eInside Events

Sheryl Crow Headlines Kent State’s Centennial Campaign Concert
on Sept. 8

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter
Sheryl Crow will headline the Centennial
Campaign concert at Kent State on Sept. 8.
Tickets go on sale April 17.

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow will headline a concert at Kent State University on Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. at Dix Stadium. The Centennial Campaign concert to benefit the Campaign for Change Scholarship Fund serves as a celebration of the conclusion of Kent State’s Centennial Campaign, a $250-million fundraising effort timed around the university’s 100th anniversary in 2010 and the largest campaign in Kent State’s history. To date, the university has exceeded its goal, raising more than $256 million for endowment, capital projects and current operating funds, with emphasis on student scholarships. The concert is presented by the Kent State University Foundation, a not-for-profit entity that is legally separate from the university.

The Centennial Campaign concert featuring Crow also will include Los Lonely Boys, a band from Texas whose debut single, “Heaven,” won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2005. A third major band will be revealed at a later date.

Tickets go on sale Tuesday, April 17, at 10 a.m. and are available through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com) and at the Kent State Ticket Office, which is located at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center (MAC Center) on the Kent Campus. Tickets are $50 for chair-back seats and $35 for bleacher seats. Special ticket pricing for Kent State students is available from the Kent State ticket office with $30 student floor seats (standing room only) and $20 bleacher seats. A valid Kent State student ID must be presented at the Kent State Ticket Office to receive the student discount. The Sept. 8 concert will occur rain or shine with doors opening at 5 p.m. and a 6 p.m. concert start time.

A portion of ticket sales from the concert will go directly to support Kent State’s Campaign for Change Scholarship Fund, the university’s student philanthropy initiative, kicking off the next round of fundraising for student scholarships. The Campaign for Change enlists student volunteers to educate their peers about the impact of private support on their education and to encourage students to “pay it forward” by supporting an endowed scholarship fund. Since its launch in 2007, the Campaign for Change has raised more than $65,000 from students, parents, faculty and staff. Student gifts range from as little as $1 to as large as $200. In 2009, the fund reached the $25,000 threshold required to endow it, meaning Kent State students have left a legacy that will aid their peers, current and future, in perpetuity. For more information about Kent State’s Campaign for Change Scholarship Fund, visit www.campaign-for-change.org.

For more information about Sheryl Crow, visit her official site at www.sherylcrow.com.

RSVP by April 19 for Kent State University, Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine Meet-and-Greet Day

The Kent State/OCPM Meet-and-Greet Day on April 21 will
feature the Kent State football team’s intra-team scrimmage,
including tours of Dix Stadium and other fun activities.

Faculty, staff and students from Kent State University and the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine (OCPM) are invited to a Meet-and-Greet Day on Saturday, April 21, beginning at noon at Dix Stadium, located at 2213 Summit St. in Kent. The event celebrates the collaboration between both institutions and is free and open to Kent State and OCPM employees and their families.

The Meet-and-Greet Day will begin with lunch and games in the Field House at noon, and continue at 1 p.m. with a youth football clinic, presented by Beef O’ Brady’s, which is open to all grade-school-age children. The Kent State football team’s intra-team scrimmage will take place at 2:30 p.m. There will be tours of Dix Stadium during the event, including additional fun activities.

Faculty and staff will be required to present their Kent State or OCPM identification cards to enter the Field House for lunch.

To attend the event, RSVP by April 19 to Justin Hilton at jhilton@kent.edu or 330-672-8573 for Kent State employees, and to Jaclyn Macomber at jmacomber@ocpm.edu or 216-916-7531 for OCPM employees.

Community Discussion Honors Late Middle East Journalist Anthony Shadid

Widely regarded as the best American journalist covering the Middle East, Anthony Shadid died tragically while covering the conflict in Syria this past February. Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times, was originally scheduled to come to Cleveland in March as part of the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES) speaker series.

To honor his work and memory, a community discussion of Shadid’s last book, House of Stone, will be held on Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m. at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, located at 25501 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood.

“We were all tremendously saddened by his loss,” says Joshua Stacher, assistant professor of political science at Kent State University and a co-founder of the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies. “His work really spoke to the NOCMES initiative about raising awareness and developing empathetic understanding of the Middle East.”

House of Stone tells the story of Shadid’s two-year effort to restore a decaying estate built by his great grandfather in South Lebanon. Shadid was on assignment for The New York Times when he died on Feb. 16 from a reported asthma attack while attempting to leave Syria on horseback.

