The Franklin: March 2020

MARCH 2020 | THEFRANKLINNEWS.COM

RISING from ASHES CAMPUS LEADERS LOOK AHEAD AFTER PRESIDENT FIRED PG. 5

CAMPUS FINANCE AND BUYOUTS PG. 15

FITNESS CENTER REIMAGINED PG. 18

NEWS

WHO MAKES THE FRANKLIN? Executive editor Erica Irish erica.irish@franklincollege.edu

EDITORS’ NOTE

Executive editor Emily Ketterer emily.ketterer@franklincollege.edu

ERICA IRISH & EMILY KETTERER | STORY erica.irish@franklincollege.edu, emily.ketterer@franklincollege.edu

Opinion editor Ariana Lovitt ariana.lovitt@franklincollege.edu

Our commitment to embrace new opportunities

When we became members of The Franklin in fall 2017, former executive editor Ashley Shuler launched a significant redesign of the college’s leading student news source.

In a letter to readers in that first issue, Ashley paid homage to the editors and changes that came before her as she unveiled arguably the most drastic redesign in the publication’s 112year history.

Today, it’s our turn to pay tribute to Ashley, 2018-19 Executive Editor Shelby Thomas and their colleagues for setting the stage for The Franklin’s latest leap: A full transition to a news magazine.

Starting today, The Franklin will publish monthly, 24-page issues that prioritize unpacking complex narratives and presenting inventive, eye-catching designs. We will continue to publish breaking news — and all the stories in between — to our website, thefranklinnews.com, and @thefranklinnews on social media.

The 2019-20 editor team made this decision with two central goals in mind.

First, The Franklin exists to tell the story of the Franklin College community. As we saw in the weeks since former President Minar was arrested and fired, oftentimes, that story is messy. But with the right discussion, stories that at once seemed harrowing to a community can also offer insight as to how we can grow and tackle our problems head on.

Adopting a magazine format permits us with the space we need to get to the heart of these issues as they occur. It also permits us with the flexibility to look back — to chronicle successes and missteps as part of a larger picture so that we might discover new

meaning as a community.

The second goal addresses a critical internal need of The Franklin: To educate our staff members to be the best they can be to grow as professionals, and to better tell the story of Franklin College as it unfolds.

By adopting a monthly publication schedule, our staff now has the time necessary to engage in more extensive planning and training so that individual assignments can contribute to long-term professional development.

Without an aggressive focus on how our staff can get better, our content not only stagnates.

It can regress, which poses a great disservice to the students we educate and, by extension, to the public we have promised to serve.

But this internal process will not be isolated, either. At all times — but especially now — we invite your input and feedback as we unpack complicated stories and adopt a new look to promote community conversation.

Please join us as the semester unfolds.

News editor Victoria Ratliff victoria.ratliff@franklincollege.edu

Sports editor Taylor Wooten taylor.wooten@franklincollege.edu Copy chief Abrahm Hurt abrahm.hurt@franklincollege.edu Photo editor Quinn Fitzgerald elizabeth.fitzgerald@franklincollege.edu Web editor Lacey Watt lacey.watt@franklincollege.edu Design editor Emily Hales emily.hales@franklincollege.edu Publisher John Krull jkrull@franklincollege.edu Adviser Ryan Gunterman rgunterman@franklincollege.edu

ERICA IRISH, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The Franklin aims for accuracy and clarity in all articles. We take errors seriously and regret any mistakes. If you find an error, please send an email to thefranklin@franklincollege.edu.

Submit letters to the editor to thefranklin@franklincollege.edu.

EMILY KETTERER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

This issue was published on: March 6, 2020

a new leader Kerry Prather steps in as president in time of uncertainty EMILY KETTERER | STORY

QUINN FITZGERALD | PHOTO

EMILY HALES | DESIGN

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4

s Franklin College worked to rise above a recent scandal, a new leader stepped in to bring campus back to a state of normalcy.

President Kerry Prather was appointed to serve as the 17th president of Franklin College by the Board of Trustees after former president Thomas Minar was fired in January.

Minar was arrested Jan. 6 on child sex crimerelated charges in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Prather was named acting president shortly after Minar’s termination and was appointed president on Feb. 24.

Since taking office and in the few weeks since students returned on campus for the spring semester, Prather immediately stepped into leadership to bring campus back to business as usual.

“Our business is, it has to be done,” Prather said.

“There are students to be taught, and it’s a big operation, so I tell people that we’ve gone back to work.”

But Prather is no stranger to Franklin’s campus culture, nor its past struggles.

Prather began his career at Franklin College more than three decades ago in 1982 working in student affairs and as the assistant basketball coach. He was later promoted to head basketball coach in 1983 and athletic director in 1990, a position he held until he took on MIKE LEONARD ON the role of president.

Even when stepping into his new role, Prather is still head men’s basketball coach for the rest of the season.

He said it’s tough to manage both jobs, but the team understands his obligations as president.

“The deal I struck with them is that it’s going to be weird for a while,” Prather said. “I’ve usually made practice, although not always. I’m almost always late.

I’m almost always dressed up.”

Throughout his tenure, Prather faced the 1985 fires that overtook Old Main, Cline Hall and destroyed the former Bryan Hall. He also faced a recession in 2008 that led to a significant enrollment decline.

“He’s weathered some storms here,” said Mike Leonard, former head football coach, who worked for 17 years under Prather’s leadership. “I admire his perseverance.”

