Sonoma State University opens the doors to its Lifelong Learning Institute this fall in an effort to provide a unique educational experience to anyone over 50 years old by offering courses without homework or grades.
An open house for the new institute will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Sept. 5 in the Evert B. Person Theater. Professors offering the eight-week classes will be on hand to discuss their courses which will run two hours each, one day a week. Coffee and pastries will be served beginning at 9 a.m. Campus tours follow the presentation.
The classes begin on Sept. 10 and include Jack London: Local Writer, Global Thinker; Creativity and Beyond; The Great Central Valley; Music and Dance in the World's Religions; Sugar, Sweeteners and Society; How Western Music Got the Way it Is; The Evolution of Human Sexuality; and Hitchock's America. Different classes will be held in future semesters.
Cost is $150 per semester, which can cover enrollment in up to four classes.
The spark for the program came from Glen Ellen resident Ed Stolman, owner of The Olive Press, who originally brought the idea to SSU based on his experience at the Fromm Institute, a similar program at the University of San Francisco.
The public is invited to come and hear about the program. A parking fee of $2.50 will be charged for those not already enrolled in classes. For information, call (707) 664-2691.
Sonoma State University will host Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carolyn Kizer and a panel of award-winning poets and critics who will discuss Kizer's work on Tues., Sept. 18, in Room 3001 of the university library in the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center.
At 7 p.m., the panel, moderated by Sonoma County poet, editor and critic Dana Gioia, will speak about Kizer's life and contributions to the art of poetry.
At 8 p.m., Kizer will read from her new book of collected poems, "Cool, Calm and Collected." The event is free and the public is welcome.
As a poet, critic, translator and teacher, Kizer has shaped the course and discourse of American poetry for the last 50 years. As a feminist, both her life and her writings have celebrated the intellect and creativity of women. Her books include "Harping On," "Proses," "Mermaids in the Basement," "The Nearness of You," "Carrying Over" and "Yin," for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1985.
She has been poet-in-residence at many universities, including Columbia, Stanford, Princeton and San Jose State. She was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets until she resigned in protest against the under-representation of women and poets of color. She co-founded Poetry Northwest and later served as the first director of the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. She is also the editor of the anthology, "100 Great Poems by Women."
The panel members who will comment on Kitzer's influence on poetry are: Jack Foley, Berkeley poet and KPFA radio host; Jackson Wheeler, a Ventura, California, poet and editor of the poetry journal Solo; and Judith Johnson, a poet, fiction writer and performance artist from New York, where she teaches at SUNY Albany and edits the feminist periodical, 13th Moon.
Rounding out the panel will be Petaluma poet Terry Ehret, a founder of Sixteen Rivers Press, who teaches at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College.
All four panelists were featured in "Carolyn Kizer, Perspectives on her Life and Work" (CavanKerry Press, 2001), a collection of critical prose, interviews, and poetry that pays homage to the enduring influence of one of the most influential poets of our day.
A daily parking permit ($2.50) is required at SSU, M-TH, 6 a.m.-10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Fridays, except holidays. Daily permits are not valid in reserved lots. Some permit machines accept quarters only.
It's straight off a movie set: tearful parents and anxious new freshmen, packing favorite comforters and CD collections as they leave home for the first time.
Some 2,000 students get the keys to their suites in the four village communities at Sonoma State University this weekend. Almost 950 of them will be freshmen.
Although they don't realize it, these students have missed a lot. They don't remember the Cold War. The Vietnam War is as ancient to them as World Wars I and II, let alone the Civil War. To them, bottle caps have always been twist-off and plastic. They have never owned a record player. Popcorn has always been cooked in a microwave.
It's a lot to miss, but there's a lot ahead of them as well. And it all starts at a small campus in Rohnert Park, and it starts with Welcome Week.
Welcome Week 2001 kicks off with move-in day at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 18 with a range of activities that include a parent's reception, family BBQ and a night of comedy and magic.
A college tradition, on Sunday, Aug. 19., students will end a day of residential life meetings and activities with the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight.
Activities during the days and weeks following the moving-in weekend help students become introduced to campus life in events that include entertainment, tours of campus facilities, recreational events, shopping trips, and receptions. Classes begin Aug. 22.
Faculty dressed in full regalia will welcome new students in a formal ceremony on the Stevenson/Darwin Quad at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 21. Kim Hester-Williams, assistant professor of English and winner of the 2001 Rowlands Award for Excellence in Teaching, will address the class on behalf of the faculty.
Student leadership workshops are also slated as well as community-building meetings such as the "Journey to a Hate-Free Millenium" at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 21 in the Evert B. Person Theatre.
A hi-tech library, new energy center, more research money, a richer campus culture - finding itself in the midst of budget uncertainties but with an exciting array of new developments all around campus, Sonoma State enters its 40th year of classes this fall.
