Welcome back to The Thrill, Kenyon’s most trusted source for campus news. Last week, the team of college faculty that came to accredit our humble little school was pleasantly surprised by the traveling circus established specifically for the occasion. A group of Kenyon dance majors was sent to the Royal Tampa Academy of Dramatic Tricks for the week leading up to the big event, subsidized by Allison Janney ‘82, who is currently reprising her role as C.J. Cregg in The West Wing in real life as Press Secretary Jen Psaki. 

Boy, did this training pay off! The accreditation team, thinking their visit to Kenyon was over, turned the corner on Middle Path toward the doors to Peirce, expecting to pick up their complementary cherry pie slices and bottles of chocolate milk and be on their merry way. What they didn’t expect to see was the premiere of Kenyon’s new traveling circus, the Cirque du Certifié. Last year’s outdoor class tents were painted with red stripes, and the team got quite a kick out of watching a tightrope walker balance her way along a rope strung up from Peirce Tower to Ascension, multiple trapeze artists swing over the lawn, and the McBride raccoon jump through a ring of fire. How talented! The accreditors cheered in a standing ovation for twenty minutes, then gave their Peirce goodie bags to the agile performers. The gifts were appreciated by the raccoon in particular.

Kenyon earned its accreditation. Was it the valuable input of students about their experience or the charming production? We may never know.