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Around the Clocktower
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1. Ripon, Marian University agree on cross-registration
The Ripon faculty has approved cross-registration with Marian University of Fond du Lac, which allows qualified Ripon students to take up to two classes per semester at Marian and vice-versa.
This is a first step to facilitate academic collaborations between the two schools, which are about 25 miles apart. Cross-registration will expand the number and type of classes available to students at each college, and it will allow them to meet and work with more faculty members than either school can offer alone.
“Ripon students in particular will benefit from coursework at Marian in hands-on fields such as graphic art, social work, marketing and forensic science,” says Brian Bockelman, professor of history and interim director of strategic initiatives. “These practical subjects nicely complement Ripon’s core focus on the liberal arts and sciences.”
He says this new study option also will allow students from each campus a wider network of social and extracurricular activities.
2. Sale of Carnegie brings administrators back to campus
Ripon College has sold the historic Carnegie building in downtown Ripon to a local developer to support the growth of the community. The building housed the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Faculty and the Office of Marketing and Communications for the past several years.
The College purchased the building in 2011 as the downtown area was struggling. It was meant to demonstrate the College’s commitment to a partnership between the College and community.
Now, as downtown Ripon thrives again, the new owners plan to create more space for business downtown. The offices of the president and vice president and dean of faculty have been returned to Smith Hall in the heart of campus, where they previously had been located.
The Office of Marketing and Communications has moved to the second floor of Harwood Memorial Union.
3. City of Ripon formalizes College internship program
While Ripon College students have long served mutually beneficial internships for the City of Ripon, the city has now formalized a program to enable students to receive management internships with the city, college credit and scholarships.
Professor of Political Science Henrik Schatzinger worked with the city to formalize the partnership. “The program will provide a strong foundation by which student interns are able to build a successful career in local government and public management,” he says. “Overall, the partnership between the city and the College will help cultivate the next generation of municipal leaders.”
City Administrator Adam Sonntag ’08 shadowed a former Ripon city administrator when he was in college and says this program will benefit both students and the community.
4. Willmore Center atrium named in honor of Zach Messitte
In honor of the many accomplishments Ripon College enjoyed during the tenure of 13th president Zach Messitte, the atrium of Willmore Center has been named The Zach P. Messitte Atrium.
Messitte’s vision for the $24 million renovation and expansion of Willmore Center was realized in the fall of 2017. Since that time, Willmore Center has drastically increased student-athlete enrollment, enhanced student life and campus vitality and has served as another connector to the community of Ripon.
Messitte left the College at the end of 2021 to pursue other opportunities in higher education on the east coast.
Welcome to incoming Class of 2026
From numbers recorded Aug. 26, 200 first-time, first-year students plus 12 transfer students are starting at Ripon College this fall.
Among this year’s class, there is 23% ethnic diversity and 36% are first-generation students, whose parents/guardians did not receive a four-year college degree.
There also are 19 legacies, those with another family member who has attended or is attending Ripon.
The majority, 64%, are from Wisconsin, with others from 18 states and the countries of Myanmar and Canada.
5. Erin K. Bryan excels on national stage
Assistant Professor of Music Erin K. Bryan won an honorable mention as a finalist in the 2022 The American Prize in Vocal Performance — Women in Art Song and Oratorio. The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts.
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In addition, Bryan’s research on the final Neapolitan operas of Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774) was selected for a poster paper presentation at the 2022 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Conference in Chicago in July. She has created modern piano/vocal editions of four contrasting soprano arias extracted from previously unedited scores. She says these “will allow sopranos to branch out from the safe familiarity of the 18th-century operas already in the vocal canon.”
Gov. Tony Evers has appointed Professor of Art Rafael Francisco Salas to the Wisconsin Arts Board, the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Arts Board is governed by a 15-member board appointed by the governor to serve three-year terms.
7. Brian Bockelman awarded residential fellowship
Brian Bockelman, professor of history and interim director of strategic initiatives, has been awarded a residential fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks, a Harvard-owned estate, museum and humanities research center in Washington, D.C., for the spring 2023 semester. The competitive national fellowship, which provides both a stipend and housing near the estate in Georgetown, will support his research and writing while he is on sabbatical from Ripon College next year.
His fellowship is related to a book he is finishing on Argentine history in the 1880s — ‘Down with the Palms of the Plaza!’: Replanting the Seeds of Argentine Discord in Modern Buenos Aires, c. 1883. 8. Larry Daugherty ’98 summits Mount Everest
In May, Larry Daugherty ’98 of Eagle River, Alaska, summited Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. He has climbed five of the seven summits, the highest mountain peaks on each of the continents; run the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska five times; and written The ABCs of Climbing for Kids, available on amazon.com.
Daugherty is a radiation oncologist in Anchorage, Alaska. Many of his adventures support the nonprofit Radiating Hope, which works to improve cancer care in developing countries.
9. Familiar outdoor sculpture on campus given facelift
“Synchronicity,” an outdoor sculpture installed between Smith and East halls, has been refurbished. Created in 2000 by Ann and Kim Pahlas of Pahlas Metalworks studio of Ripon, it was a gift from the Class of 1998. Pahlas Metalworks took off all of the old paint, did repairs and repainted.
“’Synchronicity’ and other sculptures are on upper campus near the historic buildings, and other works surround C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts as part of the Caestecker Sculpture Garden,” says Associate Professor of Art Travis Nygard. “It is a great place to walk and enjoy art.”
10. Pilot Dmitri Smirenski ’00 featured in promotional film
Dmitri Smirenski ’00 was one of the pilots on the inaugural passenger flight for the new fuel efficient Airbus 321neo at Delta Air Lines, flying from Boston to San Francisco May 20, 2022. in the beginning (the first officer), and at the end I wave out of the window as the aircraft is pushing back from the gate and you hear my voice as I acknowledge the welcome from Boston ATC,” Smirenski says. “My wife, Marina Smirenski, also class of 2000, was on board and appeared in the video when the passengers wave at about 5:35. She’s in fourth row on the right side (from camera’s view).”
Smirenski is a first officer and instructor on the A320 fleet. He is expected to upgrade to captain in September.
11. Christopher T. Wood named artist-in-residence in Milwaukee
Christopher T. Wood, adjunct instructor of art during the 2021-22 year, has been named the 13th artist-in-residence at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. Wood, a Milwaukeebased pataphysical illustrator, is working in the hotel’s lobby-level Artist Studio through April 2023.
12. Winningest Head Football Coach Ron Ernst retiring after 32 years
Red Hawks’ head football coach and defensive coordinator Ron Ernst will retire at the end of the 2022 season — his 32nd at the helm.
He has led the Red Hawks to 184 wins and 113 losses, making him the winningest football coach in both the Midwest Conference (MWC) and Ripon College history. He has had 26 winning seasons, producing a .614 win percentage, capturing three MWC North Division titles (1995, 1996 and 1997) and two MWC Championships (1996 and 2001), among other honors.
Jake Marshall ’11, associate head coach and offensive coordinator, will take over as head coach in the 2023 season.
