eInside Events

Department of Recreational Services Celebrates National Recreational Sports and Fitness Day With Free Access and Classes

Kent State's Department of Recreational
Services will celebrate National Recreational
Sports and Fitness Day with free access to
the Student Recreational and Wellness Center
on on Feb. 22.

Kent State University’s Department of Recreational Services will celebrate National Recreational Sports and Fitness all day on Friday, Feb. 22. The highlights of the day include free access to the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, free group exercise classes and a special lunchtime skating session at the Kent State Ice Arena.

Faculty, staff and their families are encouraged to visit the Student Recreation and Wellness Center anytime on Friday, Feb. 22. All Group X classes, including yoga, spinning and Pilates will be free throughout the day. A special total body conditioning class is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

The Kent State Ice Arena will offer a public skating session from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Faculty and staff are invited to stop by the Ice Arena during their lunch break. Admission for faculty, staff and alumni is $4.50 a person, and skate rental is $2.50.

National Recreational Sports and Fitness Day was founded in 1999 by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). The annual celebration recognizes NIRSA’s founding date: Feb. 22, 1950. The celebration promotes the benefits of participation in recreational sports and honors the representatives of 11 historically black colleges/universities who first met at Dillard University in New Orleans to form the National Intramural Association, NIRSA’s predecessor.

Visit www.kent.edu/recservices for more information, including facility hours and class times. Join in on the celebration on Facebook and Twitter by following @SRWC and @KSUIceArena, and using the hashtag #RecDay.

Kent State University Student Choreographers Unveil Exciting New Dances

"Cre-8-tivity” showcases new choreography by junior
and senior dance performance and dance education majors
and minors at Kent State.

Kent State University’s School of Theatre and Dance will continue its 2012-2013 production season with the “BFA Senior Dance Concert/Student Dance Festival “Cre-8-tivity.” Performances will take place on Friday and Saturday, March 15-16, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 17, at 2 p.m. in the Louis O. Erdmann and William H. Zucchero Theatre (E.Z. Theatre) located in the Music and Speech Center.

Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for Kent State faculty and staff, $12 for seniors, and $8 for students with valid ID/under 18. Tickets can be purchased by calling 330-672-2787 or online at www.dance.kent.edu. Tickets for Kent Campus students are free with a valid student ID through the box office. The box office is open weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. and one hour prior to each performance. Visa, MasterCard, checks and cash are accepted. Free parking is available and the theatre is fully accessible.

“Cre-8-tivity” showcases new choreography by junior and senior dance performance and dance education majors and minors at Kent State. In addition, dance performance major and B.F.A. candidate Lauren Kengla-Graber will perform a solo created for her by Assistant Professor Erin LaSala. These premiere performances will offer audience members the opportunity to view original works that showcase the versatility and creativity of the choreographers.

The concert will present a dynamic array of works about overcoming adversity, recognizing important relationships, finding stillness within chaos and looking for control. Thirty-six dancers will perform in nine different pieces of modern and contemporary choreography

“The Unknown,” choreographed by Kengla-Graber, contrasts two couples as their relationships transpire and change as they grow. One relationship will evolve as the couple begins their lives together after college, while the other will experience the dark emotions that come with a break-up. The dance reflects the contrasting emotions present in this life-changing experience.

“Color Me,” choreographed by student director of the senior dance festival Emily Perrott, encourages the dancers, as well as the audience, to identify the things or people in their lives who keep them going through all of life’s continuous battles. Each dancer receives their sense of strength and life through the piece’s soloist, who is there to lift them, encourage them and give them their color. Every dancer gets their push from the soloist, just as the color white reflects all colors, giving color to the universe.

In “Game Changer,” choreographer Stacey Ubelhart illustrates the meaning of silence in loud chaos. Eight dancers fill the space with large, quick, fragmented movements, searching for a moment of stillness in an abundance of motion.

Choreographer Shayna Fischer was inspired by her experience as an intern at a dance therapy workshop. “Under the Sun [a time to dance]” strives to show the audience that dance can bring light to the darkest of places and that everyone has dance in their heart.

The BFA Senior Dance Concert/Student Dance Festival offers audiences a diverse selection of modern and contemporary dance. Audience members are sure to find something that inspires, entertains and moves them.

Kent State University's Downtown Gallery presents “Recent Work”

Kent State Professor Paul O’Keeffe's art, pictured above,
will be featured in his exhibition at the School of Art's
Downtown Gallery through March 9.

Kent State University’s Downtown Gallery will present “Recent Work,” an exhibition by Paul O’Keeffe that will run through March 9 in the Downtown Gallery.

O'Keeffe's work over the past decade is situated in two strains of thinking about contemporary practice that tends to be seen as oppositional, but that he wants to put into play. First, there is the effort, characteristic of late modernism, to remove the work from narrative. Color, form and materials are used in such a way as to defy the viewer’s desire to make meaning of the work apart from the immediate encounter with the form.

