WMU

Two alumni of Western Michigan University say they faced racial discrimination while studying in the School of Music, and one says she was also treated unfairly because of her gender. The head of Western’s highly regarded vocal jazz ensemble, Professor Greg Jasperse, is at the center of their complaints. The university has cleared him of wrongdoing, but the students’ claims have caught the attention of the highest levels of Western’s administration.

Back in 1976, then-graduate art student Ken Freed won a Ford Foundation grant to create a series of ten intaglio prints.

Kalamazoo has a link to an African-American woman who, involuntarily, contributed to seven decades of medical breakthroughs in cancer, AIDS, polio, even the coronavirus vaccine: Jermaine Jackson is a nephew of the late Henrietta Lacks. He recently completed a traveling exhibit about her.

Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams, the director of choral activities at Western Michigan University, knew the pandemic would drastically reduce in-person singing. She also knew that her students wanted to be as productive as possible and make a difference. Then she remembered the wedding of some dear friends, in which the couple offered tokens representing donation amounts in place of favors, encouraging their guests to assign their tokens to selected charities. It sparked a months-long project called Choir for Good.