Kansas Wesleyan University - Coyote Yearbook (Salina, KS)

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24 IM usic van den Honert shows his conducting technique.. Photo by Kirsten K. Stanton. Q van den Honert looks wet and weary after a long day at the carwash. Photo by Kirsten K. Stanton. Dr. Karen Bals David Clark Dr. Peter van den Honert The Liberal Arts Tradition Dr. Peter van den Honert I don't pay lip service to it, I believe in the Liberal Arts tradition. I was raised that way . . . I believe that we are training people to think. van den Honert recieved a liberal arts education himself at Grinnell College in Illinois. He then went on to get his masters at the University of Illinois after which he taught middle and high school for nine years in northwest suburban Chicago. He became a member of the Wesleyan faculty in the fall of 1985, directly after receiving his doctorate at the University of Missouri, K.C. Last year I spent a lot of the time trying to figure out what was going on . . . I've become more involved on campus this year. Being the choral director creates a lot of personal contact with students as the choir and chorale take many short trips and tour together in the Spring. I enjoy the personal interplay I have with choir members, the rapier wit repertoire . . . in a big college with a million people in the choir you don't get that. van den Honert hopes to see the size of the choir grow to around 60 really top-notch singers, . . . our departmental award isn't very much at this time. I hope the Second Century Campaign achieves its goal, then maybe some of the departmental awards can start going up . . . the recent reorganization of financial aid is a promising step. As well as being Wesleyan's choral director, van den Honert is the choral director at the First United Methodist Church and the director of the Salina Chorale. With what spare time he has left, he likes to spend it with his wife Nancy and his labrador Liza or pursuing his hobbies of photography, reading, Cespecially The Far S idej and flying. V5 t

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The Glass Woman Is... Patricia T raxler Although she has been teaching the Creative Writing course at Kansas Weslayan for seven years, Patricia Traxler doesn't come in contact with most students because her course is taught only during the summer. Traxler is a professional poet and novelist from San Diego. When I first moved here I wanted to find piece- work which is how I sustain myself. She came to the college and convinced them that there should be an 'introductory course in Creative Writing during the summer and that she was the person to teach it. Traxler has had two collections of her own poetry published CBlood Calendar and The Glass Womanj, has edited a collection by other writers, and has just finished her first novel. Her work has appeared in such periodicals as Cottonwood Review, The Malahat Review, Ms. Magazine, The Nation, and Poetry Now. Poetry is my main love. I've written fiction off and on. Reading novels has always been a treat for me...I find, I just want to write a poem and that's what I do. Wesleyan isn't her only contact with the college communities. She was poet- in-residence at the University of Kansas during the Spring term of 1987. I travel around a lot. I know the people in the writing community and that's where I maintain my contact. Traxler said she does not like to goto too many writer's conferencesfbecause for her they can be impediments to writing. I wasn't writing as much as I want to. To me a writer is a solitary person most of the time, especially when they're working. What I discovered was that we'd have readings and these people would read the same thing every time because they weren't working...to me, a writer has to write. She said, Sometimes they would tell a great story at a writer's workshop, but in the telling they'd lose the creative interest in writing it. They were finished with it. The very worst thing about being a writer is the writing...and the very best thing about being a writer is the writing. It's tough but I couldn't live without it. Traxler got her degree in Literary Criticism from the University of California. I learned more reading books at ni ht The classes would g . inspire me to want to learn' more. Education has always been for me a jump off point. My best learning has been a result of taking a class that has inspired me. For example, when I studied Uamesj Joyce, we had to read Ulysses really fast. How can you read Ulysses fast? From there I read more about Joyce on my own...I just sort of saturated myself in Joyce. That's how I really learn. Everytime I'd take a classul really liked, I'd go to the library and try to find out as much as I could on my own. Like the mythic Glass Woman ofnher poems, Traxler shows herself to have many facets. by Brian David Phillips Patricia Traxler isn't well known on campus, but this outspoken writer has a lot to contribute. Photo by Cindy Wunder. ' Marcia MacLennan Janice Stanton Patricia Traxler English! 23

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Dr. Jack Favre poses with some of his artwork. Photo by Kirsten K. Stanton. WM 'fa sm ,M ' Dr. Jack Favre Being Creative Vicariously Dr. Jack Favre Being able to see the problem, address the problem and then come up with a realistic and satisfactory solution is really what creativity is all about. Anyone who has taken a class with Dr. Jack Favre knows his technique of answering a question with a question. I want them to come up with the solution, you just ' see the eyes expand as all of the sudden they put these things together and come up with the solution to their problem. Favre has generally put his personal art aside to teach. Most of what I do is in class . . . I am a teacher, this is what I enjoy doing and I feel I'm accomplishing something this way, I'm vicariously being a creative person . . . I had what was considered to be a very promising career as an artist before I went into teaching. When Favre came to Wesleyan in January of 1984, Art was offered only as a minor. He has created a program using his background in industrial, studio, and advertising art to create a program for art majors. He wants them, to be able to sell themselves as a commodity. All of his classes were filled in the fall which was very pleasing to Favre. We have students here who are fabulous artists but just haven't had the technical training. Favre brings many experiences in many aspects of art and life to Wesleyan. He received his Bachelor's degree in advertising, industrial, and studio art from Ball State University. Ball State is also where he received his Master's of Art specializing in photography and sculpture. His doctorate of fine arts with emphasis on art education and educational psychology was received at Texas Tech. I have a lot of interests. l've spent time in the military from being an infantryman to being a training C.O., . . . l've worked in factories and on a farm, . . . hopefully I can use these experiences as background to help the people I'm working with. When Favre isn't spending time in class or the studio, he can be found spending time with his family or restoring his home, which is over 100 years old. Ultimately he hopes that his art classes will stay full and that more faculty will be added as the department expands. by Kirsten R. Stanton Art! 25