Associate professor of English, Zola Noble received a grant from National Endowment for the Humanities to study at Ferrum College’s summer institute’s “Regional Study and the Liberal Arts: Appalachia Up-Close,” June 8-July 4.

The institute seeks scholars who are interested in how regional perspectives comment on wider national and global issues, and how regional material can enhance the undergraduate curriculum.

The Weinstein Company is enlisting the help of 1990 AU alumnus, Cory Edwards to write and direct a live-action musical version of Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock.

The film is based of HBO’s Emmy-winning first TV series, Fraggle Rock, which premiered in 1983 and ran for five seasons. The series tells the adventures of an underground civilization’s inhabitants, portrayed by Jim Henson’s Muppets.

Kathleen Dugan stood with her arms folded, each hand clutching the opposite elbow, as if she were looking for something to hold onto and found only herself.

Her 11-year-old twins, who were diagnosed with autism eight years ago, had been suspended from school a few days earlier.

Hannah, annoyed that vocabulary study was going to interrupt her reading, threw a dry erase board, which accidentally struck another child. Ed threw a chair when two kids he’d been working with wanted to put a label at the top of a map instead of the bottom.

Now, Dugan’s pair of fifth-graders lurched up and down the hallway at the Indianapolis Art Center. Hannah, wearing pink Crocs, brown cords, and a lilac T-shirt and cardigan, was blinking excessively. Ed, in a blue polo shirt, jeans and Nikes, was putting his hands up to his face. Both bit their bottom lips and stared at the floor as often as they looked up at their own portraits on the wall.

Dugan, a 47-year-old associate professor of art at Anderson University, stood still, finally, after rushing to arrive for the reception for her exhibition, “Facing Autism.”

To Dugan, it feels as if she’s always running late, always struggling to keep it together.

A DVD of an earlier interview played in the background, where the artist described her work, attesting to her children’s battle against the fastest-growing disability in the country, the words “problem” and “so hard” echoing through the gallery.

“You have these stretches where they’re functioning pretty well. You think maybe we can do this,” Dugan said. “But then you hit a bad stretch, and it rears itself up, and they tantrum—you’ve never heard such screaming—and you think, ‘How am I going to cope with this?’ ”

Twenty years ago—when Dustin Hoffman gave his Oscar-winning performance in “Rain Man”—autism was diagnosed nationally at a rate of roughly 1 in 2,000.

Today, the rate is 1 in 150.

Better recognition, shifting diagnostic rules and expansion of the autism spectrum itself are part of the growth, but there is also an alarming increase in incidence, and the medical system is struggling to keep up.

When Hannah and Ed were diagnosed in 2000, all doctors and educators could tell Dugan was to go to Riley Hospital for Children, even though the wait for a first appointment could last 12 months. Now, the wait is roughly four months, at what is now known as the Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center, an outpatient center that started as a much smaller facility in 1997.

“It was two people,” said Dr. David Posey, chief of the clinic. “Now, we have a staff of 21. But we could use more providers.”

Dugan soon found she would not only have to educate herself about autism, but educate people in the education field, as well.

“The challenge with children with autism is that there’s never one way of doing things,” said Dr. Cathy Pratt, director of the Indiana Resource Center for Autism. “What works with one child may not be what the next child needs.”

And the public still has a poor sense of what autism means.

Art is Dugan’s way of combating this ignorance. Using blunt brush strokes in bold colors, she portrays the world according to children with autism—a world that is frightening and nonsensical—showing the difficulties they face and the dignity they possess.

“If you’re a parent of a child on the spectrum, you become an activist by default,” said Dugan’s husband, Mark Tourney. “Most of what has been done has been done by parents.”

Dugan said that what she’s done is to paint the beauty of suffering.

But the pain isn’t on the canvas. The kids there are happy. Perhaps uncomfortable, or bewildered, but not in pain.

The suffering is in the artist.

Things used to be easier.

In the late ’70s and early ’80s, Dugan was a young Hoosier in Bloomington, caught up in the modern art scene, graduating from Indiana University with a BA and BFA, then heading to New York for a summer art program at Queens College. Before long, she was on her way to Yale for an intense MFA program.

She eventually returned with her husband to Indiana, where she received grants and awards throughout the region. She worked at Marian College and Franklin College and took a role in the art department at Anderson University in 1992.

But an art career is hard enough to pursue, said Tourney, let alone with twins who have autism.

Dugan poured her frustration into her art, and that was possible only after a Lilly Scholars Grant she received through the university. The grant allowed her to spend the past three years painting and putting together a symposium, featuring Posey, Pratt and Susan Pieples, president of the Autism Society of Indiana. It was held at the arts center in April, Autism Awareness Month, before an audience of about 80, including parents and professionals. Dugan donated her honorarium to cover the food.

“My art provides me with the respite I need when I have no control,” said Dugan, “and my faith helps me to understand that the control I seek is not mine to orchestrate.”

Dugan accepts that Ed can figure out the surface area of a cylinder but can’t make regular eye contact; that Hannah can speed-read and comprehend books at a 12th-grade level but can barely keep up with a conversation among her peers.

“I started to come to the realization that it’s a journey,” said Dugan, as Ed lay down on a bench and Hannah snuggled into her mother’s side. “It’s not going to be fixed. It’s long-term.”

It’s bittersweet, too.

Dugan recently had to separate Ed and Hannah. They were bickering in the yard. Ed was pretending to drill for oil. Hannah was chastising him for contributing to global warming. Such scenes are difficult to deal with even as they are a joy.

Even the suspensions from school wrought some tenderness.