Dr. Ruben Arminana, president of Sonoma State University, will explore the "State-of -the-University" at the 2001 Fall Convocation on Monday, August 20. Dr. Arminana is now in his tenth year as president. His comments will begin at 10:15 a.m.
Dr. Arminana, as well as faculty, staff and student leaders, will outline the important accomplishments in the previous year where the university made transformative strides in academic, cultural, and physical areas of the campus. Important issues facing the campus due to unexpected budgetary constraints, many stimulated by the recent energy crisis, will also be addresssed.
Rick Luttman, Chair of the Faculty, will open the event at 9 a.m. in the Evert B. Person Theatre lobby. He will be followed by Provost Bernie Goldstein who will introduce the new faculty.
Other speakers to follow include: Remy Heng, President, Associated Students; Laurel Holmstrom, Staff Employee Representative; and Victor Garlin, California Faculty Association representative.
A question and answer period at 10:35 a.m. will close the convocation. Meetings at each of the schools will be held in the afternoon.
NOTE: A copy of President Arminana's speech will be available at the convocation and afterwards on the university web site at www.sonoma.edu.
Partially completed "Cradle" ready for transport to Burning Man Festival
Looking for Bay Area Burning Man Art?
Yoga balls, prom dresses, lilac, pink and lavender steel mesh make up the 26' wide x 30' long and 15' high steel sculpture being created by art professor Jann Nunn of Sonoma State University this week and next.
Nunn and collaborator Deirdre de Franceaux are currently constructing "The Cradle" at the Rohnert Park campus for the upcoming Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, 60 miles north of Reno.
The two artists were commissioned by Burning Man for the entry piece to the Seven Ages of Man installation that festival-goers will find when they arrive on site from August 27 to September 3.
The piece will be completed at the university's art department courtyard during the week of August 12.
"The Cradle allows participants to experience the wonder and excitement of birth and the overwhelming sensory overload associated with viewing the world for the first time as a newborn, and finally, the warmth and security of resting in the Cradle of the mother's arms," Nunn says about the sculptural installation.
Ranging outward from the center of the city on an axis called the Promenade, the Seven Ages of Man will consist of large art installations including the Cradle, the Playground, the Chapel, the Coliseum, the Temple of Wisdom, the Maze, and the Mausoleum.
For further information and photo opportunities, contact Jann Nunn at (707)664-3043.
For additional details on Nunn and de Franceaux's installation go to the web site at:
www.burningman.com/themecamps_installations/installations/themeart_list.html#cradle
Sculpture professor Jann Nunn with the curtain made of prom dresses.
Sonoma State University has extended its admissions deadline for the fall semester to assist local workers hit by layoffs or slowdowns.
"At a time when people need to look for alternatives, returning to college might be an option that appeals to them," Louis Levy, SSU Senior Director of Admissions, said in a letter sent to Human Services Directors at major companies in the North Bay region this week.
Potential students may apply to the University BY AUGUST 31 through CSU Mentor, the on-line application (www.csumentor.edu/AdmissionApp) or by calling the Admissions Office at (707) 664-3029.
Levy said the university can help employees update their skills by:
* assisting them in understanding the marketplace and how they fit into it
* learn marketable skills that are needed in today's environment, even if a career change is needed
* fit into industries where the markets are still active.
Sonoma State University offers degrees in 33 majors and 46 minors at the bachelor's degree level and 13 at the master's degree level. The six Schools of the University are: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, Extended Education, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.
For more information:
httP;//www.csumentor.edu/AdmissionApp
"Scribbling is a Way of Caring" is the theme of a new exhibit to be featured at the InterCultural Center Gallery at Sonoma State University from August 21 to September 14. An opening reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, August 23 from 6 to 9 p.m.
A special scribbling workshop will be held 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 30 where interested persons can try this art therapy technique for themselves.
"Scribbling belongs to everybody." says Jane Vogel-Riley, a graduate of the Art Therapy Program in Psychology/Special Sessions at Sonoma State University.
Inspired by the Art Therapy scribble process, Vogel-Riley has developed a therapeutic tool and an artistic medium that encompasses a creative interaction with pen and paper. She engaged the scribble process while creating over one thousand scribbles and then finding images developed within the lines and spaces of scribbles. The exhibit features 30 of her works.
"As children we scribble naturally. Far from being meaningless and random, scribbles are our first means of representing our inner and outer worlds," she says. Vogel-Riley says her work and exhibit shows how "in later life we can return to scribbling as a way to make our "bodyspirit" experience in the world visible."
For Vogel-Riley, scribbling provides a safe place to be genuine, as well as "a path of liberation of self from victim into valiant one, from defeat into success, and from disbelief into wonder."
The exhibit was funded in part by the ICC Gallery, the SSU Alumni Association and Luther Burbank Savings. The InterCultural Center Gallery is open Monday -Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. A general parking fee on campus is $2.50 on Monday through Thursdays.
For further information, call the ICC Gallery at (707) 664-2710.