Leonard said he could talk forever about Prather, who he described as pleasant, fun, eloquent, perseverant and great at making tough decisions.

“It was a no brainer that Coach Prather, now President Prather, was the obvious person for the job,” Leonard said. “Who else knows this place better than he does?”

And Prather wasn’t alone when finding a home in Franklin College. His family planted roots here too.

His wife, Cindy, taught education at the college for 23 years, and his two children attended school at Franklin College.

“We told both kids, you can go anywhere you want to go to college, you don’t have to come to Franklin,” Prather said. “And neither of them even really wanted to look at other schools because, and it wasn’t just kind of a default decision, they liked what they saw in Franklin.”

Prather brings his passion for family into his job as well, Leonard said.

“He treats every young lady and every young man that goes to school here as kind of another child to him,” Leonard said.

He said Prather is not the type who wants to “sit in an ivory tower where nobody sees him.” Leonard now works in the Office of Alumni Development, which is just down the hall from the president’s office in Old Main, and he often hears Prather in the halls of the second floor.

“I hear him as he comes out of the president’s office for whatever reason, and I hear him asking students, “Hey how’s your day going? Are you learning anything?

Are you getting your money’s worth?’”

Leonard said.

One specific instance where Leonard said KERRY PRATHER Prather showed his commitment to students was when a student fell down the stairs in Old Main at the beginning of February.

“I look down the hallway, I see a group of people over by the steps, and who’s right there in the middle of it? It’s him (Prather),” Leonard said. “I, as a coach, wanted to go over and check on her, but then I thought, you know, she’s in good hands, she’s got the president right there.”

Now, Prather looks back on his early days at Franklin and he reflected on how he didn’t plan on sticking around for long after 1982. At that time, he worked with former head football coach Stewart “Red” Faught, who was at the college for 30 years.

“I remember thinking about him (Faught), ‘Well, why didn’t that old dude move up the ranks? You know? What’s wrong with him? Why would you want to stay here?’” Prather said. “Now 37 years later, I kind of get that.”

Prather called Franklin College a “really good place to be.” He and other faculty see the college as a place that’s hard to leave.

“To me, the beauty of this place is that, that phenomena is not unusual,” Prather said.

It was a no brainer that Coach Prather, now President Prather, was the obvious person for the job.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Franklin College tries to find its footing after the arrest of a former president ERICA IRISH | STORY

THE FRANKLIN STAFF | PHOTOS

EMILY KETTERER | DESIGN

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Prather shakes hands with a guest at the President’s Circle Dinner in February. QUINN FITZGERALD | PHOTO

I

n a single six-period in 1985, three buildings on Franklin College’s growing campus burned down.

The first began in the basement of Cline Hall on Thanksgiving Break in 1984, which posed only minor damage to the building.

The second was a men’s residence hall, then called Bryan Hall on the east end of campus.

Flames engulfed student rooms there after a candle accidentally burned a nearby curtain.

Weeks later, Stott Hall — once at the center of Old Main — burned down, ruining what many considered (and still consider) the face of campus.

Franklin College President Kerry Prather drew a parallel between this catastrophe and a more recent crisis at his first public remarks to campus in his new role at the start of the semester.

Prather was named the college’s 17th president by the Board of Trustees on Feb. 24, and the presidential search was suspended until 2021.

“I give the board a lot of credit for seeing

the need for an extended period of stability,” Prather said about his appointment as president.“There’s so much ongoing work that needs to be done.”

Prather has served as the college’s director of athletics for the last 35 years. But when the Franklin College Board of Trustees fired former Franklin College President Thomas Minar Jan. 13 after learning he was arrested in Wisconsin on charges of child sex crimes, they called on Prather to step into a now empty president’s office.

Prather connected the now uncertain future at Franklin College with the past successes he witnessed firsthand when the institution rose from the ashes of its former self.

In his speech to campus in early February, he reminded faces new and old to the community about a record student enrollment period in the years after the fires.

To get there, though, the college community must dig its heels into rebuilding and reorienting itself around what matters

most, according to Prather: Students here today, and those who will arrive in the future.

A Renewed Mission Prather said student enrollment and retention needs to be an “all hands on deck” mission as the college balances Minar’s termination with a changing reality for small liberal arts colleges and universities.

“You’ve got demographics heading in the opposite direction,” Prather said about trends that indicate there will be fewer and fewer college-age students for higher education institutions to recruit in the coming decade. “The competition for students in the realm of what we do is just as high as it’s going to be, and it will remain there for the next 10 years.”

The challenge remains great for Franklin College and its competitors. According to data released in mid-2019 by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, student enrollment dropped by an average of

1.7% — close to 300,000 students — among 97% of all colleges and universities in the United States.

At Franklin College, enrollment began to stagnate and decrease in 2015, according to an overview of the institution compiled by Isaacson Miller, a Washington, D.C.-based talent search firm that began leading the search for a new president prior to Minar’s ousting. The report notes enrollment has steadily decreased over the five year period, from 1,087 students enrolled in 2015-16 to 956 students enrolled in 2019-20.

By promoting student enrollment and retention, Prather is offering his own ideas to a key priority for the next administration. His solution is to reorient everyone on campus around the same goal, rather than relying on typical avenues for student recruitment and retention through the admissions office and athletics department.

And his administration is presenting this message with a sense of urgency: In late February, for example, the president distributed an email to the student body

Keri Alioto. BRYAN WELLS | PHOTO

that listed appropriate ways for students to recruit future students in their informal conversations and through social media.

