Lake Forest College > Alumni > Spectrum > Winter 06

SHERIDAN ROAD | What's New at Lake Forest College

Test-Optional Admissions Policy Adopted

In November, Lake Forest College announced the adoption of a test-optional admission policy. Under this policy, students, including those applying for fall 2007, may choose whether or not to have their standardized test scores considered for admission.

The decision follows a national trend toward test-optional admissions. More than 700 colleges and universities have recently adopted this kind of policy. These institutions include many of the top 110 national liberal arts colleges ranked by U.S. News & World Report, including Bard, Bates, Bowdoin, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton, Hobart & William Smith, Knox, Lawrence, Middlebury, Mt. Holyoke, St. Lawrence, Sarah Lawrence, and Union.

Director of Admissions William Motzer says the new policy places the emphasis where it should be — on the applicant’s high school record. “This decision emphasizes the importance of strong academic achievement through high school as what’s most important to success in college,” he says. “There’s clearly not a significant correlation between test scores and achievement in college, but there is a strong correlation with high school performance.”

In a recent memo to faculty, President Stephen D. Schutt listed several factors in the College’s decision:

• The SAT recently began to require an extemporaneous essay, which extends the time to complete the test to nearly four hours. Many argue this is too long for optimal performance by 17-year-olds.

• Various studies have suggested that the SAT and ACT may be biased against underserved groups on cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and class grounds.

• The College’s own research demonstrates that Lake Forest students’ academic performance is much more reliably correlated with high school grade point averages than with standardized test scores.

Lake Forest will still require international students and students applying for a Presidential, Prairie State, or Trustee academic scholarship to submit their ACT, SAT, or TOEFL score. The Office of Admissions will continue to review candidates according to several factors, including a rigorous high school curriculum, personal interview, recommendations, academic writing, community engagement, and the potential to benefit and contribute to the College community. “We admit great students, not just great test takers,” President Schutt says.

The model in test-optional admissions is Bates College, which adopted the practice in 1984. A 20-year study at Bates found no difference in academic performance or graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters, and approximately 75 percent of applicants to Bates still submit test scores.

MyForester Launched

In August, Lake Forest College launched MyForester, a new online communication portal for students, faculty, and staff. MyForester houses much of the internal information that has occupied space up until now on the external Web site. The new portal, which took the place of Pipeline, has a variety of features:

• targeted announcements for specific groups of users, such as faculty or students
• a daily listing of events
on campus
• a special box with details about goings-on in Chicago
• useful information about various campus offices
and services
• access to most administrative forms
• college committee information and meeting minutes
• links to e-mail, Moodle (the online course management system), and the inter-library loan system

Savanna Improvements

The Shooting Star Savanna has more than 50 species of native wildflowers and grasses growing around narrow foot trails that wind from the parking lot behind Johnson Science Center to a ravine that borders Lake Forest College. Thanks to a gift made in honor of Dorothy and Bennie Zlateff ’40 by Carol and Ben Zlateff, the serene spot now has seven new interpretive signs, two benches, footpath improvements, and additional shrubbery.

The most recent improvements come more than a decade after restoration of the savanna first began in 1992. A group of professors spent two years cutting buckthorn and removing garbage — including a 1950s-era Pepsi machine from the ravine behind the savanna — and partnered with local landscapers and community members to develop the natural area. The College also stopped mowing the lawn and allowed controlled burns in the area so the group of volunteers could continue to enhance the natural environment.

Their efforts paid off. These days it isn’t unusual to see biology, psychology, and English classes hold a lesson in the savanna, where blazing stars, goldenrods, and asters bloom, and others find a quiet place to study or contemplate nature.

New Signage

Visitors to Lake Forest College often wondered where the main entrance to the school was, but the recent installation of over 300 new signs has made it easier for new students and parents to locate campus entrances and find buildings, says David Siebert, director of Facilities Management.

The $160,000 project was identified as a campus priority in the College’s 2003 Master Plan. Installation, which began in late spring and continued through the summer, is nearly complete. The extensive project includes College logo signs at every entrance, directional signs, individual building signs, regulatory signs for parking, campus maps, and temporary signs for special events.

Un Chile sin Semillas

Kim Iorio ’06 was making chiles stuffed with cheese in a Spanish class called Cocina y Cultura (Food and Culture) when her instructor remarked that removing the seeds was taking out the best part. The comment struck Iorio, who needed an idea for her final project in the language immersion class that looks at the relationship between food and culture.

