LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
October 24, 2003 |
VOL. 20, NO. 5 |
|
|
|
|
Risa Palm, executive vice chancellor and provost, recently met with staff members of LSU’s Division of Continuing Education to announce the appointment of Pauline M. Rankin as dean, effective immediately.
It was also announced that the LSU Evening School is now housed in the Division of Continuing Education. Palm emphasized the importance of both units, saying that they have key roles to play in the University’s mission.
For the past four years, Rankin has served as vice-provost for Academic Affairs. Prior to that, she was executive director of the Division of Instructional Support and Development – now Centers for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. She is a tenured professor in the LSU College of Education and will continue teaching.
Rankin received her bachelor’s degree from Arkansas Tech University, her master’s from the University of Arkansas and her doctorate from LSU.
“I am pleased to assume this responsibility in Continuing Education,” Rankin said. “For years, I’ve admired the staff for their entrepreneurial spirit and positive attitude. I look forward to working with them to promote LSU and the Flagship Agenda.”
Within the context of the LSU Flagship Agenda, the purpose of Continuing Education is to offer lifelong learning opportunities through credit and non-credit programs that meet educational needs.
Recently, a program review of the Division rated four of the programs satisfactory/superior – the highest ranking possible. Special commendations were given for a strong national reputation, a knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff and programs that help LSU achieve its “land and sea grant mission through outreach and public service activities.”
Doug Weimer, associate dean, stated that the results of the program review “are helpful in determining the direction of the Division. The panel included external members, as well as campus representatives, and their perspectives on how Continuing Education can build on its mission were interesting.”
“The staff will consider carefully the recommendations of the program review team and develop programs that are responsive to campus and external needs,” Rankin said. “We are anxious to collaborate with the academic departments to further the goals of the Flagship Agenda.”
The Division includes non-credit programs such as Corporate and Custom Development, Legal Studies, Youth Programs and Lagniappe Studies. Credit programs include Extension Offerings, Independent Study and the Evening School.
 |
| Mike the Tiger mascot celebrates his birthday by embracing one of his fans. The LSU community gathered in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to raise money for Mike the Tiger’s new habitat. |
LSU students, faculty and staff celebrated “Mike Day” Friday, Oct. 10, in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to raise money for Mike the Tiger’s new habitat.
“The University is for the students and Mike is LSU,” said DeLaine Emmert, wife of Chancellor Mark Emmert.
DeLaine Emmert, along with Tiger Athletic Foundation Collegiate Club and LSU’s student media, kicked off the event announcing that students have raised $52,000 for Mike’s new habitat, with their goal set at $100,000.
DeLaine Emmert and Bill Hulsey, former Tiger Athletic Foundation president, began the “I Like Mike” campaign as a grassroots effort in the fall of 2001. They hired Torre Design Consortium, LTD to design the $2.5 million project, of which $1.5 million has already been raised.
“Since 1926, Mike the Tiger has belonged to the LSU student body. Therefore it is fitting that the student body has taken an active role in providing Mike V and future ‘Mikes’ with a suitable enclosure; one that will promote optimal health, and will help educate visitors to the global challenges faced by the tiger as a species,” said Dr. David Baker.
The new habitat will be 15,000 square feet and will feature a waterfall, swimming pond, natural grass and an observatory to view Mike. Construction on the project will begin after the completion of fund-raising.
Current fund raisers include purchasing bricks for $100 that will be engraved and used in the construction of Mike’s new home, and joining Tiger Athletic Foundation Collegiate Club. In addition, Louisiana artist George Rodrigue recently agreed to contribute a Mike the Tiger painting to the fund-raising efforts.
Mike is the fifth Bengal tiger at LSU, and he was donated by Dr. Thomas and Caroline Atchison of the Animal House Zoological Park in Molten, Ala. He began his reign as mascot on April 30, 1990, and will celebrate his 14 birthday on Oct. 18.
Contributions to the “I Like Mike” campaign can be made through Tiger Athletic Foundation by contacting Michael Boudreaux at 578-4823.
More information on Mike the Tiger’s new habitat and the “I Like Mike” campaign can be found on the web at www.mikethetiger.com.
Guest artist Lynn C. Miller from the University of Texas at Austin will present “Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton and The Fool’s Journey” at LSU’s HopKins Black Box Theatre, Thursday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is a suggested donation of $5.
Miller will also offer a free workshop for LSU students on developing autobiographical performances, Friday, Oct. 31.
Miller’s performance traces her creative journey as a writer and performer. As she created one-woman shows on Gertrude Stein and Edith Wharton over the past 10 years, the two modernist, expatriate writers evolved into literary mentors for her own creative writing and scholarship. The presentation combines excerpts of Miller’s solo shows, “Gertrude Stein as Gertrude Stein” and “Edith Wharton: Inside the House of Fiction,”and selections from Miller’s recent novel, “The Fool’s Journey,” which features Wharton as a character.
