News

Albion College students, staff and faculty, in cooperation with the Albion NAACP, took a bus trip to the just-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the event was unforgettable and emotional.

Neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart brought hard science—and sometimes harder conclusions—to an attentive audience in Goodrich Chapel for the 2016 Richard M. Smith Common Reading Experience lecture. The first tenured African-American in the sciences at Columbia University, Hart is the author of High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society.

Albion College Athletic Director Matt Arend stood before a crowd of more than 100 people Sunday afternoon and watched as the dream became reality. Thanks to the generosity of longtime Albion residents Bud and Olivia Davis, who provided the lead naming gift, the Davis Athletic Complex represents the start of a new era for outdoor Briton athletics.

The Albion Sister City program is celebrating its 20th year by welcoming a delegation from the French communities of Noisy-le-Roi and Bailly to this weekend’s Festival of the Forks celebration. It’s an opportunity to share a culture and a friendship that continues to grow. “This relationship runs through every part of Albion, Michigan, and Albion College,” said Albion College professor of French Dianne Guenin-Lelle.

Two Albion College students were robbed at gunpoint early Thursday morning. No one was injured.

According to the College’s Office of Campus Safety, the students were sitting in a red 2010 Jeep Patriot in the parking lot at the Bobbitt Visual Arts Center at approximately 1:30 a.m. when two males dressed in black, wearing puffy ski jackets and with their faces partially covered with masks approached them. The students said one of the suspects had a long gun; the suspects proceeded to take the car as well as other personal possessions and left the area.

They were last seen driving east on Michigan Avenue away from campus.

Albion Public Safety is investigating.

Albion College Director of Campus Safety Ken Snyder said patrols will be increased around campus for the next few days. He said this was the first armed robbery on campus in several years.

“We’re relieved no one was hurt in this incident and we’re confident local law enforcement is doing all it can to find the perpetrators,” Albion College President Mauri Ditzler said. “Nothing is more important to us than student safety on campus. We always do everything in our power to ensure a safe and vibrant learning environment for our students.”

The newly expanded Randi C. Heathman Indoor Arena at Albion College’s Nancy G. Held Equestrian Center, currently receiving its finishing touches in advance of its first show Oct. 1-2, was featured this morning on Newschannel 3 WWMT-TV, which serves the large Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek viewing area.

Annual college guides geared toward prospective students and their families continue to recognize the Albion experience. Washington Monthly counted Albion College as among the top 100 national liberal arts institutions—No. 92, to be exact—that contribute to the public good in what the magazine describes as “three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).”

Katie Zinkel, ’17, gave a lot of cookies to a lot of kids this summer, but one instance really stood out. “Once I gave kids their cookies and their mom told them, ‘You need to thank the lady. It’s not every day you come to a children’s museum and get to participate in a psychological experiment.'”

“I knew pretty much nothing about farming,” says biology major and Center for Sustainability and the Environment member Tom Martin, ’17, who became quite attached to the work through his full-time summer job at the Student Farm, adjacent to the Whitehouse Nature Center. “Now we have pounds and pounds of produce we sell twice a week. I can grow food.”

“In teaching history at Albion College, one of my goals is to bring national and international historical issues home to Albion: to the community and the campus,” writes history professor Wes Dick, who this fall is teaching a First-Year Seminar titled Sense of Place: Albion and the American Dream. “In exploring Albion College during the Vietnam War … I have discovered only one Albion College alumnus who died in Vietnam. That individual is Donald Bruce Adamson (pictured at left) and 2016 marks the 50th anniversary year of his death.”