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Monitor delves into history; reveals sources behind residence halls’ names
2/17/12
Names of buildings represent important donors and people in an institution’s history, and the names of William Jewell College’s residence halls are no different. Though students may live in any one of the College’s six residence halls, many people are ignorant of the namesakes’ contributions to William Jewell or the buildings’ significance to the College’s history. When the sources of these names are forgotten, then part of the College’s history will be lost.
“The College archives maintains information on the rich history of our campus and buildings. If anyone is interested in researching the history of the College, I am always happy to assist,” Rebecca Hamlett ’10, William Jewell instruction and archives librarian, said.
Ely Hall is the oldest residence hall currently on campus, as it was built in 1911. At that time, it housed not only students, but also the College dining hall. The Oct. 8, 1915 dining hall inventory shows food on hand that cost $3,244.48, at a time when 20 pounds of coffee only cost the College 18 cents.
However, until 1958, the building was known as “New” Ely. The first Ely Hall was built in 1880 about 60 feet north of Jewell Hall, in the middle of what is currently the Quad, at a cost of about $11,500. From 1877 until his death in 1897, Lewis B. Ely, a former Trustee, served as financial agent of the College. He came to Carrollton, Mo., in 1838, moving with his family from Frankfort, Ky. While in Carrollton, he was a successful merchant for nearly four decades before accepting the post as financial agent.
During his tenure, Ely focused on increasing the College’s endowment and limiting the debt incurred by paying faculty salaries. At Ely’s June 23, 1897 funeral services in Carrollton, Dr. John Priest Greene, president of the College, said “The greatest Missourian among us is going to be buried today.”
The second-oldest residential building is Melrose Hall, which was completed in 1926. Though the building was not named for the donor, as the benefactor wished to remain anonymous (although a postcard produced many years later identified the donor as C.M. Treach), this building represents the College’s first major residence hall for female students and augmented a “home-like building” that housed only 15 students. Since non-local female students were required to live on campus, the new structure would provide much-needed space.
In 1926, the College enrolled 520 students, and 139 of them were degree-seeking women. Between the two dormitories for women, the College could house up to 100 female students. The 1926-27 College Catalog states, “the total necessary year’s expense (including tuition and fees) for a woman rooming and boarding in this dormitory should not exceed $450.00.” The 1932 Melrose Hall regulations book allowed female students to attend a maximum of six social events per term, and even for those six weeks, a faculty-member chaperone and parental consent were required. However, this does not mean that the students of Melrose Hall did not create their own fun.
The late Dr. Georgia B. Bowman ’34, professor emerita of communication and former debate team coach, said in a 2006 interview that “[Melrose residents] found that it was convenient for it to rain in the morning, just as he [Dr. Hester, a professor and husband of the resident director, Carolyne Hester] left the first floor out the back door, to go on over to the campus. And it always rained when he was going out that door. There were a lot of good people upstairs that could drop the water.”
Jones Hall was completed in 1954, and it was intended to be one of a new-wave of smaller residence halls that would house fewer students. A June 23, 1953 article from the Kansas City Star quoted Catherine Bates, dean of women, as saying, “For several years the idea was to build large dormitories on college and university campuses, but these have proved to be unsatisfactory, unhomelike and too hotel-like. The new trend is to house girls in smaller units.”
Completed at a cost of about $121,000 with a capacity of 40 students, the building was named for Minetry L. Jones ’14, who served as a College Trustee from 1932-38, financial secretary 1938-43, assistant to the president from 1943-47, vice-president from 1947-62, as well as the July 1962 interim president. He died in 1963.
Semple Hall was completed in 1957 and was named for Robert Baylor Semple, professor of Latin and German, who served the College from 1868-1909. His son, Dr. William T. Semple, was a Trustee at the time. The building was built by the Thomas Construction Company of St. Joseph, Mo., and cost approximately $436,000. Funding came from $845,000 the College received from the Housing and Home Financing Agency of the U.S. government, which was also used to build the Yates Union, which is today known as the Yates-Gill Union.
In 1958, Eaton Hall was constructed at a cost of about $461,000. Like Semple Hall, Eaton was named for a former professor of William Jewell. Dr. James R. Eaton was a professor of natural sciences from 1869 until his death in 1897. In 1876, the College conferred upon him an honorary doctorate. His son, Dr. Hubert Eaton, was a Trustee of the College and head of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Ca.
Browning Hall was constructed as a men’s residence hall in 1968. The building was named for William P. Browning ’06, a College Trustee from 1929-1978, which made him the longest-serving Trustee at the time. While a student at the College, he was a feature writer for The Student (the former title of the Monitor), a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, a football player and a founding member of Aeons, which was the senior men’s honorary society. A well-to-do owner of W.P. Browning & Son, a livestock exchange in Kansas City, he gave generously to the 1965 library building, which became known as the Charles F. Curry Library in 1971.
