CLA has its own
version of the red hat brigade among us. If the hats
mean anything, they mean we are ready for a new building!
L-to-R (Top) Drs. Irena Makarushka, Salvatore Zumbo, James
DiLisio, Karen Eskow, Kent Barnes, Karen Dugger, Lena Ampadu
(Bottom) Drs. Robert Rook, John Murungi, Howard Nixon, James
Roberts, Terry Cooney, Doug Pryor, Craig Johnson
There are ten
departments in the College of Liberal Arts and a variety of
interdisciplinary programs, many organized together as
Interdisciplinary Studies.
We are the largest college at Towson,
carrying a bit over 30% of the credit hours generated
in the
University as a whole. We deliver a major portion of general
education courses for all students, and we have currently more
than 3000 TU majors in CLA programs. CLA faculty have remained
committed and dedicated teachers and scholars as they have faced
the challenges associated with pouring increased quantities of
wine into the old bottle of Linthicum Hall. But they know the
seams are being stretched. We need a sign that the relief of
physical space is on the way, and today we have one as we break
ground for our new home. We would also welcome, as always, a
sign that what we do and the commitments that shape our lives
continue to be valued. And today we have that sign as well.
New Building Gets First Gift
I’m pleased to
announce that the College of Liberal Arts received its
first gift connected with the new building; a gift to name a
classroom in honor of a retired faculty member.
Connie Kihm is
the donor who has made that gift possible, and I offer her the
deepest thanks of the College and the University for her gift. A
classroom will be named for Professor George Friedman, emeritus
faculty member from the Department of English, as Connie’s way
of saying thank you to him for what he made possible in her
life. When I had lunch with Connie and George to tell him of her
plans, she looked at him and said, “I cannot hear a poem, or
read a book, or watch a movie in the same way because of you.”
She wanted him to know that he had made a difference.
Connie’s gift
honoring Professor Friedman is so exceptional as a first gift
for this building because it celebrates precisely these kinds of
relationships--- between a faculty member and students, and
among an apparently somewhat raucous band of English majors. The
gift celebrates the high quality of teaching on which this
college has prided itself, the attention to students for which
Towson has been known, and the room those students have had in
the past to carve out a place for themselves commensurate with
their own energies. We have lost some of our breathing space in
the last few years as a growing faculty and larger numbers of
students have squeezed into quotidian use the odd-shaped rooms
and the peculiar nooks that once became student lounges.
New Building's Structure
The
building that will rise over the next few years will reaffirm
our purposes and allow a thousand flowers to bloom once more. It
will have no mass production classrooms for 500, or 400, or 300,
or 200, or even 100.
The building will have classrooms of
varying size holding from 20 to 90 all of which allow easy
contact between faculty members and students. It will provide
office spaces that allow students better access to individual
advising and a more ready opportunity for conversations beyond
the classroom. The building will introduce a variety of spaces
for students to gather, from quiet study areas, to lounges with
network access, to areas with digital projection screens, to
spaces for food and restoration. The structure will promote
interactions between faculty as well and provide many of the
tools needed for effective use of technology in instruction.
Room for More Gifts
Do we have room
for other such gifts? Why yes, we do. All institutions of higher
education increasingly depend on the generosity of friends who
share a belief in the importance of what colleges do in creating
better professionals, better people, and better citizens. We
need not only financial support but support in spirit and
through conviction.
I am grateful to Connie, to Professor
Friedman, to every faculty member who invests fully in students
and in the college, to every alumnus or alumna who stays a part
of the University, to members of the wider community who help us
define and fulfill our mission, and not incidentally to all
those who have been digging up our yard all summer and filling
the air with dirt to make what is about to happen possible. A
long line of people working on this campus site have brought
Towson University to the place where it now stands. We honor
that tradition today as we promise them, and ourselves, a better
CLA tomorrow.
On April 14, 2009, an open house was held for alumni.
8000 York Road | Towson, MD 21252 | 410-704-2000
We are the largest college at Towson,
carrying a bit over 30% of the credit hours generated
in the
University as a whole. We deliver a major portion of general
education courses for all students, and we have currently more
than 3000 TU majors in CLA programs. CLA faculty have remained
committed and dedicated teachers and scholars as they have faced
the challenges associated with pouring increased quantities of
wine into the old bottle of Linthicum Hall. But they know the
seams are being stretched. We need a sign that the relief of
physical space is on the way, and today we have one as we break
ground for our new home. We would also welcome, as always, a
sign that what we do and the commitments that shape our lives
continue to be valued. And today we have that sign as well.
Connie Kihm is
the donor who has made that gift possible, and I offer her the
deepest thanks of the College and the University for her gift. A
classroom will be named for Professor George Friedman, emeritus
faculty member from the Department of English, as Connie’s way
of saying thank you to him for what he made possible in her
life. When I had lunch with Connie and George to tell him of her
plans, she looked at him and said, “I cannot hear a poem, or
read a book, or watch a movie in the same way because of you.”
She wanted him to know that he had made a difference. 
Connie’s gift
honoring Professor Friedman is so exceptional as a first gift
for this building because it celebrates precisely these kinds of
relationships--- between a faculty member and students, and
among an apparently somewhat raucous band of English majors. The
gift celebrates the high quality of teaching on which this
college has prided itself, the attention to students for which
Towson has been known, and the room those students have had in
the past to carve out a place for themselves commensurate with
their own energies. We have lost some of our breathing space in
the last few years as a growing faculty and larger numbers of
students have squeezed into quotidian use the odd-shaped rooms
and the peculiar nooks that once became student lounges. 
The building will have classrooms of
varying size holding from 20 to 90 all of which allow easy
contact between faculty members and students. It will provide
office spaces that allow students better access to individual
advising and a more ready opportunity for conversations beyond
the classroom. The building will introduce a variety of spaces
for students to gather, from quiet study areas, to lounges with
network access, to areas with digital projection screens, to
spaces for food and restoration. The structure will promote
interactions between faculty as well and provide many of the
tools needed for effective use of technology in instruction. 
