Capstone Class Mimics Real World

When I began the journey through journalism 421, my beat development senior capstone, I was honestly terrified. I didn’t know how I was going to write a story every two weeks, let alone stories that weren't handed to my by an editor but rather found through my own sources and research. The class far surpassed any of my expectations or fears—in a very good way. Because of this class I feel perfectly capable of developing a beat of my own in the real world. I anticipate the process being even easier without 15 other credit hours and 26 novels to read weighing me down.

One of the most rewarding parts of the beat development process was forging relationships with sources and finding story ideas through them. It was extremely gratifying to discover very interesting people and events happening on campus. A whole other side of the university was opened up to me. I undertook several aspects of the School of Fine Arts as my beat: the administration, art museum, and architecture/interior design department. I had never set foot in the architecture and interior design building before this semester, nor taken an interest in what amazing projects the students and staff were undertaking.

A couple of my stories were not only written for the class deadline, but for our student paper as well. This doubling of expectations put pressure on me to really work ahead for each story. I found it very frustrating when my grades and the good graces of my editors were in the hands of sources who may or may not return my phone calls or emails in a timely fashion.

Welcome to the real world, Megan.

-- Megan Milstead
Nov. 27, 2007

New SFA Dean has Big Plans

BY: MEGAN MILSTEAD

SEPT. 11, 2007

Teacher, composer, musician and leader are just a few of the roles Jim Lentini fills at Miami University as the new dean of the School of Fine Arts (SFA). Barely entering his third month in Oxford, Lentini has already begun to assess not only the departments of the SFA, but the students of Miami and the wider community as well.

“I’m living on campus and getting the full flavor of how the students on campus live both night and day. There’s a vibrancy to it,” Lentini said.

As a Michigan native, Lentini, 49, isn’t a stranger to the Midwest. “The Midwest isn’t at all a mystery, but I haven’t really lived in a small town per se,” Lentini said. “It’s amazing how small the network really is. For my family this was a good move and we’re adjusting well.”

And, as far as his assessment of the SFA is concerned, Lentini doesn’t believe his role as dean necessarily involves many dramatic changes.

“I didn’t come in with the idea that I needed to fix anything,” Lentini said, “but I came in with the idea of assessing where the strength areas are and what the next steps need to be.”

Lentini’s first step will include a year studying the six departments that make up the SFA—architecture and interior design, art, music, theater, the Art Museum, and the Performing Arts Series—and forming strategic plans to move forward with each department. The plans—a first for the SFA—will address broad questions: What is the mission and vision of each department? How have its goals been supported and funded? What are the points of excellence for the department? How is the department perceived by students and the community?

To find the answers to these questions, Lentini, along with the faculty of each department, will look at data such as admissions numbers, selectivity in each major, and awards students win.

John Weigand, interim chair for the department of Architecture and Interior Design, feels Lentini’s approach to change has been a good one.

“He’s been very public about wanting to strategically plan and establish these goals collectively,” Weigand said. “He is very conscious about not coming in and telling everyone exactly what they need to do.”

Miami alumna and architecture major Michelle Bennett represented undergraduate students in the dean search. She felt from the start that Lentini would bring positive change to the SFA.

“When he first interviewed, I immediately noticed the infectious enthusiasm he spread throughout the entire room,” Bennett said via e-mail. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘If Dr. Lentini could instill such inspiration in a few short minutes, imagine what he could do in only a few short years.’ ”

One of the overriding themes for all this change will be technology. In his nearly 15 years at Wayne State University in Detroit, Lentini was involved in the fundraising and designing of two music computer labs that cost $75,000 to $100,000 each at the time. These labs were built to support a new bachelor of music degree, which Lentini created to fuse music courses with technology. And, as founding dean of the School of Art, Media, and Music at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., Lentini has firsthand experience merging the arts with modern methods of instruction. The College of New Jersey created the first interactive multimedia program for arts undergraduates in the country, where students can take a more innovative, technological approach to majors such as music and art.

“It is no secret that technological advancement is at the forefront of Dr. Lentini’s vision for the School of Fine Arts,” Bennett said. “He proclaims to be committed to the development of the school’s technological resources—both by improving its existing infrastructure and by implementing innovative tools.”