“The performance is a hybrid work,” Miller explained. “It’s part lecture, part autobiography, part drama and I invite the audience to ask questions.”
Miller teaches performance art and autobiographical performance in the Theatre and Dance Department at UT-Austin. She has presented her solo shows around the country at universities, theaters, art museums, book fairs and chautauquas. Her latest play, “Passenger on the Ship of Fools,” centered on the life and work of Katherine Anne Porter.
It has been performed by Irene Worth in New York for Yaddo Variations and by Mary Frances HopKins at both UT-Austin and LSU.
Miller is also the co-editor of a newly released book, “Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women’s Autobiography,” published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
For more information on both events, contact the LSU Department of Communication Studies at 225-578-4172 or visit the Black Box Theatre at www.artsci.lsu.edu/spcm/black_box.
The Forum on Race and the Media, an effort to improve media and academic diversity through a variety of measures, has been initiated by the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU.
At the center of the early stages of the forum’s programming is the launch of a new Web site, http://www.lsu.edu/raceandmedia, an annotated bibliography on race and media. The site currently includes more than 400 articles from more than 100 historical and contemporary journals and approximately 130 books.
“This Web site is designed to serve efforts of scholars who are seeking to strengthen diversity components of their teaching, research and service,” said John Maxwell Hamilton, dean of the Manship School. “The goal is to provide a comprehensive listing of materials available on race and other minority issues as they relate to education.”
Administered by the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs, this national clearinghouse effort is spearheaded by well-known journalist and author Curtis Wilkie and Manship School doctoral student Weimin Chang. The site will be updated regularly with the latest materials and serve as a centralized resource for journalism educators, researchers and professionals.
“We believe it is especially important that journalism/mass communication courses reflect minority issues,” said Hamilton. “As it currently exists, this site represents only a beginning. It will be expanded on a regular basis.”
Though new, the site has already proven useful to one prominent journalism educator. Arlene Morgan, the director of professional development at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, said that she plans to feature a link to the site in a new textbook that she is co-authoring, “Authentic Voices,” which showcases some of the best media coverage of race and ethnicity.
“I don’t think there is anything like it in the industry,” Morgan said. “It should be extremely helpful to researchers and journalists who are working in this field.”
For more information on the Manship School of Mass Communication’s Forum on Race and the Media or the new Web site, contact Adrienne Moore, director of the Reilly Center, or Ralph Izard, associate dean at the Manship School, at 578-2002.
LSU’s Readers & Writers series will present a reading by acclaimed novelist and journalist John Ed Bradley on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m.
The presentation will be held in the LSU Design Building Auditorium.
Bradley, a former LSU football player and frequent Sports Illustrated contributor, will read from his most recent novel, “Restoration,” which is set against the backdrop of the New Orleans arts scene.
Bradley has garnered considerable notice in recent years for his fiction. His last novel, “My Juliet,” was called a “darkly powerful noir thriller” by Entertainment Weekly. Of “Restoration,” Publishers Weekly says that Bradley “is back in top form with this smart and disarmingly romantic novel about the artistic, erotic and racial history of New Orleans.”
Admission is free to Readers & Writers members and to students, and $8 at the door for the general public. For more information or to join Readers & Writers, please contact Judy Kahn at jkahn@lsu.edu or call 578-3124.
|
| Shauna Rappold (left, as "Ron") and Shantel James (as "Yvonne) play a married couple torn over a debate about pornography in LSU Theatre's Studio Show "Masterpieces." |
Sex may sell, but LSU Theatre’s upcoming studio production of “Masterpieces” by Sarah Daniels explores the price people pay for selling it.
The play examines the relationship between pornography and violence against women, and challenges the audience to consider the issue from a new perspective.
Written by Sarah Daniels in 1984, the play uses a non-linear format. In other words, the audience knows the outcome of the play at the beginning, leaving the rest of the production open to explore the reasons behind the violent events that occur.
“Masterpieces” contains graphic verbal descriptions and is recommended for mature audiences only. Performances run Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Nov. 7-16, in Theater 150 of the Music and Dramatic Arts Building on LSU’s campus. Tickets are available at the door one hour prior to performances and a $6 donation is suggested per patron.
“Hopefully, this show will speak to previous shows produced here at LSU, such as ‘Killer Joe’ and ‘The Shape of Things’ that have depicted violence against women,” said director and doctoral candidate Ashleigh Gray.
“Masterpieces” investigates the effect of pornography on society and more specifically, arelationships. An all-female cast tackles both the male and female roles in the play, which puts a unique spin on the interpretation of gender roles in society and violence against women.
“This play is meant to illicit debate and discussion,” Gray said. “Feminist issues need to be talked about with the audience. Hopefully, when the male roles are played by females, the audience will see more sides to the story and have a better understanding of the issues.”
For more information, call 578-4174 or visit www.theatre.lsu.edu.