Whatever the reason, we all have a tendency to shorten names. Take Rhode Island. The official name is (take a deep breath) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Really.  And then of course, there’s Wolf Trap — officially known as Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. Imagine answering their phone.

Most people shorten names of people they know well. How many Roberts, Williams, Jennifers or Elizabeths do you know as Bob, Bill, Jenny or Beth?

Institutions do the same thing. At JMU, Gibbons Dining Hall is D-Hall. East Campus Library is ECL. And the newly dubbed Montpelier Hall has already been shortened to Monty Hall. Nicknames are efficient. They also imply some kind of familiarity, comfort and fondness. In fact, an old Chinese proverb says that a child with many names is loved.

It made me wonder what JMU’s recently re-named Skyline Museum will become. Officially, it is to be named in honor of Gladys Kemp Lisanby (’49) and retired Rear Admiral James W. Lisanby, the patrons who enabled the university to acquire the life’s work of famed and influential artist and set designer Charles A. Lisanby.

When I attended the opening on Monday and talked to Madison Art Collection Director Kate Stevens, she had a great idea. “What about The Lisanby?” she wondered. Immediately, I could see the comfortable words floating from student to student.

“Have you see what’s on display at The Lisanby?” or “I’ll meet you at The Lisanby?” Or maybe an enticing notice in mad4U that says, “Bring your favorite poem to read  by moonlight at this month’s Lunar Cafe at The Lisanby.”

The Lisanby.

Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? It will be fun to see what the museum is nicknamed. Whatever name it takes, though, this new Madison location will definitely be loved.

The Lisanby

If you’re not convinced, then take a look at some of the photos from the opening, including the moment that Mrs. Lisanby learned of the honor. Stunning.

Or better yet, go take in The Lisanby. I promise you’re in for a treat.

The moment she heard....

And tell us, have you visited JMU’s newest museum?

You can learn much more on at these links:

http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/

http://www.jmu.edu/madisonart/

http://www.jmu.edu/madisonart/lisanby.shtml

(You can find even more photos of the opening on JMU’s Flickr site. Just click photos on the right side of the blog site.)

Charles Lisanby receiving one of many Emmy awards.

Behind the sets

by Tyler McAvoy (’12)

When I entered the Skyline Museum it was utterly quiet and empty; save for the light rain hitting the window, nothing could be heard.  The museum had been open for only an hour, and when I signed in at the desk I realized I was only the second person to experience this new display since it officially opens today. Donned with an iPad with a surprisingly helpful virtual tour app, I shuffled my way through the exhibit, slowly grasping who Lisanby was: he was an artist, a man who had been through the early throws of night and daytime television, one who had watched the industry move from black to Technicolor, survived flops and failures of television shows, and lived to tell about it.

Lisanby brought set design to a new artistic level when he began sitting in on writer’s meetings so that he could craft the set to that particular show. This was revolutionary. No longer were sets just backdrops to boost the believability of an actor’s performance; now sets were part of the story, augmenting it, and sometimes even being the focus of a plot.

Though many of the shows that Lisanby worked on have faded into obscurity by now (which really describes a large part of early television), his infusing of art into set design really changed the industry standard.  This can best be understood by the fact that Lisanby was an artist first, and set design was a job that was handcrafted for his style.  Throughout the gallery there are several of Lisanby’s more artistic pieces, such as self-portraits, which echo his set design: clean lines, minimal use of shadow and a great ability to make subjects feel like they’re something of substance.

This is in great contrast to the imperfect, yet always intriguing works by Andy Warhol that make up much of the exhibition.  As I soon discovered to be a central theme to the exhibit, Lisanby and Warhol were close friends throughout the 1950s and would often draw together while they were both struggling artists in New York. Warhol was an advertisement illustrator, Lisanby, a set designer for small shows and productions, and both were immensely dedicated to their art. Interestingly though, they both seemed to play off each other; Lisanby would mimic the style and techniques of Warhol, yet retain his clean lines, whilst Warhol would maintain his roughness, while drawing things that Lisanby would find interesting. You can kind of see the obscurity that Warhol so loved in some of Lisanby’s later set designs, especially in the choice of colors.  One particular design reminded me a lot of the movie Rear Window; a close cloistered community in a tall, sardine-packed housing complex, that still conveyed a sense of warmth.  Everything in the sketch seemed kind of angular and off, yet not so much that you’d call it uncomfortably expressionistic. Even though this design came years after Lisanby’s time with Warhol, you still get a sense that he pervades the piece, defines the lines and the colors.

