eInside Events

“Thank-A-Giver (T.A.G.) Day” to Be Held at Kent State

Kent State University’s Annual Giving and Donor Services departments are sponsoring “Thank a Giver (T.A.G.) Day” on Wednesday, Oct. 1, on the Kent Campus as a way to acknowledge and thank the many generous donors, alumni and friends who help support Kent State and its students.

The event will include food, raffle prizes, music and fun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Risman Plaza. There also will be a giant “thank you” card for students to sign and convey their appreciation to donors for their support. FLASHanthropy, a student organization that promotes the importance of “paying it forward” to support the future of Kent State, will host the event with the Annual Giving and Donor Services departments. Faculty and staff donors will receive special T.A.G. Day lanyards and will be encouraged to wear them throughout the day so that students can identify them as donors and thank them personally.

“It’s terrific to see our students come together like this in a fun, informal way just to say thank you to all of our Kent State supporters,” says Albert Melfo, Kent State’s director of annual giving.

Open to all students, faculty, staff and the donor community, T.A.G. Day will celebrate the spirit of philanthropy in action with special tags scattered throughout campus that point out the many ways that donor support impacts every student’s education – from scholarships and grants to buildings, programs and equipment.

“T.A.G. Day is a great way for students like me to properly thank our donors, whose generosity contributes to keeping the university running every day,” says Andrew Cappuzzello, senior FLASHanthropist and integrated mathematics major at Kent State. “Our generation is trying to make philanthropy and paying it forward a priority. T.A.G. Day is one more way for us to get our message of goodwill out and to say thank you.”

“Private support from donors has a profound impact on the lives of Kent State’s students and faculty, and the quality of our academic and athletic programs,” says Valoree Vargo, executive director for donor services. “This special day of recognition and thanks is important to acknowledge the people who make such a difference in the lives of so many others.”

For more information about T.A.G. Day, contact Taylor Police at tpolice@kent.edu or 330-672-1427.

Registration is Open for Kent State’s 2014 Online Learning Symposium

Michael Wesch, cultural anthropologist and media
ecologist, will keynote the 2014 Online Learning Symposium
at Kent State University on Nov. 12. Wesch will explore the
effects of new media on society and culture.

Kent State University’s Office of Continuing and Distance Education will host the 2014 Online Learning Symposium at the Kent Student Center on Nov. 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Online Learning Symposium will feature speakers, breakout sessions and dialogue with colleagues about best practices in online learning. The event is free and open to faculty members and administrators. Registration is required, and a continental breakfast and lunch are included.

Michael Wesch, dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, is a cultural anthropologist and media ecologist who will keynote this year’s event. He will explore the effects of new media on society and culture. “We are really excited to have Michael Wesch share his research on how people interact with digital media,” says Val Kelly, director of online learning at Kent State.

Topics covered during the symposium will include ideas for online teaching, research topics in online learning, campus partner poster sessions, breakout sessions on best practices, Kent State online template, online accessibility and more.

“Wesch, who has spent years experimenting with social media and assessing the learning potential of these tools, will share his insights and offer compelling ideas about how to make genuine connections online with students,” Kelly says. “He will share his research into how people interact with digital media and help us understand the changing learning environment in the digital age.”

Wesch has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Virginia and most recently studied the effects of social and digital technology on global society. His videos on cultural technology, education and information have been viewed by millions and translated in more than 15 languages.

Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award. He was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He also has won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.

For more information and to register for the symposium, visit www.kent.edu/online-learning-symposium.

For more information about Kent State’s Office of Continuing and Distance Education, visit http://www2.kent.edu/cde.

Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Painter and poet Oliver Bendorf will
help kick off the Kent State University
Wick Poetry Center's 30th anniversary
celebration with readings on Sept. 25
during the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry
Prize reading event at the Kent Student
Center Kiva.

Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center is celebrating three decades of encouraging new voices at the university, in the community and around the world with three special events this semester.

The Wick Poetry Center will host the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize reading on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Kiva to begin the 30th anniversary celebratory events.

Oliver Bendorf was chosen by renowned poet Mark Doty as the winner of the 2013 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize for his book The Spectral Wilderness. The two will do a reading together at this special event.

