eInside Events

Farewell Reception for Kent State Provost Frank Takes Place March 14

A farewell reception for Kent State University
Provost Robert G. Frank will take place on
March 14.

A farewell reception for Kent State University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Robert G. Frank will take place on Wednesday, March 14, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Roe Green Center lobby at the Music and Speech Center.

The Kent State University community is invited to this celebration of Frank’s achievements at Kent State.

Frank accepted the position of president at the University of New Mexico – his alma mater – and will become the 21st president of that institution.

In an earlier release, Kent State President Lester A. Lefton commended Frank for his significant accomplishments while at Kent State.

For questions about the farewell reception, contact Lashonda Taylor at 330-672-2235 or ltaylo33@kent.edu.

Ohio Employee Ownership Center Holds 26th Annual Conference on April 20

The 26th Annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference will be held Friday, April 20, at the Hilton in Fairlawn, Ohio. This year's conference theme is "Employee Ownership: Simply a Better Way of Doing Business." The keynote speaker this year is Joseph Blasi, the J. Robert Beyster Professor of Employee Ownership at Rutgers University.

Registration for Kent State faculty, staff and students is $25. Registration for the conference includes a continental breakfast, plated lunch, coffee break and closing reception.

For more information, contact the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University by phone at 330-672-3028 or by email at oeoc@kent.edu or visit www.oeockent.org.

Kent Dance Ensemble 2012 BREAK OUT!

School of Theatre and Dance’s pre-professional dance ensemble presents annual concert

Kent State students Sabatino Verlezza and Jessica Mego
perform a routine in up straight in the sunshine. The dance
is choreographed by School of Theatre and Dance Associate
Professor Kimberly Karpanty.

Kent State University’s School of Theatre and Dance will present the Kent Dance Ensemble’s annual main stage concert, BREAK OUT!, on March 30, 31 and April 1. The popular concert will be performed in the E. Turner Stump Theatre, located in the Music and Speech building at 1325 Theatre Dr. Evening performances on Friday and Saturday begin at 8 p.m., with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. A complimentary reception will take place after the Saturday, March 31 performance.

To reserve tickets, call the School of Theatre and Dance Box Office at 330- 672-2497 between noon and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or reserve tickets online at www.dance.kent.edu. General adult admission is $16, $12 for seniors, Kent State faculty, staff and alumni, and $8 for students with a valid ID.

The pre-professional student dance company boasts 14 dancers from both the performance/choreography and dance education programs who will be performing new and revitalized dances by Kent State dance faculty and guest artists from Cleveland, Eugene, Ore., and New York City.

The concert opens with a powerful trio choreographed by an alumna of the dance division, Jennifer Sandoval Eccher ’99, founder and director of Marquez Dance Project based in Cleveland. Inner Drum explores the beat within our bodies created through breath and heartbeat. The dance celebrates our individuality and how we extend our energy toward each other and through the space around us. Assistant Professor Erin LaSala’s decline, rise, remain is an examination of relationships and demonstrates LaSala’s commitment to exploring human interaction and the reasons people are brought together, both mentally and physically. Assistant Professor Joan Meggitt restages guest artist Holly Labbe’s FFA: Fairy Flight Academy, a delightful dance about four oversized fairies attempting to earn their wings. Labbe’s movement combines the elegant with the awkward in a team effort sure to charm young and old alike.

Guest artist Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner presents Southern and Baseline, a concert jazz piece for eight women inspired by clarinetist Don Byron and Ensemble playing familiar jazz standards. The two young men in the ensemble travelled to New York City last August for an intensive residency that resulted in the challenging solo created by guest artist Peter Kyle. Return: in parts evolved out of an exploration of the performative relationship between rhythm, sound, motion and human endurance. The concert closes with all 14 members of the Kent Dance Ensemble in Artistic Director Kimberly Karpanty’s up straight in the sunshine, a work examining individual courage and identity within a group. A score by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds transports the audience.

Contact Karpanty at 330-672-0127 or kkarpant@kent.edu for more information about the ensemble’s upcoming performances and educational outreach programs.

Kent State Hosts Seventh Annual Piano Institute on July 15-25

Donna Lee, Ph.D., an associate professor
of music at Kent State University, leads a
class during last year’s Piano Institute.
The university presents its seventh annual
Piano Institute on July 15-25.

Students from grades 7-12 will have an opportunity to rub elbows with individuals from all around the world at this year’s seventh annual Piano Institute at Kent State University presented by the Piano Division at Kent State’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music.

Held July 15-25, the Piano Institute offers a unique combination of lessons, master classes and performance opportunities. Students will interact at Kent State for 11 days of inspiration, learning and sharing. Applications are currently being accepted for this highly intensive festival for talented piano students in grades 7-12.

Activities for Piano Institute participants include:

• Performing in a final gala performance at Severance Hall’s Reinberger Chamber Hall
• Receiving four hours of one-on-one lessons with Kent State piano faculty
• Participating in master classes with esteemed guest artists, including Joela Jones, principal keyboardist with the Cleveland Orchestra
• Attending workshops on sight reading, technique, practicing, and audition/competition preparation
  

In addition, participants will live on campus, enjoy picnics and recreational activities and will have the opportunity to attend field trips to Porthouse Theatre and a Cleveland Orchestra concert at Blossom Music Center.

All classes, lessons and monitored practice sessions will take place in Kent State’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. The school offers a wide variety of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in performance, conducting, music education, composition, ethnomusicology, musicology and theory as well as three doctoral programs in music education, musicology-ethnomusicology and theory-composition.

