Sleep-out raises awareness - Indiana University Southeast

Page 6 • The Horizon Features Week of April 20, 2009
Dirt Bags host fine arts open house
By ASHLEY MEREDITH
Contributing Writer
almeredi@ius.edu
Photo by Mary Lyons
This banana chandelier, made by ceramics junior Ashley Bell, is just one piece that will be featured in the IUS
Fine Arts Open House, Friday, April 24.
On Friday, April 24, from 5
o 8 p.m., there will be a Fine
rts open house in Knobiew,
room 035.
The purpose of the open
ouse is to provide an opporunity
for students to show
nd exhibit the artwork that
hey have created during the
chool year.
Admission and parking is
ree and refreshments will be
erved with live music by a
jazz ensemble, a solo violinist
nd an acoustic guitarist.
Brian Harper, assistant
rofessor of Fine Arts and
irector of ceramics, is the
dviser of the Dirt Bags, a
roup formed by students in
he Fine Arts department.
Harper said the group oranized
the open house from
ay one.
“I pitched the idea to the
roup to see if they’d be inerested,”
Harper said. “I
anted them to be the orgaizers
and to get excited and
lan it.”
He said the idea was deeloped
from similar events
t other schools and suggestd
it to the group last Sepember.
Pieces will be featured
rom multiple disciplines
ithin the department, inluding
ceramics, drawing,
ainting and printmaking.
The exhibit is open to any
ne arts student who is inerested
in having work dislayed.
Harper said there isn’t a
et criterion for what is being
ccepted, but if the amount
becomes too great, then they
may have to change it.
“We are going to have it
organized so that there is
work in the studio and even
down the hallways,” he said.
Many of the students submitting
work are Dirt Bag
members.
There will also be an installation
on display in a
room adjacent to room 035.
Ashley Bell, ceramics junior,
created the installation
of more than 1,000 by casting
porcelain into molds of dollsized
babies.
The babies are painted to
replicate desert camouflage
in representation of the number
of people that have been
killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bell said her inspiration
came from a high school
friend who served in three
separate tours overseas.
“Society doesn’t realize
what is happening,” Bell
said. “They just want to close
the door on it.”
The babies were made
from handmade plaster
molds that allowed her to
produce around 80 of the babies
per day and it took three
months to complete.
“It’s a tedious process,
making things with molds,”
Bell said.
Other work Bell will include
in the open house is a
Writing Center evolves to better serve students
By AMY FAULHABER
Staff Writer
amfaulha@ius.edu
The Writing Centers at IU
Southeast will soon be introducing
a host of new, revamped
and innovative programs.
Leigh Ann Meyer, director
of the Writing Center, said
this will meet the needs and
combat the challenges of students.
The new programs in development
will include greater
support for international
students, a Writing Center
handbook, a new system to
compile student information,
a writing-across-disciplines
podcast and access to a powerful
anti-plagiarism program
through Turnitin.com.
Meyer said all of which
will ideally be ready to hit
the ground running with students
as they return for the
fall semester.
“Because we strive to create
stronger writers, not necessarily
perfect papers, we’re
changing some of our strategies,
and implementing new
programs so we will be more
a center for teaching, not just
proofreading,” Meyer said.
“Guided by our existing
programs, and by including
some new ones, our mission
at the Writing Center is to
create conversations through
writing,” she said.
The Writing Center provides
consultation for anything
from a term paper, a
poem or an e-mail.
“Every writer needs an
unbiased reader, which is
something we’re happy to
provide here,” Meyer said.
“We will help students
with any kind of writing,
either for school and work
situations, including looking
over résumés, cover letters,”
she said.
Developing greater support
for the international
community at IU Southeast,
Meyer said, is the most
prominent project underway.
Through the ELL Student
Experience Survey, the Writing
Center will be able to survey
international students so
they can gauge how to better
serve their needs.
“Through the survey, we
hope to be able to pinpoint
specific ways we can grow,
and we also hope to expand
by offering lunchtime writing
conversations either once
a week, or once a month
where students can practice
their language and writing
skills together,”Meyer said.
Other additions to the
center will be the completion
of the first Writing Center
handbook, and a student usage
tracking system that will
allow the center to compile
information that will help
them better understand how
the center’s services are being
utilized.
“Through this database,
we will not only be able to
keep track of how many students
and classes use our services,
but we will be able to
see who is a return client,”
Meyer said.
“It will also show us how
we helped this student before,
and other information
that will help us serve our
students better and know
where they’re coming from.”
