From The Academic Affairs Office
October 2008
Ressler Notes
After helping at the Hillsboro Arts and Crafts Fair, I made my way to Winfield for an evening of music at the Walnut Creek Bluegrass Festival. If you have not been there and like folk music, it is a great event. It is the place that the 30,000 people who want to avoid the Arts and Crafts Fair in Hillsboro go.
One of the favorite performers each year is folk singer John McCutheon. I was particularly impressed with one thought that John shared. The greatest challenge facing our generation, he said, is not materialism, or capitalism, or communism, etc, but cynicism.
A cynic is one who is aware that things are not as they should be but who has lost hope that things will ever get better. Cynics get stuck on identifying short-comings. They may even delight in pointing them out. It is easy to be a cynic. Wait long enough and you will be right that something will go wrong.
John inspired the thousands in the stands to dream and to do their part to make a difference in the world . He challenged me. I returned with a renewed enthusiasm to keep dreaming and to do what I can do in our wonderful and sometime overwhelming challenge to provide a first class education to those we have an opportunity to serve. There is no doubt there is much to be done. Some of the challenges seem intractable. They may go back even to the very beginning of Tabor College in 1908.
As President Glanzer settles into his new role and the college enters into its second century, we can either take the easy road and be cynical about the potential to improve or we can take up John McCutheon’s challenge and dream of what might be.
I look forward to working together, especially with my academic colleagues, to dust off that which as gathered dust, to resurrect traditions that have fallen out of favor, to begin new traditions, and to simply shine the spotlight on the many great things that are going on. We dare not let the problems steal our soul. The hopes and dreams of many have overcome challenges for a century. It is not our turn.
Bible, Religion and Philosophy
In May, Dr. Doug Miller finished editing the Tabor centennial history book, Tabor College: A Century of Transformation. He finalized the draft of a commentary on Ecclesiastes in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series (Herald Press). Dr. Miller continues to edit Isaiah, Lamentations, Song of Solomon, and Joshua as Old Testament editor of that same series. He preached in July at a local congregation, and worked with three other Tabor faculty and staff to develop the new introductory Bible course, The Bible, Community, and Culture.
Physical Education
Jim Moore attended the 2008 National Athletic Trainer Association’s Annual Symposium in June. The convention was held in St. Louis Missouri.
Education
Dr Donna Bagley was elected secretary of Kansas Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. This is a professional organization composed of all higher education institutions in the state that have teacher education programs. May 2008, Dr Bagley presented on the topic of “Assessing Development of PreService Educators in Field and Clinical Experiences” at the International Community of Christians in Teacher Education (CCCU) Conference at Gordon College.
Chemistry
Dr. Bruce Heyen was invited to attend two national conferences on process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) this past summer. The POGIL project promotes active collaborative group learning in the classroom with minimal lecturing. At the national meeting in Arlington, TX, Dr. Heyen presented a poster entitled “POGIL Activites for Transition-Metal Chemistry, Buffers, and Nuclear Chemistry”. At the biochemistry POGIL meeting in Seattle, he presented his experience testing classroom materials and worked with a team to write new classroom activities. This fall, Dr. Heyen will be using clickers in his organic chemistry course with the POGIL materials to assess student learning during classroom sessions.
History
Dr. Bill Kostlevy had two publications this summer. “Social Vision of the Holiness Movement.” In The Holiness Manifesto. Edited by Kevin W. Mannonia and Don Thorsen. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2008 and A.C. Wieand, Keswick Spirituality, and the “Continued Legacy of Brethren Beliefs in the Twentieth Century,” in Lines, Places, and Heritage: Essays Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. Edited by Steve Longenecker and Jeff Bach. Bridgewater, VA: Penobscot Press, 2008.
Math and Computer Science
Glen Diener is using Lego Mindstorms robot kits in CS 150 Introduction to Computer Science labs. These kits were purchased with funds from a gift, several years ago, of $10,000 designated for the computer science program. The intent is to increase student interest in computer science by using a platform that is accessible and interesting. At the same time, students are learning important concepts and practices in the academic discipline of computer science. These kits were also used as an activity in this past summer’s junior camp.
