Mu Epsilon awards.

At Ripon, Gableman studied mathematics and computer science and minored in physics. His research was done with Visiting Professor of Mathematical Science Dr. Mark Krines, exploring Bertrand’s Ballot Theorem, a formula for predicting who would win an election. He won the Department of Defense’s SMART fellowship, which is allowing him to attend Purdue University as a Ph.D. student, studying computer engineering.

Eithun presented his findings from last summer, when he was part of an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) in mathematical biology at Texas A&M University.

Ripon College is ranked number one in the nation on the Power 150 Index, an identification of Best Colleges for Students of Color by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools.

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AROUND THE CLOCKTOWER

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12. Ripon named to community service honor roll

14. Research on female speakers earns award at conference

17. Sarah Mahler Kraaz presents Associated Colleges of the Midwest webinar

Ripon College is recognized on the most recent President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary community service. The Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency for volunteering and service, has administered the award since 2006 in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the American Council on Education, Campus Compact, and the Interfaith Youth Core.

Stephanie Lopez ’18 of Chicago, Illinois, won third place for a poster presentation at the recent seventh annual Marquette University Diversity and Psychology Research Conference. She was encouraged to attend by Professor of Psychology Joe Hatcher, assistant professor of Psychology Kristine Kovack-Lesh and personnel from the McNair Scholars Program, of which Lopez is a member.

“What’s the Role of Music in Renaissance Art?”, a webinar offered by Associated Colleges of the Midwest, was presented in November by Sarah Mahler Kraaz, professor of music, chair of the department and College organist.

13. Ethics Bowl team named points champion at regional competition The Ripon College Ethics Bowl Team was the overall points champion at the 11th Annual Upper Midwest Regional Ethics Bowl at Harper College in December. The team earned a spot in the National Ethics Bowl held in association with the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas, in February 2017 for the fifth year in a row. Overall, Ripon placed fourth among the 26 schools participating.

Members of the team are: Grace Sullivan ’20 of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Haley Stowell ’20 of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; JJ Grinde ’16 of Ripon, Wisconsin; Wyatt McGillen ’19, of Kalispell, Montana; Dennis Jaeger ’20 of Waupun, Wisconsin; DeLou Wilson ’18 of Madison, Wisconsin; Erika Issacson ’18 of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Cass Larsen ’20 of Neenah, Wisconsin; Zach Matson ’17 of Minnetonka, Minnesota; Rose Hogmire ’18 of Lake Elmo, Minnesota; and Mitra Kermani ’20 of Louisville, Colorado.

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Lopez presented her summer research conducted with Hatcher, “The Effects of Assertiveness and Race on the Reactions to Female Speakers.”

15. Art professor shows work, publishes works about art Associate Professor of Art Rafael Francisco Salas had work in recent exhibits at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan; University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan; and Latino Arts, Milwaukee.

He also has had numerous art exhibit reviews published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper; and was featured in a radio interview on WUMW, Milwaukee Public Radio.

16. Scholarship allows student internship in Germany Molly Nellen ’18 of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, was awarded a DAAD (Deutscher Akademisher Austauschdienst / German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship for the spring 2017 Bonn semester. She will have an internship with the Biological Station of the University of Bonn. She is majoring in German and biology.

Kraaz is an affiliated scholar in the ACM Florence: Arts, Humanities & Culture program.

18. Steve Martin has chapter in newly published book Steve Martin, associate professor of communication and chair of the department, has a chapter in a book that became available Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

“Debunking Hitler: True Comics as Counter-Propaganda” is Chapter 9 in the book The 10 Cent War: Books, Propaganda, and World War II, published by The University Press of Mississippi. It is available on amazon.com.

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RIPON COLLEGE IN THE NEWS ■

L t. General Michael A. Flynn, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, spoke at Ripon College Nov. 21. Coverage included: WNFLsports. com; Wearegreenbay.com; WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Fox 6; NBC 4 (WTMJ); Fox 11 (WLUK); ABC 2 (WBAY); NBC 5 (WFRV); 101.1 WIXX Radio; ABC 27 (WKOW); ABC 2; and Fox 11. native worked for eight years on steel trade law,” featuring Tamara Browne ’80 of Washington, D.C., April at The Times at NWI.com, Gary, Indiana.

See profile on Page 18.

■ “ Gary

■ Brian Smith, professor of religion, published several opinion pieces: “Muhammad

Ali and the Greater Jihad,” June, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; “Who Would Jesus Vote For?”, August in Wisconsin State Journal; and “What happens after Nov. 8? Any hope for reconciliation?”, October in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

■P resident Zach Messitte published opinion pieces: “Here’s how I’ll teach Trump

to my college students this fall: Calling out the candidate’s bigotry without alienating his supporters,” August in The Washington Post; “Messitte: Your President and Mine,” Oct. 8 in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and “Look to Agnes for insight to Trump,” Dec. 16 in The Baltimore Sun. ■J acqueline Clark, associate professor of sociology and chair of the department,

had a guest blog, “Pinning Pink Ribbons on the Pain of Breast Cancer,” October on Sociological Images.

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The setting perfects the details

If a wedding is in your future, consider celebrating at your alma mater.

Alumni, staff and faculty receive a 10-percent discount on any Ripon College facility rental. If planning a ceremony, reception or both, couples can choose from a variety of indoor and outdoor campus venues.

Whether you picture yourself in Great Hall or prefer the gentle backdrop of Ceresco Prairie — nothing is off-limits!

A complimentary onsite event planner will help with all the details of your big day.

Information about planning an event on campus is available at ripon.edu/weddings.

