November 19, 2004
Willamette Week (Portland, Ore.): Alumna Emily Root '98 Receives Skidmore Prize for Community Service
Emily Root, a 1998 Human Development & Social Relations graduate of Earlham, is the recipient of the 2004 Skidmore Prize for community service in Portland, Oregon. She is among four individuals identified by “some of Portland’s savviest activists, public officials and do-gooders” for recognition of their work supporting non-profit groups like Parents Anonymous — Root is the national organization’s local program coordinator — as well as the arts, the environment, and young people in the Portland area. Named for Portland’s famous Skidmore Fountain, which carries the inscription “Good citizens are the riches of the city,” the prizes carry some modest riches of their own: a $3,000 cash award for each honoree.
November 18, 2004
Adding Arabic to Foreign Language List
Despite strong indications that American college students increasingly are interested in Arabic language courses — a more than 90 percent jump in enrollment in availble classes since 1998 — still only a comparative handful of U.S. colleges and universities offer such opportunities. With the arrival this academic year of visiting instructor Khulood Kittaneh from Jordan, Earlham joins the select number that do.
November 15, 2004
American School & University: Landrum Bolling Center Cited for Outstanding Design
In its annual architectural portfolio issue, American School & University (AS&U) magazine includes Earlham’s Landrum R. Bolling Center as an example of an “exceptional learning environment” at the post-secondary level. Each year AS&U gathers some of the country’s most respected education facility administrators and architects to serve as jurors for its annual architectural portfolio competition. In 2004, more than 250 projects were judged in terms of five criteria: innovation, program/building organization, meaningfulness, representation, and design continuity and balance. Designed by the architectural firm of Odle McGuire & Shook and built at a total cost of $8.5 million, the Bolling Center — named in honor of Earlham’s president from 1958 to 1973 — opened to students and faculty in the Fall of 2002. In its description of the 56,000-square-foot office and classroom building, the AS&U jurors noted, in particular, that it is situated close to the main entry to the campus “and will be a central point for extending the relationships between the College and Richmond community.”
The Christian Science Monitor: Bolling on Arafat
Earlham President Emeritus Landrum R. Bolling, former U.S. emissary to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the administrations of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, is interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor about his personal history with the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Palladium-Item: Earlham, Richmond Ties to Ramallah Bring Mideast Conflict Home
The death of former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat recently focused the world’s attention on the tiny West Bank town of Ramallah, the site of Arafat’s headquarters during the last years of his life and now the location of his tomb. Although much of the rest of the world may only be familiar with Ramallah because of Arafat and the PLO, the Earlham College and Richmond, Indiana, communities trace their association with the Middle East town back more than 100 years, to the founding of the Ramallah Friends School — which to this day remains under the direction of Friends United Meeting, based in Richmond. Through the decades, many Earlham faculty and alumni also have been involved in the region, as Richmond Palladium-Item reporter Bill Engle documents in his article, A Partnership for Peace
November 10, 2004
Bucking The Trend, Earlham Sees International Enrollment Soar
For the first time since 1971-72, according to just released figures from the Institute of International Education (IIE), the number of foreign students attending American colleges and universities fell during 2003-04. In its annual “Open Doors” report addressing international enrollment on U.S. campuses, the IIE documents a 2.4 percent drop in the number of foreign students attending college in the United States as compared to the previous academic year. Although much tougher immigration rules and security laws are making it harder to recruit internationally, Earlham is bucking the downward trend in a big way, in the fall of 2004 enrolling its largest international class ever.
November 08, 2004
The NCAA News: "Earlham President Links With Students By Making The Call"
Acting Earlham President Nelson Bingham is profiled in the November 8 edition of the The NCAA News (online version), the result of his continuing to honor a commitment to the College’s athletics program despite recently taking on the additional demands of being Earlham’s top administrator. (See also “Dean of the Press Box” in the Athletics section below.)
November 03, 2004
The New York Times: "Classes in Judaic Studies, Drawing a Non-Jewish Class"
Writing in the November 3 editions of The New York Times, reporter Samuel G. Freedman cites “Quaker-based Earlham College in Indiana” as an example of a “striking trend” in evidence at approximately 100 of the nation’s colleges and universities, where programs in Jewish Studies are proving immensely popular among the various institutions’ predominantly non-Jewish student bodies. Although the trend may be new, the interdisciplinary Jewish Studies minor has long been popular with a diversity of students at Earlham, where the program is recognized as “a particularly appropriate area of study within a liberal arts education.”
November 02, 2004
Associated Press: Demonstrated Interest Gaining Importance in Admissions
In a recent article, “Enthusiasm Trend Up in College Admissions,” Associated Press national higher education reporter Justin Pope includes Earlham as an example of some of the nation’s colleges — “especially private, selective ones” — where a student’s enthusiasm for enrolling, clearly expressed, can and increasingly does influence the admissions process. Specifically, Earlham was cited as a school where “demonstrated interest affects which students are admitted off the wait list.” The Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer, Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal and Nashua (NH) Telegraph were among the publications choosing to use the story.
November 01, 2004
Picture This: New Photography Instructor Was Successful Attorney
How does a highly successful invesment banking and corporate finance lawyer from Texas become the new adjunct assistant professor of photography and art at Earlham College? After many years of thought and the eventual realization that, despite the professional and financial rewards, “for a lot of reasons I wasn’t happy,” answers Walter Bistline
Indiana Business magazine: Why Indiana is a top choice for college kids from elsewhere
An article in the November 2004 issue of Indiana Business magazine quotes extensively responses by Earlham’s Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jeff Rickey to questions about why Indiana colleges are so attractive to students from other states. According to writer Bob Kronemyer, during the 2002-03 academic year (the last for which complete figures are available) there were 13,217 students from “outside” attending Hoosier colleges, while at the same time only 6.053 Indiana students had ventured out of state for college. “We find that many students desire a totally different experience than they had in high school,” Rickey is quoted as explaining to Kronemyer. “Students are looking for a diverse experience, whereby they can study with people different from themselves. Hoosier attitudes tend to be different [and] this results in a more balanced perspective.” Elsewhere in the article, Kronemyer reports that of the 1,189 undergraduates attending Earlham in 2004-05, approximately 77 percent are from out of state (a figure that has been as high as 87 percent). “Here at Earlham… we are well respected nationally by people in higher education,” quotes Kronemyer of Rickey, who further described the College’s blending of traditional liberal arts programs and innovative interdisciplinary majors as being “very appealing” to many prospective students.