On-Campus Events

FIJI Halloween on Oct. 28 starting 8:30 p.m.

FIJI is hosting an event with a concert and their annual Halloween party, proceeds from tickets will go to philanthropy. Come by in your costume to the FIJI house to enjoy the night.

GIFT Halloween Movie Night on Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m.

GIFT is hosting their annual Halloween movie night in YGCU 221/222. They will be putting on an Interactive Rocky Horror Picture Show experience. There will be snacks and a raffle with sweet and spicy prizes. Come dressed in your costume for the chance to win a costume prize! The movie will begin at 8 p.m. Interactive viewings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show have a unique culture of challenging gender norms, which is especially important in light of anti-drag legislature that has swept the US in recent times. Student Life will also be hosting a Happy Hour during the event with alcoholic beverages for A-approved students, along with nonalcoholic options. 

KA Fall Fest on November 4 at 7 p.m.

KA is hosting their 4th annual Fall Fest with bonfires, pumpkin painting, barbecue and live music! Tickets are $6 and the event is at the KA house.

Kansas City Events

Haunted Houses in West Bottoms

Kansas City is called “The Haunted House Capital of the World” for good reason! The West Bottoms has some of the best haunted houses for those of you that enjoy the adrenaline rush and an immersive experience. If you’re interested in visiting several of the haunted houses, there are discounts available for multi-house tickets.

The Edge of Hell is a nationally acclaimed haunted house, featuring five stories of haunts, heaven-to-hell-themed frights and the world’s largest living snake. If you’re brave enough to enter The Edge of Hell, tickets are $35. Open select dates Sept. 22 through Nov. 11. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. every weeknight and 6:30 p.m. every Saturday. Closing times vary. 

The Beast is one of the most frightening haunted houses in Kansas City and is also nationally ranked. This attraction has four flours of terrors awaiting those who enter, from the Louisiana Bayou swamp, Jack the Ripper’s foggy London, a medieval castle and a forest full of werewolves. Tickets are $35 and Doors open at 7:30 p.m. every weeknight and 6:30 p.m. every Saturday.

If you’re a horror movie enthusiast, you might like to take a trip to Macabre Cinema during the spooky season. This haunted house features spooky attractions from famous classic and modern horror movies through a 1930s movie theater with four floors. The haunted house also has actual movie sets from famous horror movies. Doors open at 8 p.m. every weeknight and 7 p.m. every Saturday. 

Outdoor Scary Experiences 

If you’re looking for an outdoor haunted house, Exiled in Bonner Springs, KS is the place for you. This secluded haunted forest tour leaves visitors in the middle of the forest and must navigate their way to safety while avoiding creeps, freaks and more. This experience does require you to be willing to get down and dirty in the outdoors, so beware if this is not for you! Tickets for the Trail of Horrors tour are $49, the first tour is at 7 p.m. and the last one is at 10:30 p.m.

Worlds of Fun’s annual Halloween Haunt transforms the amusement park into the ultimate Halloween attraction. There are over 400 monsters in the fog-filled park, many different scary attractions, mazes and of course the rush of the typical rides. If you enjoy shows, there are a variety of live performances to get you in the Halloween spirit. Tickets start from $39.99 and the hours are 6 p.m. to midnight. 

Less-Scary Options 

If you’re more of a history buff or interested in less-sensationalized spooky events, check out Wornall Majors House Museums. During October, they are offering paranormal investigations and tours of the Alexander Majors house, one of the most haunted locations in KC, led by professional investigators. If you’re interested in history, but not ghost stories, you can check out their tour, the “Anatomy of a Haunted House,” which will explore the origins of the Victorian-style haunted house and life in the Victorian era. Check out their tours here.

Powell Gardens is hosting an immersive, multi-media 1-mile trail walk through the woods called, Dark Forest, in October. It takes you through the mysterious and mythical woods that have unexplainable paranormal forces and supernatural beings. There are no scary actors, but there are eerie performances, fog, strobe lights and more. In addition to spooky fall displays, they also have Halloween-inspired drinks and shopping. Dark Forest is on Oct. 13-15, 20-22 and 26-29 from 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $35.

If you’re a fan of cocktails, check out the variety of pop-up Halloween-themed bars in KC. In North KC, Apparition- Spook Easy at the Vignettes Bar has spine-curdling spirits and a spooky ambiance. The Ghosts of Baseball Past is a haunted cocktail experience at the Legends Stadium featuring a spooky version of baseball history. If you’re a fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, check out the Rocky Horror Pop-Up Bar at the Time-Warp Club.

Whatever you decide to do, whether it’s braving a haunted house or checking out a Halloween-inspired speakeasy, have a Happy Halloween! Make sure to check out some of the events on campus to support philanthropy and student organizations, too.

After several years of inactivity, William Jewell College is restoring spiritual services with the launch of its Center for Faith and Culture. The comprehensive program focuses on individual spiritual exploration with campus- and community-wide courses, meetings and resources.

This year’s leadership for the Center includes Reverend Craig MacLeod Walls, director of the program; Reverend and Chaplin Melissa Bryson Dowling; and Brendon Benz, theologian-in-residence and professor of history.

