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Potter Profile: Naomi Woolsey

On a four-pronged stool, a young woman sits, preparing a ball of clay to be thrown on the potter’s wheel before her. The quiet studio is dusty; the art residue turning afternoon sunlight into a soft, dawn fog. Nodding her approval she centers the clay on the wheel.

Naomi Woolsey RGBNaomi Woolsey, a Houghton graduate of 2010, has been practicing ceramics in Houghton College’s studio for over 5 years. She did not major in art, but has felt a love for creating ever since she was a child. “Some of my first memories are of playing in the creek here at Houghton when I’d visit my grandparents,” said Woolsey, “I’d make tiny pots out of the creek clay.” She paused, laughing softly, “Things have really come full circle.”

Woolsey is currently the Teacher’s Assistant for Professor Gary Baxter’s ceramics classes including Ceramics 1, Ceramics 2, and Figurative Clay Sculpture. Baxter became acquainted with Woolsey when she took his ceramics classes as a student.  He noticed her aptitude for acquiring necessary skills and the joy she derived from creating. Thomas Eckert ‘16, a student in Ceramics 1 this past semester said, “Naomi’s joy is evident from the way she works. That joy is imbued in the pieces she produces.”  

When asked about her craft Woolsey explains, “A lot of potters become potters because they fall in love with the material. You’ve got your hands in it. You can really immerse yourself in earth, fire, water, air.” She went on saying, “It records your movement. Even your fingerprint could stay there for tens of thousands of years.”

After graduation Woolsey helped out in the ceramics studio and continued making her pieces.  A year later when the TA position became available she was the natural choice. Her responsibilities now include helping students, doing demonstrations, firing the kilns, and constituting glazes. Baxter has been very pleased to work with her and said, “She’s very responsive, willing to help where she can, and reliable.”

While at Houghton, Woolsey studied Theology and Biblical Studies and has used that training in her artwork. In 2012, Woolsey started an online Etsy site because her basement started filling up. Since the foundation of the shop it has grown sustainably. Luminaries – rounded, decoratively porous candle holders – are among her bestselling items. She also specializes in communion sets and liturgical ware.

In addition to these objects, she also produces work on commision. Last year she was hired by a church in Rochester to make a prayer vessel. The church leaders wanted a physical object to be used in the liturgy where written congregational requests could be placed and later incorporated into the pastoral prayer. The main idea to be conveyed by the piece was that God hears our prayers and God’s people hear our prayers.
Woolsey explained, “Thinking about my field in ceramics and imagery in the Bible I created a vessel that brought together the ideas of the golden bowls placed before God in Revelation and the story in Exodus of Moses and the burning bush. Both of these images convey ideas of God hearing prayer and acting on it by enabling a human servant to hear the people’s prayer and act on it.”

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Faculty Attend Wesleyan Transgender Conference

On January 24, 2014 representatives from Houghton College, Indiana Wesleyan University, and Oklahoma Wesleyan University were invited to attend a meeting at the Wesleyan Church Headquarters, in Indianapolis, IN, to look over a draft policy statement on the issue of transgender.

Courtesy of saxony-indiana.com
Courtesy of saxony-indiana.com

Representatives from each college typically consisted of an administrator and a theologian. It was decided that Dr. Richard Eckley, professor of theology and an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church, and Dr. Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, would be the two representatives for Houghton. The group of representatives was called together by the Church even though the policy had already been through the denomination’s general board “to further review the issue,” as Eckley explained.

“I was hoping to help my denomination think through the foundational areas necessary for making a sound pastoral approach to this issue.  The homosexual question has been addressed by all with little common ground,” said Eckley.

Eckley described the trip as “a meeting of representatives of the

Wesleyan Church’s colleges/universities to look over a draft policy statement on the issue of transgender.” A total of eight people were present at the meeting, each being given the policy draft ahead of time to be looked over prior to the start of the meeting.

Eckley expressed, “The transgendered person is a part of our churches, and therefore is more than a topic; it is a question about how the Church gives hospitality to the people that make up her congregation.” At a time when transgender is a delicate topic, especially in the church, the policy is aimed to be a guideline to create a careful balance of honoring scripture, but also to know how to pastor and show love and support to people going through questions of expression.

“The policy statement is shaping up to be a kind of ‘middle way’ approach,” said Eckley. Eckley explained how the Church seems to be taking a traditional approach to the Biblical, theological, and scientific research, while also not forgetting the importance of pastoral guidance in churches and learning communities.

“If there’s a singular thing I learned, its try to be more Christ-like. More clear on what the scripture says and doesn’t say, and not to be afraid to honor the scripture,” said Pool. “I want any student to be able to come here and thrive.”

A second motivation for the policy, and reason for the meeting is guidance for the possibility of future ligation on the subject of hiring in Christian colleges and universities. In the past Christian institutions have faced legal disputes on the matter of transgender faculty. The idea is to prevent schools without a policy from being in a bad position to have a clear response in these cases.  “Of course, as a theologian, I am not that excited about documents drawn up primarily for lawyers,” Eckley joked.

