A major gift for Architecture, and new leadership in English

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

First and foremost, I am so pleased, proud and grateful to announce the $3 million Cornerstone gift from Bill and Laura Pelham. Thank you so much, Bill and Laura! A full article in this month’s newsletter tells the details of how their gift will serve our students, but I don’t know if it can convey what a gratifying end it made to such a tumultuous year!

The University held a memorable event to celebrate the gift at the Poinsett Club in Greenville. Our President was in attendance and shared a few thoughts, as did I. One of the comments I made was that it is remarkable to what extent this gift aligns perfectly with the strategic priorities we have been articulating for the College during the planning exercise we have been undertaking this past semester. The Pelhams’ generosity truly could not have come at a better time or in a better form.

A couple of additional announcements. Susanna Ashton will be stepping down as Chair of the English Department at the end of June. She has done an amazing job over the last four years, especially navigating her large and complex department through the pandemic. We will miss her energy, her panache, and her vibrant sense of humor. But we also wish her well as she goes off for a richly-earned sabbatical in the fall, followed by a spring to be spent as a Research Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Susanna will be continuing her work on John Andrew Jackson, an escaped slave from South Carolina who became an international speaker and author in the 19th century. Hats off to you, Susanna!

Succeeding Susanna as the incoming Chair of English is Will Stockton, Professor of English and a scholar of the early modern period including his namesake William Shakespeare, a lesser-known playwright who produced some pieces for performance at the Globe Theatre in London.

I was also hoping to be able to make two additional leadership announcements, one for the conclusion of our national search for a new full-time director of Pan African Studies, and one for our internal search for a new Director of the Humanities Hub to replace Lee Morrissey who will be stepping down at the end of the summer. An announcement for both is imminent, and we hope to be at liberty to give you the news in our August newsletter, if not sooner.

Last but not least, the Dean’s team has been hard at work these last weeks, preparing the College report to the Board of Trustees, my first since becoming Dean, which will be presented later this fall. The talent and hard work of our students, faculty, staff and alumni have given us a deep well of accomplishments from which to draw for our presentation.

With best wishes to all for the summer as we pull out of COVID at last…

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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Commencement is only the beginning

After a long and grueling year, we just celebrated commencement in person. It was shorter than the usual ceremony, and safety made the look and feel a bit different, but the occasion was marked, and that is important. Ritual is integral to the human experience; it is a means for us to orient ourselves and share an experience with those close and distant.

As I watched our students completing their Clemson journey, there was so much I wished to say. Although I didn’t have the chance to share my thoughts in a speech, I have a column! If I could speak to our each of our new graduates, this is what I would say:

Dear Graduates and new Clemson Alumni,

Congratulations on your achievement! You have just celebrated a milestone among many your lives, but this one is special for most of you because it marks the end of your formal education. Life is filled with milestones, but few signify as definitive an ending and beginning as this one. I can imagine that you are feeling various things right now: joy, sadness, nostalgia, anxiety, numbness, and all the mixed emotions that come with freedom.

While your formal education may be over, your process of learning is not. In many ways it is also just beginning. To a certain extent, learning is unavoidable. Our senses and our brains are perpetually receiving input and processing. But I encourage you to think about learning actively. Sign on to a life of learning, and learning for life.

If you were educated in our College, you were trained to make conscious learning a way of living and interacting with the world. Learning how to see and to think historically, conceptually, artistically. Learning how to read and observe, not just accepting at face value, but examining critically, scrutinizing between the lines, peering behind the scenes. The College has introduced you to the human condition in all its dynamic extremes and complexity.

Take all this with you and apply it to the world as you encounter it. Seek to learn and understand just a little bit more every day. And when you interact with people, try never to forget the individual human being behind the façade. That’s why we read literature and go to the movies—to be reminded about our common humanity in powerful and memorable ways.

And when you get the chance, travel. See the world, the people in it, what they have built over time, and the ways they live and interact.

And always take the time to go some place quiet to reflect and to think about what you have learned.

