About a week after that, Susan was working in the Dean of Students’ office. She’d all but had to abandon the office on the main floor, and only used it for meeting students with ombudsman issues. Even though deRidder had only been the Dean of Students for a short time he had managed to mess things up royally, and straightening things back out and getting them running smoothly had become a top priority. She still worked on the international studies project when she found the time, but it was mostly just on evenings and weekends.

She was busy when the IM button on her computer flashed; it was Dr. Thompson: I need to see you for a few minutes when you have time.

Almost done here, give me five, she sent in reply. She closed out the letter she had been working on, sent it to the printer, then got up and went down the hall to Dr. Thompson’s office. As usual, Natalie wasn’t there, obviously out running some errand or other for Dr. Thompson. So, as per normal, Susan stuck her head in the door and asked, “You needed to see me?”

“Yes, we have several issues we need to talk about,” he said. “This may take a little while. Would you like a Diet RC Cola?”

“Sure,” she replied. Dr. Thompson had a nearly inexhaustible supply of them in a small refrigerator in the corner of his office, and always had one open on his desk. If he offered her one, that was a sign that things were going well, and that the visit would most likely be lengthy. She got one from the refrigerator, opened it, and went to sit in the chair by the side of his desk. “So what do you have in mind?” she asked.

“I’ve been working with Cody Archer and Chief Bascomb, among others, on the security plan,” he said. “Now that Cody is back on duty he’s giving us a little coverage, but we really need a full-time specialist who can get things organized more permanently. Cody doesn’t want to do it, obviously.”

“We’ve talked about it,” Susan replied. “Let’s face it, he wants to get his law degree.”

“He should indeed. That young man is going to go a long way, and we shouldn’t be a hindrance. He doesn’t think of himself as a security specialist anyway, and he pointed out to me that there is a difference between security and being a police officer. It takes a different mindset. That’s good, from my viewpoint. While we’ve learned that we need more security on campus, I still think there should be a limit to uniformed police presence.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t occasionally have plainclothes officers around,” she said. “But we’re going to set up our own security force, right?”

“That we are. It’s still in the formative stages, but Chief Bascomb has a sergeant who’s getting set to retire, and he thinks that this man has the mindset of a good security man, so we’re going to give him a try. At least he’s a local, so he should have some idea of how we do things here.”

“That will help. It always seems like when we bring in someone from outside we have to go through a period of teaching them that this isn’t the normal college campus.”

“Truer words were never spoken,” Dr. Thompson smiled. “Which actually brings us to the main point that I wanted to talk to you about, which is finding your replacement.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” she replied. “I’m afraid I just don’t know of anyone who’s qualified to be Dean of Students here. It’s an important position, and whoever you pick is going to have to go through a learning curve.”

“No, I do know of someone who is qualified to fill the position,” he smiled. “Eminently qualified in fact, and she is quite familiar with how we do things here. The problem, Susan, is that as Dean of Students you already have too much on your plate, and we need to spin some of it off onto someone else.”

It took a moment for his words to hit her. “Mark,” she said slowly. “Are you saying you want me to be Dean of Students? Permanently?”

“Yes,” he smiled. “You’re doing the job brilliantly in spite of everything, you understand this university about as well as anyone does, and there are few people more dedicated to it than you are. I can’t think of anyone better for the position.”

She shook her head. “Mark, I, uh, I never thought of that. Shouldn’t the job go to someone who is older and more experienced?”

“There are people who could argue that,” he said. “And I agree, you would be very young for the post at a normal university. However, you know as well as I do that this is not a normal university, and the Dean of Students’ position here requires experience that is not available elsewhere. Besides, it’s a good place for you to grow in your usefulness to this institution.”

Susan’s head was spinning after that statement. She hadn’t expected to go to work for Southern Michigan University at all last summer, and really had only stopped here to look for another overseas position. She still wanted to travel, ached for it – it was something she’d dreamed of all her life. Taking the Dean of Students’ position here on a permanent basis could wreck all that.

