Nov. 2, 2009

The DigestWhat’s Happening at KVCC

What’s below in this edition

Auto open house (Pages 1/2) Abbott and Costello (P-13/15) Grant deadline (Pages 2/3) Afro beat (Page 15) ‘About Writing’ Pages 3/4) ‘Tour’ Germany (Page 15) Holocaust revisited (Pages 4/5) Hospitality training (P-15/16)) Veterans Day (Page 5) Art Hop (Pages 16/17) United Way (Pages 5/6) Deaf’s culture (Pages 18/19) Explore genomes (Pages 6-8) Yule trimmings (page 19) Internships (Pages 8/9) ‘Chemical Kim’ (Page 19) Recycling update (Pages 9/10) Academy of Music (Pages 19-21) Still a good deal (Pages 10/11) 3 sky shows (Page 21) SSC events (Page 11) City election (Page 21/22) ‘Swap Meet’ success (Pages 11/12) Old batteries (Pages 22/23) 175 years of news (Pages 12/13) And Finally (Page 23)

☻☻☻☻☻☻KVCC’ers invited to Auto Academy open house Thursday

An open house on Thursday (Nov. 5), complete with area auto dealerships showcasing the emerging technologies in their vehicles, will help launch the third edition of the KVCC Automotive Academy for which applications are still being accepted.

Just like the high-tech vehicles that it trains prospective mechanics to maintain, the academy format is being fine-tuned. It will be shorter in duration, smaller in size, and slightly redesigned in instructional delivery.

The training will be staged in the M-TEC of KVCC, located on the college’s Groves Campus off 9th Street along I-94, instead of at the Texas Township Campus’ automotive facilities. KVCC faculty and staff are invited.

That is also where the Thursday open house will be staged from 4 to 6 p.m. The third academy is slated to begin Nov. 23.

The agenda will include information about the academy, remarks by lead instructor Hector Orlandi, and a seminar on “Emerging Technologies in the Automotive Industry.” Refreshments will be served.

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Orlandi will discuss alternative fuels, the direct-injection systems, variable valve timing, active fuel management, hybrid vehicles, and the developing world of hydrogen fuel cells. His presentation begins at 5:30 p.m.

Throughout the two-hour open house, several auto dealers will be showcasing some of their latest models to demonstrate the technologies that Orlandi addresses. Scheduled to take part are Cole Gilmore Pontiac-Cadillac-Nissan, DeNooyer Chevrolet-Geo, Harold Ziegler Auto Group, Motor Zone, Metro Toyota, and Saturn of Kalamazoo.

One of the new wrinkles in the third academy will be a textbook-less approach. Instead, each student will have access to a laptop computer that they can use to research on the Internet for the online maintenance services offered by automotive manufacturers and suppliers.

Under Orlandi, there will also be a shift in instructional design. The first two academies, which ran for 42 weeks, featured a third segment that had enrollees, in effect, running their own repair shop under the guidance of their instructors.

The new format will have that kind of training integrated throughout the instructions. When the students are being trained in brake work, that’s the kind of repairs they will be making right then and there instead of waiting to the end.

The theory is that will be a more effective and hands-on way of learning and training because the students will be applying that knowledge quickly instead of waiting until later when there could be a tendency to forget.

Instead of a peak enrollment of 17, the third academy will be limited to 12 enrollees. Among the selection criteria in the competitive process are the quality of the written applications, a “documented work ethic,” interest in and knowledge of automotive technology, and driving records.

Within five days of submitting an application, a prospective enrollee will be notified as to whether he/she has met the basic eligibility criteria and be scheduled for an interview. Notification of acceptance into the academy will also be within a five-day period.

The fee for the third academy, which will run through next July, is $9,500. This includes uniforms valued at $300 and $7,000 in high-tech tools that automotive technicians need to function.

“The automotive academy is like a job,” said Orlandi, who has more than 25 years of global experience as an automotive-service technical engineer. “We look for students who can make a full-time commitment.”

Beginning on Nov. 23, the enrollees will be in class or in the lab from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Stressed will be the eight automotive-knowledge areas that are certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and preparing students to reach those standards.

Financial aid is available, and scholarship funds awardable through the Kalamazoo Promise also qualify for the KVCC Automotive Academy. A complete description and application can be downloaded at www.kvcc.edu/training. Then click on “Automotive Technician Academy.” Information is also available by

calling (269) 353-1282. Next KVCC Foundation grant deadline is Dec. 23

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For the 2009-10 academic year, the KVCC Foundation has established funding-request deadlines for internal grant proposals.

Those faculty and/or administrators seeking financial support from the foundation must make plans in advance and adhere to the established deadlines.

Here’s the schedule for the next round:Proposal deadline: Dec. 23; decision by the KVCC Foundation Board of

Trustees, Jan. 29. Deadline: April 23; decision, May 7.For more information, contact Steve Doherty, KVCC director of development and

foundation executive director, at extension 4442 or sdoherty@kvcc.edu.Doherty reported that the foundation board has approved a $2,200 grant,

submitted by Marie Rogers, Helen Palleschi and Daniel Cunningham, on behalf of the Instructional Development Advisory Committee.

It will co-fund a three-hour workshop for faculty on “What the Best College Teachers Do to Promote Inclusion” next Jan. 7 and the purchase 50 copies of Beverly Tatum’s book titled “Can We Talk About Race.”

It will help lay the groundwork for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosting a major exhibition on race in the fall of 2010. The exhibit will be the focal point for a communitywide examination of the racial issues that too often tarnish the nation’s democracy and Constitution.

‘About Writing’ bringing in Thoreau expert ThursdayA wordsmith who has crafted such essays as “The Tough Life of Ants, “Thoreau

in the Burbs,” and “The Art of Dying” is the next attraction in KVCC’s “About Writing” series for the 2009-10 academic year.

Tom Montgomery-Fate, who pondered life in the ministry before opting to string words together for a living, will be on the Texas Township Campus on Thursday (Nov. 5).

All of the “About Writing” presentations in the Student Commons are free and open to the public. Each will feature a 10 a.m. session about the craft of writing and a 2:15 p.m. reading.        

Montgomery-Fate is now a professor of English at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. He has taught with his wife in the Philippine and written a collection of essays about the Nicaraguan revolution and the split in the Catholic Church.

Here is the rest of the line-up of “About Writing” presenters: Tom Springer, author of “Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness

of the Rural Midwest” and a senior editor/program officer for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation . Springer holds a master's degree in environmental journalism from Michigan State University after beginning his writing career at KVCC. He lives near Three Rivers. He’ll return to KVCC on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Poet Thomas Lynch, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Times of London, teaches creative writing program at the University of Michigan, lives in Milford, and has been a funeral director for a quarter of a century.

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Lynch’s collection of essays, “Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality” has been selected to be the common reader for winter-semester English classes at KVCC where he will be making presentations on March 22-23.

