Kenyon in the News
Kenyon was featured in the March issue of Vanity Fair, in a story by columnist Christopher Hitchens decrying "discrepancies" and "irregularities" in the 2004 presidential balloting in Ohio. Hitchens, who was on campus as a guest speaker just after Election Day, found the Ohio results suspect. But, in the course of reviewing the voting saga as it transpired in Gambier, he praised Kenyon as a "visiting lecturer's dream, or the ideal of a campus-movie director in search of a setting." He went on to mention the Kenyon Review, a number of the College's prominent alumni, and its well-mannered students.
An article in the February issue of American Way, the in-flight magazine of American Airlines, touted Kenyon as a "hot" college among small liberal arts schools. The article, titled "Get Your Kid Into Harvard," also suggested that selective summer creative-arts programs, such as one offered at Kenyon, impress college admissions officers. The Kenyon Review sponsors a two-week creative-writing program for high school students.
Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs Shawn Dailey was mentioned in the January 2005 issue of Currents magazine in a story about corporate matching-gift programs. The magazine, published by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, pointed out that Kenyon donors don't need to tie a string around their fingers to remember to have their gifts matched. Dailey uses software that generates e-mails reminding donors to have their donations matched by employers. Kenyon's December reminder resulted in a $5,000 matching gift.
Physics professor Paula Turner was quoted in the February 1 Columbus Dispatch in a story about the physics of football. In a preview of what viewers could see on the Sunday, February 6, broadcast of the Super Bowl, Dispatch science writer Mike Lafferty set up the possibility of a collision between New England linebacker Mike Vrabel and Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb. "If McNabb feels 2,000 pounds of force, so does Vrabel. And I bet any linebacker understands this. I hurt you, you hurt me back," Turner was quoted as saying about Newton's third law as it applies to a quarterback sack.
President S. Georgia Nugent was quoted in the January 27 Columbus Dispatch in a story about new legislation introduced in Ohio that seeks to limit what professors could say in the classroom. Marion Senator Larry A. Mumper's "academic bill of rights for higher education" would
prohibit instructors at public or private universities from "persistently" discussing controversial issues in class or from using their classes to advocate political, ideological, religious, or anti-religious views. The language of the bill comes from a 2003 booklet by conservative commentator David Horowitz. Nugent called Horowitz's thinking a "severe threat to academic freedom." The article quoted her as saying: "I see this so-called bill of rights, the platform that he has constructed, as one that would explicitly introduce into college and university appointments a kind of litmus test."
A January 27 Associated Press story mentioned Kenyon as one of many colleges and universities that are improving their food in dining halls and helping their local agricultural economies by going straight to the farm. The article noted that Kenyon's program,Food for Thought, supplies its two dining halls with apples, potatoes, squash, lettuce, berries, and other produce from small farmers in Ohio.
Kenyon was mentioned in the Thursday, January 6, Columbus Dispatch in a commentary by Bob Hunter about Andy Geiger's resignation as the athletic director at Ohio State University. Hunter wrote that Geiger has always been a man of contradictions, wanting to run a clean, respected program but finding himself plagued by off-the-field controversies that taint the university's reputation. "He steadfastly believes in the rah-rah of college athletics, yet he runs a program that probably has more in common with the New York Yankees than Kenyon College," wrote Hunter.
The Wednesday, December 15, issue of the Washington Post mentioned Kenyon twice in a story about electoral problems in Ohio that may have prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting. The Post noted that despite the surge in voter registrations, Knox County officials allocated two machines to the Gambier precinct, just as in past elections.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jennifer Britz was mentioned in the November 19 Chronicle of Higher Education in a story about Lloyd Thacker, a former high-school counselor who has set out to undo the commercialization of higher education. He commissioned, edited, and published College Unranked: Affirming Educational Values in College Admissions, a collection of essays by counselors, deans, and college presidents about what ails the admissions system. Thacker dazzled attendees at an admissions conference in 1998, including Britz. She sat across from him on the plane ride home and, according to the Chronicle, she said, "Thacker, you need to write a book." She then pulled out a legal pad and took notes as he spoke. Miles above the Western landscape, reported the Chronicle, his book was born.
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