News

The Albion Sister City program is celebrating its 20th year by welcoming a delegation from the French communities of Noisy-le-Roi and Bailly to this weekend’s Festival of the Forks celebration. It’s an opportunity to share a culture and a friendship that continues to grow. “This relationship runs through every part of Albion, Michigan, and Albion College,” said Albion College professor of French Dianne Guenin-Lelle.

Two Albion College students were robbed at gunpoint early Thursday morning. No one was injured.

According to the College’s Office of Campus Safety, the students were sitting in a red 2010 Jeep Patriot in the parking lot at the Bobbitt Visual Arts Center at approximately 1:30 a.m. when two males dressed in black, wearing puffy ski jackets and with their faces partially covered with masks approached them. The students said one of the suspects had a long gun; the suspects proceeded to take the car as well as other personal possessions and left the area.

They were last seen driving east on Michigan Avenue away from campus.

Albion Public Safety is investigating.

Albion College Director of Campus Safety Ken Snyder said patrols will be increased around campus for the next few days. He said this was the first armed robbery on campus in several years.

“We’re relieved no one was hurt in this incident and we’re confident local law enforcement is doing all it can to find the perpetrators,” Albion College President Mauri Ditzler said. “Nothing is more important to us than student safety on campus. We always do everything in our power to ensure a safe and vibrant learning environment for our students.”

The newly expanded Randi C. Heathman Indoor Arena at Albion College’s Nancy G. Held Equestrian Center, currently receiving its finishing touches in advance of its first show Oct. 1-2, was featured this morning on Newschannel 3 WWMT-TV, which serves the large Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek viewing area.

Annual college guides geared toward prospective students and their families continue to recognize the Albion experience. Washington Monthly counted Albion College as among the top 100 national liberal arts institutions—No. 92, to be exact—that contribute to the public good in what the magazine describes as “three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).”

Katie Zinkel, ’17, gave a lot of cookies to a lot of kids this summer, but one instance really stood out. “Once I gave kids their cookies and their mom told them, ‘You need to thank the lady. It’s not every day you come to a children’s museum and get to participate in a psychological experiment.'”

“I knew pretty much nothing about farming,” says biology major and Center for Sustainability and the Environment member Tom Martin, ’17, who became quite attached to the work through his full-time summer job at the Student Farm, adjacent to the Whitehouse Nature Center. “Now we have pounds and pounds of produce we sell twice a week. I can grow food.”

“In teaching history at Albion College, one of my goals is to bring national and international historical issues home to Albion: to the community and the campus,” writes history professor Wes Dick, who this fall is teaching a First-Year Seminar titled Sense of Place: Albion and the American Dream. “In exploring Albion College during the Vietnam War … I have discovered only one Albion College alumnus who died in Vietnam. That individual is Donald Bruce Adamson (pictured at left) and 2016 marks the 50th anniversary year of his death.”

Overall enrollment and student diversity continue to trend upward with the arrival of Albion College’s Class of 2020. As of the first day of classes August 22, the matriculation of more than 400 first-year students and 35 transfers—coupled with a higher returning sophomore retention rate—has driven the student body above 1,400 for the first time since 2011.

Class of 2016 member Audrey DeGroot will soon begin a two-year adventure in the West African country of Guinea as Albion’s first Peace Corps volunteer since Christin Spoolstra, ’11. “I don’t want a 9-to-5 job and an apartment, I want an adventure,” she says, listing some of the “million and one” reasons she decided to apply for the position

“What I loved most about President Vulgamore was his unmitigated joy at being surrounded by and involved with students.” Those were the words of one Albion alumna this week following the August 12 passing of Dr. Melvin L. Vulgamore, the College’s 13th president whose 14-year administration ran from 1983 to 1997.