“We’ve got to be really good at this,” Prather said.

A Launch For Student Retention The other front — student retention — gained added leadership and focus far before Minar’s departure.

The beginning of the academic year marked the official unveiling of the college’s new curriculum, known as The Pursuit. A key product of the strategic plan developed early in Minar’s administration and enacted in more recent years with leadership from faculty and staff, The Pursuit marked the first significant update to the college curriculum in more than a decade.

Launch — a comprehensive curriculum for first-year students — remains a cornerstone of The Pursuit. But it also serves as a key way to attract and retain Franklin College

students, said Keri Alioto, dean of student success and retention.

“We continue to do what we always do to support students,” Alioto said about her role in the aftermath of Minar’s termination.

“Students, faculty and staff all took in this information in their own way...but not in any different capacity that would normally happen in the work that I do.”

While Alioto and her colleagues lack a total picture of what Launch can do for the college community, given that it just began in its current form this academic year, she said early estimates for student retention are promising.

Last semester, for instance, data gathered by the college indicated a fall 2019 retention rate of 91%. That’s almost a 5% increase from the retention rate reported in fall 2018 — 86.4% — and a record rate in the last five years, Alioto said.

“If that’s not where students are right now, then my role is to help support them in their day-to-day lives,” Alioto said.

President Kerry Prather. QUINN FITZGERALD | PHOTO

8 MINAR’S ARREST TIMELINE Jan. 6

Former President Thomas Minar arrested in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on sex crime charges.

Jan. 13

Board of Trustees announces termination of Minar.

Jan. 14

Board appoints former athletic director Kerry Prather acting president.

Jan. 27 Minar makes first appearance in court.

Feb. 3

College announces anonymous reporting system for communications with Minar that may have violated sexual misconduct policy.

Feb. 20

Minar appears in court for a status conference.

Feb. 24

Board of Trustees suspends search for new president, appoints Kerry Prather president of Franklin College.

April 21

Minar is set to appear in court.

Former president Thomas Minar appeared in court for the first time in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on Jan. 27. VICTORIA RATLIFF | PHOTO

Student Voices While some current students report they have largely moved on from Minar’s exit, the consequences of the charges against him prevail among those who worked near him.

“He knew almost every Griz PAC member by name,” said Samantha Collier, a senior Franklin College student and two-year member of Griz PAC, a team of student ambassadors hired to assist the president in promoting the college at various events for alumni and friends of the college.

Collier recalled Minar’s enthusiasm at events and how she admired his ability to give speeches on the fly. She said the revelations in January blindsided her and many of her friends.

“I don’t want people to think we’re a broken community because of this,” Collier said. “We don’t need pity.”

Student Congress President Jackie List said she and other student government leaders rarely interacted with Minar. Their

main administrative contacts, then and now, include Andrew Jones, dean of students and vice president of campus life, and members of the board of trustees.

Those are the faces, too, that List said became most prominent in the student community in the immediate aftermath of Minar’s termination.

“All of this news happened, and then I think everyone was shocked,” List said.

“But there was immediately action, and immediately outrage, from our faculty and staff.”

Action, List said, came in the form of messages of support to the college community in the early days following his termination.

But it also comes from the ongoing efforts to unify campus amid public scrutiny.

“Students, faculty and staff on campus are both stronger and more focused on what Franklin really is right now,” List said. “We all know that one man doesn’t define who we are as a school.”

DISCUSSION FROM

DIVISION

A racist video gone viral leads to campus debate on values ISAAC GLEITZ | STORY

QUINN FITZGERALD | PHOTO

ERICA IRISH | DESIGN

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n late January, a Franklin College student spurred a campus-wide debate when he posted a video of a student using racial epithets into a Franklin student chat room.

In the video, the student said he hates several racial groups and used a racial slur directed at black people.

The student in the video declined an offer for an interview.

Sophomore Bennie Patterson posted a screen-recording of the video to the messaging app GroupMe. He added the comment, “So, can we talk about this?”

This garnered campus-wide attention and prompted a wider discussion about racism and campus values that some staff and students said was much needed.

Patterson said his initial reaction to the video was irritation.

“There’s just a point in time when you just get extremely, extremely tired of people not understanding that a certain thing is not okay,” Patterson said.

While Patterson said he knew the resident assistants in the chat would be required to report the incident if they saw it, he posted the video to build discussion and inspire action.

Andrew Jones, vice president for campus life and dean of students, issued a statement to Franklin College students via email later that day. He wrote that the institution is committed to “honest and ethical conduct and speech” and the promotion of diversity.

However, he did not specifically describe the incident.

Meanwhile, many students wrote their thoughts in the chat.

One wrote that students should bring their

concerns to staff, rather than trying to address the issue in a group chat.

Others said that students should quit attacking the student in the video because his mental health could be affected.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if that’s how he is or not, it’s not right,” Patterson wrote. “And as a person of color I refuse to let that type of toxicity be in the same environment as me. It’s unsafe not just for me, but for everyone.”

Patterson said he wanted staff to address the issue immediately, but he decided to save his concern for an upcoming meeting about the retention of black students to be held by the Black Student Union with President Kerry Prather, Jones and Chaplain Hannah Adams Ingram.

The staff at the meeting said they were aware of the incident. But Patterson said there had been no punitive action taken at that point.