Lentini doesn’t think that a single student should be graduated who doesn’t have a firm grasp on how to use technology in relation to their area of study.

Though he understands that not all of the nearly 1,000 SFA students will gravitate toward technology in their art-making, Lentini feels each department must find a way to incorporate it.

“We need to look at the right blend of traditional training and education with modern ways of teaching and creating art,” Lentini said.

Bennett said other students also responded favorably to Lentini’s focus on technology—something that has become more prevalent in the arts.

“Technology defines the way we now learn art,” Bennett said. “While traditional methods continue to hold an invariable importance to our education, new technologies allow us to pursue our studies on a deeper level and help us to compete in an increasingly technologically focused job market.”

Plus, Lentini doesn’t just hope to initiate the SFA into the world of technology—he hopes it will become a leader. He has a budget of more than $13 million for the SFA to try and make that hope a reality.

“My dream would be that we’re cutting edge,” Lentini said, “that we’re staying current with developments of technology as they’re related to the disciplines in this school.”

After this year, Lentini hopes to teach a class every once in awhile. But, as an accomplished classical guitarist, a composer who regularly accepts commissions, and a father of three young children, finding time for everything he wants to do is hard.

“[Teaching] gives you a healthy respect for what teachers do. It’s not an easy thing to teach,” Lentini said. But, with such a busy schedule, he added, “It’s always a battle for time.”

Connecting with the music side of the SFA both as dean and as a musician is one of the things Lentini most enjoys about his job.

“[Music] keeps me sane,” Lentini said. “I have to keep some of that going because if it’s all about pushing papers and numbers…well, that’s not why I got into this business.”

The School of Fine Arts has had two other deans in the past three years, but Lentini said he doesn’t plan on following the recent revolving door trend. “I have a young family so it’s not my plan to bop around every two or four years,” Lentini said. “Some period of time would be good here.”

An extended stay is crucial to the fruition of his various strategic plans, he noted. “I think you need about five years to really do things successfully,” Lentini said. “You can derail a lot of things in two years, but I’m not sure you can build much in two years.”

Photo of Dr. James Lentini courtesy of the Miami University School of Fine Arts Web site

SFA Takes on Social Justice

BY: MEGAN MILSTEAD

SEPT. 25, 2007

Miami University’s School of Fine Arts (SFA) is unifying its departments around the theme of social justice this year. Susan Thomas, director of integrated programs and arts management for the SFA, created the theme at the request of Interim Dean Bob Benson..

“Social justice seems to be on everybody’s radar,” Thomas said. “We haven’t reinvented anything. We’ve just reframed what we already do. We’ve also been able to spotlight each department and bring attention to each discipline.”

Social justice, as defined by the SFA, involves a process and a goal to have a society that is “equitable” where “all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.” The school is hoping this theme will help learning environments become “creative, active and engaged.”

To do this, each SFA department designated one of its performances or exhibitions as part of the social justice series.

The art museum kicked off the series with its exhibition Tanks, Helicopters, Guns and Grenades: The Afghan War Rugs of the 1980s-2007 on Sept. 13. The war rugs were first created by local tribes and cultures of Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979. Since then, and especially post-9/11, rugs have been woven anonymously and sold. The art museum opened its exhibit with approximately 80 war rugs, which museum director Robert Wicks said could be the largest show of Afghan war rugs ever put together.

The war rugs’ relation to social justice, however, has been questioned.

“You have the production of art and the question is how are these the response to social forces (economic instability, warfare, dislocation, etc.) and how are they related to the market demand of collectors,” Wicks said.

David Dotson, who holds an MFA in sculpture from Miami and works security for the museum, agrees.

“I don’t think that the rugs themselves are really an effort to bring about change as they are a novelty to be sold,” Dotson said. “There’s a moral responsibility that artists have that gets lost in today’s culture. When art stops being about social justice it becomes about an object that can be bought or sold instead of a movement or social change.”

Dotson hopes other events related to the exhibition, like Textile Treasures: The Art of Nomadic Weaving and a documentary about the people of Afghanistan, will be more in line with the theme of social justice.

Thomas, however, believes the question as to why the rugs are actually made is itself related to social justice.