Bendorf is a painter and poet from Iowa. He also teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is currently studying to become a librarian. His work has been published in Best New Poets and Troubling Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.

Doty is a renowned author of poetry and prose and best-selling memoirs Dog Years, Firebird and Heaven’s Coast. Doty also has written eight books of poetry and is the only American poet to have won Great Britain’s T.S. Eliot Prize, a prize for poetry, which is awarded by the Poetry Book Society (U.K.) to the best collection of new verse in English first published in the U.K. or the Republic of Ireland.

“We’re thrilled that Mark Doty and Oliver Bendorf will kick off our Reading Series year and 30th anniversary celebration,” says Jessica Jewell, program manager for the Wick Poetry Center. “Doty’s work is personal and profound, and Bendorf is a rising star in the poetry world.”

“The Wick Poetry Center's 30th anniversary marks a new beginning for the center,” says Ryan Lind, graduate fellow for the Wick Poetry Center. “It also celebrates our heritage and honors our university and community partners.”

Renowned poet Mark Doty will perform
readings to kick off the Kent State
Wick Poetry Center's 30th anniversary
celebration on Sept. 25 during the Stan
and Tom Wick Poetry Prize reading event
at the Kent Student Center Kiva.

The anniversary celebration continues on the Lefton Esplanade on Friday, Sept. 26, at 9:30 a.m. with a dedication by Kent State President Beverly Warren of the renovated former residence of May Prentice, one of Kent State's first Faculty members, and adjoining Poetry Park as the new home of the Wick Poetry Center. The 30th anniversary celebration dinner will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

Founding director Maggie Anderson will lead Wick Alumni Poetry Readings in the poetry park from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27. Former Wick Poetry Center Prize winners will participate in readings at this event, and there also will be an open reading for poets who wish to participate.

“The new home of the Wick Poetry Center is a point of destination for community members, school classrooms and campus organizations to interact with poetry exhibits on the Lefton Esplanade,” Lind says. “As we celebrate, we want to honor the relationships that have made our first 30 years possible. The continued generosity of the Wick family, the founding direction of Maggie Anderson and our ongoing partnerships in the city of Kent all have helped make the Wick Poetry Center a success.”

For more information about Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center’s 30th anniversary celebration, visit https://www2.kent.edu/wick/anniversary/anniversary.cfm.

To learn more about Bendorf and Doty, visit http://www.kent.edu/wick/reading-series.

Register for Kent State University Libraries and the Future: The Knight Foundation News Challenge

University Libraries and Blackstone LaunchPad host collaborative think-tank event around national competition

Kent State University Libraries and the Blackstone
LaunchPad program will host an informal, participatory
workshop on Sept. 26 on the role of university libraries
as a source of innovation and a vehicle for community
engagement.

The role of university libraries as a source of innovation and a vehicle for community engagement will be the topic of conversation on Friday, Sept. 26, as Kent State University Libraries and the Blackstone LaunchPad program host an informal, participatory workshop that will include submitting project proposals to a national competition, the Knight Foundation News Challenge: Libraries. The workshop will take place from noon to 2 p.m. on the fourth floor of the University Library at the Kent Campus. The event is free and open to the public and lunch will be provided with advanced registration.

“Twenty-first century libraries use all of their resources -- space, collections and value-added services and programs -- to give access to knowledge,” says Jim Bracken, dean of the Kent State University Libraries. “That knowledge can still be found in books and journals, but now, equally often, knowledge is made through social interactions. And the possible scenarios can be both physical or virtual, with libraries serving as connecting agents.”

“The opportunity to highlight the innovative direction of our University Libraries and facilitate the identification of new ideas that will strengthen this cross-campus resource is particularly exciting,” says Kate Harmon, associate director of the Blackstone LaunchPad program at Kent State. “The Knight Foundation News Challenge provides the perfect platform for engaging all Kent State stakeholders on how university libraries can foster knowledge and community.”

Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops and come to the workshop with project ideas on “How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?” At the event, participants will team up to develop and submit proposals to the Knight Foundation News Challenge with the opportunity to have them nationally funded. For a review of current Knight Foundation News Challenge submissions, click on this link.