Patterson said that incident responses are primarily the responsibility of students. Those who saw the video and were apathetic are part of the problem, Patterson said.

The college’s lack of diversity shows in student responses to the incident, according to Patterson. While the incident is in the past, Patterson said it’s important to reflect. He argues the racism will continue without more education on campus.

Jones said the college’s primary objective is to ensure inclusion and safety, so students can get their education. He added that promoting principles like diversity is part of Franklin College’s job.

“I think our little microcosm here should reflect the world more broadly,” Jones said

As a person of color I refuse to let that type of toxicity be in the same environment as me.

SOPHOMORE BENNIE PATTERSON

during an interview on Feb. 12. “It’s a little naive for people to think that they can operate in a way that only involves other people who think, and look and act like them.”

Jones said he thinks the Franklin community knows its values. He said he does not think racism is pervasive among students.

Freshman Jordan Hoard said the video shocked her. It was the first time she felt blatant racism on campus.

“If you’re going to make a joke, it shouldn’t be about something that’s going to put someone down,” Hoard said.

Like Patterson, Hoard said students should address campus incidents because they are most affected by them and because nothing happens as the result of silence.

Spanish professor Sara Coburn-Alsop, who is teaching a class on race and racial identity this semester, said she is waiting to hear the outcome of the case.

“I want to hear that that student is not welcome to return,” Colburn-Alsop said.

Jones could not confirm what punishment, if any, the student in the video might receive because he cannot comment directly on any student’s educational record.

“It is a crisis,” Colburn-Alsop said that shows “the worst of the worst of our nation.

That person — that child — does not belong here.”

Colburn-Alsop also said the school is too small for this to go unnoticed.

She said that many people are watching for the college’s response. If the school lets the student back in, she said that would mean the college is complicit in racism.

Visiting artist uses wood and other elements to express importance of working together QUINN FITZGERALD | PHOTOS, STORY & DESIGN

“

I feel like I have a lot to say sometimes, but what I have to say starts with the community that’s around me and the experiences I’ve had in the past.

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H

er work is a celebration of nature, community and healthy living through public art.

At least, that’s what was read from a short biography on a neatly-packaged program for Franklin College’s latest visiting artist: Kimberly McNeelan.

“My woodworking journey has started with, ‘Oh, I really like woodworking’ and turned into ‘I’m going to learn everything I can about making stuff’ which turned into ‘I love making stuff, but I want to share it with more people’ and it’s ultimately turned into how I love sharing with people as much as I love making stuff,” McNeelan said.

McNeelan is an Indianapolis artist who specializes in furniture and sculpture as well as a professor at Butler University and a teacher at the Indianapolis Art Center.

That can also be found from the program. What isn’t on the program is how she came to be, how she ended up at Franklin College, and why the exhibit that was displayed in Johnson Center for Fine Arts involved a blue color palette.

The Girl from Hurricane Road McNeelan grew up a few miles north of the college over on Hurricane Road, where she enjoyed activities like swimming, or rather sliding down a soapy driveway.

She also enjoyed, of course, woodworking. Her first project was actually building a playhouse in her yard with her father when she was eight years old.

“It all began here,” McNeelan said. “This was the first real woodworking project that I was a part of, and it was a collaboration between me and my dad.”

After they finished the playhouse, McNeelan took the remaining scraps, some two-by-fours and some nails and made furniture.

“I can assure you that it was sophisticated joinery from the beginning,” she said.

Fast forward to Purdue University where McNeelan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 with a focus in sculpture and industrial design. She went on to intern in furniture making at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

Her craving for experience didn’t stop there. In fact, it moved her across the country from Indiana to California.

In Petaluma, McNeelan apprenticed under furniture maker and sculptor, Michael Cullen, for eight years.

“When I say apprenticeship, I mean it was a one-onone situation of studying and learning all the tricks of the trade from a master craftsman,” McNeelan said.

So she made her African mahogany apprentice table –– which was the first piece she ever sold at her very first ever show. She finished her apprenticeship. Then she moved into a shop space and a place to live: a self-built

home and workshop of Arthur Espenet Carpenter, a firstgeneration studio furniture maker.

Carpenter, who died in 2006, was a master woodworker and furniture maker known for many accolades, including collections in the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

While she lived in California, McNeelan began her teaching career through the Baulines Craft Guild, which Carpenter had founded.

“Getting to live in his home, use his tools, see his furniture and see the joinery and the way he constructed things was an experience that I couldn’t have known to even ask for,” McNeelan said. “It just happened. I got unbelievably lucky.”

After those eight years in California, McNeelan decided to switch things up. She traveled to Southeast Asia and studied there before ending up back in the states. It was in Minnesota where McNeelan connected with Woodworkers Journal.

“It has become a really fun outlet for me because it provides a platform to have a community have a conversation with people not only about how to make things,” McNeelan said. “I can also subtly hint about some of the things that I enjoy in life.”

Fast forward again, McNeelan decided to move again so that she could attend graduate school at Herron School of Art and Design, in Indianapolis, where she received her Master of Fine Arts in 2016.

“I wanted to go to graduate school because I wanted to be able to teach people that potentially wanted to be a furniture maker for profession,” McNeelan said. “I also wanted to time to work on my conceptual voice, because whereas I love making furniture, I wanted to put more meaning behind my furniture.”

It’s during graduate school when McNeelan created a lending library ––a small public library from which books may be borrowed and taken away for a short time. It is one of many she ends up making and was displayed in White River State Park for four years.

