Mark your calendars!
Homecoming/Family Weekend is Friday-Sunday, Sept. 28-30. For a schedule or to register online, go to www.central.edu/homecoming.
Culture trip to Minneapolis
Central College culture trip students, alumni, parents, friends and guests are invited to the Minnesota Orchestra’s presentation of Beethoven’s Second and Shostakovich at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Minn., Friday, Oct. 5. Cost is $25 per person and includes a ticket to the show and a pre-show reception with hors d’oeuvres at 6:30 p.m. The show starts at 8 p.m. RSVP to alumni@central.edu by Friday, Sept. 28.
Tailgater at Simpson Oct. 6
All are invited to a tailgate before the Central vs. Simpson football game Saturday, Oct. 6, at Memorial Park in Indianola. The tailgate starts at 11 a.m. and goes until 12:30 p.m. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Cost is $7 for adults and students, $4 for children ages 5-12 and free for children under 5. RSVP to the alumni office at ext. 5154 or e-mail alumni@central.edu by Monday, Oct. 1. For more information about alumni events, go to www.central.edu/alumni/events.html.
Join a campus sustainability project team
The mission of SUSTAIN is to help build campus-wide community by offering opportunities for people from different areas of the college, especially students, to come together to share ideas, raise awareness, educate ourselves, and coordinate with each other by working on projects and making recommendations for policies and practices to make Central College and the wider world more environmentally sustainable, socially and economically just. Four big projects already identified as priorities for SUSTAIN this year are: 1. involving more students and creating leadership opportunities for them in college-wide sustainability; 2. supporting the college’s commitment to reducing and mitigating our GHG emissions; 3. ramping-up an effective campus-wide recycling program for plastic, metal and paper; 4. planning and organizing events and activities for Central’s participation in a national day of action and education on global climate change, “Focus the Nation;” go to www.focusthenation.org. 
Teams and contact persons include: 1. campus climate commitment (Mike Lubberden, facilities planning and management; Jim Zaffiro, political science); 2. greening the athletic program (April Feldman ’08; Tim Bates, student life); 3. “Trash-Out” (Eric Blythe ’08); 4. campus food systems (Mark Howard, dining services); 5. student involvement/leadership development (Brian Peterson, economics/accounting/management; Maria Hickle ’08); 6. campus recycling (Zaffiro, Keith Yanner, Bates, Blythe); 7. Focus The Nation (Mary Stark, English; Richard McGrath, communication studies; Blythe); 8. campus energy conservation (Bates, Lubberden); 9. build a Central sustainability Web site (Jacob Oyen, marketing and media relations; Stephanie Snitker ’08; Al Hibbard, mathematics and computer science).
If you would like to work on one of these project teams (no need to make a large or long-term time commitment) or have an idea for another one, please e-mail zaffiroj@central.edu or batest@central.edu.
Upcoming Campus Sustainability Events:
“Iowans Talk Back on Climate Change,” part of a state-wide series of public forums on key foreign policy issues in 2008, will be in Graham Conference Center, Room 1, Thursday, Sept. 20, from 7-9 p.m. Listen and discuss the U.S. climate policy and learn the positions of several presidential candidates. Sponsored by the Iowa United Nations Association of the USA, Pella League of Women Voters, Political Science Department and SUSTAIN. Refreshments will be served.
Speakers include: Sharon Benzoni, graduate student at the University of Iowa in environmental studies; Sarah Petrin, Better World Campaign working to raise U.S. political candidates’ and consituents’ awareness of the U.S.-UN relationship; and Jim Zaffiro, professor of political science and member of the campus sustainability group SUSTAIN.
Pursuing Global Sustainability
Monday, Sept. 24, at 1 p.m. in Lubbers 239, Russ Crone, a 1987 Central grad, will speak about global sustainability to students in POLS 242 Global Environmental Politics. Crone recently completed a master’s degree in strategic leadership toward sustainability at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden, and he plans to work toward a doctorate in politics, with an emphasis on strategic and sustainable public policy. He also will speak to the Intro to Environmental Science students 10 a.m. in Vermeer Science Center. Sponsored by the Campus Life Committee, Political Science Department, Environmental Studies Program and SUSTAIN.
