Courtesy of the College of Humanities Ground-floor facilities will wrap around a one-of-a-kind interior courtyard.

Hagerty Hall being fitted for the World Media and Culture Center

By Randy Gammage, onCAMPUS staff

After sitting vacant for approximately two years, renovation is now underway that will transform Hagerty Hall from an historic relic to the home of a world-class learning center where students can live the languages and cultures they study.

While exterior changes will be minimal, the interior of Hagerty will be gutted to make way for the World Media and Culture Center (WMCC), expected to open in June 2004. The center will provide a virtual study abroad experience for the thousands of students taking foreign languages at OSU, by integrating the teaching of foreign languages and cultures with the latest multimedia technologies, said Michael J. Hogan, dean of the College of Humanities.

"The students we teach will spend their lives living, working and competing in a global economy," Hogan said. "Their success and happiness will depend on their possessing the skills to understand other cultures and other languages. And this state-of-the-art facility will help our faculty provide students with those skills."

Besides the cultural and economic advantages, WMCC potentially has national security implications. As part of the ongoing war on terrorism, Hogan said national agencies are compiling stacks of intelligence documents, but are hindered by a lack of personnel that are trained to translate less common languages.

Perched along the southern edge of the Oval, the 78-year-old Hagerty Hall was occupied by what is now known as the Fisher College of Business, but has been vacant since the college moved to its new complex off Woodruff Avenue.

The $24.4 million renovation project will be financed through a combination of state ($19.5 million), University ($3 million), and College of Humanities ($1.9 million) money, said Melinda Nelson, assistant dean of Humanities. A fund-raising campaign is currently underway to help pay for the center's technology.

Besides the WMCC and 11 classrooms, the renovated Hagerty Hall will provide administrative suites and faculty offices for Ohio State's modern foreign language departments, which currently teach around 40 languages, Nelson said. It also will house the Department of Comparative Studies, the Foreign Language Center and Humanities Information Systems.

Offices will comprise the top three floors of Hagerty Hall, while the first floor will be devoted to the World Media and Culture Center, an umbrella name for a variety of different facilities that apply state-of-the-art technologies to foreign language instruction. A variety of services will be offered, ranging from support for the preparation of technology-based classroom material to an individualized language-learning program.

Ground-floor facilities will wrap around a one-of-a-kind interior courtyard. A cornerstone of the WMCC is the Crane Café, a dining spot where students can view international broadcasts on large screen TVs, connect with friends overseas via the Internet, or sip a cup of coffee while watching a favorite soap opera, sports or cultural broadcast in the foreign language they are studying. The cafe also is designed to appeal to the large number of foreign students attending Ohio State.

"We think that it will be a site where the students can come and catch up with the latest news from their country, and at the same time they can relax and interact with American students who are trying to learn their native language," Hogan said.

The WMCC will include an Ameritech/SBC Individualized Language Learning Center, where materials in multimedia format will allow students to learn languages at their own pace. A $1 million grant from Ameritech/SBC is funding a prototype of the center, currently housed at Cunz Hall.

The workstations, audio recording facilities, and audio and video digitizing equipment in the Hypermedia Development Lab will enable faculty and graduate students to develop multimedia software to allow their students to immerse themselves in the art, history and thought of another culture, said Lewis Ulman, assistant dean of Humanities. A complementary facility, the Hypermedia Studio, will provide the technology to develop, test and produce a variety of multimedia products -- such as commercial quality DVD electronic textbooks -- that have the potential for broad distribution.

Other features of the renovated Hagerty Hall will include:

• a 250-seat auditorium;

• a videoconferencing room, named in honor of former College of Humanities Dean Kermit Hall;

• two electronic learning spaces that combine the features of computer labs and multimedia classrooms; and

• gallery and exhibition space.

The redesign of the building has been a partnership of Ohio State's Facilities Planning and Development and the project's two architects, Wandel & Schnell of Columbus and Leers Weinzapfel of Boston.

For more information, visit the Web at http://wmcc.ohio-state.edu/index.htm.

Harlow named interim head of Honors and Scholars

By Joni Bentz Seal, onCAMPUS staff

An experienced administrator and honor student adviser will lead the Honors and Scholars Program during the search for a new associate provost.

Linda Harlow, associate dean of humanities, has been appointed interim associate provost for Honors and Scholars by Martha Garland, vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies. Harlow replaces Kay Halasek, who left the post to return to a full-time faculty position in the Department of English.

The interim appointment was effective Oct. 1, and Harlow will serve in this capacity until a permanent successor is found. An appointment is expected this academic year.

"This position provides the critical leadership for the Honors and Scholars Program, which has changed tremendously during the past four years. First, what used to be two functions -- directing the program from a curriculum standpoint, and coordinating the co-curricular activities through the Honors and Scholars Center -- has been combined into one job," Garland said. "And the addition of two new facets -- the Scholars group and the new Collegium program -- now requires more extensive coordination than the original Honors Program did when it was created in 1985."

The expansion in 1998 of the Honors Program to Honors and Scholars added programming for the group of students who fall just below the academic requirements of the original Honors Program. The Collegium is a new program designed to provide support to the very best students as they prepare for post-graduate opportunities.

Harlow has a great deal of experience working with honors students in the College of Humanities, and served as the leader of the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Office.

"Dr. Harlow is an extremely enthusiastic and student-centered leader," Garland said. "While we search for a permanent associate provost, she has what it takes to not only keep the program up and running, but to direct some staffing and structural changes that will enhance the honors environment, which has been the hallmark of the Kuhn Honors and Scholars House over the years."

The Honors and Scholars Program attracts high-achieving students to Ohio State and offers them a personally-tailored academic experience within the larger University environment. Nearly 2,000 incoming freshmen are welcomed each year into the numerous programs under the Honors and Scholars umbrella.

Harlow may be reached through the Kuhn Honors and Scholars House at 292-3135, or by e-mail at harlow.1@osu.edu.

Tashjian to depart

Vice president for University relations heads West for new opportunity

After serving the University for nearly three and one-half years, Vice President for University Relations Lee C. Tashjian has accepted a new position as vice president of communications for the Fluor Corporation, headquartered in Southern California. Tashjian will remain at the University through the end of the quarter. An interim will be named shortly.

Tashjian said the decision to leave was the "most difficult" of his professional life but, in the end, the offer from Fluor was "simply too significant to turn down."

President Karen A. Holbrook said she had hoped Tashjian would stay, but she understood the excellent opportunity the position at Fluor represents.

"I think it is wonderful," Holbrook said, "when someone is offered an opportunity that represents a clear step forward. It not only says something good about the person, but also speaks volumes about the quality of the organization that person comes from. I know the University community joins me in thanking Lee for his exceptional work at the University and in wishing him well on his new endeavors. We will certainly keep in touch through our Buckeye activities on the West Coast."

Holbrook will appoint a committee to conduct a national search.

NSF director visits local school

By Kevin Fitzsimons Students at Franklinton Elementary School discuss a science experiment with (third from left to right) Kelly Krupa, graduate student, Susan Olesik, professor of chemistry, and Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation. Franklinton is one of the five Columbus Public Schools participating in Ohio State's NSF-sponsored "Science Fellows Assisting Teachers in the Classroom," a math and science partnership of the colleges of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering, and the Columbus Public Schools. Colwell initiated the NSF program soon after she began as director in 1998. The program has been in place at Ohio State since 1999. Colwell was at Ohio State to help celebrate the Oct. 11 grand opening of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute.

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