Franklin College’s Visiting Artist Each year, the art department –– through a $50,000 grant provided by the Allen W. Clowes Family Foundation –– selects a visiting artist to teach a course during the Immersive Term.

Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Gordon Strain, who has been friends with McNeelan for years, was the one who approached David Cunningham, associate professor of fine art, about McNeelan.

“Knowing her style, her ability to teach, her skills, and our friendship, as well as the facilities at the college, it just

The Community Conversation Bench encourages people to spend time getting to know each other while enjoying the aesthetic of the artwork. The bench is made of poplar, pink oak, and Indiana Limestone.

14 seemed like a perfect fit,” Strain said.

The students surveyed people they know on campus in order to find a subject matter that concerned them the most. Coincidentally it was already a reoccurring theme in McNeelan’s work: water.

“It was actually a democratic process,” McNeelan said.

McNeelan taught the students how to “turn” wood in order to make water droplets. They also painted the droplets and concentric circles, researched facts about water, and helped put up the exhibit in JCFA. “I feel incredibly lucky that I got to collaborate with the students here, because everybody worked so hard,” McNeelan said.

Junior Kylee Carr, who participated in the course, said she usually works with her hands anyway since she enjoys ceramics. But she appreciated the class because she was able to learn a new medium of art.

“This class still allowed me to worth with my hands while at the same time increasing my knowledge of different materials,” Carr said.

“I’m giving that message of thinking about how we sculpt our environment, and this is an opportunity for the teachers to talk about biodiversity and the importance of it,” she said.

As her work with the elementary schools showed, public awareness cannot spread without the public. This is where community comes in.

McNeelan said community becomes the loudest voice in her art.

“I feel like I have a lot to say sometimes, but what I have to say starts with the community that’s around me and the experiences I’ve had in the past,” she said.

Art, for McNeelan, is directly related to anybody that’s in her circle.

This could mean social media. This could be students, colleagues, or even strangers with whom she interacts.

“Community has become a pillar in my artistic practice, and I love sharing experiences with people more than I even enjoy making things,” she said.

The Three Pillars: Nature, Community and Healthy Living

Pieces of Advice

There’s the story of McNeelan swimming, or rather sliding, down her driveway in soapy water. But then there’s also the time she lived in California.

“I was living was a little beach town called Bolinas, California.

It’s beautiful. It’s literally on a bird sanctuary. It’s one of the most breathtaking places I’ve ever been to,” she said as she described a bench she made from driftwood.

“I obviously enjoy water, even in the form of a puddle,” she said.

Another theme in her work: eating healthy.

“Gardening is becoming a big part of my life. I love growing things.

I love planting things. I love eating fresh food,” McNeelan said. “You’re going to see more of that in my work, too.”

She has also done various workshops, reinforcing an ecological mindset. One of her workshops involved building mason bee homes.

McNeelan has also done several art installations at elementary schools.

At one of the schools in Indianapolis, the students helped design an outdoor classroom, which McNeelan completed with a partnership through Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.

At another elementary school, McNeelan helped children create a sculpture surrounded with ash dump.

For the artists specifically, McNeelan encourages students, especially, to take special care of documenting what they create.

“I never anticipated needing photos beyond my own personal reference,” she said. “Document your work and document your work well. Even if you don’t want to take the time to do it. You never know what you might need it for.”

For the any college student who may be struggling to find their passion or feeling insecure about the passion they’ve chosen, McNeelan’s advice is to “go with your gut.”

“You’re of an age where you don’t have to listen to everybody else all the time and you don’t have to be practical,” she said.

After all, if McNeelan hadn’t stuck with the passion she found at just eight years old, she may not have had achieved all she did in woodworking, or ended up on HGTV on the show “Good bones,” where a footstool she created was featured and later inspired a number of interested customers to ask for commissions.

“If you don’t take a chance now, 10 years down the road, you might kick yourself for it, or even 10 days later,” McNeelan said.

“But be reasonable. I’m not telling you to go crazy.”

After attending the lecture on Feb. 18, guests visit the art installation created by woodworker and sculptor Kimberly McNeelan and the students of her Immersive Term course.

Featured in this photo are concentric circles which represent water and how it connects a community.

The exhibit was displayed Jan.23-Feb.18 for students, faculty and guests to see.

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CHANGING NUMBERS The plan to revitalize Franklin College’s financial health ALEXA SHRAKE | STORY

ERICA IRISH | DESIGN

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s students are enjoying the newly opened Franklin College Science Center, professors are being offered buyouts to help combat the $17 million of debt Franklin College has incurred.

Each year Franklin College is required to submit a financial statement to auditors and the U.S. Department of Education where they rate the financial health of an institution. In their most recent report, auditors with the department ranked Franklin College as healthy and stable.

Currently, the college is $17 million in debt, according to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Hornett.

“From financial measures we are not overly in debt, we have a healthy debt level,” he said.

Most of the debt comes from the loan taken out for the construction of the new science center. Loans were taken out on the center’s expenses that the college wasn’t able to raise.

Hornett said the college also refinanced existing debt to lower the interest rate.

The college currently has a repayment schedule with an interest rate at less than 3%. Hornett said payments on the interest incurred from the loans will be done by October 2021. After that, the college will solely be paying on the loan.

One way the college is trying to combat the debt acquired is through buyout offers to faculty members.

The push for the buyouts was a heavy decision made to help the college financially.