Congratulations again. Now spread your wings, and fly…

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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College initiates Conversations on Race and Reconciliation

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

This month, our College has launched an exciting and, I hope, thought-provoking and restorative initiative called Clemson Conversations on Race and Reconciliation. The concept began taking shape for me about a year ago, even before my official start as Dean on July 1, 2020. But COVID put a stop to the most important part, which is for the participants to talk to each other face to face. Something we all took for granted not so long ago.

The impulse that led me to the basic idea of the conversations series is that I have been increasingly dismayed not only at the growing divide and the accompanying tensions we see in this country, everywhere we look, but at the absence of any dialogue that might resolve anything. We seem to have lost the art of constructive talking and listening, where people with differing points of view actually sit together and communicate with each other. Being respectful and not judgmental. Admittedly, Clemson is only one very small corner of this country, but my hope for the Clemson Conversations initiative is that we can find our way to listening, hearing, understanding, and, yes, work toward reconciliation. How can we possibly move forward together and solve the many problems we face without it?

In the Fall, I met with several student groups in the College, all addressing issues in their own way. There is cNOMAS in Architecture, the WeCU initiative coming out of Performing Arts, and the Call My Name Student Advisory Board, just to name three. In December and January, I met with leaders from all of these separate initiatives to form a College Inclusion Council. At first there were six undergraduates, joined later this semester by four graduate students, including Kaitlyn Samons, President of the Clemson Graduate Student Government. We are working together to help consolidate and amplify what is already underway in the College. I hope very much that this can continue and be formalized next year.

The roll-out of vaccines and the arrival of warmer weather, permitting outside gathering, finally allowed us to make a start on the Conversations initiative. First was a joint event on April 7 at the Owen Pavilion that capped a year-long Architecture series, organized by Assistant Professor of Architecture Andreea Mihalache, called “Design, Race, and Social (In)Justice.” At the event, a panel of eight speakers gathered to talk about issues moderated by Professors Mihalache and Ray Huff from our Charleston campus.

This will be followed on April 15 with a panel of seven students, faculty and staff, again at the Owen Pavilion, talking about “Clemson Family?” and moderated by yours truly. The topic was prompted by several comments I heard last summer in response to the events happening around our nation in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the resulting tensions. Many students and faculty remarked that, while the concept of the Clemson family is referenced frequently, they had never felt as though they were part of that family. It struck me immediately that this would be something to talk about in greater detail, possibly with a view to improving that situation.

For now, we are still just trying out the concept and seeing if it seems helpful and constructive. My idea is that there should be an ongoing platform facilitating open dialogue between all constituencies at Clemson, not just in our College, and possibly reaching out to the community as well. I invite you to join us as we explore the possibilities of this venture.

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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A visit to our Charleston programs, where bridges are built

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

As we end the first half of the Spring 2021 semester and hopefully enjoy a little bit of a break, I thought an update of College activities might be overdue.

The big project in the Dean’s office this semester is the refresh of our College strategic plan. The previous 5-year plan is set to expire this year, so we are due to engage in the process anyway. But with a new team in place at the Dean’s office and several new department chairs, it seems like good time to assess where we are currently and think about where we want to be in 5 years. Stay tuned for updates.

Earlier this month, at long last, I finally made it to Charleston to visit our facilities and programs there, and to meet the faculty and staff who are making it work. I was in town for a little over a day, which was not a lot, but nevertheless got a sense of the exciting things happening there.

Prof. Ray Huff showed me buildings in the Historic District downtown that Clemson owns, and I got a taste of the truly amazing facility that is the Cigar Factory on Bay Street.  Prof. Jon Marcoux gave me an intense introduction to the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation.

I also got to see the operations in North Charleston, meaning the Dominion Energy Innovation Center (with the world’s largest wind energy testing system), the Warren Lasch Conservation Center (which currently houses the H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship in wartime) and the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center. While most of this complex, known as CURI (The Clemson University Restoration Institute) is the site of projects coming out of the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences (CECAS), it is also the site of the Digital Production Arts program, which is a collaboration between CECAS and our Art Department.

