Curtain’s up on new Entertainment Technology Center
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The Department of Theatre’s Entertainment Technology Center ever so quietly relocated to its new facility during winter break and held its first class in the West Palm facility this interterm.
Students in Introduction to Theatre Technology were able to enjoy a lot more elbow room, says Professor Don Guy, who put students through their paces learning the basics of rigging, set building, lighting and other stagecraft techniques in the course. The warehouse-turned-technology-center is ideal for both instruction and hands-on projects, he says.
“These spaces are zoned for industry so they’re perfect for this kind of work,” he said.
In addition to shop facilities, the center houses an updated costuming and sewing facility, rehearsal room and computer drafting classroom. The new facility is also ample enough to simultaneously accommodate both regular classroom projects and special costuming and set-building projects related to major productions, including American Celebration.
Chapman's MBA Global Innovation Challenge team includes (l-r) Bryce Ricks, Kelsey Wurnos, Doan Tran and Geoff Northup.
A team of MBA students from Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics has won second place and a $3,000 cash prize in the MBA Global Innovation Challenge, the world’s largest and most established business innovation competition.
As part of their award the students will also ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange today, Friday, Jan. 27. In addition, the corporate sponsor for the Chapman team announced that it will implement the students’ innovation plan.
The Chapman team competed against teams from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, which took first place.
The announcement was made at the New York Stock Exchange at noon EST. All three finalist teams are in New York today and will ring today’s closing bell as part of their award.
The Chapman team advanced to the finals by winning first prize in its category. MBA students Doan Tran, Bryce Ricks, Kelsey Wurnos and Geoff Northup entered the competition back in August, creating a product development case for General Electric (GE). They recently became one of the top five finalists and presented their case directly to GE. That presentation secured their win in the GE category. Next, they competed against the other two category winners to become the “World’s Most Innovative MBAs.” The three finalist teams presented their concepts in the final round to GE, AT&T, Syngenta and five innovation experts earlier this month.
Chapman will be listed as a finalist on the Innovation Challenge website, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world every year.
For nine years the Innovation Challenge has matched graduate students from universities all over the world with leading companies in an experience designed to address pressing business and social innovation challenges.
John Dean discusses legal legacies of Watergate at Chapman Law event
John W. Dean on campus Thursday discussing the legal legacies of Watergate. Photo/McKenzi Taylor
The 1977 television clip of former President Nixon telling interviewer David Frost that “when the president does it that means it’s not illegal” provoked laughter in the audience gathered Thursday at Chapman University to hear John W. Dean discuss the legal legacies of Watergate.
Yes, it’s hard to imagine today, given that Watergate generated sweeping legal and political reforms as well as an evaluation of presidential powers and the law. But as the clip ended and the laughter faded, Dean, the former White House counsel who served four months in prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up, suggested that abuse of power is not all in the history books.
“Of course there is some legal justification for the position Nixon was taking. He was drawing on Lincoln. He was drawing on FDR. And to me, sadly, the Nixonian view might be even more prominent in the aftermath of 9/11, where things like torture and our violation — blatant violation — of our international treaties have become the norm rather than the exception,” Dean said.
Dean’s wide-ranging talk was part law lecture, part history lesson, with several news and television clips from his Senate testimony played on an overhead screen for the audience attending the free talk sponsored by Chapman School of Law. It was the first event in a two-day program the law school is hosting to mark the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-ins and to study the scandal’s legal legacies. Dean was joined by Chapman University law professor Ronald Rotunda, who served as assistant majority counsel for the Watergate Committee. Professor Rotunda added first-hand accounts of the investigation and the ethics reforms that followed, and lawyer and historian Jim Robenault moderated.
The commemoration continues with a law symposium exploring the legal legacy of Watergate. Titled “The 40th Anniversary of Watergate: A Commemoration of the Rule of Law,” the symposium kicks off tonight, Thursday, Jan. 26, with a welcome dinner that will feature Jill Wine-Banks,a former assistant Watergate prosecutor. Wine-Banks was one of the only women involved in the Watergate investigation and as such will be speaking about her experience in this role as well as what the historical event means for women 40 years later.