“The book speaks to the transnational connections that all of us have to one another, and that’s why this is important,” Stacher says. “Shadid’s work embodies the mission of our speaker series about bringing the Middle East to Northeast Ohio.”

Dan Moulthrop, curator of conversation for the Civic Commons, will facilitate the discussion, which is free and open to the public. Registration is requested at www.cuyahogalibrary.org/EventRegistration.aspx?EventInstanceID=70047.

“Shadid was simply the best journalist working on the Middle East in a generation,” Stacher says.

NOCMES was founded in 2010 when higher education institutions in Northeast Ohio – including Kent State, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University and Oberlin College – recognized a need for educational forums to understand the complicated issues affecting the Middle East as well as the cultural, economic, political and social influences that contribute to the dynamics of the region’s problems.

In addition to Stacher, the consortium leaders include Pete W. Moore from the Department of Political Science at Case Western Reserve and Neda A. Zawahri, Department of Political Science at Cleveland State.

The series “New Perspectives on Muslim and Middle Eastern Societies” is presented by NOCMES, with support from the Social Science Research Council and in partnership with Civic Commons, Ideastream and the City Club of Cleveland.

For more information, visit http://theciviccommons.com/issues/new-perspectives/?from=newperspectives.

Kent State University Presents the 12th Annual Fashion School Fashion Show

Forty-seven students show their works in this year’s much-anticipated show

2012 Fashion Show fashion critic Sarah Van Aken kneels
to study the detailing work of student designer Ananya
Guhabiswas (pictured, far right) during the final round of
critiques in March.

The Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising presents the 12th Annual Fashion School Fashion Show titled, Mobius: A Twisting of Evolution. The show, featuring designs by 47 students, will feature two showings at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., on Saturday, April 21, in the E. Turner Stump Theatre at the Music and Speech Building, 1325 Theatre Dr. on the Kent Campus.

The matinee show begins at 2 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.) with tickets at $40 per person with reserved seating. The awards show begins at 8 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) with tickets at $65 per person with reserved seating and the announcement of the critics’ choice awards. Tickets can only be purchased online and are available at www.tix.com. Visa, MasterCard or Discover cards are accepted. There are no refunds or exchanges.

“The only difference between the two shows is that guests at the 2 p.m. show will not be privy to who the final award winners are,” says Effie Tsengas, public relations coordinator for the College of the Arts. “That information will be reserved for the 8 p.m. show.”

Under the watchful eye of faculty fashion show advisors, Associate Professor Sherry Schofield-Thomschin and fashion design lecturer Harriet McCleod, the senior fashion design students have spent a full academic year preparing for the fashion show, from ideas and concepts to garments and styling.

Students’ work is scrutinized by a panel of three design critics, who, throughout the nine-month process, provide feedback and suggestions. The process culminates when the students turn in their final collections and judges decide which collections and pieces from collections should be shown in the final fashion show production.

This year’s critics include John Patrick, owner/designer of John Patrick Organics; Sara Van Aken, designer/owner of SaVA; and Jeff Bergus, fashion industry product development consultant and owner of the Lockhart Smokehouse. Their final determination will be to award the critics’ choice awards to several lucky students.

The 8 p.m. show also will include the recognition of contributors to the school and the fashion industry. This year’s inductee is fashion design icon Dana Buchman. Dana Buchman, up until spring 2009, was an independent upscale women's fashion brand, and its founder, Dana Buchman, an American fashion designer and creative designer of the same name. Buchman now sells exclusively at Kohl’s department stores across the country. She is also dedicated to helping underserved children with learning disabilities, as the founder and chair of the board of directors for the Promise Project.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Rex and Geneva Damron for their years of support and dedication to The Fashion School. This honor is presented every few years to those who have generously contributed to The Fashion School.

Organic Photovoltaics Symposium Brings Nobel Laureate to Kent State

Alan J. Heeger, Ph.D., a 2000 Nobel
Laureate (Chemistry), will give the
keynote discussion at the Symposium
on Advances in Organic Photovoltaics
on April 17 at Kent State.

(Photo courtesy of Randy Lamb/University of
California, Santa Barbara)

Kent State University will host an organic photovoltaics (OPV) symposium to present current research and progress April 17 from 12:30 to 6 p.m. at the Kent Student Center Kiva. The symposium is free and open to the public.