But, in her dealings with Dr. Thompson over the years, she’d long since learned that honesty and openness was the best policy. “Mark, I’ll be honest,” she said. “I still want to travel, and I’d figured that when I went back to my regular job I’d have the chance to, at least a little. There have been several interesting inquiries coming in from overseas since the shooting and the international attention we had, but they’re going to involve follow-ups on the spot.”

“I’m aware of that. Some of them have come as a result of the friendly treatment you gave the foreign media in the wake of the shooting, but I don’t see why that has to be a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the beginning, when we were first talking about the idea of an international studies program, I’d more or less envisioned it as being something that ought to be in the Institutional Development department. There was no particular reason for that, but it seemed logical. I don’t see why it can’t be in the Dean of Students’ office, perhaps with a separate title. In time it may grow to the point where one person can’t handle it all, but the program is not yet even in its infancy, so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. One of your jobs is going to be to make sure it gets too big for you to handle by yourself, and when that happens, we’ll bring in someone to assist you. But since you’ll still be overseeing the program, you’ll still be able to keep a SMU twist to things, even if we have to bring someone in from outside.”

“And I’ll still be able to do some traveling?”

“Probably not as much as you wish, but some. The real problem is to get you shed of some of your other responsibilities so that you can concentrate on the Dean of Students’ job and developing the international studies program.”

“That’s still a pretty big plate full, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

“True, but one step at a time, Susan,” Dr. Thompson grinned. “First, I think your Student Relations position needs to be folded into the Dean of Students’ office. It really belonged there at the time, but I could see even before you showed up on campus last summer that deRidder wasn’t going to be up to that job too, and my intent was to take certain important functions out of his hands while he learned his way around. It’s a pity that he couldn’t handle even the one he was in, but at least we learned it before it was too late.”

“I’d say I have to agree with you on both items,” she said. “Once we got through with the new student orientation that position has faded a bit. Well, more than a bit, and at that I was doing some things that should have been done in the Dean of Students’ office.”

“You’re dead right on that, but I had my reasons and they proved to be right. So the easy way to deal with that issue is to bring someone in from outside to be your assistant, which would free you up for other things, like giving you time to work on the international studies program. One of the problems we had with deRidder was that he wasn’t given close enough supervision for the amount of authority he had, especially while he was in a learning phase. Bringing someone in who is clearly your assistant will at least allow them to learn how we do things here.”

“Perhaps we can find another SMU graduate who would like to take on the position,” she suggested. “They’d still be pretty young, but they could learn, too. I don’t have any ideas about who at this point, though.”

“An excellent idea,” he replied. “We are still a very young institution, and let’s be honest, we don’t have many graduates who have the age and experience needed. That’s not all bad, because youth and understanding are important too, and you prove it.”

“All right,” she replied. “It sounds like I’m in it for the long haul.”

“Good, Susan. I was really hoping you’d say that. I think you’re going to do great things for the university.”

“I hope so,” she said. “Mark, there’s one other thing that would simplify my job a little.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t want to say the ombudsman position is a pain in the neck, but it does eat up time. What’s more, while I’ve been fairly successful at resolving the problems brought to me, I thought from the beginning that it’s not as effective as it could be.”

“It seems to have worked very well.”

“I think it has, but I think the effectiveness is less, especially now that I’m the Dean of Students. Simply, I’d have to be dealing with myself on a lot of issues, and I really think an outside perspective is useful.”

“Yes, I see your point, on that,” he conceded.

“Realistically, the University Ombudsman shouldn’t be an administrator at all,” she said flatly. “I was effective as an informal ombudsman when I was a student because I was a student. In these kinds of issues, when I’m an administrator, I’m the enemy.”

“All right, I see your point on that, too,” he agreed. “And you have something there. What would you think of naming one or more students to be, oh, ‘designated student ombudsmen,’ and perhaps paying them a stipend for their service?”

“That’s what I was going to suggest, with the idea that I should be their first contact person for most issues.”

“It sounds workable, mostly because you’ve made it work in the past,” he grinned. “Do you have any idea of a student you could ask to take on the role?”