She wrote the poem “Un Chile sin Semillas” (“A Chile without Seeds”) for the class and published it in the 2006 issue of Collage, Lake Forest’s foreign language literary journal. “The poem is a commentary on immigrants that come to the United States and lose their roots,” says Iorio, who graduated with a Spanish and history major and an Asian studies minor. “What identity is and where it comes from was an issue central to many of the classes I took.”

Her poem landed at the Meh-Tropolis Dance Theatre Company of Loyola Marymount University, which will debut a performance in June based on Iorio’s work. The piece is called “Nepantla,” and it explores what it means to be caught between the culture of familial roots and the culture of American society.

Un Chile sin Semillas
(la vida en los Estados Unidos)

Llegué aquí jueves.
Por viernes ellos habían tomado mis semillas
“Demasiado picante” los
dijeron
Mientras robaban mi sabor
“Es imposible vender un chile con semillas,
nadie lo quiere.”
¿Nadie quiere sabor?
¿El gusto de la tierra en la boca,
El sentimiento de vida,
Las generaciones del pasado y futuro,
Todo depende de las semillas?
“No importa,” ellos dijeron
Como colocaba las semillas en la basura
Vine a los Estados Unidos
con espera
Con sueños y deseos
Nada queda
Soy parte de los Estados Unidos como nunca antes
Soy como cada persona
Soy un chile sin semillas

A Chile without Seeds
(Life in the United States)

I arrived here Thursday.
By Friday they had taken
my seeds
“Too spicy” they said
While they robbed my flavor
“It is impossible to sell a chile with seeds,
no one wants it.”
No one wants flavor?
The taste of the earth in their mouth,
The feeling of life,
The generations of the past
and future,
All depending on the seeds?
“It doesn’t matter” they said
As they threw the seeds in the garbage
I came to the United States
with hope
With dreams and desires
Nothing remains
I’m part of the United States like nothing before
I am like every person
I’m a chile without seeds

Class of 2010

Selected from a pool of 2,198 applicants these 385 students represent the second largest class in the College’s history. They represent 38 states and 27 foreign countries, with an average GPA of 3.5. Of the 160 males and 225 females, 22 percent are either international or students of color. They are part of 1,413 total undergraduates at the College from 47 states and 56 countries. Below are some interesting experiences and anecdotes about a few members of the Class of 2010:

• Participated in the Collegiate World Series through the National Hispanic Institute

• Held an internship in Washington, D.C., with the Chief Economist at the Department of Labor

• Started an organic dog biscuit business

• Had a poem included in Best Illinois Poetry and Prose

• Afghan refugee who has learned English in the last three years

• Second place in the Illinois State Curling Competition

• Subdeacon of his Armenian Church

• Studied abroad in Brazil for entire senior year chronicling the adventure with letters to her local hometown newspaper

• Competed in the 2003 World Handball Championship in Ireland

• Has traveled to 11 foreign countries and visited 37 of the 50 United States

Global Fest

The United Black Association performed a step routine. The Asian Interest Group wrote students’ names in Japanese. The multicultural band Funkadesi played its East Indian, Afro-Caribbean music in the Mohr Student Center. The Athletic Department ran games of soccer and bocce ball. The cafeteria served international cuisine.

All of these activities were part of Global Fest, a weekend-long forum designed to showcase the College’s diversity and enable students to learn from each other. “I wanted students to see the varied, interesting, worldly, and unique aspects of their community all at once,” says General Assembly President Alexandra Hales ’07, who planned the day with the Student Government Executive Board.

Over 400 students and 30 student organizations participated in the first annual event held in the Stuart Commons Quad and Mohr Student Center on October 7-8.

Hales hopes that Global Fest will become an annual event at the College and plans to work with the GA to start planning for next year in the spring. “It is my hope that Global Fest and events like it enhance the quality of student life on our campus and tap into the human element in all of us, inspiring each of us to be more tolerant and open to new experiences,” she says.

Ally Program Revived

Hearing homophobic comments around campus prompted PRIDE President Chris Shirley ’07 to become involved with a new program that provides diversity training. “I don’t think I’ve gone more than a day here without hearing someone use the word ‘gay’ as an insult,” Shirley says. “As far as I can tell, people who use that word in that way don’t really understand how doing so affects GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people, how it can make us feel marginalized and debased.”