In “The Passionate Religion of Barack Obama” that he wrote in February of 2008 for the Chicago Theological Seminary, Montgomery-Fate explored the origins of the words “passion” and “religion.” The latter was defined as “to bind together again.”

“A religion, then, I presumed, could both unite and enslave a community,” he wrote, “both liberate and indoctrinate, depending on how one read history and tradition and doctrine, on how one was religious, on what kind of passion one drew on.”

Deeply familiar with the writings, thoughts and philosophies of Henry David Thoreau, Montgomery-Fate frequently comes to Michigan and spends time on his farm. “The Herons Return” is about the return of the great blue herons to his idyllic abode.

In his writings, he focuses on science, religion and nature. A current project is titled “Cabin Fever: A Modern Conversation with Henry David Thoreau.” One of his pet research topics is the evolving role of courses in creative writing in two-year colleges.

Montgomery-Fate earned a bachelor’s degree in English education from the University of Iowa where he also received a master’s in writing. He also has a master’s in religion from the Chicago Theological Seminary.

KVCC English instructor Rob Haight is the coordinator and organizer of the series. He can be contacted at extension 4452 or rhaight@kvcc.edu.

ASL students to sense ‘Deaf Holocaust Experience’To survive the Holocaust, Jews and others deemed to be inferior to “The Master

Race” endured hunger, filth, disease, ceaseless work, and godless brutality. But if it was difficult – and often sheer luck -- for the majority of survivors, what

about the obstacles faced by those who were deaf?KVCC American Sign Language students will hear their stories when Simon

Carmel presents “The Deaf Holocaust Experience” at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the Student Commons Theater.

Deaf prisoners in the concentration camps had to constantly be aware of their surroundings to blend in and not make it obvious they could not hear. If discovered to be hearing impaired, it would have been a shower in the gas chamber sooner than later.

Those who could hear often helped the deaf, such as discreetly writing their friends' names in the dirt during the near-interminable roll calls.

Thanks to research by Carmel, the testimonies of deaf Holocaust survivors no longer remain silent.

"We need to preserve these stories," Carmel told an interviewer. "Deaf survivors had their own unique experiences during the Holocaust and witnessed as much as hearing people."

Carmel has photos and stories of members of the deaf community who were persecuted because of what the Nazis perceived as a disability, coupled with the notion that people with handicaps were useless to society.“Deaf people are healthy and strong," Carmel said. "The only thing is we can't do is hear."

But the Nazis thought otherwise. The organized, highly structured euthanasia program was instituted in the early 1930s to quickly put to death those with physical and mental handicaps. This was long before the death camps.

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Carmel can recount the murder of the majority of deaf students at the Israelite School for the Deaf in Berlin. They were dragged out and killed in 1942.

Carmel, who was born deaf, earned his bachelor's in physics from Gallaudet University and holds both master's and a doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University. He has studied Israeli Sign Language and worked with the Israeli deaf community. He began to gather the testimonies of deaf survivors of the Holocaust in 1980.

Carmel interviewed survivors of concentration camps in Germany, Poland, Hungary and other countries. He’s also captured the stories of those who were forced to undergo sterilization, sometimes without anesthesia.

Between 1933 and 1945, it is estimated that 17,500 deaf Germans were sterilized, according to Carmel. Those who were blind or mentally disabled underwent similar treatment. And all were warned not to tell friends and family members about the procedure.

Carmel said that aside from a couple of statements in a single Holocaust book he knows of, there was no specific research on deaf victims of the Holocaust until around 1980.

"It is truly saddening to say that we have lost many testimonies by deaf survivors, who witnessed everything, and died between 1945 and 1990,” Carmel said.

Flag raising part of Veterans Day observanceWith the United States at war on two fronts and basically around the world as the

nation battles terrorists, it’s time to salute those who have served – and are serving -- in the armed forces.

The KVCC Veterans Club will conduct a flag-raising ceremony at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in front of the Tower Entrance of the Texas Township Campus. In addition to the probable sound of a gently flapping “Stars and Stripes” in the wind, a bugler will be present.

That will be followed later by a Veterans Day celebration from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.

Both events are open to the public.

College’s United Way campaign enters second weekKVCC has launched its part of the 2009 Greater Kalamazoo United Way

(GKUW) campaign and organizers hope to wrap the effort up on Friday (Nov. 6). The communitywide fund drive was started on Sept. 9 and is scheduled to end Nov. 20. This year’s goal is $9.1 million, which is about what the campaign raised in 2008 as, for the first time in anyone’s memory, the fund drive fell short of reaching its goal. In the first week, KVCC raised $14,256 of its $37,935 goal.

The GKUW supports 60 human-service programs in 42 member agencies, from Girls on the Run to round-the-clock crisis intervention. This year’s campaign theme is again “Live United,” with a tagline of “Give. Advocate. Volunteer. Live United.” Western Michigan University President John Dunn is the campaign chairman for 2009.

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The supported agencies have a variety of missions, including physical and mental health, strengthening families and youth, strengthening community, and increasing each person’s self-sufficiency.

Together, they deliver services for the growing ranks of the unemployed, the increasing number of children receiving some kind of food assistance, a homeless population that is spiking and is 41 percent children, more and more people losing their health coverage, and a boost among people who are losing their homes.

“As in the past,” said Steve Doherty, who is chairing the college’s two-week effort, “your gifts have been greatly appreciated and we thank you for your consideration.”

Those who choose to participated can use payroll deduction that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010. Pledge cars can be forwarded to Denise Baker in Room 3380 or dropped off with other members of the campaign team.

Among the member agencies are Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Boys and Girls Club, Comstock Community Center, the Community Healing Centers, Goodwill Industries, MRC Industries, the Portage Community Center, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, Senior Services Inc. the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo, the Hispanic American Council, Hospice, Ministry with Community, the Douglass Community Association, Gryphon Place, and Family and Children Services.

‘Genome’ exhibit explores life’s common bondsWhat the naked eye can’t see is proving that all the humans who can be seen are

99 and 44/100ths percent the same, whether they are as white as Ivory Snow or dark as molasses.

And, because of an extra inventory of these units - called genes - humans are different - but not all that different -- from other warm-blooded species of all shapes and sizes that occupy planet Earth.

Southwest Michigan residents are able to see all of this for themselves because the nationally touring “GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works” is at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum through Jan. 10. Admission is free.

Two of the annual attractions at the downtown-Kalamazoo museum - Chemistry Day on Oct. 17 and Safe Halloween on Oct. 31 - are being themed to complement the intent of the exhibit. Those also are free.

“Genome” is made possible by Pfizer Inc and was produced by Evergreen Exhibitions in collaboration with the National Human Research Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, and the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research.