We often don’t think about the people behind the sets that we see on television. We often take that kind of thing for granted, not realizing the hours and talent taken to create a backdrop or prop. Yet, Lisanby focused on these things and found them fascinating. He took the arbitrary object of a set and redefined it as a new canvas for art. 

Lisanby was a key member of the production army that made up early television, and if anyone has any interest in those earlier years, I highly recommend taking a stroll through the collection. Even if you aren’t a fan of the whole realm of classic television, the numerous Warhol sketches and prints make this a worthwhile adventure.

To learn more about the new Lisanby exhibition, visit the JMU home page  http://www.jmu.edu/

(l-r) Dave Stevens, Ben Schulze, Esteban Saenz, Jessie Taylor

When JMU senior ISAT majors Dave Stevens (’12), Ben Schulze (’12) and Jessie Taylor (’12) flew to Costa Rica last August and again in December as part of their senior project, they learned  there is a big difference between creating and researching a project on paper and actually getting out in the field and doing it.

The three students, along with their professor, Dr. Karim Altaii, traveled to Costa Rica to perform an energy analysis on a resort called Hotel Punta Leona. Located in the southwestern province of Puntarenas, the hotel is a popular vacation destination in a very  biodiverse country that values its ecology. “For the resort,” Dave says, “sustainability efforts are just as important as potential economic savings.”

The students’ objective is to remotely monitor real-time energy consumption data from the U.S. via Internet-connection devices, which they installed. The devices allow them to monitor energy use by month, day, hour, minute and second for individual guest units at the resort. They also are able to monitor individual circuits to pinpoint consumption trends that might otherwise go unnoticed. From the data the students collect, they can recommend ways the resort can reduce energy use.

“As we planned for this project in the states,” Dave says, “everything was going to work out smoothly with no hitches. After we arrived, we soon learned that when working with a relatively busy resort, there are inherent obstacles.”

While installing energy monitoring devices, they had to coordinate their efforts with maintenance people, owners and guests checking in and out of rooms every few days. “One day we would install a device and we wouldn’t be able to access it for a few days until the room was unoccupied again.”

Because the resort was originally built as a temporary movie set, the wiring was very disorganized, which made identifying circuits to monitor a challenge. Adding to the challenge, they had to deal with frequent power outages, “brown outs” and the language barrier .

“I certainly wish I knew more Spanish,” Dave says. “We constantly relied on our “Tico” (word for Costa Rica natives). They were awesome and always put up with us asking ‘now what did that person say?’”

Joining the JMU students, three students from the University of Costa Rica, Tattiana Hernandez, Francisco Gamboa and Estaban Saenz were part of the team.

The students also encountered the unexpected. “The internet was down in our room, so we had to walk to the reception area to use their Internet. It was late and the the reception area is open to the outside since the weather is pretty moderate all year. Before I knew it, there was a family of raccoons snooping around us. They would come up to our feet and try to nudge or bite us.  I remember sitting there and laughing at the situation thinking, wow, wouldn’t have expected racoons to be an obstacle during this project.”

Along with the raccoons, they had breakfast with monkeys who would sneak out of the trees, sidle over to the open-air breakfast and help themselves to the students’ fare.

The ISAT team didn’t spend all their time in Costa Rica working. “The first weekend we were there we traveled to Limon, on the Caribbean side of the country. We stayed in a small coast resort called the Black Pearl. The beaches looked like set for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies,” Dave says.

Now back on campus, the team is monitoring and analyzing data. They are also designing a solar power system for the resort.

About his experience, Dave says, “I feel like my career goals have certainly been sharpened. It has been very interesting getting to work in a real professional setting and applying skill sets I’ve acquired through ISAT. I feel a lot more confident in tackling such projects in the future.”

