VOL. 49 | NO. 1 | SPRING 2009 and off to BROADWAY ody Davis and Jamie Garrard are more than comfortable on the stages in Richardson Auditorium and Messenger Recital Hall. C The list of credits for these two South- western College upperclassmen is long: Peter Pan. Into the Woods. A Comedy of Errors. Eagerheart. If the play involved singing and acting during the past three years, both most likely were on the cast list. Over the Christmas break, though, they stepped out of their SC comfort zone and into a musical theatre actor’s dream. Both were cast in Out of Oz, an Off-Broadway play about Kansas that was presented in the Producers Club Theatre in January. Davis (a junior) and Garrard (a senior) were referred to producer Steve Rue by home state. Audiences were modest but re- Still, they’re delighted to have the SC faculty member Martin Rude. spectable during the evenings, and opening new line on their resumes. Because Off- “We auditioned for the play in Octo- night had a couple of almost-star sightings Broadway is a designation governed by ber and heard that night that we had made (“Anne Hathaway’s best friend was in the size of theatre, use of union members, etc., it, then we didn’t see the rest of the cast audience,” Cody says with a star-struck most newly-minted actors don’t have this again until after Christmas,” Cody explains. mug, “and I love Anne Hathaway!”). experience. Now they’ve seen how many Starting Dec. 29, hundreds of hours of But the group also saw a few of the hundreds of actors and actresses also are rehearsals were packed into two weeks. Then less glamorous realities of show biz – two looking for theatre work there, and know the show opened in Wichita, and the next matinees were cancelled because no one this gives them an edge. day the cast and crew flew to New York. showed up, and the reality that connections “It’s all about connections,” Cody Every day between Jan. 9 and 15 audi- are the backbone of success was evident to says. “It’s who you know that can make ences saw the eight-member cast sing and Cody and Jamie even as they dipped their or break you. But I loved it. I’ll be there dance its way through a tribute to their toes into the theatre life. eventually.” SC Spring Enrollment Largest Ever ACADEMIC SHORTS outhwestern College’s spring graduate learners in professional studies Southwestern College is one of the enrollment figures overturned (on-ground locations and online). top 20 institutions in the nation when it usual patterns and showed the most The boost includes major professional comes to providing educational services S to Air Force personnel, according to students ever enrolled at the college. studies increases in undergraduate figures released at the annual Council Traditionally, spring enrollment drops enrollments, demonstrating SC’s strength of College and Military Educators from the fall semester, as some students with military learners. The master of symposium in January. graduate at the end of that period. SC’s education program also made large gains. During fiscal year 2008, Professional enrollment trended upwards, though, and “This strength of enrollment is an Studies’ participation in the AU-ABC (Air official spring enrollment was 1,904. This important signal for the college, and for University – Associate to Baccalaureate was up from last fall’s 1,823. our constituents, that private education Cooperative) program prompted 967 Enrollment includes undergraduate remains strong and viable even in tough airmen to enroll in 3,956 courses. and graduate students on the main campus economic times,” said President Dick This is the first year SC has broken in Winfield, and undergraduate and Merriman. into the top 20 providers, jumping to 14th among all institutions. Top three were American Military University, University of Maryland University College, and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. New inductees in five Southwestern College halls of fame will be honored on Founders Day weekend, April 17-18. All events will take place in the Harold and Mary Ellen Deets The first International Summer Library on the Southwestern College main campus, except where otherwise noted. School for Belarusian Studies will be hosted by the Center for Belarusian Leaders in Service Hall of Fame for the Social Sciences Studies at Southwestern College. Set for April 17, 5:30 p.m. July 6 to Aug. 9, the program will be A.J. “Jack” Focht ’57 F. James “Jim” Robinson ’80 held in the town of Hajnowka in Poland’s Loy W. Henderson ’15 (deceased) Edward H. Salm (deceased) Podlasia region. Coursework will include Carl E. Martin ’60 David H. Swartz ’64 intensive Belarusian language instruction, M. Kim Moore ’71 lectures in English and Belarusian on Belarusian history, literature, Fine Arts Hall of Fame | April 18, 10:30 a.m. contemporary politics, and