Hornett said buyouts are being offered before the college needs to look to the endowment for saving.

The endowment is an $88 million fund that is used for scholarships and aid given to the students, as well as to support many programs. The endowment would be used in cases where there is a lack of funding.

Hornett said the financial struggles the college is facing aren’t unique to Franklin.

“We’re what higher ed in general is facing in terms of lower enrollment and minor financial pressures on the college and one of the largest expenses we have here are the employees,” said Hornett.

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ELIGIBLE FOR BUYOUTS

About 32 faculty and staff members were eligible for a buyout in December. Some of the requirements for a buyout include being at least 55 and having been employed by Franklin for at least 10 years.

Those who agree to the buyout offer will receive a year’s compensation that will be paid out over two years as an early retirement plan.

“This has only been done one other time in the college’s history and that was about ten years ago,” said Hornett. But, only 13 faculty and staff members said they were interested in seeing a contract of the buyout offer.

The buyouts will save the college a little over a million dollars a year by spending less on faculty and staff.

Originally, all contracts were due by the end of January, but everything was put on hold for a few weeks because of the arrest of former president Thomas Minar.

By the beginning of March, all contracts will be signed for those who plan to leave the college.

Job searches to replace the positions that will be left vacant are not able to begin until all contracts are signed. There is little time to replace many of the professors that will be leaving that teach a large number of classes in their department.

Professor of journalism, Hank Nuwer, said his best writing is ahead of him when thinking of his future. Nuwer plans to move to New England with his wife to write full time. He is excited for the next chapter of his life.

Professor of mathematics, Dan Callon, who has worked at the college for 33 years, said he wasn’t going to be accepting the buyout offer.

“I haven’t thought of anything that if I were to retire, I would be that passionate about,” he said.

After working at Franklin for 18 years, Nuwer said he’s going to miss being apart of the campus community.

“I’ll miss the laughter and learning,” he said.

“I’ll always be a Grizzly.”

DEBT

$17M

since

1908 Inside the century-old Franklin College Fitness Center TAYLOR WOOTEN | STORY

EMILY HALES | PHOTO

TABBY FITZGERALD | DESIGN

18

The Wonder Five’s 100th anniversary celebration is March 12. The event will be held in the Fitness Center where they used to play.

THE HAMILTION LIBRARY ARCHIVES | PHOTO

T

he Fitness Center is a structure with a long, eventful history. The old building was born in a 1908 revamp of campus that included a women’s dormitory where Johnson-Dietz now stands and a heating plant in the middle of Dame Mall.

In an October 1908 issue of The Franklin, the Fitness Center is described as “modern in every particular.”

But that was more than a century ago. It hasn’t been renovated since 1996, when the college outfitted the center with a rubberized floor and replaced the basketball goals.

Then, a new area for athletes — Spurlock Center — was constructed in 1975.

Paul Fonstad led an Immersive Term

course that traveled to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The class was modeled after the Disney Imagineering competition, and students were given the task of reimagining the Fitness Center. Fonstad researched the history of the old gym to inspire his students.

“Some of the concerts that we had at the Fitness Center were just amazing,” Fonstad said. “I mean acts like The Righteous Brothers, Chubby Checker, REO Speedwagon all performed at the Fitness Center at one time.”

The structure that once housed concerts, Wonder Five games, and the 1977 undefeated women’s basketball team is now

fitness center FAST FACTS FUN FACTS HERE

used as extra space for practices in cases of inclement weather, as well as for recreational basketball and storage.

A historical marker commemorating the Wonder Five team that won three high school state championships, 1920-1922, and two college state championships, 1923-1924, will be unveiled and dedicated on Thursday, March 12, 2020, at 4 p.m. during an outdoor ceremony on the east side of the Franklin College Fitness Center. This comes on the centennial anniversary of the Wonder Five’s first state championship.

The former center for Franklin College athletics and physical education is now an alternative choice that largely serves as a

built in

1908

19

I was looking for a space on campus that is... a place that has a lot of history, and a place that could take on a more prominent role on a campus.

PAUL FONSTAD The older model of the fitness center used to include a swimming pool. It’s no longer in operation and is currently boarded up. THE HAMILTON LIBRARY ARCHIVES | PHOTO

makeshift storage unit.

“It’s funny because I know a lot of nights there’s someone in there, like it’s almost always occupied,” said Emily Dalton, a junior who went on the Immersive Term Disney trip. “But it doesn’t seem like a space that people want to go.”

Bryce Hale, a senior on the football team who also went on the trip, agreed that the usage of the Fitness Center remains low.

“I used it for football because I’m a football player,” Hale said. “I maybe go in there once or twice besides that, the rest of the year. I don’t think students use it that much, no.”

The Fitness Center has fallen off the radar so far that it even slipped off the Franklin College athletics facilities page. Instead, only Spurlock Center, Grizzly Park and Faught

Stadium are listed on the website.

The students that traveled to Disney World were encouraged to come up with a plan for the Fitness Center without a budget while using their individual majors as key components.

Fonstad wanted the experience to focus on how Imagineering uses a mix of subjects, similar to the liberal arts curriculum at Franklin College.

“I was looking for a space on campus that is a place that is used but could be used better: a building that the students may be familiar with, but maybe have never gone into,” Fonstad said. “A place that has a lot of history, and a place that people really think it could take a more prominent role or it could be more prominent on campus. Something that hasn’t been redesigned, or rebuilt, or

remodeled in

1966

dealt with in a while.”