And they can all say they’ve had breakfast with monkeys.

To learn more about JMU’s ISAT program, visit http://www.isat.jmu.edu/

Image via Wikipedia

In a recent blog post for the Harvard Business Review, Oliver Segovia writes about a critical ingredient in success and happiness.

And it is not passion.

“Forget about finding your passion,” Segovia writes. “Instead, focus on finding big problems.” He goes on to explain why:

Putting problems at the center of our decision-making changes everything. It’s not about the self anymore. It’s about what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor. People working on the biggest problems are compensated in the biggest ways. I don’t mean this in a strict financial sense, but in a deeply human sense. For one, it shifts your attention from you to others and the wider world. You stop dwelling. You become less self-absorbed. Ironically, we become happier if we worry less about what makes us happy.

When I read that, I couldn’t help but think: “We get it, Harvard. JMU really gets it.”

Segovia goes on to explain how passion, even when it is potent and sincere, can hit a wall in an economy where jobs are limited. Passion, in other words, can be blunted. Problems, on the other hand, can always be found.

Segovia lists four actions that happy and successful people take – and they sounded very, very familiar. See if you don’t agree….

1. “Develop situational awareness.”  Look beyond yourself, he writes, and you’ll see the big problems. That’s exactly what Alexandra Robbins (’07) and Daniel Haney (’07) did when they saw the plight of orphans in Cambodia. Learn what Alexandra and Daniel did at http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/azizas_place.shtml

2. “Look into problems that affect you in a very personal way.” Returning to the states and seeing the difficulties that wounded veterans faced as they tried to reconnect felt very personal to Iraq War veteran Justin Constantine (’92). He did something about it. Read about Justin’s solution at http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/constantineIraqAndBack.shtml

3. “Connect with people working on big problems.” When Rheannon Sorrells (’04.,11 M) found herself in a school setting where students were struggling to read, she connected people and helped transform an entire school system. Find out how Rheannon did it at http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/warren_county_reading.shtml

4. “Take time off and travel.” JMU is not an armchair, examine-from-afar-and-ponder kind of unversity; it’s a take-charge kind. Madison people find problems to solve all over the world. President Linwood Rose reported to the board of visitors earlier this month that JMU has been recognized as number 1 in the country for masters-level institutions for short-term study abroad and number 2 in the country overall. Learn more about Study Abroad at http://www.jmu.edu/international/abroad/

The approach to success and happiness that Segovia discusses has always been a part of the fabric of JMU. We call it “Being the Change.” JMU people find problems, create solutions and get to work.

So, yes, we get it, Harvard. Being the Change — positive, uplifting, world-changing, problem-solving change — that’s how we roll.

To read the entire piece by Oliver Segovia, go to http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/to_find_happiness_forget_about.html

There is one interesting aspect to the list that most readers might not notice. Four of the top ten stories were written by students. Two were written by Be the Change intern Tyler McAvoy (’12).

For almost two years now, Tyler has interned with us in JMU Communications. He arrived with an extraordinary natural writing talent, a good instinct for stories and a necessary boldness for interviewing and tackling topics he was unfamiliar with. He quickly became my go-to person.

What I find so remarkable ­— next to Tyler’s talent — is that so many student-penned stories have floated to the top.

Amelia Wood (’13), an intern with Madison magazine, wrote about alumnus Wes Mitchell (’10) and his innovative use of soccer to fight HIV/Aids. Austin Farinholt  (’11) who interned in the Office of Public Affairs told the story of engineering students who designed and built a bicycle for a high school student challenged by cerebral palsy.

That says something about JMU and the opportunities that students regularly find at this university.

In many ways, JMU is changing the playing field for college students. Ours is not a top down delivery system, where professors simply do an information dump on students, expecting them to become their clones. In very real and valuable ways, JMU opens doors for students, especially undergraduate students — doors that are not eagerly opened elsewhere. We see it everyday from the arts to the sciences and everywhere in between. It is part of a culture of collaboration that permeates the university.

