Table 2.1: Lecture Series at SVSU

Table 2.1: Lecture Series at SVSU

Lecture Series

Wickson-Nickless Distinguished Lectureship in Business Edwards Lecture in Philosophy & Religion

The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists Program The Albert J. Beutler Forums on Ethics & Practice The Arnold and Gertrude Boutell/Citizens Bank Executivein-Residence Speaker Series The Thomas & Hilda Rush Distinguished Lecture

Barstow Excellence in Teaching Humanities Seminar

Year Introduced Focus

1992

1993

1996

1997

1998 Prominent business leaders regarding on current topics Internationally renowned scholars on interdisciplinary topics pertaining to philosophy and religion Invite scholars and artists with prominent national or international stature to speak and perform on campus Prominent scholars on current topics in ethics and leadership Renowned professionals speak on topics pertaining to business leadership

1998

1999 SVSU faculty or staff members whose work has brought recognition to themselves and the university Scholars to spend a day or more on campus to workshop with students and educators and address the community on prominent issues in the humanities

In 1982, Drew Hinderer, philosophy professor and bassoonist; Bill Wollner, music professor and French horn player, and Mary Anderson, adjunct faculty member and flutist; along with Midland Symphony Orchestra oboist Jane Bellen and clarinet player Linda Hargett, created the Valley Wind Quintet. Public performances became such an important aspect of its outreach that Bob Yien, then vice president for academic affairs, rewrote Wollner’s job description to include public performances. The lineup remained relatively constant during its first three decades, with Anne Holub replacing Anderson at flute in 1984 and then Lauren Rongo succeeding her in 1987, and Zahnow librarian Thomas Zantow taking over for Hinderer in 2008 as bassoonist. Over the years, the Quintet toured Japan and performed hundreds of public concerts. It headlined the first concert in Founders Hall on February 13, 1996.47

The university has brought to campus renowned scholars and popular experts to speak on contemporary political, economic and cultural topics. Former Tennessee Senator William Brock, the secretary of labor in the Ronald Reagan administration, spoke in 1993 on the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement at the time Congress was debating it. Andrei Kozyrev, the Russian foreign minister from 1990-1996, lectured on “The Changing Face of Russia” just after the fall of the Soviet state. Poet Maya Angelou, biographer Walter Isaacson, presidential historian Michael Beschloss and Harvard University scholar and literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. are just a few of those who have brought their expertise to campus for the benefit of the community and campus.48

Maya Angelou

Michael Beschloss William Brock

Andrei Kozyrev Walter Isaacson

Henry Louis Gates Jr., with Liana and Donald Bachand James Bradley

SVSU annually invites renowned scholars and popular experts to campus to lecture on contemporary political, economic and cultural topics. Many notable speakers have been hosted as Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists, a program established in 1996 through an endowment from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation.

The Distinctive Program in Music supports the Musical Artists in Residence and sends music ambassadors into area schools, and the Distinctive Program in Theatre underwrites scholarships, performances and participation in the American College Theatre Festival.49

Four times between 2009 (when it was the first Michigan visit in 25 years) and 2014, SVSU hosted the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Each of the festivals drew more than 1,600 theatre students to campus. The university’s theatre facilities impressed the visitors so much that SVSU’s venues were profiled in an edition of American Theatre magazine, which Ric Roberts, associate professor of theatre, characterized as the “top magazine” in the field, “like Sports Illustrated [is] for sports.” The Saginaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated that the first two festivals in 2009 and 2010 brought nearly $5 million into the local economy.50

One of the oldest cultural outlets on campus is Cardinal Sins, the student-produced publication showcasing writing, poetry, art and photography of students and staff at SVSU. The journal celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2010 and won numerous awards over those years. The 2005 fall and 2009 winter issues of Cardinal Sins received a first place with special merit award from the American Scholastic Press Association.51 An example of how students in the arts have engaged in community service initiatives is the CARe (Community Arts Research) project, which supports student efforts to produce community-inspired artworks. Since 2002, CARe artists have created public murals that graced more than 20 buildings in the Great Lakes Bay region.52

Public engagement occasionally has immersed the university in controversy. In spring 2007, the university’s Theatre Department produced the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, “Angels in America: Part I: Millennium Approaches,” which focuses on two couples dealing with the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York City. Director Ric Roberts understood that the play was a risky choice, largely because of brief nudity in one scene and the frequent use of profane language. The play, however, had become a cultural phenomenon; four other state universities in Michigan had produced it since 1999 and the movie channel Home Box Office had aired a version that was a critically acclaimed miniseries in late 2003.

Still, no one at SVSU was prepared for the protests during its opening weekend in late April. Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association, charged that the nude scene and the play’s portrayal of homosexuality amounted to pornography. He contacted legislators and organized allies throughout the state. By the time the play opened, the president’s office had received more than 1,000 angry emails calling on Gilbertson to cancel the show. State Rep. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Township) called for Gilbertson’s resignation. “Taxpaying citizens should not have to subsidize this garbage,” Brandenburg said in calling for the Legislature to freeze SVSU funding.

In the days before the final weekend of the show, 43 legislators wrote an open letter to Gilbertson protesting the university’s decision to produce a play that “includes full-frontal male nudity and the use of the f-word in every way possible.”

The university remained resolute. Gilbertson and the university’s media relations office ran interference for the Theatre Department, deflecting criticism away from the performers. The president published an open letter on the university’s website explaining his decision to let the show go on: “Part of any comprehensive range of performance art must also include

Ric Roberts