When students arrive to McPherson College this fall, they will be greeted with several updates across campus.

Most noticeable might be the improvements made as students arrive to campus via Gordon Street. The street was completely reconstructed with new curbs, gutters, drain boxes, a concrete surface, and was widen by several feet. Also welcoming students and visitors to campus is the first phase of the campus sign at the front entrance. The two-story structure features three arches and will eventually include a bricked courtyard, bench and low wall with “McPherson College” prominently displayed. The stone and brick work is set to begin and completion is anticipated in October.

Campus safety was improved over the summer with the installation of a keyless entry system in residence halls, the sports center, and other buildings across campus. Additional buildings will be upgraded in the future. Interior improvements were also made in Friendship Hall where carpet on walls was replaced with a new material called Acousticord; new anti-microbial, abrasion and chemical resistant flooring was installed in Metzler Hall; and new furniture was placed in Bittinger Hall.

Other, less obvious improvements, include the completion of a $7.4 million energy improvement project that replaced older steam heat boilers in campus buildings with hot water boilers making climate control safer and easier to control. Additionally, the improvements are expected to save at least $90,000 per year in utility costs.

“This is one of those project that you’re not going to see when you walk down the sidewalk, but it will serve us well into the future,” Marty Sigwing, director of facilities at McPherson College, said.

Construction also began this summer on the new Bulldog Park baseball/softball complex. The new facility is expected to be complete by the home opener in February. Improvements to the McPherson Stadium continue with the construction of a ticket booth, which will be complete by the time students return to campus.

Dr. Khalilah Doss takes over as vice president for student life and dean of students at McPherson College

McPherson College is excited to welcome Dr. Khalilah Doss as its new vice president for student life and dean of students, starting July 1. Doss is filling a critical role, as she will provide leadership as MC works to define the future of a residential campus as part of its strategic plan, Community by Design.

“Dr. Doss is a welcome addition to our community. She will connect well with our students. Her broad-based skills will help elevate the work we are doing in student life and engage the entire campus in our work to reimagine the residential experience,” said McPherson College President Michael Schneider.

Most recently, Doss served as the assistant dean of students for Lincoln University. At Lincoln, she designed the first and second year experience for the residence halls, as well as led the office of residential life and housing, international student services, auxiliary services and the office of new student programs and engagement. She has extensive experience working with student athletes, special populations and international students.

Before Lincoln, Doss was assistant director of residential life at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. There she assisted the director with managing the residential life and housing department. Her responsibilities included creating and executing diversity programs, academic and social programs, leadership development, student development and assisting with recruitment and retention efforts.

“I am honored for the opportunity to join the McPherson College family, and work with the stellar faculty, staff and students who call McPherson home,” said Doss. “It was clear during my visit that the campus has a commitment to academic excellence and creating a robust co-curricular experience for students. This commitment aligns with my values as it relates to higher education and I am excited to serve the campus and surrounding community in my new role. Go Bulldogs!”

It may seem an impossible task: Inform college students about legal issues around social media, online safety, and appropriate online behavior.

Also, keep them interested.

Fortunately for attorney C.L. Lindsay, speaker at this year’s McPherson College Mohler Lecture on Oct. 27 and 28, he’s done this before and knows the secret – humor and action figures. To illustrate each point, rather than any human models, he employed posed pictures of action figures – everything from Spider-Man to Chuck Norris to Bilbo Baggins.

Covering everything from privacy to Pokémon Go, Lindsay helped share advice to help keep college-age students out of trouble – both in an on-campus gathering on Friday and a lecture open to the public the Thursday evening before.

He said that the basic rule was simple.

“If you wouldn’t do it without technology, don’t do it with technology,” he said. “99 percent of the time that will keep people out of trouble.”

Lindsay said one of the clearest examples is when using email or text. He asks people to imagine walking up to someone and saying to their face what they are about to type. If it feels wrong “in real life,” don’t do it online, either.

“We change our expectations when we go online,” he said. “We change our ethics when we go online.”

He also gave the example of people posting their bad behavior on social media such as Facebook.

“It’s like printing off infinite copies all over campus,” he said.

The focus of his law career took a sharp turn in 1998 with a single phone call from a friend and professor where he went to college – at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. This professor was facing issues of academic freedom, with other faculty trying to pressure him to stop teaching in a certain way. He reached out to Lindsay for help, as the only attorney he knew who could assist him.

In this process, Lindsay realized that there was a true lack of legal assistance in the area of education. As a result, he left his New York law practice to found the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights (CO-STAR). As executive director, he has since built CO-STAR into a national student rights organization that each year helps thousands of college students with their legal problems – free of charge.

To broaden the reach of the lessons he learned by leading CO-STAR, Lindsay wrote the book on legal problems in post-secondary education… literally. His 2005 book “The College Student’s Guide to the Law” continues to be an authoritative guide for students and counsel at colleges and universities nationwide.

Originally, he thought the organization would mostly assist professors, but he quickly discovered that most of the requests for legal help were pouring in from students. Apart from this clear need, he sees a benefit of introducing young people to participating in the legal side of the United States democracy.

For all the warnings in his presentation, Lindsay had a final word of caution – remember that the Internet is like indoor plumbing.

Indoor plumbing can go very, very wrong when toilets back up and bathtubs overflow, but that doesn’t mean anyone really wants to go back to outhouses.

Similarly, the Internet can have terrible consequences, but that doesn’t mean one should give it up entirely – just using common sense.

“Be careful, but don’t shun this stuff,” he said. “This is some of the greatest benefit of getting to live in this day and age.”

McPherson College’s oldest continuous-running lecture series, the Mohler Lecture was made possible starting in 1975 by the generosity of Dr. Robert and Mrs. Fern Shoemaker Mohler. The lecture is supported by permanent funds from the Mohler’s initial gift that are now held in the McPherson College endowment, meaning that the Mohler lecture will continue to bring great speakers to McPherson College for years to come.

Homecoming queen and king: Erika Doty of Ottawa, KS and Landon Stang of Limon, CO.

McPherson College announced its 2016 Homecoming king and queen during homecoming weekend on Oct. 15 – Landon Stang of Limon, Colo., and Erika Doty of Ottawa, Kan.

Stang is an honor roll student majoring in physical education and health with a minor in business administration and management. He was nominated as “emerging leader” in the college’s “Light and Life” Awards in 2014 and has worked as a resident assistant on campus.

He’s also a wide receiver on the football team, has served as a manager for the Bulldog volleyball team, and has competed as a jumper on the track and field team, contributing to the Bulldog men winning the program’s first-ever KCAC Championship in 2014.

Doty is also an honor roll student, majoring in business administration: management/marketing with double minors in psychology and international business and has worked as an MC resident assistant.

She was named a 2016 NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athlete last spring for her performance in the classroom and on the cross-country team as well as the track and field team, as a distance runner. The same year that the men took the KCAC Championships, Doty was part of the 2014 women’s track and field team that also took the Championship crown. For them, the 2014 victory was the first championship since 1977.

The members of the “Homecoming Court” were: Matthew Goist of Navarre, Ohio; Aaron Parrott of Wichita, Kan.; Austin Hiebert of Newton, Kan.; J’Moi Penn of Road Town, British Virgin Islands; Johanna Hoffman of Hillsboro, Kan.; Emily Warner of Wichita, Kan.; Molly Kelley of Shawnee, Kan.; and Jasmine Helms of Manhattan, Kan.

Also see: Homecoming court presentation video