Making memories

It’s amazing what fun things are planned by the student life crowd. Makes me almost wish I could go back and relive my college years.

A duo from Columbus, Ellery, performed in Bob’s Place last week. Bob’s was transformed into a coffeehouse, complete with lighting and rearranging the soft coffeehouse-style couches for ambiance. From the photos it looks like it was an amazing crowd – on a Thursday night to boot! photos…

President Harder and others from the President’s Cabinet still carve turkey and roast beef for the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. But a new tradition, the Midnight Finals Breakfast served by faculty and staff, provides sustenance and a study-break to those pulling all-nighters. It’s not often that you are serenaded by professors wearing Santa hats! photos from last year...

Some things are staples in the student life repertoire. They still play Bingo with college-student needs such as detergent, snacks, writing utensils, etc., given as prizes. But they also go big with Giant Monopoly and Giant Dutch Blitz. photos from Oct. 09... That looks like it could be fun.

Just like 20+ years ago, a walk through the residence halls will show students making their own entertainment. Euchre and Spades were the games of choice then. Now it is mostly video games. It’s all a chance for friends to gather, to laugh, to have fun. Oh, the stories that could be told…

Your turn! What were some of the events/activities which made great memories from your college years?

Once upon a time

Think of your favorite story – whether it is fiction or non-fiction; mystery, biographical, science fiction or romance – we all love a good story. Stories tell us where we’ve come from or help us envision what could be.

It’s no surprise that alumni tell us over and over that the first things they read when the Bluffton magazine arrives are alumnotes and the alumni feature stories. Even if we don’t personally know the people profiled, there is something really cool about reading what others are doing with what they learned at our shared alma mater.

We’re also told that stories are important to prospective students and their parents. It gives them a sense of what they could expect to gain from a Bluffton education. “I/my child could go to Bluffton and become an orthopedic surgeon/ FAA operations analysist/ or recipient of Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. These stories are so important that we’re starting to highlight them on the individual academic department Web pages.

Where do these stories come from? The best story ideas come from you!

Sometimes an interesting alumnote will be expanded into a feature, or sometimes a professor/former classmate will tell us what someone else is doing. Oftentimes we try to align the alumni features with the topic of the magazine – other times they are completely random.

We maintain a list of possible alumni feature stories to choose from, but we can always use more ideas. Tell us what you are doing, or narc on your friends and family. We cannot promise that every idea will become a feature story – but if we don’t know about it, we can’t write about it. Contact us at mailto:news@bluffton.edu or online. Be sure to include your contact information.

Help us tell your story and weave your experience into the fabric of Bluffton University for the benefit of alumni and future students.

Having fun along the way

What an amazing ride for the Bluffton women’s volleyball team!

When Coach Steve Yarnell took over the reins of the Bluffton program in 2004, his goal was to contend for the HCAC championship in five years. Last year, one year ahead of schedule, his team went to the HCAC tourney where they lost to Mount St. Joseph 3-0 in the semi-finals.

Then came 2009. A perfect 8-0 conference regular season record. Hosting the HCAC post-season NCAA qualifier tournament over the weekend. Let me just say - Founders was rocking! Once again the Beavers met MSJ in the post-season tournament, this time in the finals.

The ladies looked and played NERVOUS. Could it be that a pre-game pep-talk from Coach Clarence Vaughn and his two Super Bowl rings added to their anxiety? Or did they start thinking about actually playing perennial HCAC volleyball powerhouse Mount in the finals?

Either way, Mount won the first two games rather decisively. Then in the middle of the third game when Bluffton’s women were down and the crowd was deflated, something weird happened with the scoreboard. Bluffton was up by either one or two, then the score on the board changed several times with the action stopped. There was conversation at the scorer’s table with coaches and officials. I heard someone who might know more about volleyball than I say there was a set from the back row. Whatever that means. The scoreboard showed us tied at 8 then tied at 6. It was really bizarre.

All I do know, is that the crowd got back into it the game at this point. And something clicked with the Beavers. They started playing relaxed and having fun on the court. And wouldn’t you know it – they took the final three games to win the tourney.

And the season’s not over yet! The winner of the HCAC tourney has an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament. Bluffton will be playing Ohio Northern University, Thursday at Hope College in Holland, Mich., in the first round of the NCAA regional playoffs. Earlier this season, ONU handed us our only loss in Founders in the past 20 home games.

Bluffton competed in the NCAA regional playoffs three times 1994-97 and six times in the NAIA playoffs 1982-90. Hmmm. Bluffton is a pretty young team. Could we be on the verge of another Bluffton volleyball dynasty?

No pressure though! Ladies – you just keep having fun on the court and take us along for the ride!

Halloween – Bluffton style

This morning I noticed a jack-o-lantern, complete with a tealight, on the front porch steps at the PR house. First thoughts - “That’s odd. Where did that came from?” As my to-do-list beckoned I didn’t think much more about it until later in the day.

In a stroll across campus, there were jack-o-lanterns everywhere: in the Riley Court courtyard, on Beeshy bridge, by Marbeck. Ah, last night was Trick-or-Treat. Somebody – or some group of somebodies – did a lot of work to decorate the campus appropriately. Thank you!