The symposium is a platform for OPV research, opportunities and development. OPV are specialized solar energy cells that use carbon-based polymer semiconductors, unlike typical solar cells that are silicon-based. OPV are flexible and have the potential to be produced at lower costs than conventional silicon-based photovoltaics using roll-to-roll manufacturing processes.

The symposium’s keynote speaker is Alan J. Heeger, Ph.D., a professor of physics and professor of materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Heeger received a Nobel Prize in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers and is a true pioneer in the field of semiconducting and metallic polymers.

Heeger’s presentation, “Plastic Solar Cells: Self Assembly of Bulk Heterojunction
Nano-Materials by Spontaneous Phase Separation,” will describe the discovery of ultrafast photo induced electron transfer as the scientific foundation for the creation of a technology for low-cost “plastic” solar cells.

Grant McGimpsey, Ph.D., Kent State’s vice president for research, said Kent State sees a high potential for the research and development of OPV and will hire several faculty and build labs specifically for research opportunities in the field.

“OPV fits well with our focus on sustainability at the university,” McGimpsey says. “We have a long-term commitment to build faculty expertise and capabilities in this area. We are also committed to providing our graduate and undergraduate students with a modern, relevant research experience in many technical areas in energy, and OPV is one such area.”

The symposium features numerous presentations from professionals around the country. Speakers include C. Daniel Frisbie of the University of Minnesota, L. Jay Guo of the University of Michigan, Paul Berger of The Ohio State University and Yo Shimizu of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Kansai Center, Japan. Kent State faculty members Brett Ellman and Robert Twieg also will present at the symposium.

The symposium is the first of many planned to “showcase some of our university’s top research areas,” McGimpsey says. “We want to highlight all our faculty and student research, particularly in those areas that have significant impact on the lives of the public,” he said. “We also see it as our mission to serve as a scientific forum for the public. Energy is a huge challenge that will require contributions from all of us in order to solve. Our symposium provides a venue for the exchange of ideas that must take place.”

The OPV symposium includes an informal networking session with a cocktail reception. For more information and to register, visit www.kent.edu/opv.

To watch a video of McGimpsey discussing the OPV symposium, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=cANaqgGA8hY.

Celebrate Reading with University Libraries

Kent Reads with Alumni Authors features engaging and thoughtful Kent State University alumni reading aloud from their own published works of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. The goals of this read-aloud series are to feature the works of Kent State alumni, to offer a forum for the university community to discuss topics of interest, and to celebrate reading, books and libraries.

Alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members are welcome to attend these free talks by alumni authors. There will also be an opportunity for the featured author to sell and sign books after each presentation. The reading series will take place on the first floor of the University Library, and light refreshments will be provided.

2012 Spring Kent Reads with Alumni Authors Schedule:

Tom Cooperrider, Tuesday, April 17, 2 – 3 p.m.
Norbert Lewandowski, Wednesday, April 18, 2 – 3 p.m.
Ratanjit Sondhe, Thursday, April 19, 2 – 3 p.m.
Julie Lindsay, Wednesday, April 25, 2 – 3 p.m.
Bob Batchelor, Thursday, April 26, 2 – 3 p.m.

For more information or to be considered as a presenter for the 2012 Fall semester, please contact Diane Sperko, communications director, at dsperko@kent.edu or 330-672-1852.

Retirement Reception for Sheryl E. Smith, Ph.D.

Sheryl E. Smith, dean of Students and
Student Ombuds, will be retiring in August.

After years of dedicated service to higher education and to Kent State University, Sheryl E. Smith, dean of Students and Student Ombuds, will be retiring in August.

A reception will be held in her honor on Thursday, May 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Ballroom balcony on the third floor of the Kent Student Center.

Please R.S.V.P. by Monday, April 23, to mnemec@kent.edu.

The Kent State University School of Art Gallery Presents the First BFA Gala

Kent State student Stephanie Cole's "Rabbit Test" design
will be exhibited during the School of Art Gallery's first BFA
Gala that showcases the first collection of works by Kent State
Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates.

The Kent State University School of Art Gallery will host the BFA Gala, the very first collection of works by Kent State Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates, April 17- 27. The two-week exhibition will feature half of the students’ work during the first week and the other half during the following week. Two receptions are scheduled, one for each set of students, from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 20 and Friday, April 27.

The exhibition will include all types of works including but not limited to mixed media, printmaking, painting, sculpture, glass, jewelry, metalwork and textiles.