The Center, which was initially announced to begin in fall 2021, is stated to be modeled after a similar program at the Yale Divinity School. According to the Center’s webpage, Philip (‘71) and Patricia Love greatly contributed to the program financially and ideologically. Previously appointed as the managing director for the Yale Divinity School’s own Center for Faith and Culture, Philip Love brought the idea to Jewell’s President’s Advisory Council to be expanded upon and eventually implemented this year.

The Center was created with the intent to “foster spiritual exploration, authentic dialogue, and contemplation of the known and unknown in pursuit of wisdom, reconciliation and human flourishing,” according to its “Inaugural Season” brochure.

As a means of fulfilling this mission, the Center hosts “personal flourishing classes” dedicated to spiritual exploration at partnered churches in the Liberty area. The classes are open to both Jewell students, faculty and staff, as well as the broader Liberty and Kansas City community. Partnered churches, including the Country Club Christian Church, Second Baptist Church, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and Village Church, provide speakers on certain topics who then host courses that seek to bridge the divide between the sacred and the secular. Members of Jewell’s faculty also contribute as speakers to the course listings for the Center’s 2022-2023 class schedule.

Aside from emphasizing the importance of community and personal flourishing in a spiritual context, the program also seeks to engage with Jewell students directly. Benz cited one such effort as the upcoming “Fellows Program.”

“We hope to bring in between 10 and 20 students every year…who will have their major…then a minor in what we’re going to call Faith and Culture,” Benz stated. “And that’ll be basically [composed of] five sacred and secular courses with intense discussions, especially during their first year, on… what [their] intended major is going to look like, as a person of faith and as a person who takes spirituality seriously.”

The Center also aims to expand the range of Sacred and Secular Critical Thought & Inquiry courses offered to students. With the Fellows Program and new courses set to explore spirituality, Benz said he hopes students can integrate faith and spirituality into their lives during their college years and beyond.

“A life of faith intersects with vocation – with life,” Benz said. “Too often those two are separated: sacred and secular. [These] flourishing courses are about the intersection of [students’ and faculty’s] discipline and faith. So, for example, how do I live well in political science, and how does my faith inform my accounting, as in personal finances?”

According to the Center’s webpage, personal flourishing courses and the Fellows Program will emphasize Christian values and Biblical teachings, but they still intend to engage in interfaith dialogue to “acknowledge the points of continuity that unite us even as we acknowledge and wrestle with our differences.”

“We already have an imam teaching a class on Islam and the Muslim experience here at Jewell, Dr. Howard teaching [a course on] Black freedom movements [and] a priest who is discussing Catholicism,” Benz stated. “Part of the Fellowship Program will be a deeper dive into understanding our differences between religious traditions, but also similarities—embracing the differences, recognizing those and not trying to iron them or cover them over. [To] find that in spite of our differences—in spite of our different views on reality—we can work together for a better world.”

Reverend Dowling’s role as college chaplain is particularly responsive to the needs and wants of the student body regarding spirituality and introspection. She said she hopes to “meet with as many students as possible” during her first year as Chaplain. To this end, she leads weekly “The Reflective Self” meetings and has established “Chaplain Chats,” which provide students with an opportunity to have one-on-one support discussions. Reverend Dowling said she is also interested in “connecting [students] to the broader community.” 

The Center’s interconnections between students and the community are reflected in the leadership structure of the center. As explained by Reverend MacLeod Walls, Reverend Dowling and Benz, the program’s leadership is “community-facing,” “student-facing” and “academic-facing,” respectively. However, emphasized by Benz, there is significant overlap amidst their respective roles.

Reverend MacLeod Walls said he is especially positioned to engage with the broader Kansas City and Liberty community, as well as alumni—in line with Philip Love’s vision of the Center. The personal flourishing classes are specifically meant to be responsive to the needs of a broader spiritual community, reflected in the courses’ open enrollment and price range.

Further, the Center itself represents an important occasion in the college’s history. According to Reverend MacLeod Walls, “It’s really important to recognize that [Reverend Dowling] is our first female chaplain in 173 years.”

Reverend Dowling and Benz note that the Center may be similar to a traditional academic department in many ways, but it is unique in that it is also a dynamic program. 

“The center isn’t a static thing. It’s going to grow and evolve as we figure out what it’s capable of,” Reverend Dowling said.

In all, the Center for Faith and Culture will have a variety of opportunities to offer students, faculty and the broader Liberty and Kansas City community this year and in the future. The leadership of the Center said they are excited about restoring a structured faith and culture program at Jewell, and they will continue to discuss new ideas about symposiums, sacred art and community classes and college courses.

“We’re creating something, and that’s what’s exciting about this,” Reverend MacLeod Walls stated. “Some things will not work. Some things we’ll have to discard and try something else.” 

New student groups on campus are provided with $200 as a starting budget. If the group requires more funding, it must do its own fundraising. The starting budget is provided only for a group’s first year.

“Each organization is expected to be sustainable by your own fundraising efforts or dues. There are some organizations that collect dues from members. So we just like each person, each organization, to think about that as they’re going through the process [of organizing],” said Shelly King, Dean of Students.