The cost of the 11-day program is $1,385 and includes:

• Room and board
• All classes
• Four hours of private instruction
• Master classes
• Concerts
• Transportation to field trips
• Recreational activities
• A concert CD
• A T-shirt
  

The application deadline is April 20. Scholarships are available.

For more information about the Piano Institute, visit www.kent.edu/pianoinstitute or contact Monica Brately at mbratel1@kent.edu or 330-672-3100.

Attend the 2012 Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards Reception

The 2012 Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards reception will take place on March 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the University Auditorium at Cartwright Hall.

Sponsored by the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs and University Research Council, this award honors Kent State’s finest faculty researchers and scholars. The award recipients will be selected based on their quality of research and scholarship, and its impact on society. The award recipients are expected to be announced on the Kent State University homepage on March 15.

Public Lecture to Follow Awards Reception
A lecture by Yale Professor of Physics John W. Harris will follow the awards reception.

His lecture, “An Odyssey through our Universe – From the Big Bang and Unknown Dark Forces to Unseen Dimensions and Universes,” will be held in the University Auditorium at Cartwright Hall at 7 p.m.

The lecture is intended for a non-technical audience, so children and adults of all ages are encouraged to attend.

“In this lecture, I will discuss issues that constitute some of the most intriguing mysteries and marvels remaining in modern-day physics, including gravity, black holes, quantum mechanics, string theory, dark matter and the Higgs particle,” Harris says.

To learn more about this public lecture, visit www.kent.edu/research/johnharrispubliclecture.cfm.

For more information, contact Jim Maxwell at jmaxwel2@kent.edu.

Kent Interhall Council Hosts Dream Big Dreams Weekend

Kent Interhall Council is hosting Dream Big Dreams Lil Sibs Weekend, April 13 – 15. This event is open to all Kent State faculty, staff and students.

The Dream Big Dreams event will feature a weekend of a variety of activities, such as Finding Nemo as the dive-in movie at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center and Happy Feet 2 as the late night reels movie in the Kent Student Center Kiva. Other activities include a record-breaking event – the largest group of people to dress up as black squirrels, which will take place on Saturday morning; inflatables in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center on Saturday, including access to swimming and rock climbing; ice skating at the Ice Arena, planetarium shows and more.

Registration for the event is required and will run from now until April 13. T-shirts will be available for sale at $7 via the Kent Interhall Council website until March 28. Limited amounts of T-shirts will also be on sale throughout the weekend of the event at $15.

Visit http://kic.kent.edu for more information about the weekend and for registration information.

For questions about the event, email ksulilsibs@gmail.com.

Innovate 2012 Conference Focuses on Teaching and Learning

Innovate 2012, the annual conference sponsored by The Ohio State University’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, will take place April 12 at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Ohio State's campus.

Innovate 2012 is a free event that features the best uses of technology in teaching and learning across the nation. The conference is open to university faculty, students and staff, and registration opens March 12 at http://elearning.osu.edu.

This year's theme – transformation – highlights the ways that technology can promote dramatic changes in the ability to engage students in the classroom and impact research and field study opportunities across the globe. One of the goals of Innovate is to create connections among faculty and staff who are interested in exploring the relationship between technology and teaching. With a broad range of sessions from participatory learning to large course transformation, and from technology-based research to student engagement, the conference is an opportunity to learn about the most cutting-edge approaches to technology-enhanced learning and research across campus and the state.

Special guests this year include keynote speaker Karen Cator, director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, and Joe Lambert, founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling. New this year, will be an emphasis on faculty-led presentations about transformative approaches to teaching, research and outreach in a wide range of disciplines.

The conference includes a wide range of presenters from novice to advanced users, from graduate student instructors to tenured faculty. Presentation formats include poster sessions, breakout sessions, and a "steal my idea" showcase, with five-minute presentations about exciting learning technology approaches that can be enacted in a wide range of environments.

This interactive, highly engaging program is built upon two years of tremendously successful events in 2010 and 2011. A short video highlight of the 2010 event is available at http://elearning.osu.edu.

Past attendees have included faculty and technology staff from 30 colleges and universities in Ohio and this year includes presenters from Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, California and Washington, D.C.

Evaluations during the conference day showed 99 percent of respondents rated the sessions as either good or excellent.

School of Theatre and Dance Presents Week of West African Dance

A week of West African dance begins Monday, March 12, at Kent State University's School of Theatre and Dance.

“Students need African dance, but it’s difficult to find faculty in this area,” says Dance Division Director Andrea Shearer. “Hopefully this initial groundwork leads to expansion in African dance for the school. We have to start somewhere.”

Robin Gee, former artistic director and choreographer for Cinque Folkloric Dance Company and current associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG), will be conducting master classes in West African dance from Monday, March 12 through Thursday, March 16. All classes will be held in Room D123 of the Music and Speech building, and take place during regular class times.

Gee will be accompanied by drummers Atiba Rorie from North Carolina and Papa Assane Mbaye from Cleveland. A special meet-and-greet is open to the public and scheduled for noon on Monday, and an open class (for dance students at all levels) from 9:55-10:35 a.m. on Thursday, March 16.

Gee holds an M.F.A. in dance choreography and performance from Sarah Lawrence College and specializes in African dance techniques, Caribbean dance forms and modern dance techniques. Robin teaches African and modern dance classes at UNCG, and conducts residencies throughout the country in dance appreciation and dance history. Gee has performed with several New York-based dance companies, including Les Ballet Bagata, Maimouna Keita Dance Company and the Cinque Folkloric Dance Company, where she served as choreographer and artistic director for 15 years.