Six students will be featured the week of April 17 with a reception April 20. The following students will exhibit their works: Christine Carpal, Cameron Lyden, Stephanie Cole, Stephanie Tucker, Jennifer Tyler and Rachel Stadtler.

The second group of students will be featured the week of April 23 with a reception April 27 and includes the work of Paul Rogers, Ashley Williams, Natalie Petrosky, Barbara Watson and Alexandra Carlson.

The students have been asked to provide artist statements describing their work. Many students express that they create artwork to tell a story or assign deeper meaning.

“The characters I create on paper in ink are meant to represent the human psyche,” says BFA candidate Ashley Williams in her artist statement describing her drawing. “I place them in unreal environments to give them a life or a reality in which feelings can be portrayed.”

“As a maker, conceptually I find myself influenced by the idea of fables,” says BFA candidate Cameron Lyden in his artist statement describing his artwork. “By using jewelry and metalworking techniques, I fabricate ornate, wearable objects, tools and armor that seem plausible yet impractical.”

If you would like more information about the School of Art Galleries, contact Anderson Turner, director of Galleries, at 330-672-1369, haturner@kent.edu or visit http://galleries.kent.edu.

Kent State, Wick Poetry Center Present Giving Voice, April 23

Giving Voice participants read poems to an audience at a
previous event.

Kent State University and the Wick Poetry Center present the 11th annual Giving Voice performance, which features area students (grades 3–12), senior citizens, veterans, medical care providers and patients from area hospitals, performing original poetry with guest musician, Hal Walker

The Giving Voice performance will take place on Monday, April 23, at 6 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

Giving Voice showcases material created in Wick outreach programs, including workshops led by Kent State University undergraduates enrolled in the course “Teaching Poetry in the Schools.”

Ellie Shorey, senior English major, taught in two outreach classrooms. She spoke fondly of her opportunity to work with the students, as well as her enrollment in the poetry class. “This is a great class to get involved in the community and have fun,” Shorey says. “After taking the class myself, I have a profound appreciation for sharing creative writing with other students and children who might not have been exposed to the creative arts.”

This diverse, multigenerational performance helps Kent State bridge a connection with the community, local schools and senior centers. It draws from community-based participation, and specifically strives to promote everyday voices in the Northeastern Ohio community through the joyful, rhythmic and musical expression of poetry.

“Watching the children open up and share their own work was rewarding, and I found myself surprised constantly by how insightful children are,” says Shorey. “It's a great experience, and Giving Voice is the culmination of a semester of fun and creativity.”

This year the students’ reading will be accompanied by local Kent musician Hal Walker, who will play a variety of instruments and sing with the children between readings of poems. Guests are encouraged to bring friends and families to the event, which is free and open to the public.

More information is available at www.kent.edu/wick or by calling the Wick Poetry Center at 330-672-2067.

Kent State Holds Second Annual LNC/SALSA Hablemos (Let’s Talk) Conference, April 19

The Latino Networking Caucus (LNC) and the Spanish and Latino Student Association (SALSA) present the second annual LNC/SALSA Hablemos (Let’s Talk) Conference in the Kent Student Center on April 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The conference will address the impact of the Hispanic/Latino vote in 2012.

The conference features Samuel Betances, Ph.D., an outstanding motivational speaker from Souder, Betances and Associates in Chicago, a firm of diversity trainers and consultants whose philosophy is to develop strategies to respect uniqueness in people, which in turn improves morale and productivity. Betances's goal is to re-emphasize the leadership role of Latinos and Hispanics in society, define diversity and its role in education and emphasize the importance of the upcoming November elections.

“We are extremely proud and excited to be presenting Dr. Betances this year as our keynote speaker for the conference,” says David Garcia, associate vice president for Enrollment Management and chair of the Latino Networking Caucus. “He is well-known in the Latino community for his very motivational diversity strategy sessions.”

The conference begins with a presentation by Betances in the Kiva, from 10-11:45 a.m., with a free luncheon following in Room 306A. An informative afternoon session takes place from 1:15 to 2 p.m. in Room 310AB, featuring Luis Gomez, congressional staff for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Gomez will address the impact immigration plays in the U.S. and will also share facts regarding the Dream Act and its benefits to the U.S. economy.

Reservations for the luncheon are required and can be made by emailing kbasist1@kent.edu. Space is limited. Reservations will be accepted through Monday, April 16.