Central part of Campus Climate Commitment
David Roe (president) signed the American Colleges and University Presidents’ Campus Climate Commitment last week. Central committed to sharply reducing and eventually eliminating all the college’s global warming emissions and accelerating the research and educational efforts to help society re-stabilize the earth’s climate.
RCA College Sunday
The Reformed Church in America has a tremendous resource to help nurture the on-going faith formation of our young people — its three colleges, Central College in Pella, Iowa; Hope College in Holland, Michigan; and Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. The RCA designates one Sunday every year to recognize and provide support for these three educational institutions. This year is Oct.14. For more information, go to www.rca.org and click on the RCA College Sunday link on the right-hand side.
Employee Spotlight -
Steffanie Tomlinson
Name: Steffanie Tomlinson
Department: Admission
Title: Admission counselor
About me: Works with students from soutwest Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri; graduate of North Tama High School '02 and Wartburg College '06; majored in communication arts with an emphasis in public relations and a minor in leadership; hobbies include spending time with friends and family, boating, photography, and being outdoors.
Sabbatical leave applications
Sabbatical leave applications for the 2007-08 academic year are due to the academic affairs no later than Friday, Nov. 2. Information about sabbaticals is found in chapter nine, pages 1-3, of the faculty handbook. Eligible faculty, who are interested in applying for sabbatical leave, are reminded they must consult with both the department chair and the provost prior to submitting the application. Forms are available by contacting Marilyn Vrban at ext. 5175 or vrbanm@central.edu.
Cannon lectures in Ireland
Walter Cannon (English) was one of 18 scholars from around the world invited to lecture at the 48th Annual International Yeats Summer School in Sligo, Ireland, July 28-Aug. 10. His lecture was on Yeats’s appropriation of Shakespeare.
Reimer at arts conference
Treva Reimer (academic affairs) attended the Midwest Arts conference in Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 4-8. She participated in a pre-conference seminar, “Mapping Impact and Measuring Success,” and attended other sessions: “National Endowment for the Arts Updates,” “State Arts Agency Dialogue,” “Diversity and the Performing Arts,” “Engaging Next Generaltion Audiences and Patrons,” as well as the Iowa Presenters network meetings.
Benedict studying bats
Russ Benedict (biology) spent part of the summer studying Indiana bats in southern Iowa, joined by students Dan Applegate ’08, Sarah Benedict ’08, Jessica Adey ’08, Jon Robeson ’07 and Adena Schnedler ’11. This research involved capturing the federally endangered species and gluing tiny radio-transmitters to their backs. Several days were spent tracking each bat using a radio receiver to determine where they feed at night, where they roost during the night, and where they spend the day. One of the highlights of the summer was spending two hours in a small plane flown by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot looking for two lost bats. Pictured is a radio-tagged juvenile female Indiana bat roosting under a bridge over the South Skunk River at 1:30 a.m., north of Pella. 
Benedict also spent a day in July in Washington D.C., as a lobbyist. During the day, he joined several other college professors and administrators visiting with staff members of seven members of congress and senators. The group is asking for earmark spending to support sustainable agricultural research and education, such as the project beginning at the Carlson-Kuyper Field Station. The Central College project will explore using diverse plantings of prairie vegetation to provide biomass for energy production while simultaneously creating habitat for prairie plants and animals, many of whom are declining in numbers.
Dolezal has article published
Josh Dolezal's (English) article “Cather’s Medical Icon: Euclide Auclair, Healing Art, and the Cultivated Physician” recently appeared in Cather Studies, Volume 7.
Webber attended Civil War commemoration in Ohio
Sept. 14-16, Phil Webber (modern languages) attended a major Civil War commemoration at Zoar Village State Memorial in Zoar, Ohio. Sept.14, Webber was featured as the author of Zoar in the Civil War (Kent State University Press) and given a one-hour slot in the program to read from his book. He also participated in several book signings.
Council reports moved to myCentral
Both the Enrollment and Financial Support Council module and Student Learning and Development Council reports are located on myCentral.
Strategic Planning Initiatives
By Vivian Rippentrop (institutional planning)
The strategic plan has been distributed to most employees of the college with a small note about year two. It is important to use the strategic plan as a touchstone for prioritizing the work of the college. You are encouraged to place the strategic plan at an obvious location so you will remember to link your work to stated goals.