“I sure do. The first person I’d ask would be Laura Delacroix.”

“Laura? She’s a nice girl, but she’s, uh, a little unconventional.”

“True, but that works to the good in this case, and besides, we specialize in unconventional around this place. She’s very well known around campus. She’s already proved that she’ll lock horns with the administration or anyone else if she needs to. She is a very competent individual, mature, and comfortable with who she is, and she’s showed us that she’s no shrinking violet.”

“You might have some points there,” he smiled. “From what I know of her, she’s all of that.”

“Mark,” Susan snickered. “Do you know what the first words she said to me were?”

“No, I don’t.”

“She asked if I was the person to see about problems with the administration, and I told her I was. So she said, and I quote, ‘Ms. McMahon, what the fuck is this shit?’”

“Sounds familiar,” he laughed. “In fact, very familiar. I seem to recall using similar words myself on several occasions a long, long time ago. I think you might have a winner on that one, Susan.”

“I think so too.”

“I’ll let you talk to her about it, but bring her to me if you think you need to. That’s the kind of innovative thinking we will sorely continue to need around here.”

“I’m glad you think so, Mark.”

“I really think having you as the Dean of Students is going to work out well. I’ll admit that when I brought you aboard last summer I was really thinking of you as my utility infielder who I could throw at unforeseen problems, and that part of it worked out just fine. You’re still going to be my utility infielder, but you’re just going to be thrown at bigger problems.”

“Bigger problems? What now?”

Dr. Thompson leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh. “The biggest problem of all, in fact, if we are to assure the future of this place as an innovative place of higher education. There will always be a strong pressure to have us conform to the way things are done at other institutions, and we have to constantly guard against being sucked into that trap. That has been true since the beginning, and it will become even more of a problem in the future. Susan, I don’t want to make promises at this distance, but in time you may prove to be the solution to that problem, or at least to shove it off farther into the future.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Susan, I’m not a young man. I have no desire to steal softly away into the night and I intend to hold this job until I’m no longer able. But my biggest fear is that when I have to leave, the University Board of Regents will be tempted to bring someone conventional into this seat. Can you imagine what this place would be like with someone like deRidder as president?”

“It would be ruined in short order,” she said, seeing the obvious. “As you said, sucked into the trap of the conventional.”

“Absolutely. That was one of the things that irritated me the most about him. He was not only allowing it to happen, he was actively trying to make it happen. Once again, I’d hoped he would see the light, but he didn’t. Susan, I’ve been thinking about this especially hard since the shooting, but the best way to avoid falling into that trap may be to have a designated successor already in place when the time comes for me to go. And, as I said, I’m not a young man and we never know what tomorrow will bring.”

“Dr. Thompson,” she said, avoiding the familiar casualness that they had enjoyed until now. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I don’t want to make promises, since we never know what’s going to happen. You’re not ready to sit in this chair yet and you have a great deal to learn before you will be. Besides, the regents would not accept someone of your age no matter how experienced and qualified you are. But, in ten years, if you have the qualifications and experience, and are my designated successor …”

Susan was silent for a moment. “That’s a very, very heady thought,” she said finally. “I don’t know if I’ll be up to the job.”

“I don’t know yet, either,” he smiled. “But that’s in the future and you have time to learn. It would help if you could tack on a PhD after your title in the next few years, but we’ll have to look into that issue. What I’m thinking is that in a few years, after you’ve been Dean of Students for a while and perhaps have that degree, I wouldn’t foresee any problems in creating and having you named to the position of, oh, ‘Vice-President for Institutional Affairs.’”

“That sounds like a utility infielder on a grand scale,” she smirked.

“It might well be, but it also would be a logical place for a designated successor. Susan, I won’t kid you. It’s going to be a tough and challenging job to get you ready in the time we have available, and there’s a good chance we won’t succeed. But you’re the best hope I have at the moment that we can carry on the legacy we are creating here. Now, I have to ask, are you willing to take on the challenge?”

“Considering that the alternative is to risk letting this place fall into the trap of conventionality and mediocrity, I don’t see much choice.”