“Genome” explores how genes affect growth and aging, maps what might be in -store for humanity, and offers a look at what your future children might look like. All this became humanly possible once scientists mapped the human genome - a person’s entire set of genes. The exhibition, which debuted at the Smithsonian in 2003, investigates the mysteries of the human gene, why the genome is being mapped, and the potential benefits of gene research, such as: * Preventing and curing diseases * Living longer

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* Solving crimes * Producing better food and drugs The exhibit looks at the 200-year history of this science and the individuals who shaped it - from Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century monk who discovered the rules of inheritance by cultivating peas in a monastery garden, to Jim Watson and Francis Crick, who in the early 1950s unearthed the form and process of genetic replication, the famous DNA double helix. This Harvard University breakthrough is regarded as the most important biological discovery of the 20th century. “The understanding of the human genome opens up an entirely new frontier for health-science research,” said Dr. Tom Turi, a genomic scientist with Pfizer Inc, “and it is anticipated that it will lead to new therapies and cures for devastating diseases. However, many people are unaware of the genome or its potential to enhance our lives.” “Genome” uses interactive displays and family-friendly activities to help visitors understand the genome’s function and its role in daily life. These include: • An 8-by-25-foot display of DNA’s double helix structure that is enhanced by a video. • The opportunity in the Discovery Theater to meet scientists who were instrumental in the discoveries leading up to the sequencing of the human genome. Another “show” discusses the genetic issues of the future. • A working slot machine that demonstrates the odds that children will inherit genes for certain characteristics. • Using the metaphor of a “Cookie Factory,” DNA, genes and proteins as the ingredients and recipes for “making” human beings can be understood. • Gaining access to a cell to discover the workings of its parts and processes. • Computer simulations to design new gene therapies, replacing disease-causing proteins with healthy new human genes. Visitors will enter the exhibit through a circular corridor, encountering graphic and mirror images of themselves in the initial stages of life and as a mature human, reflecting who they were and who they are today. Emanating from a mirror at the end of the tunnel is a swirling ribbon of genetic code, representing the genes that hold the secrets to where they came from, who they are and who they may become. The exhibit’s “The Secret of Life” section explains what a gene, DNA, protein and cell are, and how genes are involved in reproduction, growth and the maintenance of life. The role of this revolutionary branch of science and what it holds for the future comes alive by people with genetic conditions telling their stories. How DNA testing is solving some of history’s mysteries and helping to identify people who committed crimes with almost 100-percent certainty are also exhibit attractions.

The museum is working with the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (K-RESA) to host workshops for teachers of social studies in the sixth and seventh grades. The nationally touring exhibit will be used as instructional resources that assist in the study of human migration.

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These sessions will be held on two consecutive Mondays – Nov. 2 and Nov. 9. Contact K-RESA to register. Additional details are available by calling the museum at (269) 373-7965 and on the K-RESA web site. “Genome” will be the second medical-science related exhibition brought to Kalamazoo under the auspices of Pfizer. “BRAIN: The World Inside Your Head” spent the fall and early winter of 2006 at the Museum.

Think about this the next time you peel a banana - that white fruit behind the yellow skin has 50 percent of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that you do.

New internship venture placing studentsWith six already placed as fall-semester interns and a seventh looming, KVCC

instructors are urged to continue directing students to the college’s Community Partners Internship Program.

Launched last January, the initiative is continuing to place students in workforce-development positions throughout the 2009-10 academic year, and the experience can be life-and-career changing for those who seize the opportunity.

Funded for a three-year period by the KVCC Foundation, the $100,000 project seeks to place at least 55 students over a three-year period with enterprises interested in a grow-your-own-workforce alliance.

The bulk of the grant funds is being used to pay up to 50 percent of the wages for each intern, with the companies they work for providing the balance. The program will last through December of 2011.

Salary terms are established on a case-by-case basis and agreed upon prior to the commencement of the internship. The pay can range from the minimum wage of $7.40 to $12 per hour.

An internship usually lasts 15 weeks, but students can apply at any time and be assigned year round. Here are the most recent placements:

Makrina Conklin as a computer technician at the Van Buren Intermediate School District

Stephanie King as a graphic designer for YTG Design in the Park Trades Building

Chuck Blaine as a computer programmer for the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency

Marie Gott as a marketing specialist for the Allegan Area Chamber of Commerce

Business administration major Justin Milbeck at Garlow Services Bethany Caccamo, a graphic-design student who will be associated with

Global Clinical Connections, a start-up drug supply company at the M-TEC.

Lois Brinson-Ropes, the internship coordinator for the center’s Student Employment Services unit, said the initiative is targeting enterprises involved in bio-medical services, alternative energy, and the digital arts, but companies involved in other sectors of the regional economy are also invited to take part. She reports that she is conversing with the Harold Ziegler family of dealerships to place an automotive-technology major.

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“We see this internship program as the college’s wish to join forces with Southwest Michigan employers to produce and retain a highly talented and trained workforce,” she said.

Her unit is also working on future internship partnerships with Phoenix Properties, Consumers Credit Union, Maestro E-Learning, and Bridge Organics Co. in Vicksburg.

For many enterprises -- and not just those in emerging businesses -- the No. 1 factor for achieving success is finding the right people to fit the right jobs. Internships are tried-and-true ways to “grow your own” and identify prospects with high potential.

Instructors should tell students that can apply when they have achieved the skills and education required by the company offering the internship, and when they have completed 50 percent of the course work in their respective majors.

They will also be required to complete pre-employment-skills training provided by the center’s Student Employment Services.

This training will include resume writing, effective cover letters, interviewing skills, professional attire, personal hygiene, promptness and dependability, communication skills, and non-verbal behavior.

Each company can request an intern based on the area of study, skills needed, duties expected, hours of work, and when the person is needed on the job. Each will select an intern based on the organization’s existing hiring methods and criteria.

Instructors can direct interested students to Brinson-Ropes in Room 1356 on the Texas Township Campus. She can be contacted at extension 4344 or lbrinsonrop@kvcc.edu.

Blue containers spurring green initiative Southwest Michigan landfills have some new friends – members of four KVCC

student organizations who want us to stop throwing away stuff that can be reused.Leaders from the Phi Theta Kappa and PeaceJam chapters on campus have joined

forces with Recycle Now! and the college’s program in international studies to guide the activities of an implementation arm they have named the KVCC Active Green Committee.

Working in conjunction with the college’s facilities division, they have planned to locate 15 blue, triple-holed recycling bins – 12 on the Texas Township Campus, one in the Center for New Media, one in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, and one in Anna Whitten Hall.

Assisting with the student initiative is communications instructor Jacob Arndt.“Unfortunately,” he said, “we don't have the resources to count or weigh all of the

paper, plastic, and glass. We know it's a lot and have had to make a trip to the recycling center already.”

Involved are PTK chapter president Mike Waldschmidt, Recycle Now’s top two officers Thomas Henley and Casey James, and Korin Seals of PeaceJam.

Beginning with the fall semester, each organization has taken responsibility for collection areas and for the storage of the recyclables.

