News

Former Albion College President Bernard T. Lomas passed away December 24, 2020 in Grand Rapids at the age of 96. Lomas, who served as the College’s 12th president from 1970 to 1983, guided the institution into a new era of experiential learning and student leadership development, building on Albion’s liberal arts foundation.

The talented and imaginative Chalara Sutton, ’21, would be the first to tell you that being an artist is about much more than, well, being talented and creative. With the support of an Albion College FURSCA grant, Sutton spent this past summer focused on her art series, “Distinctively Black,” and discovered that a lot of the work didn’t involve paints or a brush.

Colleges and universities nationwide seek to reduce and eventually eliminate their carbon footprint through the long-term, aggressive initiative.

Albion College, the Battle Creek YMCA and the City of Albion are banding together to provide recreational facilities and activities for the community. Using the College-owned former Washington Gardner School and other College-owned facilities, plans are being considered to renovate portions of the school including the gym, the cafeteria and the multipurpose room.

“I am proud and excited to welcome Keith and Tim,” said Michael Harrington, ’85, chair of Albion College’s Board of Trustees. “I have known Keith for years as both a classmate and a friend and I know Tim’s quality and enthusiasm for Albion. The College is headed in new and exciting directions under President Mathew Johnson, and I am thrilled Keith and Tim will help us on that journey.”

In a year full of strife and uncertainty, Caryn Ryan, ’79, wanted to do her part to make sure the year also ended with hope. “Healing is a really big thing and this giving was a function of that,” said Ryan, whose matching gift of $20.20 to Albion College’s Student Assistance Fund came on a day that saw an Albion College Giving Tuesday-record 386 gifts from 343 donors.

When your research and teaching focuses on microbes, you can work anywhere—and Dr. Ola Olapade, professor of biology, has covered a lot of ground. His own research has taken him to the confluence of the Indian and Atlantic oceans in South Africa, Mayan ruins in Mexico and Belize (where he studied the impacts and contributions of microbes to the degradation and deterioration of stone monuments), Morocco, the Great Lakes and more.

Retired Provost Susan Conner passed away November 28 in Jackson. During her six years of service to Albion College, Conner, a French historian, developed and strengthened programs that distinguish Albion among its peers nationwide. “Susan was an inspired scholar and a generous colleague,” said professor of French Dianne Guenin-Lelle, adding that she “was an inspiration whom I will miss very much.”

Dugan Karnazes gained his engineering interest at Albion and has gone on to found Velocity Research in Grand Rapids. But when coronavrius overwhelmed the country, he joined a group of concerned professionals to build badly needed ventilators. “It was a group effort to make a difference,” he says.

In her new role, Chief Belonging Officer and Title IX Coordinator Keena Williams is leading the College’s journey to a place where everyone not only has a seat at the table, but “everybody’s heard at the table, everybody has ownership at the table.”