He is one of 19 students, faculty, and staff who underwent training to become an Ally — a resource and supporter for anyone at the College who experiences prejudice or marginalization based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability status. Allies display a symbol in their dorm room or office that signifies a safe place for anyone who feels harassed. The sign makes visible those who support an accepting or open environment but may not be a member of a minority group, says Office of Intercultural Relations Director Rob Flot.

Ally Programs exist on dozens of campuses for GLBTQ students, but Lake Forest College’s program is different because Allies here are trained to support anyone, Flot says. The program originated at Ball State University in 1992 as Safe on Campus, and has been called Safe Zone, Safe Space, and Safe Harbor on various campuses.

The College started an Ally Program in the late 1990s but it disbanded as priorities shifted, Flot says. He reintroduced the program in 2005 and convened a planning committee to develop training guidelines, which include mandatory attendance at sessions throughout the year. Last spring, with committee work well underway, two reported incidents of sexual discrimination and racism touched off a schoolwide conversation on issues of tolerance at the College.

Shirley says these incidents reinforce why the Ally Program is so important. “I believe that the services that Allies will provide can counteract those feelings and thereby help minorities value and express their own identities when they may feel that doing so is risky,” he says.

Flot sees the program as a positive way to highlight campus advocates rather than a reaction to problems. “It’s a celebration of the fact that a lot of people want an environment that is equal and just,” he says.

Commemorating September 11

It was raining and gray on September 11, 2006 — a sharp contrast to the clear blue sky five years ago when four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. At Lake Forest College on the fifth anniversary, bells tolled at noon to call faculty, staff, and students to the flagpole on Middle Campus. With umbrellas in hand, about 25 students, faculty, and staff gathered around to observe five minutes of silence.

Later in the day, the Red & Black Society held a moderated discussion in which students shared their feelings about the event. “It’s so easy to forget,” said one student. “There was so much patriotism right after and now no one remembers,” said another.

Speakers Sound Off

As part of the Silk Road Chicago Project, the India-based SPANDA DANCE COMPANY held a workshop and performance introducing the classical dance Bharata Natyam on September 12. Pipa player YANG WEI and double bassist DAXUN ZHANG performed on October 5.

The fall 2006 Current Advances in Psychology Colloquia Series brought several speakers to campus, including ROBERT HESSLING, who spoke on health psychology on September 25, ASTRIDA KAUGARS, who talked about emotional development for at-risk children on October 11, and DENNIS MOLFESE, who delivered a lecture on dyslexia and the brain on November 6.

RICHARD MORIMOTO, an authority on how the stress of misfolded proteins leads to neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, lectured on stress and aging in neurodegenerative diseases on September 27.

The English department’s On the Run Lecture Series featured writers JOHN KINSELLA and TOD THILLEMAN on October 4 and WILL ALEXANDER and CHRIS GLOMSKI on October 5.

California State University Art History Professor KENDALL BROWN delivered a slide lecture called “Madame Butterfly’s Wings: American Women and Japanese Gardens” on October 11.

Illinois Attorney General LISA MADIGAN, State Senator SUSAN GARRETT ’93, D-Lake Forest, and Arlington Heights Mayor ARLENE MULDER spoke about women in government, highlighting opportunities for women to become engaged in their communities on October 18.

MARK HERTZBERG ’72 delivered an illustrated lecture about Frank Lloyd Wright, the subject of his two recent books, on October 31.

SUSAN GOLDIN-MEADOW, an expert of language creation and gesture’s role in communication, presented on the topic on November 8 as the keynote speaker of 2006 Brain Awareness Week.

A November 2 panel discussion on Educational Reform in Illinois included State Senator Susan Garrett ’93, D-Lake Forest, RALPH MATIRE of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, and BINDU BATCHU of A+ Illinois.

Students Participate in Air Pollution Study

Sharada Bean ’07 and Frank Pierri ’07 joined Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lori Del Negro in Houston, Texas, September 7-10 to participate in a six-week climate and air quality study run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study is looking at how the atmosphere is changing in Texas and the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

The trip gave Bean — pictured in an airplane next to equipment used to gather data on wind, temperature, and light — an opportunity to learn techniques to study atmospheric chemistry, to meet other graduates and post-doctoral students, and to see what field research was all about. She was able to examine equipment like mass spectrometry that she learned how to use at the College and liked seeing how the study team worked together to get the flights in the air. “I liked seeing chemistry in real life, not just on campus,” says Bean, who also documented the trip in pictures for her photography class.