Any revenues generated will be plowed back into the program and other “green” efforts envisioned by the committee, such as replacing paper towels in restrooms with warm-air machines and toilets that use less water.

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On the main campus -- from the gymnasium to the Student Commons to the technical wing to the computer lab to the food-service area -- plastic bottles, glass products, metal containers and paper can be deposited and salvaged.

Waldschmidt, a graduate of Bangor High School majoring in business administration, said his PTK chapter’s participation stemmed from the national organization’s agenda to promote “green” actions in communities.

“The Alpha Rho Nu members are excited about improving campus recycling efforts,” he said, “and mobilizing student awareness of environment impact. Personally, I strongly believe this will be a great step toward reducing waste at KVCC.”

James, who grew up in New Orleans, chose to attend her father’s alma mater, Western Michigan University, which pointed her toward taking classes in the sciences at KVCC. As a military science minor, she would like to pursue a career as a veterinarian in the Army.

Henley spearheaded the establishment of Recycle Now! about two years ago “because I couldn’t find a place to recycle my drink bottle one day.”

When the international studies major approached KVCC President Marilyn Schlack about his dilemma, she told him that the PTK chapter and PeaceJam shared his concern. The collaboration followed and the college gave its full support.

KVCC a runner-up in ‘Deals’ acknowledgementsKVCC’s activities in promoting wind energy and the training of technicians in

this emerging alternative source of power was nominated by Business Review West Michigan magazine as a finalist in its 2009 “Deals of the Year” awards in the education category.

But the honor went to Michigan State University, which for securing a U.S. Department of Energy’s $550-million nuclear research facility. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams will be built over the next decade.

In all, the weekly magazine designated 26 finalists in eight categories for its 2009 “Deals” salutes that honor the most significant business transactions in West Michigan that took place between Sept. 1, 2009, and Aug. 31, 2009.

Winners in the eight industry categories were named during a black-tie gala on last month at the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids. Finalists were featured in a special print edition as well. Here is how KVCC’s entry was portrayed:

“As part of its new Wind Energy Center, Kalamazoo Valley Community College in February became the first school in the nation authorized to train students for wind-farm certification, following the startup of the school’s $250,000 50-kilowatt wind turbine.

“KVCC’s first-in-the-nation Wind Turbine Technician Academy, which won $350,000 in federal funding, drew strong attention. By August, some 500 people had inquired and 75 had applied for one of 16 seats in the six-month academy that begins in late October and will cost students $12,000.

“Through the college’s Michigan Technology Education Center (M-TEC), academy students will be training to install, repair and operate utility-size wind turbines that are found on wind farms in North America and overseas.”

Fully equipping the training academy will cost several hundred thousanddollars more, said James DeHaven, KVCC’s vice president for economic and business development, and officials plan to go after competitive grants, too.

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“It’s going to put us on the national and international map, ”DeHaven said.Last July, KVCC’s foray into the arena of alternative-energy production via its

Wind Energy Center based at the M-TEC received one of the publication’s annual Innovation Michigan awards for 2009.

As reported by the magazine, KVCC “is leading the way for wind-energy research and education in Michigan” as illustrated by its M-TEC becoming the national training headquarters for Entegrity Wind Systems Inc., a leading manufacturer of wind turbines that erected a 145-foot, 50-kilowatt unit on the Texas Township Campus.

Stated DeHaven at the time: “The Wind Energy Center improves the image of KVCC in the state and nation. It also helps improve Kalamazoo’s reputation with manufacturers.”

To produce the next generation of wind-energy technicians, KVCC has also established a one-year certificate program. It began with the fall semester as has a multi-discipline eight-credit course in which students will be designing a wind turbine, fabricating its components, assembling the power-generating unit, and making certain it produces electricity.

Career planning, job hunting are November topicsInstructors should alert their enrollees about the events planned by the Student

Success Center that are designed to energize academic accomplishments. A new month-long series of “Career and Coffee Roundtable” discussions begins

on Wednesday (Nov. 4) at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum. Additional gatherings are set for Nov. 11 and Nov. 18.

To have students register or get more information, call extension 4123. A session on finding employment is booked for noon on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in the

Commons Forum. It will be repeated on Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. in the same location. A workshop designed to help KVCC students apply to four-year universities is set

for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9, in the Student Commons Forum. That will be followed by a similar session that targets transferring on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. It will be held in the pit area of the cafeteria on the Texas Township Campus. ‘Swap Meet,’ with want ads of all kinds, plows ahead

Just ask automotive-technology instructor Larry Taylor.His shot-in-the-dark, what-the-heck posting on the KVCC “Swap Meet” in search

of a snow-plowing attachment for his truck has paid dividends. And now he’ll be moving all of that white stuff around this winter in the comfort of his toasty truck.

The Office of Human Resources’ web page contains a want-ad system to link KVCC folks with their colleagues in the sharing of talent, knowledge, skills, goods and services. There is also the technology to attach a photo to what you want to market.

The “KVCC Swap Meet” provides a forum to barter goods (made or grown) and to post information about services that can be provided -- painting, sewing, computer assistance, etc.

It can also be used to post an announcement about services or goods that are being sought.

There are four categories on the site: Services for Hire, Goods Wanted, Goods for Sale, and Miscellaneous. This site is for KVCC employees only and is intended as a way for employees to network with each other for trade or sale purposes.

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KVCC will not be responsible for any transactions or the satisfaction of either party, and will not enter into dispute resolution. “KVCC Swap Meet” is housed on the Human Resources website under Quick Links.

To post a service or item, just click Post Ad, select the appropriate category, complete the online form and click submit.

“To attach a picture to an item that you put up for sale on the Swap Meet,” reports Sandy Bohnet, “all you have to do is go to the Swap Meet site and place your ad. Then, e-mail a digital picture to Kristine Goolsby, and she will attach the picture to the ad. Remember, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.......or dollars.’”

Co-workers will be able to view the posting by the next business day. It is requested that the postings be made during non-working hours.

Among the services for hire are interior and exterior painting, drywall repairs, deck staining, a music ensemble for events, sewing, dog boarding, carpet cleaning, landscaping, floor cleaning, roof work, and window sealing.

For sale are an organ, poodle puppies, 45- and 78-rpm record collections, a bed and mattress for a toddler, stamp sets and pads, an electronic piano, snow tires, a metal dog crate, an entertainment center, and an upscale bike rack for a car.

Wanted are a heavy-duty snow blower, checkerboards and sets of checkers, and goods for Denise Miller’s “Fire” project.

Under the Miscellaneous category are hosting an international student and renting a place for a Disneyworld vacation or a lakefront cottage.

‘Sunday Series’ looks at newspaper legacy “Newspaper Wars in Early Kalamazoo: The 19th Century Story” is the Nov. 8

installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s 2009-10 edition of “Sunday Series” presentations.

