General

Albion College’s Division of Student Affairs received two grants last week, totaling $71,030, from the Michigan State Police (MSP) Campus Sexual Assault Grant Program. A grant of $41,030 will support campus sexual assault programming, including the Green Dot Bystander Intervention program. Another grant of $30,000 will support upgrades to the Campus Safety security camera system, including the installation of additional cameras.

Author Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of the late human rights activist Malcolm X, spoke at the Bohm Theatre on October 2 about her book about her father, her work as an author, and her unique role in the history and future of civil rights activism. Her 2016 book about her father, titled X, is the choice for Albion’s 2018 Big Read.

Alena Farooq, ’18, Kate Hao, ’99, Paul Huth, ’77, Madison Kase, ’18, and Brian McPheely, ’78, are the newest members of the Albion College Board of Trustees.

Some good word of mouth was enough to convince Jackson-based Consumers Energy to film a portion of its rebranding advertisement on the Albion College campus. And for one day, the College showed it was ready for its closeup.

Less than a month after a landmark biography of Betty Ford hits the shelves, its author, Lisa McCubbin, will participate in Albion College’s annual Joseph & Donna Calvaruso Speaker Series. Her visit is scheduled for Thursday, October 4, at 7 p.m., at the Bohm Theatre in downtown Albion.

A number of appealing features continue to attract students from across the country to Albion College, as demonstrated by the Class of 2022. Of the 431 first-year students and 35 transfer students, more than 30 percent come from states other than Michigan.

The quality of an Albion College education is being recognized again by The Princeton Review as among the nation’s best, evidenced by Albion’s inclusion in The Best 384 Colleges, the 2019 edition of the test-prep company’s popular guide. According to the book, students described the Albion academic experience as “rigorous but rewarding” with “huge opportunities.”

The lifetime value of a liberal arts education and Albion’s well-established identity as an exemplary liberal arts college continue to resonate strongly, indicated in part by final fundraising totals for the 2018 fiscal year, which concluded June 30. “Every day I hear stories from alumni about the remarkable change that attending Albion brought to their lives, and many want to pay that forward,” said Bob Anderson, vice president for alumni relations and development. “Albion is clearly on the move up and our alumni and friends are making that possible.”

Albion College is among a select group of institutions featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2019. The publication, now in its 35th edition and considered one of the best independent college guides available, mentions that Albion “attracts an ambitious, involved group of students” while touting the College’s “top-notch academic and career counseling.”

The Class of 2022 will feature 13 incoming first-year students who reside in the local school district and attended area schools and who will receive four-year tuition, housing and meals from the College. In return the Fellows will engage in service projects that will help the community. The program launched nearly four years ago and, for the first time this fall, all four cohorts will be represented with 33 total students.