Later this month — and you’ll see it previewed on the JMU web soon — the university will premier an extraordinary art collection, the Charles Alvin Lisanby Collection, to open the new Skyline Gallery. Once again, it is a student, Josh Smead (’12) who played an instrumental role. It was hardly the kind of internship that only allowed him to float around the edges and observe.

Opportunities, though, are only as good as those who seize them. Tyler and Josh, like so many JMU students, look for and seize opportunities like little snapping turtles. And, if I may carry my analogy one step further — they hold on tight. The result is extraordinary education.

Out of every college at JMU, we often hear stories of the immediate impact students have on the companies, businesses and institutions they join after graduating. Much of their success has to do with a culture that takes students seriously, not as subjects but as soon-to-be professional managers, artists, engineers, physicists, geologists, kinesiologists, biologists, financiers, publicists, historians, environmentalists, social scientists and the list goes on….

There’s also another aspect of the top ten list isn’t obvious. Beneath the accolades, beneath the heart-warming stories, there’s the JMU spirit that says, “Why not?” and “Why not me?” If some schools are caught up in traditions and the status quo, Madison is not one of them. Throughout it’s history, JMU has always been kind of a rebel — in the best sense of the word. It’s not afraid to try the unconventional, and as many individuals on our Be the Change website demonstrate — sometimes the seemingly impossible.

We’ll try things, experiment, take chances. Some things work out. Some things go up in flames, but on par, courage and determination move us forward. Steadily and tenaciously.

Like snapping turtles.

To see the Top Ten stories of 2011, visit http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/top-ten-2011.shtml

It also made me think.

In one scene, recent college graduate and aspiring writer Skeeter Phelan is pecking away on a typewriter. Changing her mind in mid-sentence, she grabs a little bottle of liquid paper and corrects the word. The problem with the scene is that liquid paper wasn’t on the market in 1963, the year in which the movie is set. In the 1960s, correcting a typing mistake required a little pencil-like device with a white or sometimes pink “eraser” and a brush to whisk away the debris. Liquid paper, although invented, was not yet the ubiquitous corrector it would become. I was surprised and amused that the movie’s fact checkers didn’t catch that. Then I realized that they were all probably too young. After all, we are a long way from the days of manual typewriters.

The appearance of liquid paper in the middle of 1963 created the same kind of anachronism that T.H. White used in The Once and Future King. It was out of place. Unlike White’s Merlyn who lives backwards through time and can thus legitimately mismatch time and space, however, Skeeter Phelan and the moviemakers have no such excuse. They should have gotten it right.

And so should we.

If there’s one reason to study history, the present is probably as good a reason as any. Despite what some fifth grade students may think, history is far more than an academic exercise to learn what happened in the past. Understanding history is essential for understanding the present. In fact, you really can’t get the present or the future just right unless you remember the past, and especially unless you understand it. Skeeter’s little mistake is a case in point.

On a far more important scale are the great events in our history, those that changed our nation forever and for the better. Those are events in history that we should learn accurately and remember forever. We need to know what society was like in the first half of the 20th Century. In Harrisonburg, as late as the mid-1960s, the movie theatres downtown had separate white and black bathrooms, and the balconies were reserved for blacks, the mezzanines for whites.

The 1963 March on Washington (Image via Wikipedia)

The history of the American Civil Rights movement feels long ago. Watching the historic March on Washington through flickering black and white film reels, hearing the speeches surrounded by crowds dressed largely in suits and hats, makes it feel like we have put it in our distant past. But it is not as far away as we think.

It was not until 1971 that busing was upheld by the Supreme Court as a remedy for segregation. As late as the 1980s, some members of the Virginia General Assembly still disagreed with the principle of integration, and some Virginia school systems that defiantly closed their doors instead of integrating after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are still trying to catch up. No matter how far we move from the past, we can still touch it in small ways. Think of it as seven degrees of history.

Remembering the past, whether it’s liquid paper or civil rights, makes living today better.

This week and next the James Madison University community will put history on display when the campus celebrates the life and times of Civil Rights pioneer Dr. Martin Luther King. Beginning tomorrow, a series of events will commemorate the King legacy, and will include a keynote address by Calvin Mackie, Ph.D., an award winning mentor, engineering professor and motivational speaker.