Curator Tom Dietz will dig into the community’s past and how residents got their information at 1:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. All of the programs are free and open to the public.

Over the past 175 years, there has always been at least one newspaper in Kalamazoo and, at times, there have been more.

In early 1833, New Yorkers Henry Gilbert and his wife found themselves in White Pigeon in St. Joseph County. Gilbert, a printer by trade, stopped in the local printing shop and learned it was for sale. Among its enterprises was a newspaper, The Statesman.

In 1834, when the land office moved from White Pigeon to Bronson, as Kalamazoo was then known, Gilbert made the trip as well, followed by his print shop and the paper. In 1836, Gilbert went to the East Coast, purchased new equipment and renamed the publication The Kalamazoo Gazette.

In 1846, Volney Hascall, who had started as a 17-year-old apprentice at the paper in 1836, bought the Gazette and the printing business. He was able to increase the size and circulation during the 16 years he owned it. Hascall sold the paper in 1862.

In an eight-year span, the Gazette had no fewer than eight owners. These frequent changes in ownership might possibly explain a problem that intrigues local historians – why do so few Civil War-era issues of The Kalamazoo Gazette still exist?

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It was only in 1870 when Andrew J. Shakespeare became the owner that the daily was once again on solid footing.

Throughout these years, the Gazette faced competition from rivals. As early as 1835, an anonymous newsletter appeared sporadically. It was published by Henry Rice, later a U. S. senator from Minnesota, and contained gossip and criticized some local citizens.

A short-lived paper, The Whig, published only a few issues in 1838 before failing. The following year, J. Holden McBride started The Western Banner.

In 1840, the Banner endorsed John Parker in that year’s election for sheriff. When he was elected, supporters of the defeated candidate, Sheriff “Whiskey Joe” Hutchins, threatened McBride with physical violence. McBride left Kalamazoo never to return.

The next and more successful attempt to start a rival newspaper came in 1844 when Henry B. Miller started The Michigan Telegraph. He sold the paper to William Milliken and George Torrey Sr. the following year.

That partnership did not last. The two men split and each published a newspaper, both called the Telegraph. Their rivalry was shorter-lived than their partnership.

Over the next few years, ownership of Torrey’s Telegraph changed hands several times until Thomas and George A. Fitch bought it in 1850 and ran it profitably as The Kalamazoo Telegraph. In 1866 it was acquired by the sons of the former Kalamazoo College president and his wife, James and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone.

Through the following decades, the Telegraph would continue to publish and provide readers with an alternative perspective on the news. The Gazette was known as “the Democratic paper” while the Telegraph was decidedly Whig and later Republican in orientation. Those political affiliations, however, would not correspond with the modern meaning of liberal and conservative.

Here are the upcoming “Sunday Series” programs: “Where the Streets Got Their Names: The Sequel” – Dec. 13 “The Making of the Paper City” – Jan. 10 “Welcome to the Hotel Kalamazoo: Kalamazoo’s Early Hospitality Industry”

– Jan. 24. For further information, contact Dietz at extension 7984.

Comedy duo, Hoot Owls museum attractions The 1948 comedy "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” is the Oct. 30

attraction for "Friday Night Highlights" programming at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. showing in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater are $3. On Nov. 6, the locally based Hoot Owls will perform its style of bluegrass and

country music. Also booked for the Stryker Theater, admission is $5. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.

“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal Studios’ horror film stable.

In this film, they encounter Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf Man, while subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, the Keystone Kops, and the Invisible Man.

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On a TV special in the early 1950s, the two did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The 1948 film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters – Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster – although it does not appear to fit within the loose continuity of the earlier films.

The film was re-released in 1956 along with “Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer.” In 2001, the U. S. Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. In September 2007, Readers Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time.

Of the 35 films that the comedy team made during their often stormy relationship, this spoof of horror films is regarded as one of the pair’s funniest. Costello’s brain is ticketed for an organ transplant into Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. Along the way, Dracula and The Wolfman get in a few licks as well. It’s an inspired blend of laughs and scares with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. lending their ghoulish talents to the merriment.

For the last three years, The Hoot Owls have been spreading their forms of melodies and musical charm to audiences from nursing homes to the Cooper’s Glen Music Festival.

“You never quite know what you're going to get from the Hoot Owls,” says member Mike VanBuren, external communications manager at The W. K. Kellogg Foundation. “It might be the classic country songs of Hank Williams, the folk-orientedtunes of Gordon Lightfoot, rock-and-roll selections from the Allman Brothers, bluegrass standards from Bill Monroe, gospel-oriented compositions from a variety of artists, or originals by the band's own Joe Bosier.

“We’re an energetic five-piece group that likes its music ‘out on a limb’ and doesn’t mind taking some chances to get there,” VanBuren said.

In addition to guitarist VanBuren and mandolinist Bosier, the other members are Jim Hoyt on bass, Robin Nott on guitar and mandolin, and Joe Thorstenson on banjo.

Each of the "Friday Night Highlights" billings is actually a doubleheader because also planned for each evening is an 8:30 p.m. showing of the planetarium show featuring the music of U2. That, too, has a $3 admission fee.

With a laser-light show in full color streaming across the planetarium's 50-foot dome, the 35-minute production will feature the classic hits of the Dublin, Ireland, combo that has earned 22 Grammys, sold 146 million albums, and warranted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility.

Here is the rest of the “Friday Night Highlights” schedule that includes more movies and concerts by local combos:

Nov. 13: “Interview With the Vampire.”Nov. 20: "Miracle on 34th Street," a 1948 flick to kick off the holiday season.Dec. 4: A free concert by the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.Dec. 11: Carmea, the trio that won the 2009 Fretboard Festival play-in

competition at the museum.Dec. 18: The 2002 movie "8 Crazy Nights."Jan. 8: Music by Belfast Gin.

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Jan. 15, 22 and 29: The movies "Cutting Edge,” "Miracle," and “Cool Runnings,” respectively.

Afro dancing, drumming to entertain familiesThe beat goes on – at least as it delivered in West Africa and other parts of the

world influenced by Afro cultures – will be the entertainment targeted for families at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum on Saturday (Nov. 7).

Percussionist Carolyn Koebel, no stranger to musical performances at the museum, will be bringing in her Dunuya Drum and Dance troupe for a 1 p.m. performance in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Admission is $3.

The next family-oriented performance, featuring the music and comedy of Ron Moore, is set for Dec. 5

Dunuya Drum and Dance is described as a global drumming collective presenting music of West Africa, Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean, North Africa, and Brazil. The members strive for audience interaction via singing, dancing or playing instruments.

Koebel as a member of the Blue Dahlia combo and a percussion soloist has been booked into the museum on several occasions.

Koebel, who plays the drums, vibes, dulcimer and other percussion instruments for Blue Dahlia, has been exploring drumming and rhythm for more than 24 years. Her passion has taken her to some of the best instructors in the world. She is skilled in the techniques and style of West African, Afro-Cuban, American jazz, Brazilian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Celtic, Italian and classic drumming.