For the workshop agenda and to register for this event by Sept. 24, click here. For more information about the event, contact Harmon at kharmon9@kent.edu or 330-672-6783.

For more information about the Kent State University Libraries, visit www.kent.edu/library.

For more information about the Blackstone LaunchPad program at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/blackstonelaunchpad.

Noted Choreographer and Scholar Kariamu Welsh to Visit Kent State

Welsh will present lecture and workshop on African dance

African dance choreographer and
scholar Kariamu Welsh, D.A., will visit
Kent State University on Sept. 26.

Kariamu Welsh, D.A., noted African dance choreographer and scholar, will visit Kent State University on Sept. 26 and present a lecture titled “African Dance in America: Protest Identity and Continuity” from noon to 1 p.m. in Room D022 in the Center for the Performing Arts. Welsh’s visit is made possible through a partnership between Kent State’s School of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Pan-African Studies.

Following the lecture, Welsh will present a workshop titled “Let the Circle be Unbroken: African Dance and the Umfundalai Technique” from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in dance studio D123 in the Roe Green Center of the Center for the Performing Arts.

Welsh is a choreographer and professor in the dance department in the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her Doctor of Arts from New York University and her M.A.H. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Widely published in both scholarly journals and book-length studies, Welsh is a scholar of cultural studies, including performance and culture within Africa and the African Diaspora.

She is the author of several books including Zimbabwe Dance: Rhythmic Forces, Ancestral Voices, An Aesthetic Analysis, and she is the editor of The African Aesthetic: Keeper of Traditions and African Dance: An Artistic, Historical and Philosophical Inquiry.

Welsh is the founding artistic director of the National Dance Company of Zimbabwe in southern Africa and also is the artistic director of Kariamu & Co.: Traditions.

Welsh is the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, a Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant and a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award.

Welsh and collaborators Nnenna Freelon and Maya Freelon Asante received a National Performance Network grant, New England Foundation for the Arts and an National Endowment for the Arts grant to create an evening-length work called “The Clothesline Muse.” The work premiered in March in Philadelphia and will tour in 2015. Currently, Welsh is researching the Afro-Colombian dances of Colombia’s Cali and Cartagena regions.

Kent State’s Department of Pan-African Studies to Hold Roundtable Discussion as Part of Yearlong Series

Kent State University’s Department of Pan-African Studies will hold a roundtable discussion on police state, militarism, brutality and the use of deadly force at an upcoming event.

“Violence and the Pan-African World: Inspiring Change” will take place Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. in Room 230, African Community Theatre at Ritchie Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

Kent State professors and community organizers, including George Garrison, Ph.D., professor in Kent State’s Department of Pan-African Studies, Linda Piccirillo-Smith, associate lecturer at Kent State, and Kent State alumnus DaMareo Cooper, will participate on the panel. This event will kick off a yearlong conversation that will address the issue of violence on a national and global scale, and the impact it has on people of African descent.

Future events in this series include:

• Boko Haram: Religion, Gender and War, October 2014
• Ebola: What You Need to Know About the State of Healthcare in Africa, November 2014
• Race and Crime: Personal Values, Community Priorities and Partner Violence, February 2015
• Native Americans’ Reliance in the Face of Violence, March 2015
• Physiological and Psychological Impact of Racialized Violence, April 2015
  

For more information about Kent State’s Department of Pan-African Studies, visit http://www2.kent.edu/cas/pas.

Homecoming 2014 to Include New Events

One of the highlights of Homecoming weekend is the
annual Bowman Cup 5K Race, which attracts a large
group of participants. This year, Kent State's Department
of Recreational Services is offering a virtual Bowman Cup
5K Race.

While Homecoming is typically a day of tradition, the 2014 celebration that will take place Oct. 18 will feature several new events for faculty, staff, alumni and the community to enjoy.