To learn more about JMU’s celebration to honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King visit   http://www.jmu.edu/multicultural/

Here’s a look ahead at some of the year’s most significant changes that James Madison University will see this year.

In June, the university with say farewell to its fifth president, Dr. Linwood Rose, and get to know its sixth, Jonathan Alger, J.D. The transition, carefully and thoughfully planned by the board and the Rose administration, should propel JMU into a bright future. Like his predecessors, president-elect Alger will begin to put his mark on the university. If history is any indication, the university will benefit from yet another talented leader.

JMU will change from a university with six colleges and a graduate school to one with seven colleges. Last September the board of visitors approved a new academic alignment recommendation to divide the College of Integrated Science and Technology into two new colleges:  the College of Health and Behavioral Studies and the College of Applied Sciences and Engineering.

In May, when graduation returns to the newly expanded Bridgeforth Stadium, the class of 2012 will include the university’s first engineering graduates.

With the opening of the new biosciences building on the east campus this year, most of the sciences, which are currently spread all over campus, will be consolidated.

University Park, a new recreational facility, will open a few miles from campus along Port Republic Road. The new facility, part of the university’s popular and lauded UREC program, will add many exciting opportunities for students to learn and play.

To learn more about some of the exciting changes, click the links below:

http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/news/general11813.shtml

http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/news/general11738.shtml

http://www.jmu.edu/engineering/

http://www.jmu.edu/recreation/Facilities/universitypark.html

http://www.jmu.edu/news/2010BioscienceConstruct.shtml

Sometimes, though, blogging feels like whispering into the wind. Occassionally, I get a little feedback, but most of the time I rely on WordPress and their built-in stats to let me know if a blog post has hit the mark. I think of WordPress as my teacher, assistant, benevolent ruler and friend. They give me snowfall in the winter, ideas in the spring, and now — to my delight — a summary of the year in blogging, including the fascinating stat that readers from SIX continents have found the Be the Change blog and that posts written more than a year ago are still being read. Pretty cool, huh!

So to wish you a Happy New Year from JMU Be the Change — compliments of the clever folks at WordPress and their able stats monkeys – here is our 2011 report. And proof that armadillos rule!

WordPress Annual Report for JMU’s Be the Change blog

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The first phone call stunned me. A horrific accident. Three people dead. A fourth badly injured. Friends. The deaths left the small community of Keezletown reeling.

Anyone who had played in a local middle- or high-school band knew Martha and Gary Dovel. The couple owned and ran Shen-Valley Band Instrument Service in Harrisonburg, supplying and servicing trumpets, saxophones, flutes, trombones, drum sticks (hundreds of drum sticks!) and band music to thousands of students throughout the Shenandoah Valley.

Gary was quiet, with a shy smile. He was also the best at what he did. Whenever a valve stuck on a trumpet or a trombone slide was dropped and bent, Gary could fix it. Martha, always smiling, served her community not only through the band shop, but in countless other ways. She was one of those “go to” people. The PTA, the baseball teams that her son Scott played on, high school teams, all enjoyed Martha’s enthusiasm. Still, her greatest accomplishment and her greatest joy was her children Eric, Julie, and Scott. I can still hear my friend Martha’s voice as we chatted about our sons. She called her youngest “Scottie,” and she was always smiling when she talked about him. He was bright and enthusiastic and energetic.

Now Scott was hurting in ways that the rest of us could only imagine. As we all gathered to say our final goodbyes to Martha and Gary Dovel and to young Brielle Nelson, Scott’s girlfriend, we all said a prayer for the full recovery of the only survivor, Scott, who was scheduled to join JMU’s freshman class in only weeks. Would he, though?

The second phone call came out of the blue. To this day I don’t remember who called or even from what office, but  I will never ever forget the words: “We are trying to find out where Scott is staying. We want to help any way we can.”

I was amazed that an institution as big as JMU would care so much for one student to make the effort to track down Scott’s caregiver following the accident. Scott Dovel was one of thousands. And many students have needs — still JMU was calling. “We want to help,” the woman on the other end of the line said.