She has served as principal percussionist with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, including the performance of a percussion concerto. She tours regionally and internationally with flutist Rhonda Larson, among others.

Koebel was the music director of the Michigan State University Department of Theater’s production of “Waterworks: Tales of the Hydrasphere.” With a keen interest in rhythm-based healing, she works as a music therapist in schools for children with special needs. The recipient of a master’s degree in music therapy from MSU, she was one of the key presenters at the 2005 Michigan Music Therapists conference.

Other Dunuya members are Calvin Ruff, Tommy Mac, Jennifer Nowlen, Kama Mitchell, Love Burkett, Jaidyn Kynaston, and Dasan Mitchell. They have traveled to regions featured in their drumming and dancing.

More information about events, attractions and tickets is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling 373-7990. Germany next stop on campus-based tours

A KVCC graduate’s perspectives of Germany will be in the spotlight in an upcoming presentation sponsored by the KVCC International Studies Program.

Next on the itinerary will be Germany on Wednesday (Nov. 4) at 2 p.m. It will take place in Room 4380.

In charge of the tour of Germany will be Nick Goodman, who is also an alumnus of KVCC’s program. He’s lived in that nation and currently serves as a tutor in that language in the KVCC Learning Center.

14-week hospitality training planned at M-TECA training program for those in supervisory positions in the hospitality industry

has been scheduled to begin in November as the M-TEC of KVCC continues to plan for a

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third edition of an academy designed to prepare employees for entry-level jobs in that field.

The 14-week, every-Monday course will tentatively run from Nov. 2 through Feb. 15 at the M-TEC, located on KVCC’s Groves Campus off of 9th Street along I-94. The fee is $980. Each Monday-night session will run from 6 to 10 p.m.

The instructor will be Scott Swope, who has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has guided the two previous academies to train entry-level workers.

Additional information is available by contacting Lesa Strausbaugh, KVCC’s director of career academies, at (269) 353-1289 or lstrausbaugh@kvcc.edu. She’s also the contact for Hospitality Academy III in which enrollment is limited to 15.

“The ‘Hospitality Supervisor Training’ program examines the skills and best practices in the operation of a lodging property,” she said, “and prepares enrollees for the Certified Hospitality Supervisor (CHS) exam with the American Hotel & Lodging Association.”

In 56 hours of training, they will learn everything from managing the employee cycle (recruiting, hiring, training, discipline, and separation), to proper documentation techniques, safety and loss prevention, and the principals of “yield management.” “This training is designed to enhance the skills of all hospitality professionals,” Strausbaugh said, “from the up-and-coming associate looking to forge ahead with his or her career, to the experienced hospitality professionals looking for an opportunity to study their craft.”

Those who complete the program can take the CHS exam. Information about this aspect and registration instructions on line are available via the M-TEC of KVCC’s web site at http://mtec.kvcc.edu/.

Strausbaugh reports that a version of the college’s Hospitality Academy began last week at Kellogg Community College. Kellogg partnered with KVCC to bring hospitality training to 12 Michigan Works! clients from the Albion/Battle Creek market. Swope is the instructor for that program as he has been for the first two KVCC hospitality academies.

November Art Hop wraps up Rzoska’s exhibitLinda Rzoska’s digital paintings of the Irish landscape, inspired by 10 visits to the

culture-rich country, are on display in the KVCC Center for New Media through the Friday (Nov. 6) Art Hop.

Rzoska’s impressions capture what she has seen and experienced in Ireland by guiding KVCC students to Ireland over the last seven years.

While Rzoska, a new-media instructor and now program coordinator at the center, has led KVCC contingents to Burren on Ireland’s west coast overlooking Galway Bay since 2000, her digital paintings on exhibit were the result of a 2009 winter-semester sabbatical that took her to Poland and The Netherlands (each for two weeks), and finally back to Ireland for a seven-week period.

Her repeated visits there and eventually the sabbatical stemmed from a question she asked herself – if she could do anything that she wanted, what would it be? The answer – teach art in Ireland.

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A bit of googling on the Internet connected her to the Burren College of Art, which led to the excursions under the aegis of the KVCC-based Midwest Institute for International/Intercultural Education as well as an artist-in-residence appointment.

Why Ireland?“I have Irish ancestry,” said Rzoska, who joined the KVCC faculty in 2000 after

23 years as an illustrator and graphic designer. “I have always been fascinated with Irish literature, history, folklore, art and Celtic spirituality. There is a connection for me and the country’s landscapes, and it’s why I always wanted to go there.”

For centuries, that part of Ireland has been a source of inspiration for all genre of artists — poets, novelists, painters, sculptors, musicians and playwrights, and now for Rzoska.

The Burren College of Art is on the grounds of a 16th-century castle. Known as “The Stony Place,” Burren is home to a wealth of archeological and monuments that includes megalithic tombs, medieval castles and abandoned abbeys.

From an abbey built in 1194 to a 9th -century ring fort built of stone to a 6,000-year-old tomb to cliffs that plunge 700 feet to the Atlantic to the coastal limestone region known as Black Head, it has been an important part of Ireland’s legend for artistic creativity.

Rzoska said she sought the sabbatical and the short break from teaching to regain what she construed as her lost artistic soul. She thought she was “losing touch with the artist within me.” To regain that touch, she used graphite drawings, photos and videos of what she saw, and from those sources created her digital paintings.

Believing that western civilization has basically lost the spiritual and cultural relationship with nature’s landscapes, Rzoska said the essence of her digital paintings is “to honor all the living things that exist in every aspect of the landscape. Often I portray this life in human form in order to relay the precious and beautiful qualities of all life.”

Also gaining insights from the writings of author Terry Tempest Williams who has spoken at KVCC on two occasions, Rzoska staged a pair of one-person shows in The Netherlands and Ireland during her sabbatical, including being the subject of a news article in a Dutch newspaper headlined “Digital Romantics from Linda Rzoska.”

While in Poland, she visited the remnants of the Stutthof Concentration Camp that was established near Gdansk that was established in the fall of 1939 and was the scene of the extermination of Polish intellectuals and Jews.

“One cannot visit a place like this,” she said, “without being significantly undone. My view of humanity has been forever changed.”

Rzoska garnered some coverage in The Kalamazoo Gazette’s “Ticket” tabloid that previewed the October Art Hop.

She told report Simon Thalmann that the creations stemmed from her interest in nature and spirituality.

She described them as being “something about the sense of place or the personality of the landscape, and how important that is to people, to the human race, to the world.”

She said that in contemporary times in a modern culture, “we have a tendency to move so fast that we really don’t notice it, and we’ve kind of lost touch with that. My sabbatical gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time just immersing myself in the landscape.