“Welcome aboard, Susan. It’s going to be an interesting ride.”

*   *   *

In time Christmas rolled around, and with it some snow for the holidays and the end of the semester. Stacy Foster was very pleased at how well things had worked out, especially once she’d gotten settled into the place. She knew she was on the Dean’s list, and high on it at that – it felt like a real accomplishment considering how difficult her classes had been.

All the stories had been right – they really worked your butt off at SMU. But she felt like she’d learned far more than she’d imagined, and was looking forward to next semester’s classes.

She’d known all along that Laura didn’t live very far from her and her parent’s home, fifty miles or so, and not far out of the way, so it was easy to ride home with her.

It wasn’t as if Stacy really wanted to go home. She’d gotten used to not having her mother on her butt all the time, second-guessing her every move, trying to wheedle her into doing her wishes. She knew her mother was very frustrated over losing control of her daughter’s life, and was doing everything she could to cling to what had once been. Stacy resented it, of course, and the holidays were going to be a really serious dose of it.

At least there was the prospect of some break – Laura had offered to drive over so they could get together for a while. Stacy really wanted to meet Laura’s parents; she’d heard a great deal about them, and they sounded very cool indeed, especially in comparison to her own.

Stacy’s mother didn’t say very much as Laura helped Stacy carry her few bags into the house. Stacy knew that Laura intimidated her mother, not so much for who she was, but because she reminded her mother of the loss of control over her daughter as Stacy developed new friends and new interests.

However, as soon as Laura left, Stacy’s mother started in on her. “I don’t see why you had to ride home with that girl,” she said. “We were perfectly able to come pick you up.”

“Oh, it wasn’t out of the way,” Stacy replied. “It was the logical thing to do.”

“I’m very disappointed. We’d hoped that you would have seen the light and would have been ready to come home and transfer to the community college like we wanted you to do.”

“Oh, no way,” Stacy said. “I’ve really come to like Southern. It’s really an impressive place. I think I learned more in a semester there than I could have learned in a couple of years at the community college and there will be more to come. I feel like I’m on my way to places I would never have gone otherwise.”

“I still think you’re wrong on that and I would be much happier if you were to stay home like we wanted,” her mother weaseled. “But at least we’ll have you home for a while. It will be a relief to have you home next summer, too.”

“That’s something I needed to talk about, Mom,” Stacy grinned. “It’s not all settled yet, but it’s beginning to look like I’m going to have a job next summer.”

“A job? Why would you want to do that?”

“For the experience and a line on a résumé,” she replied. “Laura is pretty sure she can get me on at that place she worked last summer. It’s up north, and she says it’s pretty cool, and the money won’t hurt either. We’re already looking forward to working together.”

“I don’t see why you think you need a job,” her mother huffed. “But you’ll hopefully think better of it in time.”

“I doubt I will,” Stacy smiled, resolving to not even hint that the summer job was at a nudist resort. There was no point in getting into that battle until it was necessary, but she was already looking forward to watching her mother oscillate when she found out. That would be a sight to see and would prove once and for all that she was her own person, not her mother’s plaything. “It’s really too good an opportunity to pass up.”

*   *   *

One day early in the spring, Cody got home from a class at Notre Dame earlier than he had expected – a professor had the flu or something, so had canceled his class. It was a nice drive back to Hawthorne – a warm, clear day, with buds starting to show on the trees, the grass greening up a little bit. Better weather would soon be here, he thought.

Though Cody wasn’t a full-time law student at Notre Dame yet, he had been taking a couple of classes to get them out of the way. Having to commute back and forth to Hawthorne, life was going to be a little more complicated for the next few years.

Although he still worked as a part-time police officer, he could see the day coming when he would give it up – the law school classes were starting to take too much time.

Jan was still working odd hours at the nursing home, too. Sometimes his schedule didn’t connect well with hers, and that was going to get worse too, as she would be to taking classes at Notre Dame as well next fall.