By the Numbers

134 Internships held by students during the 2005-06 academic year

75 Films shown at the student-organized Lake Forest Film Festival

29 Concerts in Mohr Student Center since opening in April

10 Student presenters at the 2006 Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics

8 Student Performances of the Rocky Horror Show

7 New First-Year-Studies-Chicago courses

In the News

Lecturer in Music MITCH PALIGA spoke on John Coltrane’s music and its lasting influence on the September 4 WBEZ radio special “Speaking of ‘Trane.”

WILLIAM MOTZER, director of admissions, discussed changing college admissions standards on WTTW-TV’s public affairs show Chicago Tonight on Sept. 14.

Associate Professor of Economics and Business JEFFREY SUNDBERG was profiled in the October 2006 Land Lines, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s newsletter, about his research on economic incentives of easements.

DAN KOLEN ’07, Stentor editor-in-chief, writes a weekly column for the Lake Forester about his college experiences.

Professor of Economics ROBERT BAADE was quoted in the October 9 Crain’s Chicago Business on the economic impact of the 2016 Olympics in Chicago and in the August 27 New Orleans Times-Picayune on Hurricane Katrina’s effect on the city’s pro football and basketball teams.

Ernest A. Johnson Professor of Economics RICHARD DYE was quoted in the October 24 Daily Herald about a proposal to extend the Cook County property tax cap.

Director of Financial Aid GERARD CEBRZYNSKI commented on the prevalence of private loans in the October 25 USA Today.

An October 31 article in the Chicago Sun-Times featured the Center for Chicago Programs and highlighted the College’s ties with Chicago.

Q&A with Michael Ebner

Lake Forest College’s sesquicentennial celebration will begin in January 2007 with a year of events, speakers, and other activities designed to commemorate 150 years of the College. Spectrum asked James D. Vail III Professor of History Michael H. Ebner, sesquicentennial committee chair, to reflect on the College’s storied history and share his thoughts on the upcoming anniversary.

What do you think this celebration will mean to the school?
Commemorating major anniversaries, be they personal or institutional, is an essential dimension in the life cycle. In this instance the 150th anniversary of Lake Forest College provides a unique opportunity to reflect upon its past, contemplate its present, and imagine, as well as define, its future.

The very design of the sesquicentennial encompasses all aspects of our campus community: students, alumni, staff, faculty, administrators, and trustees. Our sesquicentennial will be celebrated in multiple locations: on campus, in our community, in Chicago, and in every location — in this country and internationally — where alumni and friends assemble.

Looking back at the College’s history, are you surprised that it reached 150 years?
I am struck by the transformation of Lake Forest College since the close of World War II.

Lake Forest College has appointed superbly educated professors to advance the traditions and possibilities associated with liberal learning. This unending dynamic dimension of institutional renewal is key to our future.

Secondly, the College — with generous support from alumni and friends — has enhanced key academic buildings: Durand Art Institute, Young Hall, Dixon Science Research Center, Hotchkiss Hall, the soon to be opened Gates Center, and most of all our magnificent Donnelley and Lee Library. Every time that I walk across our beautiful campus I take immense pride in our academic facilities. At the same time I try to envision future capital projects — most importantly a fine arts center — that will again augment the possibilities for learning and achievement at Lake Forest College.

As a history professor, what do you think is the most momentous event that happened in the College’s 150 years?
I would cite a strategic decision made by President Eugene Hotchkiss in the 1980s for the College to internationalize its student body. He charged Associate Dean of the Faculty George Speros with responsibility for implementing this and he succeeded admirably.

Presidents Spadafora and Schutt each took steps of their own to advance this. Today our student body, as well as our staff and faculty, reflects the globalization of culture. Our student body is drawn from almost 50 foreign nations, affirming the pluralistic sensibilities long associated with Lake Forest College.

We also have added majors in Asian studies and Latin American studies as well as language instruction in Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. In ways that could not be predicted some 30 years ago, this has enhanced the tradition of liberal learning at Lake Forest College. Both our campus and our neighboring communities are enriched.

What do you hope will come out of the yearlong celebration?
Twelve months from now, as the sesquicentennial year reaches its conclusion, I am confident that all who cherish Lake Forest College will find themselves furnished with a renewed sense of its history as well as a well-defined appreciation of its high aspirations to advance the tradition of liberal learning in the 21st century.