“I see that as the very reason we need to examine social justice,” Thomas said, “that there is a need to look at Afghanistan history through a lens of social justice and what would lead them to weave rugs with commercialization in mind.”

Also related to war and how it affects social justice will be the Performing Arts Series’ (PAS) is presentation of L.A. Theatre Works’ production Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers on Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Hall Auditorium. The play revolves around the Washington Post’s decision to publish papers detailing America’s presence in Vietnam in the early 1970s. Patti Libertore, director of the PAS, said the play is related to social justice because it is about the First Amendment and the public’s right to information.

“It is based on a real-life situation, but it’s at the heart of the public’s right to know versus national security,” Libertore said.

The Heistand Galleries will be exhibiting Pieces of Power: a Selection of Quilts from Gee’s Bend on Oct. 17. The quilts are made in one rural black community, isolated on three sides by the Alabama River, whose roots go back to the mid-1800s. Thomas said the social justice presented here is in a historical context.

“It’s an African-American perspective,” Thomas said. “It is about freed slaves in a rural community, but also what the hand weaving tells us about them as a people and how they have crossed over that river so to speak.”

Euripides’ play Trojan Women will be put on by the Department of Theatre Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-14 as its contribution to the social justice series. The play’s focus is what happens to society—and especially women—after war has been waged. It asks its audience to imagine a world without warring and violence. Liz Mullinex theater chair, said the theme of war is important to social justice.

“The reason we designated this play as part of this series is because it is a play about war and what war can do to a civilization or nation,” Mullinex said.

Thomas agrees that the play fits the theme well. “Though it’s a classic its subject matter deals with the remains of war, and what happens to its survivors is as topical as anything you’d want to do,” Thomas said.

Finally, the architecture and interior design departments are presenting a more community-based social justice message. In conjunction with Miami architecture students living in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood this semester, the department, along with the University of Cincinnati, is hosting affordable housing architect Michael Pyatok.

“[Pyatok’s message] comes out of an interesting social analysis of the nature of society,” said Tom Dutton, the Director of the Miami University Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine. “What kinds of values do we uphold or not uphold as a nation?”

Pyatok will be speaking in Cincinnati on Nov. 7.

As far as a theme for next year’s fall series goes, Thomas said she will have to wait and collect feedback on this year’s performances and exhibitions.

“I’ll probably assess after a couple more of these whether or not everyone thinks it’s valuable to them or if it’s business as usual,” Thomas said.

SFA Dean Jim Lentini feels the theme of social justice has been matched well with the SFA.

“The arts are a perfect way to get a view of how injustice plays itself out in plays, visual, art, etc.,” Lentini said. “All kinds of things reflect real-life experiences and I think social justice is something that the departments [of the SFA] can depict and get us to look at.”

Miami students build can cartoon for charity

BY: MEGAN MILSTEAD

OCT.9, 2007

Forget Legos. Miami University architecture students play with cans. Members of Miami’s chapter of The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) are participating in a food drive competition called Canstruction.

Brett Roeth, co-president of Miami’s chapter of AIAS, contacted Dayton’s chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) this summer to see if there were opportunities or projects for Miami students to work on. Because Dayton doesn’t have an architecture school, its chapter is responsible for Miami’s AIAS students. Canstruction was just what they were looking for.

“We’re really trying to get our name out there this year,” Roeth said. “And we are a service-oriented organization so it fits with our mission.”

According to Canstruction’s Web site, teams of architects, engineers, and in some cases students, compete in cities across the country to build structures out of full cans of food. At the end of each exhibition, the cans are donated to local food banks. Since its inception in 1992-93, Canstruction has donated 10 million pounds of food to the needy.

As the only student group competing against three professional architecture firms, the event provided valuable contacts for Miami’s architecture students.

The students also started the project a month or two later than the other teams.

“It’s kind of interesting because (the professionals) have even less time to work on this than we do,” Roeth said. “They’ve really treated us as equals and it’s been really cool. We can hopefully make some connections for speakers and tours to firms.”

J.E. Elliott, faculty adviser to AIAS, agreed that projects like Canstruction could benefit students in the future.

“It’s kind of just one of those odd things for an architecture student to do,” Elliott said. “It’s also an opportunity to connect with professionals in AIA. It’s also an opportunity to exercise their design chops.”

He added that Canstruction has provided students with an experience outside the traditional Miami educational setting.

“[Canstruction] has deadlines that are similar to things they work for in studio here, but because this is a project with a lot of public exposure it’s a different work environment,” Elliott said.

Dayton AIA waived Miami’s $100 entrance fee and was very helpful throughout the project.

Wende Morgan-Elliott, chair of Dayton’s Canstruction event, said the committee decided to waive the fee to help create a positive experience for the students.

“We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a huge burden on the students,” Morgan-Elliott said. “We were really excited for their interest and I think for their willingness to help the community.”

According to Roeth, every Canstruction project has a theme, and for Dayton’s event it was “CANtoons,” which relates to cartoon characters. Miami chose to create TouCAN Sam, the mascot for Froot Loops cereal.

“We were trying to think of cartoon characters and we didn’t want it to be something someone else would do,” Roeth said. “And it’s relatively easy to build.”

The team used nearly 3,500 cans, most donated by Aldi Grocery Store in Hamilton.

Briana Markham, director of store operations for Aldi, received a letter from AIA asking companies to participate in Canstruction by donating products.

“We donate to causes from time to time,” Markham said. “It really sounded like something we were interested in doing since the cans are donated (to a food bank) after the project.”

Markham decided that Aldi would donate 3,000 of its 39-cent cans. The students had to go to the store, pick out what cans they needed, and then place an order with Aldi.

Morgan-Elliott said that for this competition the cans would be donated to the Miami Valley Food Bank. The Canstruction committee took a tour of the food bank to learn how it works and what the community needs. Food banks are especially low on food around the holidays, which made the timing of Canstruction especially beneficial.

Linda Crouch-Roepken, associate executive officer at the Miami Valley Food Bank, said Canstruction is a large donor to the organization.

“Canstruction is really important to us,” said Crouch-Roepken, “Last year it brought in about 40,000 pounds of food to our center.”

Some of those donations go to the “Good to Go” program, which each Friday gives backpacks of food to children who may not have food to eat through the weekend. Children return the backpacks on Mondays, to be refilled for the following week. The kids also receive a jar of peanut butter a month, Crouch-Roepken said.

“The backpack program is a great opportunity to use flip-top cans that can be used by a child,” Morgan-Elliott said. “It’s really to keep their bellies full till Monday.”

With that in mind, she said many groups, including Miami’s, use cans of Spam, Vienna sausages and soup for Canstruction—since all contain foods that children can easily open, fix and eat on their own.

As for the actual construction, Roeth said Miami’s team had eight hours Tuesday to assemble its sculpture at the Dayton Art Institute, which hosted the competition. The finished projects will be on display until tonight at 9 when an awards ceremony will be held.

While there aren’t any actual prizes, the teams could win honors and plaques. Some of the awards include “Best Use of Labels,” “Judge’s Favorite,” and “Best Meal,” which takes into account what the cans actually contain. According to Canstruction’s Web site, winners from each local event compete internationally with slide photographs of their projects.

Miami architecture students had to follow many rules as they built TouCAN Sam. Rules limited their materials and dimensions, and restricted them to five team members building at a time. Rules also warned that some judges might penalize teams who used non-nutritional foods, such as soda and Pringles cans.

Building their structure went very smoothly for Miami’s team, Roeth said.

“It went really well,” Roeth said, “but we did have to make a run for about 25 cans because we were a little short on one color.”

Other teams’ designs included Yoda (The Force Against Hunger), Yogi Bear (Don’t Feed the Bears), and The Great PumpCAN from Charlie Brown.

“I thought we had the most appropriate and interesting character,” Roeth said.

Morgan-Elliott agreed Miami students did well. Other participating teams and the judges—several of whom are Miami alumni, including Morgan-Elliott, were enthusiastic about Miami’s team.

As for the results, Morgan-Elliott could only say one thing about Miami’s team: “I think they’ll be pleased.”
The members of Miami's team surround their TouCAN Sam creation. TouCAN Sam is lying on his back.

photo contributed by Brett Roeth