The
evolution of a celebration: MC is busy celebrating a 200th birthday.
But despite its location in “The Land of Lincoln,” the college is
actually honoring the other famous fellow born on Feb. 12, 1809 –
Charles Darwin. Throughout the next year, “Darwin’s influences on the
sciences, arts and humanities will be vehicles for Monmouth College’s
emphasis on integrated learning and an exciting series of events,” said
Rob Hale, co-coordinator of the college’s 19th-century studies program,
which is co-sponsoring “Darwinpalooza” with the biology department. The
celebration began with three talks by biology professor Ken Cramer. He
opened with “The Evolutionary Revolution: A Brief History of
Evolutionary Thought Through Darwin,” on Darwin’s birthday, then
followed with “Evolution: The Evidence and Significance” and “What’s So
Scary About Evolution? An Evaluation of the Controversy.” More
information is available at
department.monm.edu/nineteenth-century/default.htm.
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Social activist and author Paul
Loab delivered a convocation at MC. |
Be the change you want to see:
Social activist and author Paul Loeb, who delivered an MC
convocation lecture in February, turned part of the lyric, “The
difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while,”
into the title of his latest book on activism. His message to Monmouth
students was that the difficult part is simply getting started. After
that, solving some of the world’s “impossible” problems is just a matter
of time. An “impossible” problem that has been corrected to a great
degree over the past half-century is civil rights. Loeb spoke about Rosa
Parks, who famously refused to go to the back of the bus in Montgomery,
Ala., in 1955. He said her story contains several lessons, including how
“small, unheralded actions” are so often the seeds of change. At the end
of his talk, Loeb neatly summarized his message: “Staying in your
internal sanctuary doesn’t change things. You can’t be secluded from the
world. Going out into the world tests you and strengthens you.”
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Monmouth College bought four new
hybrid cars. |
MC’s fuel efficient fleet: Although
they’re painted white, make no mistake – Monmouth College’s newest
vehicles are definitely part of a “green initiative” on campus. The
college has purchased four identical hybrid cars, and plans are for the
trend to continue, according to MC personnel director Mike McNall, who
is responsible for overseeing the vehicle fleet. The Toyota Prius is a
hybrid electric mid-size car that first went on sale more than a decade
ago in Japan. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the 2008
Prius is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S., averaging up to
48 miles per gallon. Prius is Latin for “(to go) before.” Toyota says
the name was chosen “because the Prius vehicle is the predecessor of
cars to come.”
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Alumni Eric Hanson, Susan Twomey, Aaron Jensen, Mary Vick, Addie Hebard and John Herman discussed their leadership experiences with students in February. |
‘Only connect … ’: In his novel,
“Howard’s End,” English author E.M. Forster took the word “connect” and
applied it to people, rather than objects such as building blocks or
puzzle pieces. Part of his definition of “connect” meant making contact
with other people and trying to establish dialogue. One way those
contacts and dialogues are being addressed at Monmouth College is
through “Scots Connection,” a program developed jointly by the offices
of career development and alumni. A group of alumni met with students
last fall to discuss their career experiences and answer questions, and
six alumni were on campus in February for a similar event, which focused
on leadership. Present were Susan Twomey ’76, Aaron Jensen ’89, John
Herman ’90, Eric Hanson ’98, Addie Hebard ’98 and Mary Vick ’98.
‘Spider Man’ strikes again: Biology
professor Ken Cramer is already an active participant in the college’s
“Darwinpalooza” celebration, as he gave the first three lectures in the
year-long series. Now, Cramer and Charles Darwin have crossed paths
again, as MC’s acclaimed “Spider Man” is participating in a project that
Darwin would have fully endorsed. The Tree of Life Web Project is a
collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than
10,000 Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity
of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history and their
characteristics. Each page contains information about a particular group
of organisms, and Cramer has contributed information on the brown
recluse spider, a species he has studied extensively. Some of the spider
photos he took have been published on the project’s Web site (tolweb.org/Sicariidae).
Said Cramer, “About 20 of my photos, representing various species of the
spider group, are shown. It’s a very tiny piece of the big ‘Tree of
Life’ that has almost two million species, but it’s my piece!”