His recent work is similarly about this first moment of engagement. The pieces are large, the colors are somewhat jarring and there are few immediate clues as to the meaning of the work. It is the corporeal experience that first impresses. Intense fluorescent hues often destabilize the form and make an overall image difficult to grasp. At the same time, there are indicators that encourage a more analytical approach, and that therefore move the work beyond the phenomenological. The titles of the works, somewhat obscure, might be apparent to fans of late 70s bands like The Jam, Gang of Four and Suicide, music that emerged contemporaneously with the decline of the modernist era.

O’Keeffe was born in Dublin, Ireland. As an undergraduate student, he attended St. Martin’s School of Art, London, and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. He received an M.F.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1981. He joined the faculty of Kent State University in 1983 where he is currently a professor. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, including exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Dublin. His most recent solo exhibition was held last October at 21 Street Projects, New York.

O’Keeffe is the recipient of a number of awards and honors including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Ford Foundation grant, an Arts Midwest/National Endowment for the Arts Award and several awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. The Ohio Arts Council has awarded him an Individual Excellence Award for 2013, and marks the 11th time he has been honored with this award. O’Keeffe’s work is represented in many public and private collections including The Arts Council of Ireland; Bayer USA, Pittsburgh; Progressive Insurance, Cleveland; Kaiser Permanante, Cleveland; and the Cleveland Public Library.

The Downtown Gallery is located at 141 E. Main St. in downtown Kent. Hours are Wednesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 330-676-1549 or visit http://galleries.kent.edu.

Kent State College of Nursing Presents “Driving the Future 2013”

Event provides inspiration for innovators

“Driving the Future 2013,” an event focused on inspiration
and innovation and their roles in the education, science and
healthcare of the future, will take place on March 4.

Kent State University’s College of Nursing presents “Driving the Future 2013,” an event focused on inspiration and innovation and their roles in the education, science and healthcare of the future. The event will take place on Monday, March 4, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will feature a series of TED TALK-style presentations. The event will take place at the Kent Student Center with morning sessions at the Kiva. Registration is required by Wednesday, Feb. 27, and can be done here.

Driving the Future is a nationally attended conference series created in 2007 to facilitate brainstorming and dialogue addressing the gaps between education and practice for healthcare.

Scientist, inventor and educator Ron Mallett, Ph.D., will serve as keynote speaker at the event. Mallett teaches theoretical physics at the University of Connecticut. He was inspired as a child to challenge the test of time by his father’s untimely passing and by the HG Wells classic novel, The Time Machine. He vowed he would develop a theory to travel back in time to help his father, and this goal has been his life’s work for the past 40 years. Today he has a convincing and respected argument for time travel based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Mallett will talk about how he developed his theory and how he persevered with what many feel is unbelievable or impossible.

Panel speakers at the event, from the fields of education, healthcare, science, medicine and the arts, also will share their inspirations, presenting their innovation expertise in a TED-TALK format. The speakers are

• Melody Tankersley, Ph.D., Kent State University Provost Fellow
• Vincent Hetherington, D.P.M., senior associate dean of the Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine
• John West, Ph.D., University Trustees Research Professor with the Kent State Liquid Crystal Institute
• Maria Jukic, J.D., executive director of the Cleveland Clinic Arts and Medicine Institute
  

Following the morning presentations, the afternoon program is scheduled with breakout sessions for research poster and paper presenters focused on innovation.

In previous years, Driving the Future presentations have focused on ideal skills of graduates, nursing leadership acumen, forward-looking curricula, quality and safety, learning competencies and self-care. The audience has grown over the seven years of programming to now include not only students, faculty and practitioners in nursing, but also bench scientists, administrators, insurance and business executives and educators from a broad range of disciplines.

For more information about attending and to register for the morning session or the entire day of Driving the Future, visit www.kent.edu/nursing/events/driving-the-future/index.cfm.

Kent State University Students Will Compete to Raise Funds for Veterans

Kent State University will compete against two other universities on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m. at the Student Recreational and Wellness Center to raise funds for Pedal for Heroes, an organization that helps support veterans and families of fallen soldiers from Ohio.

Kent State will compete against the University of Akron, Cleveland State University and several fitness facilities in Northeastern Ohio, at the second annual Pedal for Heroes fundraiser. Students and participants will cycle for 276 minutes, representing one minute for every Ohio soldier who lost his or her life in the Middle East since Sept. 11, 2001.

Cassie Schumacher, creator of Pedal for Heroes, says the event was created to get people physically active for a cause.

“I wanted to start an organization that could directly benefit veterans right here in our own community,” says Schumacher. “I think physical exercise is the best antidepressant, and a lot of veterans become inactive once they get out of service.”

Participants will cycle on stationary bikes throughout the event. Schumacher says one of the main goals for the event is to get participants to commit to the entire 276 minutes.