society in the Darbeth Fine Arts Center lobby Republic of Belarus, as well as regional studies. At the end of the program, from E. Marie Burdette ’29, ’32 (deceased) Lauren G. Kilmer (deceased) Aug. 9 to 19, student will have the option Earl W. Dungan ’40 (deceased) David C. McGuire ’47 of traveling to Belarus. Mildred (Demaree) Erhart ’41 Grace Sellers ’27 (deceased) For more information, contact Helen Graham (deceased) Ross O. Williams ’35 (deceased) program director Curt Woolhiser, [email protected]. Business Hall of Fame | April 18, 1:30 p.m. Sue (Lewis) Hale ’66 Business Builder Award recipient: Jimmy L. Kline ’67 Todd Gentry VOL. 49 | NO. 1 | SPRING 2009 Southwestern College President Educators Hall of Fame | April 18, 3:30 p.m. Dick Merriman The Southwesterner Sally (Mann) Cauble ’72 D. Jean (Jones) Wilson ’58 Sara Severance Weinert, editor; Susan Burdick, Gary L. Rhodes ’72 graphic designer; Susan Lowe ’95, director of alumni programs. Scholars Hall of Fame | April 18, 3:30 p.m. Published quarterly by Southwestern College, 100 College St., Winfield, KS 67156-2499. Virginia Blanton ’89 Michael C. Robinson ’65 (deceased) Periodicals postage paid at Winfield, KS, and Garry D. Hays ’57 additional mailing office. USPS #0612-560. For more information on any of these events, or to RSVP, please call (620) 229-6279. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Southwesterner, 100 College St., Winfield, KS 67156-2499 2 SPRING 2009 | Whoa, Beetle! Science Day Prompts Kids to Think Scientifically uppose a beetle is wrangled into a Ed Loeb, and Rick Cowlishaw. Karen dental floss harness and the floss Podschun was home-schooling contact for S is tied to a small plastic tray. If the the December event. beetle is fairly robust (say, an inch or so The beetle experiment uses elements long), it will drag that tray as if it were of physics and mathematics as well as weightless. biology, Cowlishaw points out, and But then suppose aluminum washers another of the activities that measured are stacked on the tray, one by one. At how quickly various clay shapes fall what point will the beetle have had through corn syrup was an introductory enough? glimpse of hydrodynamics. To the amazement of more than 20 “The whole purpose was to get them area home-schooled students at the third doing things and thinking about things annual Southwestern College Science using models,” Cowlishaw explains. Day, a single beetle can pull a tray stacked “We have a really strong group of with more than 50 washers. And this, they students, and it’s fun because they realize, extrapolated, would be the equivalent of ‘I can do this,’” he says. “Young kids are a human being pulling more than 3,000 primed for thinking scientifically –they’re pounds of weight. ready to be excited – and as we get older Prompting the youngsters to we lose that. “ N think this way, observing and drawing Among SC students who organized DIXO conclusions using scientific method, the event were the Delta chapter (Beta ANE Y DI was the goal of hosting Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta) officers Diane Dixon, Kelli B OTOS OTOS H members and faculty Michael Tessmer, Bryant, Ann Weese, and Anna Macy. P | SPRING 2009 3 ALUMNI NOTES 1940s from Cary, Ill. She is the longest-writing Lyle ’78 and Sara (Severance) Weinert Dorothy (Higginbottom) Flottman local columnist in the Northwest Group of were recipients of the Winfield CornerBank Community Cornerstone Award in ’46 wrote “Service Above Self: A History Pioneer Press. In her final column, Nancy November. The award recognizes the time of the Winfield Rotary Club,” which was mentioned Southwestern College as the and effort given by volunteers in Cowley presented at the ninth annual Celebrate place where she began as a reporter and County. In recognition of the Weinerts, Winfield History conference. feature writer, winning many awards for the best feature story in the paper, and also CornerBank contributed $100 to the Bill Medley ’49 is retiring from the receiving note as the “founding mother of Legacy Community Foundation to support Creative Community Living board of KSWC-FM,” the college radio station. additional community development projects. directors. Medley was one of the community LaMar Burks ’79, a 2002 National members who helped to organize CCL Joe Coles ’72, student services coordinator for Southwest Plains Regional Service Assistant Coach selection, recently coached in 1996 when the Winfield State Hospital the Hamilton Middle School eighth grade Center in Sublette, received an Outstanding and Training Center was closed. CCL Falcons to the 2008 Tulsa city basketball Service Award from the Kansas Association provides support for men and women with championship. This was the Lady Falcons’ of Elementary School Principals at their developmental disabilities.