Fall Enrollment. The number of new students is expected to increase slightly this fall, according to Fred Schmidt, director of admissions.
“We're projecting 115 first-time freshmen, compared to 95-96 last year," Schmidt said. That translates to an increase in new students of six to eight percent.
In addition, Schmidt expects 25-30 transfers and a boost in overall enrollment figures.
New Choral Director. Dr. Alan Gumm will join the faculty this fall as assistant professor of music.
A 1983 graduate of McPherson College, Gumm is excited to be back and hopes to see tremendous growth in the college choir. He said he also wants to “involve the whole campus" in the musi-cal experience.
Gumm has a master's in music from Fort Hays State and a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Utah. He has taught vocal music for 11 years, six of those at the college level.
Gumm and his wife, Gayle, and two young sons, Jordan and Brandon, moved to McPherson this summer from Trumansburg, New York.
College Hosts Brethren Youth. McPherson College invited and hosted about 300 Brethren youth this summer as part of scheduled activities for the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Wichita, June 28-July 3.
About 160 junior high students had a cook-out and special “treasure” hunt with an emphasis on the communion experience, Schmidt said.
Some 120 senior high students held a talent show before an overnight lock-in at the Sport Center on July 1. Fifteen youth participated in the Trees for Life/Out-door Ministry Association Walk-a-Thon in McPherson.
Church of the Brethren youth groups from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia enroute to and from National Youth Conference in Greeley, Colo., July 26-31, also used the college as an overnight facility. Over 400 youth and sponsors slept on mattresses provided in the Sport Center.
Enlarged weight room part of campus improvements, too
By Amy Call and Marylyn Matthaei
Summer Staff Writers
A new 25-computer writing lab opens this fall in the lower level of Miller Library and the 15-computer lab in Mohler Hall will feature new, up-to-date hardware.
The writing lab will be accessible during library hours and will provide a place for students to word process a paper or to get help with their writing skills. Some courses, such as Communications Studies, will meet classes there on a regular basis. Members of the English faculty will be available several hours each week, but student tutors will be the main staff for the lab.
Bruce Clary, assistant professor of English, taught Expository Writing as a pilot course in the lab this summer. Clary was pleased with the results, saying, “The class exceeded my expectations.”
The lab’s computers are networked so Clary’s students received assignments and turned in work electronically, making the class nearly “paperless.”
The network also permits teachers to assign students to groups or to work together as a class to read and comment on each other’s assignments electronically, even anonymously. Clary found this classroom method to be “a far more effective way of teaching students to be
critical readers of writings in progress.”
The writing lab is using the 15 old computers from the Mohler lab, supplementing them with ten new computers. Norton Textra Connect provides the writing environment for the lab-based writing classes.
Mohler Hall's 15 old XT computers-the first generation of personal computer technology-have been replaced with 486 DX/33 machines with 345 megabyte hard drives.
“It brings us into the ’90s, and we needed it,” said Dr. Bob Neufeld, associate professor of computer science.
“Plans are for the Mohler computer lab to be linked on the campus network with the Miller writing lab by the middle of the fall semester,” said Brad Stucky, director of maintenance systems. The college hopes to have the Kansas Research and Education Network on-line by spring, which will allow access to Internet. “This will be an incredibly deep and rich resource,” Dr. Neufeld said.
Stucky also said a new computer with 500/ MB hard-drive and CD-ROM will be in place for the drafting department in technology, with a plotter for architectural drawings.
In addition to the new computer facilities, other campus improvements include expansion of the Sport Center weight room.
The campus weight room will expand from the current 27 x 20 feet to a much larger 67 x 20 feet and should be ready by the first day of school.
“We have all brand new weight equipment,” said Bruce Grose, head football coach.
Photo courtesy of College Communications
Computer science majors Thomas Suiter, sr., Izumi Fukuoka ’94 and Eric Dodson, sr., check out the processor speed of the new 486 DX/33s in the Mohler computer lab.
Features include a four-foot strip of mirrors around the weight room, record boards, rubberized mats on the floor, both barbells and dumbbells, four squat racks and a seated leg curl machine.
Class of ’98 to break in new general ed requirements
By Marylyn Matthaei_
Summer Staff Writer
New and returning students will initiate the new curriculum and general education requirements this fall.
Major differences in requirements include the Communications Studies class for first-time freshmen, which replaces College Life, Oral Communications, and Written Communications.
Although a number of courses retain the names they have always had, all courses have been reworked to meet specific criteria.
“Rigorous review of the general education courses has taken place through the Educational Policies Committee and the General Education Review Committee,” explained Dr. Steve Gustafson, vice president for academic services.
The old curriculum, implemented in 1970, was content-based, while the new curriculum emphasizes process, Gustafson said.
“Any number of courses can be
“The new competencies and perspectives were built on the characteristics we’d like to see in a McPherson College graduate.”
Dr. Steve Gustafson Academic Vice President
used to meet the general education requirement for the desired perspectives.”
Dr. Gustafson said the old curriculum was very “territorially based,” designating 12 hours in the humanities, 12 in social sciences, eight in natural sciences, and 12 hours in applied arts.
“The new competencies and perspectives were built on the characteristics we'd like to see in a McPherson College graduate,” Gustafson said, and were formulated by faculty who developed a list of 15 specific desired outcomes.
What makes our curriculum unique? Dr. Gustafson outlined several emphases:
■ Global awareness and cross-cultural experiences are encouraged in the new curriculum through a cultural immersion experience, two semesters of a foreign language, or 12 hours of other intercultural component courses.
■ Integrative seminars at the junior-senior level consist of two 2-hour seminars, synthesizing experiences taught by two faculty from different disciplines.
■ Service, an integral part of the Brethren tradition, is reflected in the mission and activities at McPherson. Faculty agreed that service is a worthy ingredient in the new curriculum for all students but are unsure how that will be realized.
Other new features include five competency requirements: written communications, oral communications, mathematics, computer competency and information literacy.
General Education Requirements
Competencies
Written Communications Oral Communications Mathematics Computer Competency Information Literacy
Perspectives
Aesthetics (6 hrs.)
History (6 hrs.)
Society (6 hrs.)
Natural Sciences (8 hrs.) Technology & Culture (3 hrs.) Wholeness/Health/Fitness (4 hrs.)
Religion/Beliefs/Values (4 hrs.)
Integrative Seminars (4 hrs.) Global/lntercultural Experience (5-15 hrs.)
Service Experience