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A chance to share the ‘Culture of the Deaf’People who are deaf have their own jokes, their own folklore and their own

approaches to artistic creativity in addition to their own special ways of communicating. All of that “word of mouth” and “story sharing” will come to life when Simon

Carmel presents “Deaf Folklore: Deaf People, Culture and Identity” on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the Student Commons Theater at 7:30 p.m.

Open to the public with tickets ranging in cost from $5 to $8 if purchased before Carmel’s appearance, the program is sponsored by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Kalamazoo Rotary Club.

Since the late 1970s, the 71-year-old Carmel, who was born deaf, has been collecting anecdotes and material reflecting on the hearing impaired and the communities in which they live, how they cope in a world of sound, their forms of humor, and their modes of communication.

Raised in Baltimore, Carmel can recount a childhood in which “oralism” or lip reading was the favored way to “speak.” He remembers having his hands slapped if he resorted to signing, which he credits for his early failures at the high school level because he equated reading lips with “guessing.”

Deciding to enroll at Gallaudet University, a school no longer exclusively for the deaf in Washington, Carmel recalled experiencing for the first time an environment in which he was not handicapped, in which he was “perfectly normal.”

With his academic bearings firmly in place, Carmel went on to earn both a master’s and doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University in Washington.

Skills as a swimmer matched those he had in the social sciences, and earned him a spot on the U. S. team that competed in the International Summer Games for the Deaf in Helsinki, Finland. That experience led him to learn how to sign in foreign languages, a talent that served Carmel well when he was an interpreter for Russian athletes who competed in the 1965 Olympics for the deaf.

Yet, his best sport was skiing and Carmel was instrumental in convincing the American Athletic Association for the Deaf to begin sponsoring a team for the winter games.

When Carmel joined the National Bureau of Standards, the job took him to Israel where he met deaf people from a variety of cultures. That planted the seeds of a new interest that delved into the “invisible” cultures of the deaf, to which much of the hearing world seemed blind.

“Deaf Israelis helped me understand deaf Americans better,” said Carmel, who is now based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Israeli Sign Language helped me understand American Sign Language. I now knew for the first time that deaf people in America have a culture.

“Deaf culture - with its stories, jokes, games, arts and crafts, legends, cartoons, beliefs, riddles and anecdotes -- is inside American culture,” he said. “It is part of American culture, but it is separate from hearing culture. And it is beautiful.”

His time in the Middle East forged a new career path - in-depth studies of the culture of the deaf.

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Along the way, Carmel coordinated the first Deaf Folklife Section at the American Folklife Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. He is also regarded as an expert on the Society of World Deaf Magicians.

Hosting Carmel’s presentation is the KVCC chapter of the American Sign Language Honors Society, a student club.

For more information, contact the chapter adviser and full-time ASL instructor Su Cutler at extension 4862 or scutler@kvcc.edu. She is one of 11 instructors who teach ASL courses at KVCC.

PTK selling holiday decorationsThe Phi Theta Kappa chapter is taking orders for holiday greens through Nov. 13.The 24-inch Christmas wreaths, complete with mixed greens, cones and a bow,

are selling for $22. Ten-inch swags, decorated with cones and berries, are $12. Also up for sale are two-foot Christmas trees, decorated with a bow and berries,

and planted in a pot, for $18. Sections of 20-foot evergreen roping have an $18 price tag. Orders may be placed with any Phi Theta Kappa student or by emailing

ptk@kvcc.edu.Delivery is scheduled for Nov. 23.

Chemistry instructor part of Channel 13 show KVCC chemistry instructor Kim De Clercq, who has become a regular fixture on

the “Take Five & Company” segment on WZZM-TV, has four more air-time stints through the end of the calendar year.

Her “Chemical Kim” episodes feature “fun” hands-on activities designed to spark interest in the sciences in children. Producers of the segment, which airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on Grand Rapids’ Channel 13, have booked her for Friday shows on Nov. 6, Nov. 20, Dec. 4 and Dec. 19.

De Clercq took her concept to the airwaves initially by producing a series of radio spots -- “The Chemical Kim Science Minute” -- about interesting scientific facts, events and history for WKDS-FM, the 250-watt station that operates out of the Public Media Network (formerly the Community Access Center) in downtown Kalamazoo and is licensed through the Kalamazoo Public Schools. That evolved into “The Chemical Kim Science Show” for PMN on the Charter cable system. The “kitchen-science” show is aimed at youngsters. Assisting her in the weekly shows are “scientists” who attend fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grades in local schools. The radio station, which is located at 89.9 on the FM dial, is part of the Education for Employment programs in radio and television broadcasting. De Clercq delivers “a quick, entertaining, educational and informative science lesson” in each one-minute spot similar to the “Earth & Sky Segments” that are aired regionally on WAKV based in Plainwell.

Academy of Music’s half century of show-biz glitz The origins, glories and demise of the Academy of Music are the November

installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s TV show.Featuring Tom Dietz, the curator of research at the museum, the episode will be

aired by the Public Media Network (formerly the Community Access Center) on Channel

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22 on the Charter cable system at 7 p.m. on Sundays, 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. on Saturdays.

On Monday, May 8, 1882, Kalamazoo’s elite gathered in anxious anticipation for the dedication of the village’s first performing-arts center. Dressed in their finest, the cream of Kalamazoo society, joined by visitors from Three Rivers, Battle Creek, and Chicago, filled the auditorium’s 1,250 seats. The evening’s highlight was the popular drama, “Virginius, the Roman Father,” featuring the nationally acclaimed star of the late 19th century stage, John McCullough.

The Academy of Music was designed as Kalamazoo’s first grand performing-arts center. Its construction was coordinated by a group of prominent businessmen, including future U.S. Sen. Francis Stockbridge and local building contractor Frederick Bush, who organized the Kalamazoo Opera House Company in March 1881. Their goal was to build a first-rate facility for not less than $30,000. The final cost, however, exceeded $60,000.

Their incentive for the venture was, in part at least, dissatisfaction with the village’s existing facility, Union Hall. Located at Michigan and Portage streets, the hall had been built in 1865-66.

It was a typical performance space for the time. Seating was on benches, all on the same level, so that the patrons on the back benches often had their view blocked. Audience members sipped beverages of their choice and frequently voiced their pleasure or displeasure with a performance.

Francis Chase, the proprietor of Union Hall, was unwilling to see his facility overtaken by the proposed new auditorium. When the organizers of the Kalamazoo Opera House neglected to file the necessary legal paperwork, Chase changed the name of Union Hall to Opera House. He made other superficial improvements in the fall of 1881 in an effort to keep his audience from being lured to the new facility then under construction several blocks to the west.

Meanwhile, the Kalamazoo Opera House Co. renamed its new facility the Academy of Music. The chosen site was on the east side of Rose Street across from the Kalamazoo County Courthouse. The construction committee hired the famous Chicago architect, Dankmar Adler, to design the facility.