One of the most innovative
new programs the center
is working on, Meyer said,
is a podcast that will feature
IUS professors across a broad
spectrum of disciplines discussing
how to write effectively
for their classes and
detailing how to tailor projects
to their specific documentation
style and content
requirements.
Meyer said several professors
are already on board for
the project, which is being
coordinated by Jana Morgan,
English literature senior and
mentor for the center.
“The main purpose of the
podcast is to address the
main questions for writing
between disciplines,” Morgan
said.
The importance of developing
the podcast, Meyer
said, will hopefully help
students in all disciplines
discover the importance of
strong writing skills.
“No matter what major
you are, strong writing skills
are necessary, and I don’t
know of any job that doesn’t
require you to be able to communicate
effectively through
writing,” Meyer said.
Perhaps one of the biggest
giant ceramic daisy and a ceramic
banana chandelier.
Kristy Leverock, painting
junior, will be displaying
a series based on environmental
issues.
The pieces consist of
mixed media and ceramics
and focuses on birds as the
main subject.
“Birds have an intimate
relationship in our society,”
she said. “Intimacy is a
resources being added to the
center’s arsenal, Meyer said,
will be the first-time access
students will be granted to
Turnitin.com’s anti-plagiarism
search engine.
“For the first time, students
will be able to upload
research papers and have
them marked with what
percentage is not authentic
wording,” she said.
Meyer said she hopes students
will use this resource
as a proactive tool to identify
plagiarism in their writing,
rather than view it as a policing
system.
“We are excited about the
possibilities of this software,”
Meyer said, “but more importantly,
we are hopeful
this process will stir many
conversations about the definition
of plagiarism, how it
can be avoided and what a
student needs to do if they
do plagiarize.”
Meyer, who has worked
at the center since January
2008, said what spurred her
to want to further the development
of the Writing Center’s
programs was the need
to reach out to students in a
more proactive way.
“To get ideas for where we
could take the program to accomplish
this, I started going
to writing conferences, where
representatives from writing
centers get together and help
each other,” she said.
“From these experiences, I
was able to see that the writing
center can be so much
theme that is replicated in my
work.”
She said she created her
paintings on wood for added
creative value as well as contributing
to her environmental
theme.
“This is the first time I’ve
painted on wood,” Leverock
said. “It allows me to use different
shapes and the open
grain allows the paint to sink
in, which incorporates intimacy,
as well.”
She also said the wood
continues the environmental
purpose of her pieces.
“I really want this to be
an annual thing. Like a tradition.
Something we can look
forward to doing every year,”
Harper said.
Organizations and schools
from the tri-state area are
invited to attend, including
the University of Louisville,
Ball State University, Indiana
University Bloomington and
Ohio University.
“Students’ ability to be
able to show their work is
really limited,” Harper said.
“We want to make it bigger
and bigger with more interaction.
It’s a win-win situation.”
Throughout the planning
process Harper said there
has been help and support
coming from many different
sources.
Mike Hayes, ceramics intern,
and his friend, Bonny
Wise, have contributed a lot
of time to spread the word
about the open house.
Annette Wyandotte, dean
of the School of Arts and Letters,
has been involved in the
process as well.
“She has helped by informing
us of who to approach
in order to get what
we need done such as parking,
the marquee sign and
other things. She’s very supportive,”
Harper said.
In addition to displaying
student work, Harper said
they are also accepting donations
to the ceramics department
for future equipment
purchases and to bring visiting
artists to the campus.
“There is always something
that can be learned
from the artists that come,”
he said.
Harper also said this
open house gives the public
a chance to see the student
artists in their environments
and allows the public to talk
directly to the artists about
their work.
“It’ll be interesting to see
all the different kinds of work
together and be able to see
what the students have been
doing,” he said.
Courtesy photo
Leigh Ann Meyer, IUS Writing center director, and Purdue Professor Emeritus of English
Muriel Harris, at the 2009 East Central Writing Centers Association Conference.
more than a proofreading
service, and can coordinate
all writing needs in the big
picture,” Meyer said.
Achieving this goal could
not be accomplished without
the students, which Meyer
said are her best resource.
With the new programs in
place, Meyer said she hopes
that the center can continue
to be a reassuring and instructive
resource for students.
“We realize that nobody
is born with a great ability to
write, it’s a learned skill,” she
said.
There are four Writing
Centers located on campus:
Knobview Hall, room 208,
the IUS Library, Meadow
Lodge and Orchard Lodge.
The 1984 film Red Dawn was the first to garner a PG-13 rating.