Ed, as they were driving from school, sensed his mother’s unhappiness and said, “Mom, I’m really sorry. I know I’m messing up your day.” Hannah made her own gesture, giving Dugan her Mother’s Day present—a scented candle made in an after-school program—early.

“They do have empathy,” said Dugan, “for those they love.”

And that can be seen in the paintings.

Dugan requires you to deal directly with the subjects, and the subject at hand.

Ed averts his gaze, yes. Hannah, too, looks down and away.

But they do that when they’re happy.

—Konrad Marshall is a reporter for the Indianapolis Star. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Bolstered by conference championships in men’s and women’s cross country, women’s basketball and women’s track and field, Anderson University earned a second-place finish in the final 2007-08 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Commissioner’s Cup standings.

At approximately 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, Maria Sue Chapman, 5-years-old and the youngest daughter to AU alums Steven and Mary Beth Chapman, was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN.

Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

“Our campus was just stunned and devastated with the news of this loss,” said Dr. James L. Edwards, president of Anderson University. “We love the Chapman family and hold them in our prayers.”

Anderson University was well represented on the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Academic Team for the 2008 spring season as they had 20 athletes named.

Anderson University track and field athletes Gwen Kemple and Ryan Fultz competed at the NCAA Div. III Track and Field Championships on Thursday and Friday at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Dr. Kevin Radaker, chair of Anderson University’s English department, will present his dramatic portrayal of Henry David Thoreau during a special appearance at the Carmel Clay Public Library on Tuesday, May 20 at 7:00-8:30 in Carmel, Ind.

“Radaker’s Thoreau is an intellectual treat of the first order,” said Dr. George Frein, Director of the National Chautauqua Tour. “Weaving together Thoreau’s best known lines with sentences from his journals and more obscure works, Kevin’s monologue is compelling, and his in-character answers to audience questions afterward are so authentic and aptly chosen that people are persuaded they are visiting and thinking along with Thoreau himself.”

AU junior Eryn Britt was selected to participate in the 500 Festival Princess Program on Saturday, May 17 for her dedication to academics and service.

Britt was one of 33 selected participants from an applicant pool of over 250 other Indiana collegiate women. Finalists were chosen for their communication skills, poise, academic performance and community and volunteer involvement.

Britt explained why she decided to take part in the program, which helps promote the Indy 500 race. “I grew up five miles from the track. The race has always been a part of my life, and I’ve always been interested in the tradition of the 500.”

Britt is involved in several campus and community service activities. This past year, she was a resident assistant in Martin Hall. She is a fellow in the Center for Public Service, and has volunteered with After School Fun. Additionally, she has traveled to Honduras with Tri-S and Ghana with her church.

Through the program, Britt has taken part in various community outreach and service opportunities. She has read books to elementary school classes, helped with an opening day youth softball event, led tours of the track, helped with a mini-marathon and other events.

Britt is majoring in Biology and Teach Science major and minoring in Chemistry.

—David Hynds is the Web Content Specialist for Anderson University.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.

Kelly Packard shoehorned as much activity and as many memories as she possibly could into her four years at Anderson University.

Known by the surname of Spaulding upon arriving at AU by way of rural Tri-Valley High School near Dresden, Ohio, in the fall of 1986, Packard exited in 1990 as the women’s basketball program’s career leader in points (1,275) and rebounds (723).

While at AU, she also ran track, was sports editor of the yearbook and served on the newspaper staff. Her crowning moment, literally, came in 1989, when she was named her school’s Homecoming queen.

Busy, busy.

Now 39, Packard has never shied away from a challenge or a heavy workload.

Earlier this week, she inherited both by being named the new women’s basketball coach at Ball State University, succeeding Tracy Roller, who resigned due to personal reasons in April after seven seasons at the helm.

It’s been a week since Packard received her career-altering telephone call from BSU athletics director Tom Collins. The memory, however, is fresh.

“You’re always hesitant to take that call, but obviously you take that call,” Packard remembered. “I was thrilled, but I was calm.”

Most recently a resident of Fort Collins, Colo., with her husband, Rich, an electrical engineer and a 1988 AU graduate, and sons Derek, 13, and Evan, 9, Packard embraces a return to the Midwest.

The Ball State program, she feels, has all the components necessary to continue blossoming into something special.

“Certainly, when you evaluate the process you dig into all of that,” said Packard, who’ll inherit a program returning five of its top six scorers from the 2007-08 season.

“It was a program that had some very, very good pieces already in it. Ball State has strong fan support, and it’s located where you can recruit Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky very well.”

The past two years, Packard had worked for Triple Crown Sports, which attempted to bring a WNBA expansion franchise to Colorado. Prior to that, she coached the Colorado Chill of the National Women’s Basketball League, which on Packard’s watch won the league title in 2005 and 2006.

Two stints as a Colorado State University women’s assistant coach in the 1990s enabled Packard to learn from two of the best in the business in current Arkansas coach Tom Collen and Greg Williams, now at Rice.

The 60-year-old Williams, in particular, seems to have had the greatest influence on Packard.

“I worked for him first, and he had an amazing ability to evaluate talent and assess character,” Packard said. “Greg is still coaching and has weathered a lot of situations.”

Packard weathered one Monday when she came face-to-face with the players she’ll be coaching at Ball State in 2008-09.

Talk about pregame jitters.

“I think they were nervous and cautious, and they had every right to be,” she said. “But it was a good time. The start of something I believe will be special.”

—By Mike Beas is a reporter for the Herald Bulletin in Anderson. Story republished with permission.

Anderson University is a private Christian university of 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students in central Indiana. Anderson continues to be recognized as a top Christian college: in 2008, U.S. News and World Report ranked Anderson University among the best colleges and universities in the Midwest for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, Anderson University offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, education, music, nursing and theology.