Department of Pan-African Studies Hosts Women’s Activist

Kent State University’s Department of Pan-African Studies and local Kent business EMPIRE are hosting Ladi Wayi, a woman’s activist from Nigeria, at an April 19 speech at 6 p.m. in Room 219 of Ritchie Hall.

Wayi will talk about working with women’s community organizations in the context of northern Nigerian conflict and how her work with nongovernmental organizations remains meaningful and productive.

Wayi will also be available April 20 from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Ritchie Hall’s Green Room.

This free event is open to the public. For more information about the Department of Pan-African Studies, visit www.kent.edu/cas/pas.

Kent State Opera to Perform Double Feature “There’s No Opera Like Soap Opera”

Opera Program performs two operas at Solon Center for the Arts for Spring Event

Kent State Opera presents two 20th-century American operas – one comic, one tragic – at the Solon Center for the Arts, Friday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m., with a reception following each performance. The Solon Center for the Arts is located at 6315 SOM Center Rd., in Solon.

The program features “Gallantry” by Douglas Moore and “The Medium” by Gian Carlo Menotti. Members of the Kent State University Orchestra will accompany sixteen singers from the School of Music and the School of Theatre and Dance, conducted by Kent State Associate Professor Kerry Glann. Katherine Perkowski directs both productions.

“The performance certainly presents a stark contrast in styles,” says Glann. “You get a somewhat over-the-top comic tone in “Gallantry,” whereas “The Medium” is an eerie, psychological thriller with supernatural overtones. Both are melodramatic in their own ways.”

“Gallantry” is a spoof of 1950s-era soap operas, complete with live commercials just like the early years of television. The soap opera is set in a hospital, in which Dr. Gregg is in love with his nurse, Lola, who is engaged to another hospital worker. Commercials for the two ‘sponsors’ of the show, Lochinvar soap and Billy Boy wax, are interspersed in the action, providing additional context and humor.

Menotti’s dramatic masterpiece, “The Medium,” follows the story of a woman who supports herself as a medium, performing fake séances in her home with her daughter and a mute boy. Her world turns to chaos when she believes an unidentified presence has touched her, and her mental decline wrecks havoc on her career and those around her.

Note: Some content may not be suitable for young children. “There is a murder at the end of “The Medium,” though it's not done in a gruesome way,” says Glann. “Overall it's probably PG-13.”

Both operas will be performed as one show. “Gallantry” will run approximately 30 minutes, while “The Medium” will run approximately 60 minutes, with an intermission in between.

“This is what's called a ‘double bill.’ It's not uncommon in the opera world to have two shorter works presented together to make a full evening of entertainment,” Glann says. “We chose these two operas because they offer a good number of casting opportunities for our students.”

This production represents a continued and developing collaboration between the Solon Center for the Arts and Kent State University’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music.

Tickets are $16 for adults, $12 for seniors and $5 for students, and can be reserved by calling the Solon Center for the Arts at 440-337-1400.

The 26th Annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference Takes Place April 20

The 26th annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference will take place on Friday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., at the Hilton West in Fairlawn, followed by a reception until 6 p.m. This year’s conference theme is “Employee Ownership: Simply a Better Way of Doing Business.” The conference is hosted by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University. Registration begins at 8 a.m. The cost to attend is $150 in advance and $195 at the door.

Participants at the conference will hear from keynote speaker Joseph Blasi, Ph.D., a world-leading authority on employee ownership, named in 2010 as the inaugural J. Robert Beyster Professor of Employee Ownership at Rutgers University.

Blasi has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Social Organization at Princeton University, a visiting professor at the Yale School of Management, and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School. He also serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Last year’s conference attracted 325 people. Widely regarded as the “best one-day conference on employee ownership in the country,” this annual event brings together employee owners, both management and shop floor workers, to learn how to improve the performances of their companies. The conference also attracts community and economic development professionals, government officials, nonprofit organizations, students and professional service providers. Over the course of the day, 19 panels (some featuring CEOs and CFOs from several of Ohio’s employee-owned companies) will provide participants with the opportunity to learn more about topics ranging from the basics of employee ownership to more technical issues, such as fiduciary responsibility, repurchase obligation, and valuation, to visions for the next decade of employee ownership.

The Ohio Employee Ownership Center is a nonprofit program established in 1987 to provide outreach, information and preliminary technical assistance to Ohio employees and business owners interested in exploring employee ownership. It is based at Kent State University. Since its inception, the center has helped approximately 15,000 Ohio employees become owners.

For more information, call 330-672-3028 or visit http://oeockent.org.