Scott’s recovery was long and painful, but he recovered. And with a courage that few are called on to muster, Scott enrolled that year at JMU, his mother’s alma mater, bandaged, hurting yet resolved. This month, Scott Dovel was eligible to graduate with his class after a courageous and successful battle to recover and  thrive that is a credit to Scott — and to his parents and their influence on his life.

I communicated with Scott shortly before graduation and he told me that, although he was ready to graduate, he had requested to wait until May to walk. “So that I can walk with my friends ……,” he wrote.

Somewhere deep in James Madison University there is an extraordinary heart — one that is unlike any other college or university that I know. A very wise teacher once shared with me her favorite saying. “Children,” she said, “are not things to be molded, but people to be unfolded.” In the same way, JMU looks at its own students. If I were to paraphase, I’d say, “JMU students are not numbers to be processed, but individuals to be unfolded.”

JMU often talks about its commitment to student success. It is so much more than a slogan or a nice catch phrase. Here it is genuine — as genuine as the clear note of a well-tuned trumpet.

Scott Dovel’s story taught me that.

To learn more about the heart of JMU, read about Madison Forever at http://www.jmu.edu/madisonforever/

You can also learn more about Shen-Valley Band Instrument Service, now owned and run by the Dovel children and still serving the local community. http://shevalleybandis.com/

The heart with Wilson Hall’s cupola was created by JMU graphic designer Lynda Ramsey.

Dr. John B. Noftsinger 1963-2011

George Bailey got a second chance.  John Noftsinger didn’t need one.

When Dr. John B. Noftsinger, vice provost for research and public service of James Madison University, died unexpectedly in November, the Madison community was left with a gaping wound and a sudden and cataclysmic reminder of the impact one life can have. It was as if we all experienced a Clarence moment, the kind that George Bailey had in the classic Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, when Clarence the angel finally convinces George that his life mattered.

John knew what George had to learn. He understood the tremendous impact that one person can have on the lives of others. He lived it, modeled it and taught it everyday. In a life that was too short, his impact on others, like that of George Bailey, was remarkable. He touched and changed the lives of hundreds — or more accurately thousands when one considers the reverberation of his life’s work through students, staff, faculty, alumni and those whom they in turn will touch.

John’s death left us all with an enormous sense of loss, most profoundly because of the way he lived. He personified what it means to Be the Change. In the weeks since his death, I’ve thought about the lessons he left behind, lessons that we can all emulate. These, one might say, are John’s three lessons in how to Be the Change.

Dream big

Growing up in Roanoke, Va., John must have looked up at Mill Mountain and gazed at the city’s famous star. I am, of course, speculating, but somehow John learned how to dream big.  Many people dream, but John believed dreams were action items. Partnerships became living, breathing change agents to John, not simply legal documents but opportunities to make things happen. He also understood intrinsically that education has an enormous potential for making lives better, for preparing individuals for worthy lives. He was never limited by what should be, but inspired by what might be. This is how change begins, with a dream.

Be relational

People mattered to John. In fact, people were the impetus for everything he did. In the educational setting, he knew that it all came down to the individual. One young alumnus had shared how John called to check on his business venture after the young entrepreneur had left JMU. Those who worked with John at JMU and in Scouting saw him live that belief through rich and dedicated mentoring. Relationships become the bricks and mortar of change and the manifestation of dreams.

Work hard

When one looks at what John Noftsinger accomplished in 48 years, it is impossible not to realize how very hard he worked. He sparked more change, impacted more lives and left a greater legacy than most people blessed by lives twice as long. Perhaps because his own father had died early, John seemed driven, making the most of every day and every opportunity. His hard work paid off, and JMU is one of many beneficiaries. Others include the local community, students, higher education, Boy Scouts…..this list goes on and on and on.

No one will miss John more acutely this Christmas season than his wife Cindy and his family. It will be a tough Christmas, but I hope they all take comfort in the fact that while he lived, John Noftsinger made a huge and lasting difference. He changed the world while he lived, and his legacy, both personal and professional, will go on.

As much as he is missed, there is a consensus that his was a wonderful life. Clarence would be proud.

Read John Noftsinger’s Be the Change profile at http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/people/noftsinger.shtml