Cody climbed up the stairs, unlocked the door to their apartment, and found Jan sound asleep on the couch. She looked peaceful, and she looked as beautiful to him as always. They might have found each other the hard way, had a rough time building their lives after that, but it had been worth it. He took the hint, went to the kitchen, opened his computer and began on some homework.

For as observant as Cody was, sometimes he could be as blind as anyone else before it struck him – Jan hardly ever went to sleep without having him in bed with her, and never when she was alone in the apartment. It just never happened – but now he realized it had.

He glanced over at her, a little in surprise. She seemed normal. Although he wondered what was going on, he decided to not bother her. “Sleep peacefully, honey,” he said in a barely-audible whisper.

A couple of hours later Jan woke up, stretched, and got up. “Did you have a good nap?” he asked when he saw she was up and running.

“Very good,” she yawned. “I really needed that.”

He wanted to ask the obvious question, but was afraid to do so, but she could see what was on his mind. “I really needed it,” she continued. “I thought I’d take the risk, since I haven’t had Dad and Bobby come after me in my dreams since the shooting last fall.”

“Maybe they’re gone for good.”

“I think they are, Cody. I really think they are.”

Editors’ note: The above is chapter 39, posting on a Sunday night. Wes wanted new books starting on a Sunday, so we needed another chapter to post on Wednesday night as a filler. There are plans to have another chapter ready, an outtake of a previously published book, one not really related to this one but featuring a character from the above story. You’ll have to wait to see who it is, but if everything works out, the “chapter” will be there, hopefully linked from the main page rather than from in The Spearfish Lake House chapter listing. It’s a filler chapter only, not meant to be a real full-blown short story, mostly background info that will interest many fans. There is also an Afterword just below here that you don't want to miss, so scroll down.

Author’s note: At some point I realized I was going to have Cody, Jan, Jack, Vixen, Alan, and Summer at Southern Michigan University all at the same time. Also, a projected series that never came to fruition would have also featured Susan there as an undergraduate, as well. Since the university was obviously going to be the location of a future story, I decided I’d better pull together my thoughts, and wrote a long memo to myself about it. Then, one evening I whimsically pulled those notes together in a format that could have been a background press release that would have been distributed by the university public relations department. The release included a few things about the university I was not able to work into this story, so just for a special bonus to readers, I’m including it here.

Southern Michigan University is a special place that unfortunately only exists in my head, though I’ve often wished it was real.

-- WB

(Editors’ Note: Below was written by Wes August 30, 2010 [the day before finishing Susan, published in 2012], though The Spearfish Lake House was written and finished three years later, in the time period between April 23 and November 17, 2013.)

Southern Michigan University is the newest and smallest university in the Michigan system of state schools. It’s also the least known, although this is rapidly changing.

The school, located in Hawthorne, Michigan, occupies the physical campus of the former Hawthorne College, but has little other historical connection. SMU (sometimes known as SMU – Hawthorne, not because it’s any kind of an extension school, but to differentiate it from Southern Methodist University in Texas) is known for its innovative, fresh and sometimes radical approach to post-secondary education.

Its predecessor, Hawthorne College, was founded in 1898 by Ephraim Z. Tottenhaven as an independent – some said downright defiant – religious school with the intent of preparing students to be ministers in churches not closely affiliated with major religious sects of the day. Tottenhaven, a fiery evangelist, felt that conventional denominations were too intransigent to be able to recognize the Word of God. Over time the school came to be identified with evangelistic Pentecostalism. Under Tottenhaven’s firm guidance, the school grew steadily up until his death in 1927, reaching its early peak enrollment of about 800 students.

Inspiration – and funding – fell off after Tottenhaven’s death, at least partly due to the impact of the Great Depression. The college experienced a surge of enrollment after World War II, when students studying under the “G.I. Bill of Rights” were desperate for any college that could be found that had room for them. However, that surge ended by the early 1950s, and for the most part Hawthorne College went back to sleep. Both the endowment and enrollment dwindled up into the early 1980s, when it became clear to the administration that it was going to take more than prayer to fix the institution’s woes.