The theater on the library’s ground level is named for him due to his contributions. His largest gift to the College was his 341-acre farm just north of the main campus, known as “Browning Campus,” which was intended to be used for campus expansion. This tract of 341 acres represented 75 percent of the campus lands. In 1966, the College leased a 150-acre tract to a group of investors to develop an 18-hole golf course that became known as Claycrest. Today, the golf course is known as Cardinal Hill.
Buscher delights in job; gives guidance to students, arranges service projects
Jill Powers
2/17/12
Campus Minister Jeff Buscher ’81, coordinator of Student Ministries and community service, has the rewarding job of aiding William Jewell College students in their spiritual journeys. This includes accompanying them on service trips, guiding them in finding answers to questions of faith and helping Christian Student Ministries. This role fits him well. He has known from a young age that his religion would guide his career.
Buscher graduated high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa then took a job at a local factory. About a year later, a young woman from his church was planning to visit William Jewell. He went along to keep her company, but in the process he found a new home. However, he had not planned to further his education and did not take any preparatory courses in high school, so he was surprised when he was admitted to William Jewell, becoming the first in his family to attend college. He majored in religion and philosophy, sensing that he was meant for the ministry.
“I felt like my acceptance to [William] Jewell was an affirmation to that sense of calling,” Buscher said. He graduated in 1981 and received the Hester Scholarship from the College, which he used to attend Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. Before finishing, he went to Colorado for two years with Christian High Adventure, a backpacking ministry. There, he met his wife Kayle.
Buscher returned to Kansas City and finished seminary in 1987. He then worked for three churches, two in Wyoming and one in Montana, as an educator of youth and college students.
“Not just anybody can handle teenagers and actually enjoy it,” Kayle, who now works in the College’s Office of Admissions, said. She and Buscher have been married for 27 years and have two children. Their son James has a secondary education degree from Carroll College in Helena, Mont., and is currently minister of youth and media at a church there. Kenna, their daughter, is a junior at William Jewell majoring in art and nonprofit leadership.
“They’re fantastic, and it’s because of their father,” Kayle said.
While they were undergraduates at William Jewell, Buscher and Dr. Andrew Pratt ’81, chaplain, became close friends, and later each was the best man at the other’s wedding.
“When Dr. Pratt got his job as chaplain I called to congratulate him, and about two years later, he called and asked if I’d be interested in campus ministries at [William] Jewell. I didn’t have to think too long about that,” Buscher said.
He started working for the College in 2004, guiding students in Mosaic and Christian Student Ministries.
“My favorite part of this job is creating experiences for students that … broaden and deepen their faith journeys,” he said. One of his favorite ways to do this is taking groups on service projects to places like New York, Haiti, Africa and Honduras.
“I just want those kinds of experiences to be transformative for students. One of the greatest joys I get is reading reflection papers after these trips,” Buscher said. He also loves spending time working outside. Kenna is eager to have this experience with him. She wants to take the trip to Honduras next summer.
“They’re such a big part of Dad’s love,” Kenna said. “He’s really in his element when he does them.”
However, Buscher does find some parts of his job challenging.
“Sometimes I think the greatest challenges are helping students work with and understand one another, whether that’s students who have different religious views or students who are at conflict in the [residence] halls,” Buscher said. When these conflicts are resolved, though, he appreciates that he was able to aid them in that process.
“In a way it’s rewarding, because when students with different mind sets collide and they have a place to work it out, that’s a beautiful thing,” Buscher said.
Transfer students adapt to life on the Hill; college assists
Chanelle Koehn
2/17/12
Although William Jewell College has a rather small student population, students transferring into the College are not recognized immediately. But this is not just a phenomenon that occurs at William Jewell. Students in the U.S. transfer from one institution to another quite often and are perhaps lost in the shuffle. A 2011 statistic by The National Association for College Admission Counseling said that 1 in 3 students who enroll in either a two-year or four-year college will transfer at some point.
According to Kathleen Haug, assistant dean of transfer admission, it is the mission of William Jewell not only to recruit quality transfer students, but to make the transition to the College a comfortable one.
Haug has been working with Jewell transfer students since the late ’80s. She believes the College is more “transfer friendly” now than it has been in the past. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, a student transferring to William Jewell could only transfer credit from courses which were offered at the College. Students are now allowed to transfer courses that might not be offered, but could reasonably be courses available in the College’s curriculum.
Some concessions have also been made to the CTI curriculum to accommodate students in the Level II interdisciplinary courses, while still maintaining a commitment to the common core curriculum experience.
Also, because the College’s CTI program is such a small number of hours compared to general education requirements at other schools, it affords the transfer student the opportunity to complete their major often in the same time frame as a student who spends all four years at William Jewell.
According to Haug, transfer students can also receive scholarships based on the transferred credit and previous honors.