My visit to Charleston ended with a tour of the Architecture + CommunityBUILD project, the brainchild of Prof. David Pastre, who is working with his students to beautify neighborhood parks and gardens by designing and building architecturally interesting and innovative structures to provide seating, shelter and storage. I so loved this project and its results. Architecture students get to plan projects and see them through to their completion. Neighborhoods in need get some love and attention. And we all learn that beauty doesn’t have to cost more. Sometimes it is just about imagination and effort. Once we are truly through with COVID-19, I hope our College can think of more ways to do something similar, also here in the Upstate.

Universities generally, not just Clemson, need to think of as many ways as possible to build bridges with the community: local, regional, national and global. This is especially true of comprehensive “Research 1” institutions, like Clemson: the elite of the elite in terms of higher education in the United States.

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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Are our kids falling behind?

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

Recently, I saw a conversation on social media about whether our kids are “falling behind” as a result of this past year. The conversation left me unsatisfied and a bit frustrated. But it did get me thinking about the issue. Now that there does seem to be a glimmer of light at the end of this seemingly interminable tunnel, maybe it is a good time to start reflecting on what this year+ has meant, for all of us, but especially for our children. While the original discussion on social media was limited to K-12, I think we can stretch it to include college as well. Even if college students are no longer children, they are still “our” children, if you catch my drift.

For sure, school learning these past 12 months has been affected, and affected negatively. Everyone, with no exceptions, has felt the impact. However, that impact has been spread unevenly, as usual.

But what do we mean when we say “falling behind”? Behind what? Which raises the question, what do we mean by education? It’s surely not just what we learn in the classroom. Our education begins the day we are born and continues for the remainder of our lives. We learn from our family, from our schools (formal institutions of learning), and from what we can broadly call life. At different times, each of these three takes on a greater or lesser significance. Whatever we might not have learned at school this year has been more than made up for by “life.”

One of the blessings of the modern world is that it has devised ways to shield us from the hardships imposed by nature and by our physical limitations. Distance has melted away; where there is darkness, we have light; we have heat when it is cold; cooling where there is heat. Food in constant supply, no longer affected by the seasons, an abundance unimaginable in my youth. Even the sheer nastiness of death, though still with us, has been muted by largely removing it from private homes and ceasing to make it a regular event which we all must witness.

And then came COVID-19. To remind us that we are not all-powerful. An important lesson, especially for our children, who have grown up holding in the palm of their hands a device with more power than anyone my age could ever have dreamed possible.

But with all the misery, suffering, hardship, tragedy and death of this year, it has once again been a story of human triumph and resilience. Figuring out how to use the tools at our disposal to reconfigure our lives so that we could carry on. The miracle of our species is its enduring flexibility, inventiveness and creativity. This year was a lesson in precisely that. It’s also what lies at the core of our College and its mission.

The word “education” comes from the Latin verb ducere meaning to lead. E is a prefix meaning out of, so education suggests a leading out of… what? … ignorance, I suppose. The Germans use a different word: Bildung. It suggests both “building” as in formation, but Bild also means image or picture. So Bildung is building towards an idea or image of what it might mean to be a wholly formed person.

To continue the building metaphor, weathering crisis and coming out the other end strengthens our foundations and helps us stand firm against the inevitable challenges that lie ahead. Far from “falling,” I submit that we all have grown.

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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Some Reflections on Claudia Rankine’s Visit

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

On the evening of November 13, the award-winning poet Claudia Rankine zoomed into campus from her home in New York City and spent two hours talking primarily with our students. The event was organized by a group of faculty from the English Department, including Maya Hislop, Matt Hooley, Kimberly Manganelli, Jamie Rogers, Hannah Pittman-Goodwin, and Michael LeMahieu. It was the crowning event of a common read for English students of Rankine’s remarkable Citizen: An American Lyric (which I highly recommend, if you haven’t read it). Published in 2014, it is particularly apt and haunting in the wake of this past summer, a summer that was perhaps a watershed moment in race relations in this country. The book doesn’t belong to any fixed genre. It is more like a collage, combining anecdotes, personal recollections, poetry, reflections, journalism, and images.