Built of red brick and Ohio sandstone, the academy was three stories. The interior featured hand-carved cherry woodwork, plush seating, and the finest silk draperies. A nine-foot chandelier with 100 gas lights hung from the ceiling while another 300 gas jets provided ample lighting.

For the next several decades, the Academy of Music was the jewel of the local cultural scene. Such luminaries of the American stage as Sarah Bernhardt and the Barrymore family appeared with touring Broadway plays. John Philip Sousa and Victor Herbert performed with their bands.

The academy also hosted special events. In 1890, the seats were removed, a temporary floor installed, and a gala charity ball was held in the auditorium. It also hosted boxing matches and even a performance by trained show horses.

In March 1897, an exciting new technology was introduced there. A demonstration of Thomas Edison’s Vitascope, an early motion-picture technology, drew an enthusiastic crowd but foreshadowed the decline of live professional theater in Kalamazoo.

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Within 20 years, W. S. Butterfield took over the management of the academy, adding it to his national theater chain. The Regent Theatre, as it was re-named, offered silent movies and vaudeville acts.

On June 6, 1930, students from State High School at Western State Teachers College staged the play “Come Seven.” It was the last production for the old Academy of Music.

Four days later, a major fire -- possibly arson -- broke out and destroyed the theater. The front of the building, which housed several stores and offices, survived. In 1967, that portion of the structure was demolished to make room for the Industrial State Bank (now the Comerica Bank building).

Three sky shows at upgraded planetarium None of us has been able to step back in time to when pharaohs ruled Egypt and

used the stars to guide them into the afterlife. Until now.None of us has experienced the stark, barren and not-completely-inert surface of

Mars. Until now – well, make that until January 2010.Welcome to the Digistar 4, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s new full-color, 109-

seat planetarium technology that is now open to the public and offering these three shows on a regular basis through the end of the year:

“Stars of the Pharaohs,” which takes viewers back to ancient Egypt where the sky served as a clock and calendar, and the movement of imperishable stars guided the Pharaohs on their journey into the afterlife. Temples and pyramids were aligned with the stars and decorated with images revealing cycles in the sky connected with life on the Nile. Showings are daily at 3 p.m.

“Secret of the Cardboard Rocket” is a journey through the solar system fueled by imagination. Guided by a talking book, two children visit and discover unique environments found at each planet. Showings are Monday through Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The music of U2 is augmented by a laser show across the planetarium’s dome. Showings are Fridays at 8:30 p.m.

There is a $3 fee for planetarium shows, although admission to the museum and its exhibitions are free.

As with its predecessor Digistar II, which was among the attractions when the downtown-Kalamazoo museum opened its doors in February of 1996, the newest $1.3 million version will be among the handful in operation around the world with its first public programs.

Set to begin in January, “Invaders of Mars” will make it easier to accept that none of us will ever make it to that planet because, thanks to the Digistar 4 technology, we’ve already been there.

More information is available at the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org.

KVCC links to Kalamazoo city electionThe 17-member field of candidates in the 2009 Kalamazoo City Commission

election slated for Nov. 3 has several KVCC connections.

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The reigning mayor, 45-year-old Bobby Hopewell, is seeking another two-year term on the commission. He is a graduate of the college’s paramedic and emergency medical technology programs. Hopewell is currently the director of hospitality services at the Borgess Medical Center.

In the city of Kalamazoo’s truly unique form of municipal election, all candidates run for seven two-year terms on the city commission. The top vote-getter is mayor and the runner-up is vice mayor.

According to the voter guide published by the Kalamazoo Area League of Women Voters, commission candidate Aaron Davis, 41, a manager for Greenleaf Hospitality Group, identified himself an “operating engineer” and KVCC M-TEC graduate.

Louis Stocking, 22, identified himself as a KVCC student. The native Kalamazooan told the League’s publication that he is the founder and director of the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws. He reported the group has been working on a charter amendment for a year in hopes of placing a question on the ballot next November.

Also on the Nov. 3 city ballot is a referendum on an ordinance that was twice unanimously adopted by the commission. Each action spurred petition drives by those who oppose the concept.

Now it will be up to city voters. They will decided whether an amendment to a city ordinance – which outlaws discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in employment, housing and access to public accommodations – will stand and remain in effect. It would be a civil infraction to deny housing, jobs or public accommodations to people based upon their sexual preference or gender identity.

A citizens group has formed to oppose the amendment and urge a “no” vote on the issue. It is called the Kalamazoo Citizens Voting No to Special Rights Discrimination. On its 23-member board is KVCC math instructor Daniel Cunningham in his role with the Greater Faith Empowerment Center. Other members include the Rev. Louis Felton of the Galilee Baptist Church, former State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, a Kalamazoo City Commission candidate, and two current members of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners.

None of the eight candidates for seats on the Portage City Council indicated any links to KVCC.

Don’t dump those old batteriesIn cleaning out your office and workspace to prepare for the fall semester, or

going through your home with a fine-tooth comb, remember this – ● the KVCC initiative to recycle used and unused rechargeable and alkaline

batteries, which keeps them out of landfills where their assets will be lost forever.Recycling boxes for both rechargeable batteries as well as alkaline batteries are

located in the following areas: the M-TEC Facility Shop; the Arcadia Commons Campus Facility Shop; Texas Township Campus Facility Services; the museum’s carpentry shop; the college’s audio-visual department; the automotive-technology and heating-ventilation-air conditioning labs; and in Computer Services.

The lead-acid batteries used in cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and other motorized equipment can be recycled by taking them to the Household Hazardous Waste

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Center operated by Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services at 1301 Lamont Ave.

This drop-off center is on the edge of the county fairgrounds. Information about what else can be deposited there is available by calling 383-

8742.The recycling containers for dead batteries generated by on-the-job use at KVCC

are provided by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (RBRC). RBRC's Charge Up to Recycle!® program is designed to keep rechargeable

batteries out of the solid-waste stream, adhering to the federal and state laws requiring the proper disposal of some types of used rechargeable batteries.

This program offers community and public agencies the tools to implement a simple, no-cost recycling plan.

These batteries are commonly found in cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote-control toys.

And finally. . . Words to ponder and live by:Men are from Earth. So are women. Deal with it.No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist

change places.Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.Junk is something you have kept for years and throw away three weeks

before you need it.There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake

when you make it again.By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.It ain’t the jeans that make you look fat.Light travels faster than sound. That’s why some people appear very

bright until they speak.There is a lot of future ahead of us – unless you watch the History and

Discovery channels and learn about the monster waves that will be headed our way when an earthquake rocks the Canary Islands, the active volcano that is building up steam under Yellowstone Park, the giant asteroids way out there that might target this planet as they have before, and the pressure that is increasing around the San Andreas Fault that will – as Lex Luthor hoped -- will slide half of California into the sea, sparking another monster tsunami that will roll over Hawaii and Japan.

☻☻☻☻☻☻

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