Students Doing Interesting Things
Central students in India over the summer
Senior Casey Finch of Britt and junior Graciela Buffon of Creston, spent six weeks helping poverty-ridden families in India.
Through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and campus ministries, Finch and Buffon went on a “Global Urban Trek” to Kolkata, India, with 30-some other college students from across the country. Each student helped with a different organization, Finch with Compassion Service Society of India (CSSI) and Buffon with Feed India, though all worked with men, women, children and families struck by urban poverty.
Through CSSI, Finch visited children in the classroom and spotlighted their artwork on greeting cards. Finch printed the cards in India for minimal costs, and each one features drawings of flowers and animals among other images, along with information about the child artist on the back. 
Alongside Finch, Buffon is selling journals handmade by Indian women in poverty. Sales from the journals also support India, assisting women who need help paying for food and other specific family needs.
Cards and journals are available at the Raspberry Beret consignment store at 1014 Washington St. in Pella. A pack of six cards sells for $5, with all profits going back to India.
Hammond awarded scholarship
Senior Michael Hammond, a history and Spanish major from Boone, is a recipient of the Rotary Foundation’s Ambassadorial Scholarships. Hammond received $25,000 to complete his graduate education at a foreign institution of his choice.
The Ambassadorial Scholarships program was created to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries. The program gives scholars the opportunity to serve as ambassadors of goodwill to the people of the host country. Then, scholars return home share with Rotarians and others what they have experienced.
Hammond studied abroad in Granada, Spain, in the spring 2006 and in London, England, in the spring 2007.
Leslie Wicks joined dining services as a cook.
Chevy Freiburger (admission) was promoted to associate director of admission Sept 1.
Melissa Anderson (admission) was promoted to assistant director of admission Sept.1.
No news.
2007 holiday schedule
Thursday-Friday, Nov. 22-23, Thanksgiving
Monday-Friday, Dec. 24-28, Christmas
Tuesday, Jan. 1, New Year’s Day
Upcoming event
TIAA-CREF seminars and one-on-one counseling sessions will be Wednesday, Oct. 24, and Thursday, Oct. 25. The seminars will be 9-10 a.m. in the Boat/Moore Rooms of Maytag. The one-on-one counseling sessions will be in the Hinga Room of Maytag from 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on both days. To schedule your one-on-one counseling session, please visit www.tiaa-cref.org/moc.
Tuition Exchange
The Tuition Exchange (TE) program provides the opportunity for eligible dependents of faculty and staff to receive undergraduate scholarships at one of the participating member institutions. A list of about 546 colleges and universities that participate in the TE program can be found on the TE Web page www.tuitionexchange.org. Applications for new and returning dependents for the TE program must be submitted to human resources by Thursday, Nov. 1, for the 2008-09 school year. In addition to the application form, you will also need to submit a copy of your most recent tax return showing verification of dependent status. Once you get your 2007 tax return completed, you will need to submit the dependent status information from that. TE eligibility is limited to full-time employees and may be limited based on point criteria established by the college in 2003.
Tuition Reduction
Tuition Reduction benefits are available for spouses and dependent children commencing in the academic period following two years of continuous employment for a full-time employee, or 3,328 accumulated hours for other than full-time employment.If you are an employee of the college, you receive this benefit immediately upon employment.Tuition Reductiondoes not apply to any off campus programs (i.e. internships, study abroad).The form to submit for Tuition Reduction can be found on the HR Web site at www.central.edu/humanresources. Please submit this form for new and returning students to human resources by Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007, for the 2008-2009 school year. In addition to the application form, you also will need to submit a copy of your most recent tax return showing verification of dependent status. Once you get your 2007 tax return completed, you will need to submit the dependent status information from that.
Open Positions
To review open positions and download an application click here or visit the college Web site at www.central.edu and select job seekers on the home page drop-down menu for more information.
Central College is strongly committed to creating a diverse community. In furtherance of that commitment, the college encourages candidates from diverse backgrounds, under represented groups and/or those who have had experience working with and/or interacting with individuals from diverse populations to apply. Central College is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and actively seeks a diverse pool of candidates.
News items should be submitted to Abby Gonzales by noon Friday, Sept. 28.