Up until that time the college had little interaction with the Hawthorne community, which had grown to surround the city block upon which the campus stood. Two actions were taken to try and save the college – first, a closer affiliation with a religious sect scattered around the Midwest, the Disciples of the Savior, though the college maintained its independent status. More importantly, a decision was made to accept local students as commuters to study in some “practical” fields that were introduced at the time. This program met with only partial success, since the community students were never accepted as more than second-class students against the religious elite, but some local students did manage degrees there.

By then the college was in trouble. There had been no new construction since 1928, a dormitory commissioned by Tottenhaven and completed after his death. There was little money available for maintenance on the aging buildings, and one dormitory dating from 1901 had to be abandoned. The campus took on a dilapidated if not downright decayed appearance. While no one in administration wanted to admit it, the end was clearly near. However, it was not until 1993 that the end finally came, when the mounting debt could no longer be covered up from the auditors and creditors, partly due to the fact that the administration preferred prayer to financial advice.

The campus sat empty and unwanted for the next six years; even the “For Sale” sign on the unmown lawn of the administration building began to look frayed and tattered. By the late 1990s, there was a growing demand on the part of the city of Hawthorne and its residents to “do something about that eyesore.”

The local State Senator, Edwin C. Smith, smelled opportunity, and, of course, votes from grateful citizens. In 1999, he managed to wrangle a bill through the state legislature to purchase the campus for pennies on the dollar and to set up Southern Michigan University as a part of the state school system. In the long run, it did Smith no good; he was defeated by a Republican in the next election who charged him with “wasting tax dollars by throwing money down that rat hole.”

The major Michigan universities (Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State) are governed by Boards of Regents elected statewide. The smaller state universities, such as Eastern, Western, Central, and several others, are governed by their own boards of regents selected by the state board of regents. The state board, naturally, had less than no interest in this unwanted child that had been forced upon them, and did as little about it as they could as long as they could. However, the chairman of the board, Julius. R. Stedemeyer, also smelled opportunity.

One of the problems that Stedemeyer had was the existence of several malcontents scattered among several of the state university boards of regents. Somewhere along the way, he got the idea of concentrating these people onto the Southern Michigan University Board of Regents so they could be more easily ignored and the business of the other universities could go on more peacefully.

It looked good on paper but didn’t work out quite the way Stedemeyer had expected. The “malcontents” were people dissatisfied with the current way post-secondary education was being conducted, who sought many major, if not radical innovations, so rather than fighting him they rolled over and played dead until the action was completed. At their first meeting, they hired former ’70s radical Mark S. Thompson to be the university’s new chancellor. Though somewhat older now, Thompson was still energetic, far-seeing, outspoken, and inspirational – and had many moneyed contacts that could be tapped to prime the pump for the new university.

It took a while to get everything going, and more money than Thompson had foreseen, but Southern Michigan University opened for its first class of students in 2001. One hundred and ninety-eight students took the plunge to help build something where there had been nothing but near wreckage before.

One of Thompson’s firm beliefs was that “athletics are nothing more than a pimple on the ass of education” and would have nothing to do with them. Thompson made that point in 2001, when a huge grant from California software company Wyndham Systems allowed for the construction of a new science and computer science building. Hawthorne College had never had a science building – the old administration had never even considered one, since, as Thompson said, “They didn’t even want to admit that Darwin existed, let alone admit that he was right.” While there were condemned buildings on the rather cramped campus that could have been torn down to make way for the new structure, Thompson instead chose to place the new building right on what had been the fifty yard line of the football field.

In 2011, the new Community Services Center located on the campus received national attention when a former Hawthorne College graduate, angered at the “disrespect that had been done to the Hawthorne religious tradition” went on a religion-inspired killing rampage. The spree was brought to an end by a pre-law student, Cody Archer, who was also a part-time policeman in the city of Hawthorne. Archer had his hideout weapon on him when he came to a campus event in the building, and killed the intruder. Fortunately, no students were killed in the incident, although six were wounded. Archer and his wife Janice, a nursing student, were instrumental in saving several lives by applying first aid before local authorities were persuaded that it was safe to enter the building. Even rabidly anti-gun Thompson praised Archer for bringing his gun to school that particular day. As a result of the heroism of the couple in this incident, the building was renamed the “Archer Community Services Center” – an unusual honor in that both the Archers were still students at the time the renaming was done.

