News
Message from the Dean
In each issue of the alumni newsletter,
we try to describe an important
facet of what this college is
about—a way for us to share with you
how our students, faculty and staff approach
education and learning. In our
41st year, clearly there are new pieces
to that educational puzzle, just as there
are also foundations that have remained
a vital part of the college for
many years.
Internationalism bridges both—
some of you were part of study abroad
programs decades ago and now we
have new programs evolving, even as
I write these notes to you. I don’t need
to tell you how important it is for every university student to have an understanding
and appreciation for the world around them. Most of our own families
came from other cultures and brought those traditions with them. Our
students and faculty will learn about those aspects of the rest of the world,
then use them to shape their art, their designs, their music—how they will, in
turn, influence the world.
Our college strategic plan suggests that we will bring “our cultural programs and community-based projects to the broadest range of constituents and audiences.” Clearly, our intentions include sharing these outside the borders of America. Internationalism for us has a duality—sharing our work with others and bringing expertise from other cultures to broaden our own knowledge. You will find in this issue numerous examples of both. We have service-learning projects in Panama, Brazil and the Czech Republic, where our students and faculty help local government, cities and individuals with urban redesign and reclamation and restoration of natural environments, in addition to helping provide leisure and family gathering spaces. Our students, in turn, learn “on the job”—not through classroom exercises, but through experience that will benefit them as they enter the workforce.
We also have numerous study abroad opportunities, international field
trips and humanitarian programs that benefit the environment and our partners
in the world. College of Arts and Architecture students enroll in our own
programs in Rome; Puebla, Mexico; and the west country in Ireland. They
study drama in Britain and art history and visual culture in Todi, Italy. Architecture
and landscape architecture students are required to spend a semester
in Sede di Roma, our academic “home” in Rome, run so ably by faculty
member Romolo Martemucci for several years, aided by others from
the Penn State faculty who spend occasional semesters in residence. These
students invariably tell me the Rome experience was the highlight of their
academic career.
These programs are not “travel opportunities,” but rather rigorous extensions of our stateside classrooms and studios. No one doubts or underestimates, however, the excitement of living in Italy, Mexico, Ireland or wherever these programs take them. In addition to those that the college operates, our students can join Penn State affiliations at more than 80 international universities. Our strategic goal is to increase the number of students who study abroad by 20 percent in the next three years.
Shorter-term opportunities abound, including study tours to England for Schreyer Honors College students hosted by my wife, Karen (and other theatre faculty before her), and performance tours by School of Music ensembles. Musical theatre students have traveled with President Spanier over the holiday season and spring breaks, becoming our most visible “ambassadors” in their tours to the Far East and, most recently, England, performing at several universities where Penn State has collaborative agreements.
For those here at University Park, we’ve started a new International Arts minor, led by Randy Ploog, our coordinator of international programs. There are a variety of courses for the minor, all focused on the arts and design from other nations.
In addition, the college has formed relationships with other institutions like ours, beginning with faculty exchanges that will lead to additional opportunities for students. We will expand programs like the very successful one with the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia, which you will read more about in this issue.
We believe experiences with other cultures and art forms from other countries are an absolutely vital part of the educational process and our responsibility in training “citizens of the world.” I hope you enjoy reading about these efforts. As always, I enjoy hearing from you!
Programs Receive Top Rankings
Penn State’s undergraduate architecture and landscape architecture programs fared well in the 2005 rankings released by DesignIntelligence, the monthly publication of the Design Futures Council, a leadership network of regional and national design firms. These are the only rankings in the nation that focus exclusively on design.
The bachelor of landscape architecture (B.L.A.) program ranked fourth in the listing of top 15 landscape architecture schools out of 47 accredited programs, and was ranked first among schools in the East. The B.L.A. program also ranked fifth nationwide in computer technology.
The architecture program tied for 13th place out of the 69 accredited architecture programs, regaining its position on the list of top 15 schools for the first time since 2000. The program was ranked fifth in the East.
The DesignIntelligence rankings are affiliated with the annual Almanac of Architecture and Design, the definitive source for much information on architecture and other design professions and education in those areas. The rankings are based on surveys of practitioners, who hire and recruit graduates and can therefore comment on how recent graduates from different schools fare in the marketplace. Landscape architecture programs were ranked for the first time this year.
“We are obviously proud of the position both programs hold nationally, enhancing the reputation for quality design education at Penn State,” says Richard Durst, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture. “Our students have done extremely well in competitions and in their search for employment after leaving us, and these rankings are a testament to the dedication of the faculty to continue to build landscape architecture and architecture to positions of national prominence in their respective disciplines. They bring great recognition to Penn State.” –AMM
French Government Honors the Late
George Mauner
The French government honored the late George Mauner, distinguished professor emeritus of art history and former director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, for his contributions to education and to the diffusion of the arts in the world at an awards ceremony at the Nittany Lion
Inn on December 1, 2004.
At the ceremony, Chantal Manès, head of the Education Office at the French Cultural Service in Washington, D.C., cited Mauner as an “exemplar of a very high level of scholarship on the culture of France who reaches audiences outside the world of academia.” Mauner was previously awarded the rank of officer in the French Order of Arts and Letters, the first member of Penn State’s art history department to receive that honor. A specialist in European art, he was one of the world’s leading scholars on the art of Edouard Manet. He curated the highly successful international exhibition of the still-life paintings of Manet that was displayed at the Orsay Museum in Paris and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in 2000 and 2001. Mauner died June 7, 2004. The award insignia was accepted by his widow, Marianne Mauner. –KAH