The century-old Fitness Center fit Fonstad’s description, and his students toured the entire facility. However, Fonstad requested the students not bring their phones in order to mirror the “offstage” rules of their Backstage Magic Tour at Disney World.

“It was interesting to me that they considered this still a usable space,” Dalton said. “I mean the gym’s obviously in decent shape, but underneath it needs a whole remodel.”

Tom Patz, head of facilities, said the basement is “un-occupiable space” and that “facilities don’t really serve the basement anymore.”

When asked if the Fitness Center is completely safe, Patz laughed.

UPSTAIRS is

occupiable

DOWNSTAIRS is

unoccupiable

“The occupiable space [is safe], absolutely,” Patz said. “There’s a reason why the space is divided as it is right now.”

Patz assured that the occupiable space is inspected and cleaned by facilities staff daily and recommended that any concerns or issues from students or staff be submitted in a work order.

On the tour, Fonstad noted the detailed metal ceiling tiles, the former offices of physical education professors and the boarded-up pool.

“There was an article from the Indiana Masonic home that I found where they talked swimming in the pool, and they compared the color of the pool water to the color of coffee with cream added,” Fonstad said.

In a 2016 article of The Franklin, the former pool area is described as being “like a screengrab from Tomb Raider.”

Franklin College President and former Athletic Director Kerry Prather said that the issues haven’t gone unnoticed.

“When we built Grizzly Park, the argument of the time was, ‘our indoor facilities are pretty good and our outdoor facilities are way behind,” Prather said. “Well, in the blink of

an eye — and 6 million dollars — that kind of just flipped.”

At a school with 43 percent of the student body being athletes, Prather and Patz both expressed concern about the number of students who are not part of a team but still wish to use the facilities.

“One of the things I feel worst about is, if you’re a student just looking to go shoot some hoops or even to use the weight room, you’ve got to be really strategic about when you’re going to get in there,” Prather said.

“It’s very likely not a time that is particularly convenient for you.”

The Fitness Center is 19,429 square feet, including the un-occupiable space in the basement.

Spurlock Center is 47,280 square feet, which includes the basketball court, racquetball courts, weight room, locker rooms, and the aerobic exercise space.

During the winter season, Patz said the Fitness Center is one of the most heavily scheduled buildings on campus.

“We could have baseball practice in that building, softball practice,” Patz said. “Track and field does some things in that building.

Also, tennis, believe it or not.”

Pressure is put on Franklin College with the expensive facilities at other colleges, as well as with students coming from high schools with elaborate athletic facilities, according to Prather.

“We’re behind in what I call ‘the fieldhouse stage’ where so many small colleges invested in 20 million dollars’ worth of indoor facilities,” Prather said. “So we’re trying to figure out how to tackle that on the immediate heels of the Science Center project.”

There are two options, Prather said: another “monster effort” to fundraise or investing money into the Fitness Center to solve smaller issues, one piece at a time.

“I must admit to some excitement about at least the conversation about whether we can bring that place back to life, in a completely different form obviously, just because it’s got great history to it,” Prather said. “But we need some other pieces too, and those conversations continue, and they’re going to pick up steam.”

FC Alumnus returns as head football coach HALEY PRITCHETT | STORY THOMAS SAMUEL | PHOTOS TABBY FITZGERALD | DESIGN

lan Hensell, the new head football coach, is excited to put his stamp on the Franklin College football program.

Hensell started his journey with Franklin College as a freshman in 2001. In late 2019, he returned.

Hensell is already on campus to get to know current football players as well as in the process of recruiting new ones.

He said that being the head coach of the Franklin College football team was always a dream of his.

At Franklin, Hensell studied K-12 physical education with a minor in health education.

He played football and baseball until the fall season of 2002 when a knee injury ended his career as an athlete.

Hensell said that he knew once he got done playing he would get right into coaching.

He started his coaching career in college as a student assistant coach, first as a junior at Decatur Central High School, and then as a senior at Franklin College.

Previous head football coach Mike Leonard said that he could tell Hensell would have a good future.

“He was an eager young coach, who was just a sponge wanting to learn, and you could tell he was kind of a football junkie,” Leonard said.

To senior football player Logan Wynn, one of his favorite qualities about Hensell is how respectful he is to the team.

“If you want us to be respectful, you have to give it to us too, and he does a really good job at that,” Logan Wynn said.

Aside from athletics, Hensell said that the community means a lot to him.

“The college is very tight knit, but one of the things that makes this place special is the people,” Hensell said.

According to junior football player, Evan Stambaugh, as soon as the team learned the Hensell was the new coach they went straight to

social media to learn more about him. He said that the fact he was a Franklin College alumnus gave confidence to a lot of the athletes.

“Since he is an alum, he knows that we have a solid foundation and I know he wants to build off of that,” Stambaugh said.

“

He was an eager young coach, who was just a sponge, wanting to learn and you could tell he was kind of a football junkie.

MIKE LEONARD

Junior football player Logan Wynn says that Hensell has already mentioned reaching out to the community, such as organizations such as the Humane Society, and making a difference off the field.

Since being at Franklin, freshman Ryus Moore says that Hensell has put in effort to get to know the athletes through one on one meetings as well as team meetings, and that he is also a friendly face on campus.

“We see him around campus a lot, we see him at basketball games and just walking to class, and eating at Saga,” Ryus Moore said. “He is always trying to catch up with us and see how we’re doing.”