There is only one other named building on campus, the Wyndham Science Center. University officials have spurned the building names carried over from the Hawthorne era, and even the administration building, once called “Tottenhaven Hall” is now simply referred to as “Old Main”, although students sometimes call it “T-Hall,” or “The dump.” The building is admittedly elderly and is likely to be replaced in the near future.

To give an idea of how far the abandonment of the old names has gone, the three remaining dormitories are simply referred to as Charlie, Echo and Foxtrot halls, an adaptation of an old military phonetic alphabet. Greek alphabet letters were considered, but were rejected due to the administration’s wish to not encourage “Greek” fraternities on campus.

In a few years, probably the only building to remain from the Hawthorne College will be the old campus chapel, now decommissioned from that use and simply referred to as “The SMU Auditorium.” Though much has been done to reduce the religious decoration of the old building, first opened in 1901, it still looks much like the church that it was for decades. It was, for many years, the only building on campus that the old Hawthorne administration tried to keep in good condition. The desire to leave at least a piece of tradition on campus, as well as taking advantage of the building’s incredible acoustics led to the decision to keep the structure. A little ironically, the convocation to open the new university in 2001 fell on the exact hundredth anniversary of the building’s opening. To mark the occasion, recording artists Dayna Berkshire and Sandy Beach, assisted by the Kalamazoo Symphony, performed their remarkable and touching composition, “Up From the Ashes,” written specially to mark the event. It was the first time in the building’s century of history that it had been used for a secular concert.

Secular music has continued to be a mainstay of events in the SMU Auditorium. The administration has encouraged student government to bring in musicians and other entertainment for their “Friday Night Party Down” series there; the series has at one time or another featured a number of nationally known artists. The “Friday Night Party Down” series has also included plays, dances, Karaoke nights, talent shows, and anything else a very creative student body can come up with to attempt to turn Reverend Tottenhaven over in his grave.

College growth has been both steady and spectacular. While the enrollment had grown to about 500 students by 2004, it had reached around 1500 in the fall of 2011. By then several of the older and most dilapidated buildings in the northeast part of the campus had been torn down, and the campus was bursting at the seams. In order to accommodate the increased student population one of the dormitory buildings had to be converted to offices and classrooms, putting more strain on an increasingly strained student housing situation. There was a moratorium on new construction pending the start of the planned 16-story student residence building on the northwest part of campus; due to the limited footprint of the university there was no place to grow but up. Completion of the residence building is expected in 2012; a twin building is planned to break ground in 2014 and may still not be enough to keep up with the explosive enrollment growth.

Considering the very limited footprint of Southern Michigan University, the growth of the total college enrollment and the number of students living off campus, parking is a problem. Parking is a problem on most college campuses, of course, but it’s expected to get worse by whole orders of magnitude with the completion of the residential towers. For the present, the college has introduced continually-running shuttle buses to a parking area at a vacant shopping center almost two miles from the campus. This, however, is only a temporary solution for a number of reasons, mostly because the college only has a short-term lease on the parking lot. But a huge parking structure nearer campus has been proposed, with a continually-running light rail connection linking the two, featuring indoor stops at the residential towers and the main buildings. “The limited space we have here is too valuable to be wasted on vehicles,” Thompson commented. “There are other, more valuable ways we could use land than on-campus parking lots.”

In order to handle the housing problem, students are encouraged to live off campus, and the encouragement includes a stiff fee for on-campus housing, much higher than any other state college. As a result, apartment rentals near campus are also quite high, but due to the anticipation of the new housing units, real estate sale prices are relatively low. The university has taken advantage of this by assisting students in purchasing apartment buildings at low interest rates, which has become a common practice.

