Kenyon in the News
The Kenyon Athletic Center was featured on the cover of the campus architecture edition of the February 23 Chronicle of Higher Education. While the accompanying story said the building "looks like it landed from outer space," it went on to tell how the facility, a "wonder of modern design," had won over critics and become a draw for students. The Chronicle pointed out that the building's location at the bottom of the Hill means it doesn't look out of place on a campus whose historic area features the Collegiate Gothic style. Moreover, it noted that the building serves the entire student body, not just athletes.
David Long '08 was mentioned in the February 15 edition of USA Today. He received honorable mention in the USA Today 2007 All-USA College Academic Team. Nearly six hundred students were nominated for the seventy-four positions. A key element of judging was a student's original academic endeavors. Long, a chemistry and mathematics major, conducts research on carbohydrate catalysis.
Research by economics professor David Harrington was featured in the February 5 edition of Business Week. Harrington and Edward Sayre, an economist at Agnes Scott College, have proposed a theory to explain why there is a shortage of donor organs. Business Week explained that current laws create a financial incentive for families to donate a whole body rather than individual organs: medical schools cover the cost of cremation after a cadaver has served its purpose, resulting in a benefit of roughly $1,000 for the donor's survivors. And the schools won't take cadavers if organs already have been removed from them.
The February/March issue of National Wildlife magazine featured research by Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Mark Haussmann. Haussmann's work on Leach's storm petrel, a seabird, was discussed in an article about wildlife studies that may help humans stave off some of aging's most devastating effects. Haussmann and his student assistants, working on Kent Island in New Brunswick, Canada, extract DNA from the petrels and eventually isolate telomeres, sheaths at the ends of chromosomes that protect genetic information from damage. Some scientists have speculated that telomerase, a protein which elongates telomeres, could yield therapies that lengthen the human life span.
Kenyon was mentioned in the January 24 Chronicle of Higher Education in a story about a 2005 survey of junior professors. Administered by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, the survey found that junior faculty members are generally "a satisfied lot," according to the article. "But those at Brown University, Davidson College, Kenyon College, Stanford University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Virginia seem downright ecstatic about their jobs."
Kathryn VanArendonk '07 was quoted in the December 17 edition of Variety, in an article about how Nielsen Media Research was preparing to measure college television audiences starting in February. The story pointed out, however, that the company wouldn't be taking into account TV sets in common areas--where dozens of Kenyon students, for example, often gather to watch shows like Grey's Anatomy. "That's a problem, because it isn't representative of who is watching the show and how freakishly devoted their fan base is," VanArendonk was quoted as saying.
Biology professor Joan Slonczewski was quoted in the December 12 edition of the Lakeland, Florida, Ledger in a story about people who have excessive cleanliness habits. Slonczewski cautioned that too much handwashing can be counterproductive. "Handwashing is fine--in moderation," she was quoted as saying. "There are some very general studies suggesting people who have been raised in overly clean environments are more likely to have asthma or multiple sclerosis. I think the correlations are mainly statistical, but there is some suggestion that too little exposure to germs, to potential pathogens, leads to failure to develop a strong immune system."
The December issue ofO: The Oprah Magazine ran an excerpt from the 2005 Commencement address given at Kenyon by writer David Foster Wallace and mentioned the College in the introduction. Oprah said the 2005 address, titled "The Capital T Truth," suggests the choice of a lifetime is one we get to make over and over--deciding what has meaning, who we are to each other, and who's really in our way.
The Sunday, November 6, Education Life supplement of theNew York Times included a feature called "Trendspotting," which highlighted the popularity of "slacklining" and mentioned Kenyon. Slacklining practitioner Ryan Volsen '09 was shown, in a photo taken by Emily Zeller '08. Slacklining involves "teetering a few feet above the ground on inch-wide lines strung loosely between trees," explained the Times. "Just standing is the first trick, then anything goes."
Do you have feedback on this page?