Students and participants are asked to gather fundraising donations from friends and family. Pedal for Heroes’ participants may ask for a fixed amount of donations for each minute they ride.

At some local fitness facilities, participants may choose to walk, row, swim or run for the allotted time. Kent State students are encouraged to reach out to the Kent community to form teams.

Teams are made up of four or five members. Interested participants may also compete solo. The university or fitness facility with the highest amount of donations raised will be featured on the Pedal for Heroes website.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Pedal for Heroes organization, which is dedicated to building awareness of veterans’ issues and raising funds for local veterans’ charities. Last year, more than $16,000 was raised by participating local fitness facilities.

For more information about the event and how to register, visit www.PedalForHeroesUSA.org.

Faculty and Staff are Invited to Experience Flash Ice Fest on Feb. 23

Faculty and staff members are invited to bring their families to Flash Ice Fest 3 at the Kent State Ice Arena on Saturday, Feb. 23. Sponsored by the Kent State University Alumni Association, Flash Ice Fest offers an afternoon of frozen fun for everyone. Starting at 3 p.m., enjoy ice skating, face painting, balloon artists, pizza and much more!

The RSVP deadline is Thursday, Feb. 21. The cost to attend for children 12 years of age and younger is $5 for Alumni Association members and $7 for non-members; the cost for adults is $7 for Alumni Association members and $9 for non-members (price includes skate rental, ice skating and meal). Please register by visiting www.ksualumni.org or call the Alumni Association at 330-672-5368.

Kent State Tuscarawas Presents 31st Annual Engineering Expo

In celebration of National Engineers Week, Kent State University at Tuscarawas is holding the 31st annual Engineering Technology Opportunity Expo on Feb. 21, from 4:30-8:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. The expo is open and free to the public.

The Kent State Tuscarawas Cyber Center is co-sponsoring the expo with the high school cyber clubs at Carrollton, Claymont, Conotton Valley, Coshocton County Career Center, Dover, Garaway, Indian Valley, New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown, Sandy Valley, Strasburg and Tuscarawas Valley High Schools. The expo is intended to increase the high school exposure to opportunities in manufacturing-related fields and in interactive digital technology.

Participating companies will have representatives from their management, personnel and manufacturing sectors available to address questions regarding availability of jobs, skill requirements and career opportunities in engineering. They will also have displays featuring information on various products they manufacture. Among the companies that will have expo displays are Allied Machine and Engineering, General Electric Dover Products Plant, Howden North America, Inc., Lauren International, The M.K. Morse Company and deflect-o, LLC.

Kent State Tuscarawas will have resource people available to discuss the academic preparation needed for jobs in various fields of engineering and technology.

During the expo, Kent State Tuscarawas will present awards to the winners of six competitions held for high school students. Participants from 15 area high schools were trained in digital electronics, computer-aided drafting (CAD), multimedia, robotics, animation design and video game design. Awards to the top five winners, which include cash and scholarships, will be presented at approximately 6:30 p.m., with all participants being recognized.

In addition, Carrollton, Claymont, Conotton Valley, Coshocton County Career Center, Dover, Garaway, Indian Valley, New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown, Sandy Valley, Strasburg and Tuscarawas Valley High Schools will participate in the Bridge Contest, co-sponsored by the Kent State Tuscarawas Engineering Technology Department and the Tuscarawas Valley Society of Professional Engineers. The testing and judging of the submitted bridges will take place at the expo. First and second place winners will be given the opportunity to compete in the international contest to be held in Chicago, Ill. in the near future.

For more information, contact Kamal Bichara, Ph.D., director of engineering technologies, at 330-339-3391 ext. 47457.

Pulitzer Center Journalist Comes to Kent State to Speak on Fracking

The School of Communication Studies'
inaugural Global Communication Issues
Forum will feature Dimiter Kenarov, a Pulitzer
Center journalist, speaking about “Fracking:
Promise or Peril?” The event will take place
on Feb. 20.

Pulitzer Center Journalist Dimiter Kenarov visits Kent State on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Kiva to discuss his newest project focusing on hydraulic fracturing as a “game changer” in Poland. The evening will consist of a panel discussion with Kenarov, Bob Downing from the Akron Beacon Journal, Yoram Eckstein, Ph.D., and Donald Palmer, Ph.D., both professors from the Department of Geology at Kent State. The event is hosted by the School of Communication Studies.

“The School of Communication Studies’ first annual communications global communication issues forum ‘Fracking: Promise or Peril?’ offers us an outstanding opportunity to partner with the Pulitzer Center to bring international journalists to Kent State University to share important reporting on issues of global significance and to emphasize the centrality of communication in addressing issues of importance worldwide,” says Paul Haridakis, director of the School of Communication Studies. “The forum at the Kiva brings the media and science together as Kent State geologists and journalists participate in an engaged conversation on the local and global practice of fracking.”

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Anne Dudley, marketing coordinator for the School of Communication Studies at adudley@kent.edu.