News

A message to the Albion College community from Dr. Mathew Johnson, who on July 1 will officially begin his tenure as the College’s 17th president.

A pair of Eastern box turtles named Sid and Nancy, who have called Whitehouse Nature Center home for years, have had a long and tempestuous relationship. But in February Nancy laid eggs, and in March, against the odds, one hatched. “This is kind of a big deal,” said Center Director Jason Raddatz.

More than 100 cars and 150 people—not to mention two bicycles and a fair number of dogs—rolled out on Thursday, May 21, to say farewell to retiring Albion College President Mauri Ditzler and his wife, Judi. The route started from the Erie Street parking lot behind the Ferguson Building and ended at the President’s Home at 501 E. Michigan Ave.

Tim DeWitt, who has held several positions in the Division of Finance and Administration in his 12 years at Albion College, has been named the College’s interim chief financial officer, replacing Dee McCormick, who retired last month.

Dr. Matthew Schoene, assistant professor of sociology, was recently named director of Albion College’s First-Year Seminars program, a core part of the William Atwell Brown, Jr., and Mary Brown Vacin First-Year Experience (FYE), beginning with the 2020-21 academic year. Even as he spent much of the prior two months shifting from on-campus to online instruction, Schoene is looking forward to this next challenge.

The Board of Trustees of Albion College has elected Michael J. Harrington, ’85 (left), as its new chairman. The Indianapolis attorney and retired corporate executive will lead the 27-person board of the nationally recognized private four-year liberal arts college after serving as a trustee for eight years. He succeeds J. Donald Sheets, ’82, who joined the board in 2006, has served as chair for the past seven years, will continue to serve on the board as chair of the Finance Committee.

It turned out to be a perfect day for an Albion College Commencement that didn’t happen in Albion. Nonetheless, while Albion’s virtual Commencement, and virtual Honors Convocation the day before, didn’t include hugs, handshakes and proud parents with cameras, the events provided some special moments and unique memories.

Harim “Sunny” Kim, ’20, who will graduate in May with degrees in business and music, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Mexico for 2020-21. A member of the Gerstacker and Ford institutes as well as the Brown Honors Program, Kim is Albion College’s 16th Fulbright recipient in the last 17 years.

A sociologist by training who officially joins Albion on July 1, the Carnegie Fellow is an international expert in the field of community engagement and brings from Brown University a passion for engaged scholarship and the public purpose of higher education.

Thomas Wilch, professor of geological sciences, has been teaching his Natural Disasters course for years, but this spring semester the class has taken on a very different, and all-too relatable, feel. And it’s led him to incorporate the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic into the syllabus—now and in the future. “It is,” Wilch says simply, “a teachable moment that every person on the planet is implicated in.”