Campus News

'Coming Home'

The Rev. Rachel C. Kessler ’04, who returned to Kenyon last semester as chaplain and priest to Harcourt Parish Episcopal Church, talks about her transition, her purpose in Gambier and why spirituality is important to the liberal arts. Q: How does it feel to be back at Kenyon as chaplain instead of a student? A: It is sort of a mirror image of your experience as a student and a different side of campus life. But it also feels like coming home. It feels like I’m in a place where I belong. I think…

Illuminating Academics

On March 31, a lunch celebration with Kenyon faculty, staff and students will highlight intellectual and creative life on campus. The inaugural showcase will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Kenyon Athletic Center. Fifty presentations will show how students are pursuing expansive experiences such as research projects, artistic performances, internships, community-based research, senior honors theses, off-campus study or collaborative assignments.  For example, Aubrianna Osorio ’17, from Long Beach…

A Slice of Sustainability

On March 24 the Rural Life Center at Kenyon College will ask how much it has fulfilled its mission to promote a sustainable local food system over the past 15 years. This discussion with farmers, retailers and health care professionals is part of the Rural Life Center’s “Visits” series and will be held at 11:10 a.m. in Peirce Lounge. Kayla Arnold ’16, from nearby Mount Vernon, and Thabo Kasongo ’16, from Gaborone, Botswana, have been researching the local foods initiative and will moderate the discussion…

Class of Distinction

Within five minutes of admission decisions going live Friday, March 18, at 6 p.m., 111 students who had been accepted into the Class of 2020 viewed their purple thumbs-up of approval online. An hour later, more than half of the class learned they were selected to join the Kenyon community this fall. “As Kenyon works toward the fulfillment of its ambitious strategic plan for 2020, the admitted Class of 2020 represents an important milestone in that direction,” Diane Anci, vice president of enrollment…

Concrete Steps Forward

By Sean Decatur

Dwight Eisenhower once quipped that plans are useless but planning is indispensable. I’m on board with this sentiment. A good planning process does not produce a script that we follow to the letter but, rather, produces an overarching vision that focuses our attention, resources and conversations as we move forward. My first two years at Kenyon were very much focused on planning. The central product of this work is the Kenyon 2020 Strategic Plan — a vision statement, a distillation of our institutional…

Keeping It Clean

Anyone in Knox County weary of storing an old, unused computer in the basement now has an environmentally safe recycling option. Reliable electronics waste recycling comes to the community thanks to a partnership between Kenyon and the Delaware, Knox, Marion, Morrow Joint Solid Waste District. The district awarded the College a $15,200 grant that, in addition to improving recycling collection and signage across campus, will establish a drop-off center for electronics recycling, or e-waste, in Gambier…