Student Center Renovation Update November 4, 2011

Construction continues on the $6 million Student Center renovation. Footings have been poured, and workers continue to make the final preparations before the steel beams are placed and floors are constructed. Demolition work takes time, but the end result will be worth it!

President John E. Klein Volunteers During Lynchburg Exchange Club's Annual Pancake Jamboree

Randolph College President John E. Klein joined dozens of other city leaders and celebrities Friday, November 4 to “flip pancakes” for the Lynchburg Exchange Club’s Annual Pancake Jamboree.

The event, which is in its 52nd year, benefits programs of the Lynchburg Exchange Club. In recent years, proceeds from the event have gone to organizations like the MDA, Crisis Line of Central Virginia, Boys and Girls State, For Kids’ Sake Safety Day, CASA of Central Virginia, the Miller Home, Patrick Henry Boys Home, American Red Cross, Lynchburg Life Saving Crew, and the Lynchburg Police Foundation.

Klein volunteered during the busy lunchtime rush and manned one of the busy griddles with John Randolph “Randy” Nelson, a member of Lynchburg City Council. The $8 tickets included all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, coffee, and other beverages, and the event ran throughout the day.

Randolph College professors team up for poetry reading

Randolph professors Jim Peterson and Randall Speer are teaming up for a special poetry reading Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

The free reading will feature poetry from Peterson’s latest books, The Resolution of Eve and The Owning Stone with musical compositions created by Speer. Peterson, an English professor, and Speer, a music professor, will lead the reading, which will also include performances by Harriet Peterson, Jerry Wells ’12, Ed Mikenas, Rafael Scarfullery, Katie West-Hazelwood ’13, and others.

Scholar to address 'The State of Islam' in lecture at Randolph College

This year has brought significant change to the Arab world, with protests, uprisings, and revolutions, and one Civil War in the Middle East and North Africa.

What do these events mean? How will they impact the relationship between Islam and politics; between the Middle East and the rest of the world?

Ziauddin Sardar, one of the world’s most renowned scholars of Islam, will address those topics at Randolph College next week.

He will deliver the lecture “The State of Islam” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in Wimberly Recital Hall.

“In today’s world, someone who is discussing the state of Islam is talking about something important,” said William A. Coulter, Randolph College’s Eichelbaum Professor of English and the chairman of the committee that invited Sardar.

Coulter said that a Randolph College student met Sardar two years ago while participating in The World in Britain, the College’s study abroad program in Reading, England. The student then suggested that Sardar come to speak here.

Sardar, of London, is known as a pioneering thinker on contemporary Islam, writing about a wealth of topics relating to Islam and the modern world, including cultural relations, science policy, literary criticism, and more. He teaches in The City University and regularly contributes to the New Statesman and The Guardian. He has written more than 45 books, including two international bestsellers.

His speech at Randolph College is part of the Philip Thayer Memorial Lecture series, which is funded by an endowment in the honor of a retired history professor.

Students create their own mandalas

Sarah Cottone '15 and Amanda Cooper '13

Some students are making mandalas of their own after observing the art form.

Last week, Kathy Muehlemann, an art professor, took all of her classes to Houston Memorial Chapel to observe a group of Buddhist monks as they made a mandala.

The week-long demonstration allowed the students to experience another culture and its approach to art, Muehlemann said.

Many other students viewed the demonstration throughout the week, including those in religious studies and sociology classes.

Wednesday morning, some of Muehlemann's studio art students were making their own mandalas.

While a real mandala is made by arranging colored sand on a 5' x 5' board, these students are making their own on a smaller scale, using paint, markers and other materials. Some are making original designs, while others are copying intricate designs of real mandalas.

Sarah Burgeson '15	Michael Ehilegbu '14
Chris Ernestine '14	A mandala made by Victoria Francis '13

WildCats Advance to ODAC Championships!

Randolph College's men's soccer team clinched a spot in the ODAC championship final Tuesday night with a thrilling win over Virginia Wesleyan. On Saturday, the WildCats will face the winner of Wednesday's game between Lynchburg College and Eastern Mennonite.

The men's soccer team is the third team in a year to advance to the ODAC championships. The men's basketball team and women's softball team both made it to the finals last season.

For more coverage, please see

http://web.randolphcollege.edu/newsevents/pressreleases/news_detail.asp?id=1348

http://wildcats.randolphcollege.edu/news/update.asp?id=2075

Another paper written at Randolph chosen for intercollegiate academic journal

An essay by a 2011 alumna of Randolph College will appear in Apollon, an intercollegiate journal of academic writing from all disciplines.

“Writing the Female Experience,” by Elizabeth Zehl ’11, will appear in the online edition that will go live this month.

The paper examines, compares, and contrasts How I Became Hettie Jones and Jane Eyre as stories that relate the experience of a woman growing to adulthood. “The nearly 150-year distance between the works’ publications indicates the extreme divergence of the experiences of their authors,” Zehl wrote.

“It offers a fascinating comparison very concisely,” said Jason Cohen, founder of Apollon. “It’s a good paper.”

Nominate Now

Bunny Goodjohn, director of Randolph College’s writing program, has started accepting nominations for the Best short Paper and Best Long Paper awards for this academic year.

Professors can nominate those papers until March 2012 by e-mailing Goodjohn.

A professor at Berea College in Kentucky, Cohen said Apollon was started to help academic writing reach an audience beyond the professor. “While every school has an outlet for creative work, very few have an outlet for what happens in the classroom after it’s been graded,” he said.

Randolph College has had a connection with Apollon from the start. Mara Amster and Bunny Goodjohn, English professors at Randolph, have been enthusiastic supporters of the publication, Cohen said. Randolph College students have participated in the editing and review process for the journal, too.

Two of the four papers selected for Apollon’s first edition were written by recent Randolph College graduates: Victoria Winfree ’11 and Katherine Janson ’10.

The papers by Winfree, Janson, and Zehl have something else in common: They have all won writing awards at Randolph College and were featured in The Jack, the College’s own online publication for academic writing.

As part of its commitment to excellent writing, the College presents student writers with awards and cash prizes for Best Short Paper, Best Long paper, and Best Senior Paper each year.

The winning papers then are published in The Jack, along with a list of students who received excellent writing evaluations from at least two professors.

Cohen said Randolph’s “in-house celebration” of writing achievements creates an atmosphere that can help students succeed and continue to publish their work in journals beyond the College.

For more information on Randolph College's Writing Program and The Jack, read this Randolph magazine story.