However, groups can go to Student Life and request more funds. The groups must present a specific reason or event for which the extra money is needed.

“It’s not to say that you might come in and ask for funding for something. If you guys have a speaker that fits your student organization, you can go to Senate, you can come to Student Life or CUA and say, ‘Hey, let’s collaborate,’” said King.

CUA and Student Senate are fully funded by the Activities Fund. The Activities Fund comes out of student tuition. Senate and CUA are given set budgets from the College because they do programming for the student body as a whole, not only a specific group of students.

“The CUA budget is for everyone. Take full advantage of your activity fee by going to everything that’s programmed. Don’t leave college without [going],” said Kristin Wooldridge, Coordinator of Student Activities.

The budgets for CUA and Senate are usually the same every year. However, this year, Senate received a larger budget than in the past. The funds were specified to be given out to other groups on campus.

“This is the first year we dropped extra money in their budget, but typically Senate’s budget is the same every year. With the idea that they’re programming and they’re doing great, they know to come to Student Life and say, ‘Hey, we’re almost out of budget dollars, can we collaborate and can we kind of pair together and both sponsor this,’ and we’ve done that quite a bit,” said King.

Senate has always had money set aside to give out to student organizations that request it. Student groups that would like to receive more money can attend meetings and request more from cabinet members. The increase in this aspect of the budget came about because cabinet members from the previous school year requested it. The increase is also meant to go toward more Student Senate programming.

“Senate has always had that aspect [of giving funds to organizations]. They’re programming more because we like Senate to program. Not only give money away, but do more,” said Tracy Hart, administrative assistant.

This aspect of Senate may seem new, but in reality, it has always been in place. It has been a lesser known practice.

“I think they’re just telling people better about that,” said Wooldridge.

Senate often teams up with Student Life to provide more funds to student groups on campus who request it. It is often a collaborative effort.

“With other groups that will come, sometimes we’ll say, ‘You know what, if Senate gives money, we’ll match what Senate gives,’ up to a certain dollar amount,” said King.

While most organizations keep any surplus budget at the end of the fiscal year, Senate and CUA’s leftover dollar amounts are returned to the school. This is because the two groups do not fundraise independently of the College.

If student organizations are in need of more money, they can go to Senate or Student Life for assistance.

“Our student leaders, they’re very creative and when you’re trying to do some really good positive things, we don’t want the money to be a hindrance for you doing these great things for the student body. So let us step in and we’ll help fund some of it. Because we want students to enjoy and not be held back by their budget when they’re doing really great, quality things for our student body,” said King.

Despite these statistics, the stigma against mental health issues remains strong and is all too often left undiscussed by society. U.S. suicide rates have reached a 25-year high and high-profile cases come into the media’s ever-watching eye.

William Jewell students have chosen this moment to open up discourse about this lingering problem. Friday, Dec.  5th marks the opening of the College’s official chapter of “To Write Love On Her Arms”, a nonprofit organization aimed at not only raising awareness of issues such as suicide, depression, self-harm and addiction, but also bringing hope to those who suffer from them.

Maggie Metz, senior and president of the new Jewell chapter, first found out about the organization in middle school and was immediately captivated with its cause and the way it desired to bring people out of the darkness and into the light.  Throughout her schooling, it continued to have a positive impact on her and her friends, and last year, she began the process of creating a Jewell chapter. Shane Ahrens, junior, and Kyle Ainge, sophomore, also joined the cause, becoming the new branch’s vice president and treasurer (respectively).

She aspires to create an environment and a place of hope that is available to all students, or, in her words, “the most open organization on campus.”

“The Jewell community can benefit from what this chapter embodies in its mission and [it] can bring hope, help, and open up avenues for conversation,” Metz said.

She and her fellow officers hope to address the hard topics of society through specific activities, such as exercises, guest speakers and videos to challenge the way members of the Jewell community think about mental illness. The new chapter also aims to refer people suffering from these problems to counseling as a means of providing community support and creating an environment of solidarity on campus.  While it is not a support group and does not take the place of counseling, the group hopes it will be the first step of encouragement to further seek help and to find people to confide in.

The umbrella organization, TWLOHA, began in 2006 with a story shared on MySpace by Jamie Tworkowski, the woman who would become its founder. Originally, the group started as a fundraising measure to pay for a friend’s rehabilitation costs; after relaying her experiences online with this friend, Renee Yohe, she sold T-shirts bearing the message “To Write Love On Her Arms” not only as a way to make money, but also to bring light to the lives of others with similar experiences.

The movement ended up going viral and, as a result, an official nonprofit was set up for this purpose. Its presence on social media, its resonance with the youth culture it was reaching out to, and the T-shirts themselves contributed to its rising popularity. Even famous musicians and athletes began wearing the shirts, and its growing association with the alternative rock subculture in particular only continued to bring supporters to its cause. Currently, a film chronicling the group’s inspiration and creation, titled “To Write Love On Her Arms”, is set to be released in 2015 and stars Kat Dennings and Chad Michael Murray.

The new To Write Love On Her Arms U-Chapter Jewell group can be reached on Facebook and will meet every Friday from 10:00-10:45 a.m. during Jewell Time.