Marco Rhein ’12 and Stephanie Zambrowicz of Ripon, Wisconsin, chose this space for their wedding and reception on Aug. 13, 2016.

Rhein is an assistant soccer coach at Ripon College.

■S haron Jackson, director of student activities and orientation, article about her

biracial identity, December, NASPA website for student affairs administrators in higher education.

■ R obert Malte ’76 of Woodinville, Washington, chief executive officer of EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Washington, was profiled in 425 Business magazine.

■A cclaimed jazz singer Al Jarreau ’62 received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement

Award Oct. 8 from the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music. A film made for the occasion by Wisconsin Public Television featured Ripon extensively.

■ A ssistant Professor of Sociology Marc Eaton and Noah Leigh ’04 of West Allis, Wisconsin, who leads Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee, were quoted in an article about the paranormal, Oct. 30, Wisconsin State Journal. The author is Amanda Finn ’14 of Madison, Wisconsin.

■J ay

Wilcox ’85 of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, was identified as a Ripon College graduate in a feature in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in November.

■H enrik

Schatzinger, associate professor of politics and government and codirector of the Center for Politics and the People, did a radio interview on WFDL the morning after the Nov. 8 elections.

■R ipon

College is ranked number one in the nation on the Power 150 Index, an identification of Best Colleges for Students of Color by Alliance CollegeReady Public Schools. Among outlets reporting the news was The Huffington Post on Dec. 15.

■A ssociate Professor of Art Rafael Francisco Salas was featured in an interview

on WUWM, Milwaukee Public Radio, Dec. 20, 2016.

■ “ To Save Themselves, Small Colleges Offer Lifeline to Their Hometowns,” Wall

Street Journal, Dec. 21, 2016. the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jan. 31, James “Maggie” Megellas ’42 of Colleyville, Texas, was featured in an article about ongoing efforts to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroic actions during World War II.

REFER A STUDENT TO RIPON! Do you know someone who would make a great future student of Ripon College?

Give them a nudge by referring them at ripon.edu/refer-student.

Or contact Assistant Director of Admission Eliza Stephenson at 920-748- 8369; or stephensone@ripon.edu

■ I n

W I N T E R 2017

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REMARKABLE RIPON

President Zach Messitte and Oliver E. Williamson ’54 meet at Williamson’s home in California.

Ripon College boasts Nobel Prize winner with Oliver E. Williamson ’54 The 2009 Nobel Prize winner in economic science, Oliver E. Williamson ’54, lives a successful life in Berkeley, California, as a professor and economist. He attended Ripon on a dual two-year/ three-year degree in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Originally, Williamson’s focus was in engineering, but his interest shifted to economics. “My interest in economic organization evolved – from engineering to business to interdisciplinary economics and organization, to which aspects of the law were added,” Williamson says.

Williamson attended Ripon from 1950 to 1952, before receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1955 from MIT. He then received his master’s degree from Stanford in 1960 and his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie in 1963.

Williamson was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1965 to 1983. He then was a professor of economics of law and organization at Yale until 1988. That same year, he began teaching

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He retired from teaching in 2004 but still conducts research and presents workshops.

Williamson’s Nobel Prize-winning theory focused on the differences between market and nonmarket economic transactions, and when decisions should be left up to the market and when they should be decided within an organization.

The win came as a bit of a surprise to Williamson. “My students in 2004 asked me when I was going to receive the Nobel Prize. I told them that I was unsure that I would get the prize,” he says. “I further remarked that if I did not get the prize before 2010 that I doubted that I would ever get it. As it turned out, I got the Nobel Prize in 2009. Three generations of family attended and enjoyed it.”

At the age of 83, Williamson is the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, including Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association in 2007. Williamson attributes his accomplishments to several things: “A lot of good schools, good family, good colleagues, good students and hard work.”

at the University of California, Berkeley. “Teaching is learning, and

MEGAN SOHR ’18

working with good students is gratifying,” he says.

Oshkosh, Wisconsin

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Come on home June 22-25, 2017 At Alumni Weekend 2017, reconnect with precious old friends who made the Ripon College journey at your side. Special class reunions will be held for Golden R (all years prior to 1967), 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012.

Embrace your role in the Ripon College legacy as you meet new friends, get a close-up look at campus improvements, and celebrate with alumni receiving achievement awards.

Visit ripon.edu/alumni-weekend for details.

Mary Jo MacSwain ’77

SUPPORT RIPON COLLEGE Every year, support from alumni and friends makes a difference in the lives of current and future Ripon College students.

Make an impact on campus today by visiting ripon.edu/give.

THANK YOU! W I N T E R 2017

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE

PAID PERMIT NO. 101

300 West Seward Street Ripon, WI 54971 ripon.edu Change Service Requested

F l a s h B A C K 1 960 “The Young Lincoln” or “Lincoln the Dreamer,” a familiar bronze statue on campus, casts a lonely figure in a snow of long ago. The statue was unveiled in 1939. It was sculpted and donated by 1877 Ripon College alumnus Clarence Addison Shaler, an inventor and industrialist (1860-1941).

Shaler was born in Mackford Township, Green Lake County, Wisconsin. A plaque in Shaler’s words reads: “Represents the man, Lincoln, as he was at the outset of his public career. His character formed by his early hardships in the wilderness partakes of the strength of the oak tempered by the warmth of his sympathies.

“He is leaving that early environment in pursuit of an unknown destiny, untouched as yet by tragedy, betrayal and disillusionment. A man at the noon of his powers, which his high resolve has already dedicated to the good of his country and of mankind.”

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