“We offer generous scholarships to students with a transfer GPA of 3.0 or higher, Phi Theta Kappa [community college honor society], talent and athletic scholarships,” Haug said.
Financial reasons are a significant issue for many transfer students. Haug said that the majority of transfer students are athletes recruited with athletic scholarships, or students who found William Jewell financially difficult to attend for a full four years.
“This is particularly the case with the strong students who receive A+ benefits,” Haug said. “We even have some students here that wanted to come to Jewell out of high school, chose a less expensive option and then realized what they were missing by not coming here was very much worth the investment.”
Regardless of what point a student transfers, there is an orientation program mandatory for transfer students. Student Affairs includes transfer students in fall orientation activities, and even has a separate mentor group led for them by a current student who was at one point a transfer to the College.
“Transfer students have different needs than those new to college and life away from home for the first time,” Haug said. “We try to respect that while still offering them opportunities to connect with faculty, staff and students.”
Jake Sapp, sophomore, transferred to Jewell this semester from Metropolitan Community College, and went through the orientation process. Sapp said that the program was not as helpful as it could have been.
“There was a lot of information thrown at us, and we weren’t given the opportunity to really get to know the other students,” Sapp said.
Sapp was also unimpressed by the mentors in charge of the orientation program.
“It bothered me that the students they chose to mentor us kept encouraging us to be overly-involved in campus activities. I’m a commuter student, and I have a job. I don’t have time to participate in everything,” Sapp said.
The commitment transfer students show to college is a difficult issue for national statistics to measure. According to The New York Times, a gap in federal statistics makes it incredibly difficult to compare the graduation rate between a traditional college student and a transfer student. However, William Jewell College statistics show that the graduation rate of transfer students is higher than students who enroll at William Jewell as a first-year.
“It’s not surprising to me,” said Haug. “Students who transfer must have a good academic record to be admitted and often are coming to Jewell after realizing this is the better choice for them.”
Zach Ast, first-year and recent transfer student, is one example of a student committed to his education at William Jewell.
“I finalized my always fully considered option of attending William Jewell and decided to enroll in the spring semester at the college without any single, satisfying reason or explicit mission because this university seemed to me to be one in which such a ready answer was not only not expected, but even discouraged, and where no student needed to encapsulate in a few words what their education was or where it was moving but was instead allowed to give their future the developmental time and breathing space it deserved,” Ast said.
College celebrates Black History Month with events, education
AuBree Burk
2/17/12
As the month of February and Black History Month carries on, William Jewell College has different activities and displays set up to educate and remind students and faculty of African-American history and culture.
Dr. Cecelia Robinson, professor of English, believes inclusion is vital for all communities, but for William Jewell in particular.
“This year is the first year in the history of William Jewell that we have so much diversity on this campus. It is important to be included when you are in a minority on a small campus like this,” Robinson said. “Inclusion involves coming in and seeing part of your culture highlighted”.
“Overall, for me, Black History Month highlights the pioneers from history. I’ve always heard the saying, ‘You don’t know where you’re going, until you know where you’ve been’,” Quincee Jackson, interim coordinator of Multicultural Programming, said.
Since the College has a short history of celebrating diversity on campus, Asia Toombs, sophomore, believes it is important to celebrate Black History Month, so it can help with community development.
“Black History Month events and special displays are important at Jewell because it allows our campus community to unite and it also helps us African-Americans communicate better,” Toombs said.
Black Student Association President Chriska Francois, junior, said that it is BSA’s mission to educate and draw attention to Black History Month. “BSA’s goal is to expose the campus to African-American history, culture and traditions,” Francois said.
“Everyone has heard of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, it is import for us to expose the parts of our history that are generally overlooked,” Jackson said. BSA has a table in the Union featuring a different underrated character of African-American history every week.
The table in the Union is not the only way William Jewell students can celebrate Black History Month. The cafeteria is featuring soul food every Wednesday, and the stairs in the Union are lined with red, yellow and green, symbolic colors in African-American history. Tuesday, BSA sponsored the Love and Soul event in honor of Valentine’s Day.
“We are all part of the human community and we all celebrate diversity, but I think Black History Month in particular is import to celebrate because it plays such a big role,” Francois said.
“We are in a growing and diverse country, so it is important to celebrate all cultures and history. We can make a collective history that is comprehensive of all different nationalities at Jewell,” Jackson said.
Robinson said that she believes it is important to not just celebrate African-American history during February or January, “I am always going to be dealing with the majority, constantly, and feeling included in a community is important. Black History Month and the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January, are examples of ways of including African-American celebration on campus and in the community, but it must go beyond those events.”
Jackson said that she is still trying to gage how the College celebrates Black History Month.
“Every time we embrace who and what we are as people it helps give students a different perspective,” Jackson said, “having our history spotlighted is so vital to Jewell and us as human beings. This is a prime time for African-Americans to start digging deep into our history and finding out things we have never acknowledged or overlooked.”
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