In an email sent out to the student body on Tuesday, April 1, President-elect Mauri Ditzler outlined one of his major initiatives of the 2014 – 15 school year. He plans to tackle one of the significant problems plaguing Albion College students.
According to Ditzler, he will host several students at his home in Albion to conduct a paternity test to find out the father of Albion students’ children. After discovering the results of the test, Ditzler will proclaim “You are the father!” or “You are not the father!” There are tentative plans to film these interactions to stream on TV. If this will be televised, the money from the show would go directly back to the school.
Fike Mandsen, interim president, is excited about the new program.
“I wish I had instated something like this during my time at Albion because it’s a great idea,” Mandsen said. “Students deserve to know who the baby’s father is, and by finding out that these little baby Brits belong to two Albion students, not just one, will make us more likely to see them in the class of 2032!”
Ditzler has had great success with this program at his previous school, Monmouth College. Monmouth is a similarly-sized liberal arts school in Illinois.
“The students and community just loved it as it created a real sense of an engagement among all folks at Monmouth,” Ditzler said. “We used the funds from the TV broadcast to create a scholarship for the children featured on the show to come to Monmouth in the future.”
The excitement is already building on Albion’s campus.
“As soon as I saw that email I knew I’d be all over that,” said Jessica Anderson, Bad Axe junior. “Ever since I had my twins Geoffrey and Kurt last year, I’ve been trying to get my baby-daddy Daniel to give me some child support. He claims he’s not the father.”
Other plans include actively strengthening the college’s relationship with the community, continuing the emphasize the school’s academics and eventually expanding paternity testing to also conducting lie-detector tests for students.
Photo via Albion College
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