A relatively new tradition on campus is to open the residence halls to area children on the village Trick-or-Treat night, which happened to be last night. I have it on good authority that Trick-or-Treating in the halls – or at least in Hirschy – was a success.

Random notice:
We’re excited to announce that United States Congressman Jim Jordan representing the 4th District, Ohio, will be holding a Town Hall meeting Nov. 11 on Bluffton’s campus. Doors to Founders Hall will open at 6:30 p.m. with the event scheduled for 7-8:30 p.m.

This event is an opportunity for residents of the 4th district, especially those in Allen and Hancock Counties, to ask questions of Congressman Jordan. Other Town Hall events have occurred in the district this year, but none in this part of the region.

Walk slow and enjoy

Every so often Willis Sommer, vice president of fiscal affairs, will send a seemingly random email to the all faculty/staff email list drawing our attention to something he has noticed on campus. It is usually either nature-related or pointing out progress on a construction project.

Campus has been especially beautiful this fall. But with mid-terms, papers, multiple projects and such occupying our minds, it is easy to be so focused on the task at hand that we overlook the beauty around us.

I’d like to share Willis’ note (with his permission)

I suspect all of us are surprised this fall with the richness of the changing color of the trees. I am enjoying walks on campus seeing the various colors. I would especially note the following areas:

1. The Ehrman Grove on the walk to Riley Court. Standing at the entrance to Sauder looking at the grove, the red maples have a backdrop of yellow leaves.


2. Standing at Centennial Hall on the College Avenue side looking toward Hirschy—an array of colors.


3. On the College Hall driveway where the sidewalk from Centennial to College Hall crosses, stop and look at the College Hall side entrance to Mosiman. You will see a red maple getting redder in front of two orange sweet gums. All three should get even better in the next few days.


4. The trees in Klassen Court are now turning. Although not necessarily as bright, the leaves are still pretty, particularly seen as a grouping.


5. The purple leaves on the tree near the IT Berky Annex entrance. It is best when the sun is bright.


6. Several oaks, in front of Shoker and near the greenhouse, seem more colorful than past years.

Walk slow and enjoy.

Walk. Slow. And Enjoy. Amen!

(If it weren’t rainy and grey outside, I would go take a few photos to share. But if you are near campus, it would be worth your while to visit. Maybe catch a game or lecture/concert. You won’t be disappointed.)

Bluffton students are the BEST!

What a fantastic couple of weeks!

Recently, I have had the definite pleasure of getting out and about, meeting and visiting with several of Bluffton’s students.

First there was being involved in taping interviews for new fall sports videos last Thursday; then helping with a 2-day photo shoot for admissions materials earlier this week; and now I’m scheduling interviews for a ‘student scholars’ video for next week. All of which confirms for me – Bluffton has amazing students!

I’m always impressed how well our students do in the interviews for the various Web videos we’ve done in the past year. There are the lights, a microphone hidden on their shoulder, camera, and then they are told “ignore all this. We’re just having a conversation.” Riiiight! Yet they pull it off beautifully.

One of the videos last week was to promote the volleyball team. The ladies decided amongst themselves to dress professionally. What a great visual message to present. Have I mentioned how much I love our students?

Then there was the photo shoot. Select students are lined up to be photographed, but it’s not unusual for us to run ahead of schedule. Rather than wait around for the next shot, photographer Tommy Thompson will ask us to ‘find more students.’

So art director Sally Orgren from Corcoran Communications and I will run to the library, the tech center, accost students walking on the path... We’re looking for students dressed “appropriately,” i.e. colorful shirts, non-grungy, with study materials. What’s cool is that we typically don’t have to look too far. And students are typically willing to help us out.

Yes, I really do love our students!

Congratulations to all

Friday night is the annual Bluffton University Alumni Awards banquet during Homecoming weekend. I’m so looking forward to attending this banquet.

It is fun when someone you know is being honored. Even if it’s someone you only know in passing; a former classmate, former co-worker, you know what I mean.

I attended the banquet in 2007 when Todd Miller ’86 received the Professional Achievement Award. Todd and I were classmates in Wes Richards’ communication courses. It was exciting to hear an acceptance speech for an achievement award from someone that graduated the same year you did.

This year I’ll be attending the banquet to support Tobias Buckell ’00 as he is presented the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. I got to know Tobias when he worked in the Bluffton University tech center. Nice guy, always ready to help with the weird tech issue of the day. (He helped me get an audio clip from the Camerata Singers CD into a format to post on the Bluffton site. Well, more than help, he did it. I’m sitting there, trying to learn so to do it on my own the next time. Yea, he did it so quickly, so effortlessly, I haven’t a clue what he did.)

Now he is the author of four science-fiction novels, including one that made The New York Times best-sellers list. I give him kudos for following his passion. To jump into an author’s world ready to sink or swim, and not only survive but thrive - that is impressive. (In poking around his Web site, I just learned that his debut novel Crystal Rain has been released in Czech!)

Sorry, Toby, being more of a romantic/mystery person, I cannot say that I’ve read any of your works. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less impressed by your accomplishments. Congratulations.

Congratulations as well to the other award recipients, Herman Neff ’49, Lifetime Service Award; Verne Schrich ’58, Professional Achievement Award; and Mary Ann Sullivan, Faculty/Staff Service Award.

Have more stories about the 2009 Alumni Award recipients? Share them here!