Leonard said that Hensell has a nice resume because of all the different programs and different types of leaders he’s been around. He said this process has helped him learn how to coach in his own way.

Hensell previously coached at Buffalo, New York as a tight end coach. Before that,

he coached at the University of WisconsinWhitewater, Gardner-Webb University, University of Mississippi and University of Tennessee.

Hensell says that what makes a good football team is if the team reaches their potential, whatever that may be.

Ryus Moore said that he is interested to see Hensell’s coaching tactics.

“When you’re a new coach the most important thing is to get everybody to buy into your way of coaching,” Moore said.

Leonard said that he doesn’t just think Hensell is a good fit — but a great fit. When he heard that Hensell was the college’s choice, he was very excited.

“I have passion for the game. I care about my players on the field and off the field, and I think communication is really important, and organization,” Hensell said. “Those are things I take a lot of pride in and I want to do well here.”

When he’s not on the football field, Hensell still can be found somewhere on campus.

“Football is kind of my life. I love sports.

You’ll see me at a lot of sporting events between basketball, baseball, and softball, you’ll see me very active on campus, not only at sporting events but anyways to help students and alums connect back to this place,” Hensell said.

Freshman Jack Moore says that he does not expect Hensell to do everything the same as former head coach Mike Leonard.

“As a coach you don’t want to copy,” Jack Moore said. “You want to be yourself and make your own legacy, and I think he’ll do a great job at that.”

Leonard said he had a blast coaching, but he knew it was time for someone new to come in who was eager, passionate and ready to have some fun.

“I think the future is bright under his leadership,” Leonard said.

OPINION

GUEST COLUMN | ON STEREOTYPES, SAFE SPACES AND SUGAR How to protect ourselves from implicit bias when disturbing news breaks Editor’s Note: Sam Fain is a senior student at Franklin College. She studies psychology, creative writing and Spanish.

Like all SAM FAIN students, I was shocked and disturbed by the news regarding former President Thomas Minar and the sex crimes he is charged with committing.

There were and will be multiple consequences to his alleged actions — facing trial in court, losing his job as president of our college, possibly going to prison — but these may not be the only impacts his actions will have on our school.

What about the social consequences of his actions? What happens when a man in power appears to abuse that power and happens to be a member of the queer community?

Social psychology tells us that stereotypes are tools we use to simplify the world. We rely on stereotypes to categorize people and reduce our cognitive processing.

And while these stereotypes do make things easier for our brains, they are, of course, also damaging, causing us to believe things about others that aren’t necessarily true to reality.

In this case, the stereotype I’m discussing is the stigma against gay men being perceived as predators. To fight this dangerous stereotype, we must remember the facts.

A 2011 Southern Poverty Law Center article, for instance, identifies gay men as molesting children at higher rates than heterosexuals as a myth devised to promote harmful, anti-gay policies.

Now, I realize this entire column might sound counterintuitive: Why even remind readers that Minar was part of the queer community when equating that fact with the nature of the charges against him might promote that myth?

I’d argue that whether or not we’d all admit it, there’s some part of us that could have already equated the two in our heads, and in order to combat that stereotype, we must become self-aware of it, especially when decisions about the college’s future are being made.

When the board considers new presidential candidates for the school in 2021, I hope that they remain aware of the possible implicit biases that they or others

might have.

I hope that they consider every candidate, regardless of their identities and which communities they identify with. I hope that they recognize that one man’s alleged actions do not represent the entire queer community, that he’s likely an outlier, and that there shouldn’t be any fears about hiring another queer president.

Our college has made so much progress in terms of providing spaces and platforms for people of all identities to feel comfortable and feel that their voices have been heard.

In particular, all-gender housing, a project spearheaded by alumni Ben Fears and Levi Spaniolo, is something that should be considered as the college continues to move forward with its decision-making.

Spaces like these should be protected and preserved as the college moves forward. After all, what’s the use in creating a safe space for students if it’s only temporary? Then it’s not a safe space anymore; it’s a way station, and it should only serve as a way station if there are larger housing additions planned to aid

CARTOON | SAM HARRISON

students of marginalized identities.

Another group that continues to do important work on campus and in the larger community is the Franklin College Pride Alliance. Events like the annual drag show and the National Coming Out Day campaign not only educate other community members, but they also fund charities that support queer youth and adults. Projects such as these should continue to be championed I haven’t written what I’ve written just to say there isn’t hope. There’s always hope.

But as there is with any inkling of change, there’s always the chance of regression, of the pendulum swinging the wrong way.

A line from one of my favorite poets, Kaveh Akbar, reads like this: “Plants reinvent sugar daily / and hardly anyone applauds.”

This quote rings true for the work Franklin College may need to do to grow from this incident. It’s a sort of reinvention, the kind a starfish has to do after it loses a limb. It’s hard work, and maybe no one will clap. But there’s still an arm. There’s still sugar.

LAST LOOK BORDEN KENNEDY, SENIOR

After the last game of the conference regular season Feb. 22, Kennedy takes his turn cutting a piece of the net, a ceremonial tradition for winning the title of co-champions of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. “I have made so many memories and have learned so many lessons from playing basketball at Franklin College,” Kennedy said. “It is probably my last time playing the game of basketball competitively, but at the same time we accomplished our goal that the team established at the beginning of the season.”

THE FRANKLIN STAFF | COVER PHOTO QUINN FITZGERALD | BACK PHOTO