In keeping with this year’s Homecoming theme – “Kent State Pride is Worldwide” – the Department of Recreational Services is offering a virtual Bowman Cup 5K Race! No matter where you live, you can participate in the Bowman Cup without returning to campus. Virtual runners are expected to run a 5k at 8 a.m. EST on Oct. 18. Individuals interested in running must register by Oct. 3. To register, visit http://www2.kent.edu/recservices/bowmancup/index.cfm.

Also new this year is the Alumni Spirit Party featuring Wear Blue, Get Brews. Everyone is invited to the Williamson Alumni Center after the Homecoming parade for activities that are fun for the whole family! There will be party trucks with video games, karaoke and photo booths onboard, corn hole games, spirit stations with Kent State face tattoos, blue and gold hair dye, snacks, hot chocolate and beer.

To see all the events that will be taking place, visit www.ksualumni.org/homecoming.

Register for the Fall 2014 Bowman Breakfast

Kent State University President Beverly
Warren is the featured speaker at the
fall 2014 Bowman Breakfast on Oct. 8.

Kent State President Beverly Warren to reflect on first 100 days at Fall 2014 Bowman Breakfast

The fall 2014 Bowman Breakfast will take place at Kent State University in the Kent Student Center Ballroom on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Doors open at 7 a.m., breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m., and the program will follow at 8 a.m.

The featured speaker is Kent State President Beverly Warren. Warren will speak on the topic “Reflections on 100 Days as Kent State President and Kent Resident.”

The cost to attend is $10 per person, payable by cash or check at the door only. Invoicing is not available for this event. Reservations can be completed online or by contacting Mary Mandalari at 330-672-8664 or mmandala@kent.edu no later than Wednesday, Oct. 1. No shows will be billed. If you find you cannot attend, please contact Mandalari to cancel your reservation by Oct. 1.

Warren became Kent State’s 12th president on July 1, 2014. As the university’s chief executive officer, Warren oversees one of the nation's largest university systems. Kent State's eight campuses provide more than 300 academic programs to more than 41,000 undergraduate and graduate students from throughout Ohio and the nation, and from approximately 100 countries. One of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio, the university employs more than 5,700 full- and part-time faculty and staff.

Prior to coming to Kent State, Warren had served as provost and senior vice president at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) since 2011. She arrived at VCU in 2000 as a professor and head of the School of Education’s Division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and went on to serve as dean of the School of Education. Before joining VCU, Warren held faculty positions at Smith College in Massachusetts; Auburn University in Alabama; Appalachian State University in North Carolina; and Lander University in South Carolina.

Warren is an internationally respected and widely published scholar in the fields of education and exercise physiology. Her most recent research focused on urban education, including access and success for urban youth, the preparation of teachers for urban environments and coordination of education through P-20 initiatives. She is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American College of Sports Medicine in 2004 and is a former president of its Southeast Chapter.

A North Carolina native, Warren earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Master of Science degree from Southern Illinois University. She holds two doctorates, an Ed.D. in administration of higher education from the University of Alabama and a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Auburn University.

Kent State is committed to making its programs and activities accessible to those individuals with disabilities. If you or a member of your family will need an interpreter or any other accessibility accommodation to participate in this event, contact the university’s accessibility liaison, Jacqueline Gee, by phone at 330-672-8667, by video phone at 330-931-4441 or via email at accessKSU@kent.edu.

The Bowman Breakfast, a tradition since 1963, is sponsored by Kent State and the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce.

Kent State Planetarium Presents “Introduction to the Autumn Sky”

The Kent State University Planetarium will present “Introduction to the Autumn Sky,” the first in its series of free public shows for the 2014-2015 academic year. The program, which will take place Friday, Sept. 26, Saturday, Sept. 27, and Friday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. nightly, will be presented by Brett Ellman, Ph.D., director for Kent State’s Planetarium, in Room 108 Smith Hall.

During his presentation, Ellman will showcase the prominent autumn constellations, point out celestial objects that are visible to the naked eye and tour our neighbors in the solar system.

The show is free and open to members of the public, but is not appropriate for children under age 6. Reservations are recommended as seating capacity is limited. Reservations can be made by calling 330-672-2246. Persons needing special accommodations are requested to call at least one week in advance of the show.

For more information about Kent State’s Planetarium, visit http://planetarium.kent.edu.