While “student government” is a nearly meaningless phrase on most college campuses, it is not at Southern Michigan University. Student input is actively sought in both campus governance and future plans. It was primarily student input, rather than the administration’s, that led to the development of the student fitness center opened in 2006. This features an indoor running track, weight rooms, and a small pool, along with locker rooms. This was slightly surprising in that many Southern Michigan University students are not particularly interested in athletics, and, in fact, many are actively opposed to them. Much of the university’s appeal to prospective students is hinged on this, and is a major selling point for the university. “It’s nice to be able to go to school and not have to put up with jocks working off excess testosterone by throwing their weight around,” is a frequent student comment.

Academically, Southern Michigan is innovative and non-traditional as well. The college offers no degrees in fields that could be considered “liberal arts” and there are no teacher education classes. “There are plenty of liberal arts colleges that can train students to work the drive up windows at fast food joints,” Thompson has repeatedly commented. “Our intent is to train serious students for useful careers.” With some minor exceptions, the only “liberal arts” classes at the college are intended to bring students up to minimum competency standards where their high schools have failed to adequately prepare them.

However, Southern Michigan is prepared to assist students in preparing for a wide variety of careers. “If we can’t offer a student a useful class, we’re prepared to find someone who can,” Thompson says. As an example, former student activist Susan Langenderfer-McMahon, now Dean of Students, graduated with a pair of degrees in international business and journalism. While the international business degree was mostly attained on campus, the college worked out a partnership for her at nearby but out-of-state Notre Dame University for her journalism degree. “It may be better that way,” Ms. Langenderfer-McMahon said. “That means I have a journalism degree of Notre Dame quality without people automatically assuming that I majored in sports writing.”

“One of the nice things about this place is that we’re not saddled with the feeling that we do things because they’ve always been done that way before,” Thompson said early in the school’s development, “because here, there is no ‘before.’” Thompson insists that the school, and its departments and educators are there to fit their programs to their student’s needs, rather than the school forcing the student into a program to fit the college’s convenience.

The school does not have a large full-time faculty, and indeed, tenure is not offered. “Our teachers have to continually prove their competence to teach their subjects,” Thompson has said. “Nobody skates through here, teachers or students.” The school tries to assure that their faculty is competent in their fields by bringing in part-time adjuncts who are currently active in their fields, rather than permanent faculty who may be out of touch with recent developments. They’re doing what they teach and know what works. The administration has the reputation for paying well to hire part-time adjuncts who are well-qualified in their fields.

Since much of the faculty comes from business and industry, traditional academia is somewhat spurned. “Having a PhD is almost the kiss of death around here,” Business Department Chairman David Albright, a retired insurance company executive from Connecticut, has commented. “It just about proves that the applicant doesn’t really know what’s happening out there.” Even a department head like Albright is only part-time – he maintains a successful Internet marketing business on the side.

Tuition at Southern Michigan University is high – indeed, the highest of any of the state schools. Since the school is new it does not have a large endowment, in fact, it is very small by any standards, so school-based financial aid incentives are limited. “This isn’t all bad,” Thompson has commented. “It assures us of highly-motivated students who are looking to get the best education for their dollar, and we try to give it to them.” The high cost of an education at Southern Michigan is somewhat offset by some innovative “apprenticeship” programs. In these programs a student is partnered with a prospective employer early on, with the employer paying part of the cost of the education in return for the student’s contracting to work for that employer upon graduation or be forced to repay the employer’s cost. Few have; overall the program has been a spectacular success.

When the university started, the use of the term “university” was a little incorrect, in that Southern Michigan was not yet ready to award advanced degrees. In fact, the first year, it awarded only one bachelor’s degree to a student who transferred in after several years’ break in her education. The first master’s degree was awarded in 2004, a master’s in Business Administration.

Due to such programs and the innovative vision in the development of the university, it is growing rapidly and becoming a model of how education can be done, and be done the right way. It’s a model of how things may be done in the future – but at Southern Michigan, the future is now.

Editors’ note: Edits done after the author’s death may not have caught some events in this book that do not coincide with events in other books by the author.

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