It is clear that the completion of the policy will not fix all problems, but it is definitely a start, as Eckley referred to the meeting as “an attempt to refrain from judgmentalism and to offer understanding and compassion to those struggling with sexual identity dysphoria.” The college has taken a big step towards making the campus a place that welcomes all people, and with the policy colleges can have a consistent approach on doing so.

The final draft will be ratified within the next few weeks, where once completed, can be viewed online at the Wesleyan Church website.

Apart from the policy being put together by the Wesleyan Church, Houghton College had also begun to create a pastoral letter on homosexuality for its campus. The letter will aim to show how “as a community Houghton can help, support, and pastor those with same sex attraction,” explained Pool.

 

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Islamic Studies on the Ropes

As part of a recent series of academic budget cuts, Islamic Studies will no longer be offered as a minor or as a concentration in the Intercultural Studies major. Decisions to make such cuts began back in October, with various meetings with the Academic Council, faculty, and the academic affairs committee of the board of trustees aiding the decision-making process. Academic Dean Linda Mills Woolsey, in charge of making such cuts, stated that, “Ultimately, the decision is my decision as the dean, so I take responsibility for it even though I’ve consulted with other people,” adding that “the decision making for these things is a process.”

Courtesy of http://iqraislamicstudies.webs.com/
Courtesy of http://iqraislamicstudies.webs.com/

One of the driving reasons behind the cuts is a lack of student interest and enrollment in the program. The Islamic Studies program had managed to occupy a middle ground in terms of enrollment in the early years after its initiation in 2006; however, enrollment numbers have since dwindled. The minor has managed to maintain an average of 8.2 minors every five years between 2009 and 2013, but the concentration in the Intercultural Studies major experienced a decline in numbers between 2011 and 2013, averaging 3.6 majors with the Islamic Studies concentration per five years. This year the minor numbers three students while the concentration numbers two. Mills Woolsey cites an overall decline in college enrollment as one of the reasons behind the shrinking of the program, but admits that certain disciplines have suffered more than others. “As our enrollment has declined, it hasn’t declined proportionately across the board, so we’re investing a lot in really small majors.” Michael Walters, chair of the religion, theology, and Bible departments, takes a different view. “I know our numbers in our department have been down a little bit, so I think it’s reasonable to assume that the pool of students who would normally be interested in that sort of thing has been a bit smaller than it was in the past, but I don’t think that’s a sufficient explanation.” Mills Woolsey also expressed a sense of confusion at the lack of student interest. “I thought with the coming of the Arab Spring there would be a resurgence in student interest in Islam, so I don’t know whether it’s that our students aren’t interested in that or that there’s something about the way we framed the minor or the concentration didn’t have a broad enough usefulness for students.”

Further rationale for the cuts determined that the funds from the minor and concentration were needed more in certain under resourced disciplines such as finance, digital media, and biochemistry. According to Mills Woolsey, the cut of the Islamic Studies program is part of the college’s effort to deal with problem areas “where we need to make full-time hires and we don’t have the budget to make those hires, so right now we’re looking at, and will continue to throughout the course of this year, minors and concentrations that have very few students.”

Another problem for the program is its dependence on two part-time professors also engaged in missions work, a situation which creates potential for future career conflicts. “It’s just owing to the good generosity of the missions agencies that Drs. Hegeman and Little work with that we’ve been able to do what we’ve done,” said Walters. “I think that’s very unsettling to a college administrator. What happens if those missions organizations simply say, “we need you to be full-time in Benin or Morocco’? We don’t have anybody in our department who can teach that stuff.” There had been consideration of merging Islamic Studies with the religion department with religion professors teaching similar classes, but, as Walters further explained, “I don’t think we have faculty right now in the department that are qualified to do it.”

While various faculty members expressed regret at the cuts, there is some agreement that changes need to be made to its structure if there is any chance for its reinstatement in the future. Marcus Dean, chair of the Intercultural Studies department, attested to the diversity of the program in its applications, stating that “Some focus on developing an academic understanding of Islam and some are more outreach or missions focused.  This makes the content applicable in diverse areas of service. For example, one of the Islam courses has been an option for international development programs.” Walters also cited applications in international business.

Mills Woolsey wondered if more areas could be covered in the program to capture student interest. “Islamic Studies as we’re doing it is primarily the study of Islam as a world religion and a study from an apologetic, missiological perspective, which are very good things, but it may be that there’s not a big enough group of students who want that perspective on Islam. The other areas where you could study Islamic culture would be social, political, even the art and architecture of the Islamic world. Islamic Studies is kind of a broad field.” She added, “It’s obvious that Islamic Studies is an important field of study, but we haven’t framed it in a way that’s attracting a lot of students, so we have to go back to the drawing board and see what can be done to make this more inviting to students, more accessible to students… sometimes you do have to take something down to build it up again.”