Glen Diener is teaching a course using the ITV system located in the library. This upper level computer science course has students from Bethel and Tabor and is the first time Tabor has taught a course, within the cooperative, in this way. Previously, we were only able to receive instruction, via ITV, from Bethel. If successful, this will move us away from student and faculty needing to travel to other campuses. (A big thanks to the IT staff for the long hours they spent working to get the technology in place and the room ready.)
Dr. Tim Frye defended his dissertation, “Graph Reflection Groups” on July 11 and completed paperwork for his Ph.D. on August 1st. He has also decided to experiment with Harold Heie’s ‘integrative questions’ in Calculus I and Multivariable Mathematics. In Calculus he will be exploring the relations between mathematical conceptions of infinity and traditional views of infinity, and in Multivariable Mathematics he’ll be trying to determine the merit in doing mathematics at all.
Art
Shin-Hee Chin is participating in Fiber Arts: Form and Function at VAAM gallery in McPherson. The show features traditional and contemporary fiber arts. She invited Sheryl Lehr (postal clerk at Tabor college) to participate in the show also. The show runs from Sep. 11- Oct.30, 2008 She was invited to have a group show at Lincoln Art Center, Lincoln, Kansas. The show is September 19-November 7, 2008
Shin-Hee Chin received an honorable mention in February, 2008. Her work, Imago Dei, which she received an honorable mention at Quilt Japan International Juried Show has been exhibited at American Quilt Museum at Paducah, Kentucky, Exhibit runs July 11 – October 7, 2008. International quilt is one of the biggest quilting contest in Japan. Quilt Japan is held by the Japan Handicraft Instructors’ Association with support from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.
She is now preparing the show, the Human Family at Historic Church during Tabor’s Centennial Homecoming. The show runs Oct 2 to Oct 4. and is funded in part by Hope Scholar Grant Program.
Music
Dr. Sheila Litke has performed at several local churches. In February she performed at Golden Plains Free Methodist Church and Tabor College A Program of Piano Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. In May she performed Beethoven-Choral Fantasy at Hillsboro MB Church and in August she was at Koerner Heights MB Church.
Library
Robin Ottoson attended the Great Plains Regional Innovative Users Group semi-annual and associated meetings at Washburn University and Emporia State University, June 12-13. She wrote and received a $3,000 ILDP grant from the State Library of Kansas to improve Library book and virtual collections on social welfare needs of children, particularly children in crisis.
She continues her doctoral studies at Kansas State University.
Registrar
Susan Lehrman and Deanne Duerksen attended the annual conference of KACRAO (Kansas Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) on Sept. 24-26 in Garden City. The keynote address, God Grew Tired of Us: The Lost Boys of Sudan, was presented by one of the Lost Boys, John Bui Dau. As a member of the Program Committee, Deanne secured Dr. Doug Penner, president of KICA, to present a session regarding some of the local and state issues that impact the private colleges in Kansas and to share information about some of the new initiatives sponsored by KICA. She also assembled a panel of registrars to discuss the changes and best practices for incorporating online services into their daily workflow. Deanne will serve as Secretary for the organization during the 2008-09 year.
Susan Lehrman was recently promoted to the position of Assistant Registrar. She has worked at Tabor for twenty years, most of which have been in the Registrar’s Office.
AGS
Tona Leiker has successfully co-published her nursing home research. “High-performing and low-performing nursing homes: A View from complexity Science” by Sarah Forbes -Thompson, Tona Leiker and Michael R. Bleich. Also Tona Leiker was featured AND the Tabor College nursing program in a journal called Emerging. She was inducted as President-Elect of Epsilon Gamma Chapter-at-Large of Sigma Theta Tau International on May 29, 2008 in Wichita, KS.
Brenda Helmer, MSN, RN and Tona Leiker, MN, ARNP-CNS, nursing faculty members participated in the Butler County Health Department Disaster Preparedness Exercise in July assisting in an exercise simulating an anthrax exposure at a public July 4th celebration.
Emeriti Faculty
Dr. Max Terman has just co-published a paper on golf course ecology with two Japanese scientists in an online journal . The title of the paper is: “Yasuda, M., F. Koike, and M. Terman . 2008. How Management Practices Affect Arthropod Communities On Japanese Golf Courses” in Landscape Ecol. Eng. Dr. Terman collaborated with these scientists online and
added his comments and editing and they included him as a third author.