It is the book’s last image I would like to ponder for the remainder of this message. Rankine ends with a painting by the 19^th-century British artist, J.M.W. Turner, titled “The Slave Ship” (Original title: “Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On”) (1840). It depicts the historical event in 1781 of the slave ship “Zong” caught in a terrible storm. The ship’s captain had decided to throw slaves bound for Jamaica overboard in an effort to collect insurance for cargo “lost at sea.” The event caused an uproar in England and subsequently moved Turner to portray the moment in his inimitable way.

Rankine reproduces the painting in its entirety and adds a detail from a corner showing the limb of a black person still in shackles surrounded by hungry fish. The image is grotesque and disturbing. But Rankine leaves it there without comment. The work of literature ends with an image. There are no words.

Towards the end of her presentation, Rankine talked about the painting and her thoughts. For her, it is, perhaps surprisingly, an image of hope: a white man from England more than a century and a half ago moved to express his horror at the treatment of people as though they were mere cargo.

How much has the world changed since then, I wonder.

Then Rankine added something very important: it doesn’t matter if it’s the 1800s or the 21^st century. People who know something is wrong know something is wrong.

And I would like to add: the arts help us see and know when something is wrong.

Poets, artists, and composers have long held up a mirror to show us who we are. They have exposed the dystopian worlds we inhabit and towards which we are headed. They have also been able to imagine other, better, worlds towards which we must strive.

The creative arts compel us to reflect. They point out the consequences of our behavior. They also inspire hope and illuminate the way forward…

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

Last month, I had just begun my tour of the departments in the College, with Architecture and Art. The tour continued in October with week-long visits with City Planning and Real Estate Development (CPRED), the Nieri Family Department of Construction Science and Management (N_fCSM), the Department of English, and the Department of History and Geography.

A full description of each visit would explode the limits of this column, but I did want to share a few highlights. The week with CPRED culminated in a day at their location in Greenville in the spectacular Greenville ONE building right in the middle of downtown. I visited an in-person class taught by Dr. Stephen Buckman and was given a tour of downtown Greenville by Dr. Barry Nocks, who recently came out of retirement to direct the program at short notice. After the tour, I met with Greenville Mayor Knox White, the guest speaker at a Real Estate class taught by Dr. Robert Benedict. The story of downtown Greenville is a testament to what City Planning and Real Estate developers can accomplish through public-private partnerships by remembering what makes a city truly livable: a commitment to human values — beauty, practicality, convenience, and sustainability. The CPRED students are fortunate to be studying in and involved with a living laboratory testing how we best organize our cities as breathing responsive environments for the people who live, work, and play there.

The high points of the visit with N_fCSM were the time at the brand new Experiential Learning Construction Yard, dubbed “XL Yard,” where students get hands-on experience learning the art of construction (see attached video), and the one-day symposium organized by Department Chair Mike Jackson on “Disruptors In The Construction Industry.”

The idea of “disruption,” on its face a negative and potentially destructive force, is that it can pave the way for and propel innovation and progress. It has been a driving principle in the arts, sciences, and the humanities for the last two centuries and is why the world is and looks the way it does today.

The German author Goethe phrased it succinctly in the late 18^th century, when he had Mephistopheles describe himself as “Part of that force that always wills evil and yet always produces good,” because he is “the spirit that always negates, and rightly so, because everything that arises is worthy of destruction.”

It should come as no surprise that the concept of the Faustian drive has been borrowed and repurposed by the worlds of business and construction, but it was still an eye-opening experience for me to witness the conversation. To see how saturated our College is with the humanities, from City Planning to Construction Management. Who would have thought it?

The humanities are not an optional extra, a required set of gen ed courses to put behind one as quickly as possible. They are integral to our existence on this planet. They inform how we think and why we think it.

Without the humanities, there is nothing at all but bare existence and survival of the species.

So, for this month at least, please allow me to say:

“Go Humanities!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities