[Holzer's art work] [Decreased campus crime]
[Commencement] [Theater professor's play]
[Community area] [Rota appointed Director]
[Cornelius Ryan exhibition] [Around Campus] [Links]
Communication College launches
master's program in Malaysia
The College of Communication will launch a master's degree program in
mass communication this summer at the MARA Institute of Technology (ITM)
outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ohio University will be the first American
university to offer a graduate degree program in communication at ITM, which
has a strong undergraduate communication program in place.
Between 20 and 30 students are expected to enroll in the first class, and
the course work is expected to take two years to complete. Ohio University
faculty, primarily from the schools of Telecommunications and Journalism,
will travel to Malaysia each quarter to teach in and administer the program.
ITM will cover all expenses for the program.
"ITM invited this," College of Communication Dean Paul Nelson
said. "Malaysia is heavily into broadcasting and mass communication,
but it doesn't have a lot of the resources needed to teach a graduate degree
program, and we do."
Ohio University has had an institutional relationship with MARA since 1968.
A commissioned work of art by internationally acclaimed visual artist
Jenny Holzer, BFA '72, HON '95, will be a public art showcase on the Athens
campus when it is incorporated into renovations of Gordy Hall scheduled
for completion by summer 1998.
The Holzer piece has been commissioned as Ohio University's first project
under the State's Percent For Art program administered by the Ohio Arts
Council. Through the program, 1 percent of funding for public buildings
that cost $4 million or more in state money is set aside for the acquisition,
commissioning and installation of public art.
Holzer's work, composed of dramatic presentations of text written by the
artist on electronic display boards, bronze plaques, benches, tables and
sarcophagi, has earned her worldwide recognition. In 1990, she won the Best
National Pavilion prize with a solo exhibition at the 44th Venice Biennale
in Italy, the largest and most prestigious modern art exhibition in the
world.
The pieces for Gordy Hall will involve one indoor light-emitting diode (LED)
display - the electronic signs on which texts flow in streams of color,
the likes of which have been seen throughout the Guggenheim Museum in New
York during Holzer's exhibition there in 1989. Dark green benches engraved
with Holzer text will be installed inside and outside the building. Some
of the text will be written in a variety of languages.
Ohio University will work with the developer of a proposed 850-acre retiree
and student housing community on Armitage Road off Route 682 in Athens to
create a setting that would be attractive to retired faculty, alumni and
local residents.
Agreement on a land purchase option was announced in December. Tentative
plans call for the construction of single-family homes and condominiums
around an 18-hole championship golf course that would function as Ohio University's
official golf course.
Ohio University Project Coordinator Ann Teske and the Highpointe Village
Advisory Committee, a local group that has been trying to interest developers
in an Athens retirement community for a decade, asked developer Just Like
Home Inc. of Bradenton, Fla., to propose a master plan. Just Like Home specializes
in assisted care residences.
OU is not a party to the land purchase, but the university and the O'Bleness
Foundation of Athens are supporting the project by paying Teske's salary
and supplying funding for market research.
Though details have not been finalized, Teske lists the following benefits
to the university:
Ohio University's two undergraduate commencement ceremonies scheduled
as part of a new format will begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, June
8 on the Athens campus.
University officials announced in October that the campus would move to
two undergraduate ceremonies this year in an effort to reduce overcrowding
in the Convocation Center and eliminate problems in managing a ticket distribution
system. In past years, undergraduates were each limited to four tickets.
No tickets will be required for admittance this year.
According to Gretchen Stephens, commencement coordinator and director of
the Office of Public Occasions, the change in format was the "university's
attempt to meet the needs of the increasing number of graduates wishing
to attend, and to accommodate their parents and families who want to attend."
The advanced degree ceremony for Ph.D., master's and doctor of osteopathic
medicine graduates will continue to take place at 10 a.m. on Friday, June
7.
The order and time at which colleges will begin ceremonies June 8 is:
Total reported crime on Ohio University's Athens campus in six FBI categories
decreased 35.3 percent in calendar year 1995, according to figures released
by the Department of Campus Safety.
The number of crimes in areas which campuses are required by the federal
Campus Crime Act to make public decreased from 34 in 1994 to 22 in 1995.
Categories include rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle
theft and murder.
Reported crime increased only in motor vehicle thefts - from one arrest
in 1994 to two in
1995 - and decreased in five other categories.
The most dramatic decline came with aggravated assaults, which decreased
46.2 percent, from 13 to 7 in 1995. The number of burglaries dropped from
18 in 1994 to 13 last year, a 27.8 percent decline, and there were no robberies
on the Athens campus in 1995 compared with two the previous year. There
also were no rapes or murders reported on campus in 1995.
In two other notable categories used to gauge crime, the number of larceny
thefts dropped from 348 in 1994 to 295 in 1995 - a 15.2 percent decrease
- and incidents of reported vandalism increased 24 percent, from 121 to
150.
Director of Campus Safety Ted Jones said efforts to improve safety measures
in 1995 included the increased presence of police officers and security
aides along poorly lit areas.
There were no reported crimes in the six FBI reporting categories on the
university's five regional campuses in 1995.
A play written by Associate Professor of Theater Charles Smith made a
splash in January and February at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, a major Midwest
venue. The 40-character, three-hour play, titled "Black Star Line,"
details the Harlem heyday of Jamaican nationalist Marcus Garvey in the 1920s.
Garvey developed a strong following as he sought U.S. support for his effort
to establish a black homeland in Africa, but eventually was imprisoned for
mail fraud and deported.
Smith, head of Ohio University's Theater Arts and Drama Program, joined
the OU faculty in September after teaching for six years at Northwestern
University. He is redesigning the program to establish four tracks of study:
playwriting, directing, management and dramaturgy, which involves advising
directors in early stages of play production.
Smith has written several other plays - among them "Jelly Belly"
and "Free Fall" - that have been produced in Chicago, Off Broadway
in New York, in Los Angeles, and in other major American cities. During
the month-long run of "Black Star Line," Smith was prominently
highlighted in the Chicago papers and trade publications, and was considered
for a Pulitzer Prize - the drama committee chair asked for six copies of
the play on opening night.
Ohio University Professor of Telecommunications Josep Rota is the new
director of the Center for International Studies on the Athens campus. The
appointment is part of a reorganization of the university's international
studies area reflecting the center's growing importance on campus. Under
the new structure, Vice Provost for International Programs Felix Gagliano's
duties were divided.
Rota will administer undergraduate and graduate degree programs and student
services, and direct activities such as grant proposal development, community
outreach and a publication series. Gagliano, vice provost and center director
since 1981, will work full-time as a liaison for the Provost's Office in
all international outreach activities of the university.
Rota served as a visiting professor at the University of Barcelona in Spain
during the fall and winter. He takes over as center director July 1.