A full schedule of other symposium panels and talks is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 27. In addition to Dean, program participants will include Alexander Butterfield, Rotunda, Chapman Law Dean Tom Campbell, Scott Armstrong (a staff member of the Senate Watergate Committee and former Washington Post journalist) and a roster of visiting law professors from across the nation. Topics will include “Obstruction of Justice: Does History Have it Wrong?” and Dean’s lunchtime keynote, “Watergate’s Unanswered Questions.”
Symposium pricing is as follows: Welcome dinner only, $75; symposium only, including luncheon, $75; welcome dinner and symposium, $125.
The symposium is presented by Chapman Law Review, a student-run scholarly journal published by Chapman University School of Law. Symposium registration is required by filling out an online form here and calling 714-628-2605.
The Friday symposium will also be webcast live at www.chapman.edu/law<http://www.chapman.edu/law.
Katie Weinstein memorial set for Wednesday, Feb. 1
A memorial service for Katie Weinstein, who passed away suddenly Jan. 7, will be held in Folino Theater on Feb. 1.
A memorial service for Katie Weinstein, who was a second-year graduate student at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1 in Folino Theater. Dodge College graduate level classes will be cancelled so that everyone who wishes may attend.
Weinstein, an Illinois native, passed away suddenly Saturday, Jan. 7. She was 28.
“Katie was an outstanding student, and those who worked with her describe her not only as talented but also as kind, cheerful, and hard-working,” said Jerry Price, Ph.D. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students.
A memory book is being created for the Weinstein family and anyone who would like to contribute thoughts, stories, photos or production stills is invited to send them to kennedym@chapman.edu.
In addition, the Weinstein family is creating a thesis film scholarship fund for graduate students for which they are requesting donations in lieu of flowers, for those who wish to participate. Details will follow.
Former U.S. Ambassador to China to present public lecture at Chapman
Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy will lecture on campus Feb. 9.
Top Asia expert J. Stapleton Roy, former United States Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, will visit Chapman University on Thursday, Feb. 9 to present a free public lecture, “Dealing with a Rising China.” Although the event is free, advance registration by email is recommended: request from tritch@chapman.edu.
The talk will take place at 5 p.m. in the university’s Sandhu Conference Center, preceded by a reception at 4 p.m. The event is part of the Dr. Richard Watson Distinguished Speaker Series presented by the Asian Studies program of Chapman’s Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is made possible by the generous support of the Kay Family Foundation.
J. Stapleton Roy currently serves as director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Born in Nanjing, China to American missionary parents, he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and embarked on a career spanning 45 years with the U.S. Department of State. He spent much of his foreign service career in East Asia, but he also specialized in Soviet affairs and served in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. Roy rose to become a three-time ambassador, serving as the top U.S. envoy in Singapore (1984-1986), the People’s Republic of China (1991-1995) and Indonesia (1996-1999). In 1996, he was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service.
Ambassador Roy’s final post with the State Department was as assistant secretary for intelligence and research. In addition to his current post at the Kissinger Institute, he also serves as chairman of the United States Asia Pacific Council, vice chairman of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, trustee emeritus of The Asia Foundation, a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and serves on the boards of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, the American Academy of Diplomacy and the U.S.-China Policy Foundation. He is a distinguished senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and a distinguished graduate and member of the Hall of Fame of the National War College.
Ambassador Roy’s many publications include, recently, “The Internal Logic of China’s Political Development,” The Globalist, June 3, 2011; and a review of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra Vogel in The Wilson Quarterly, autumn 2011.
For more information, the public can call 714-997-6725.
Professor Frelly, left, was joined by Professor Cogan at the concert celebrating Professor Frelly's appointment as director of the La Mirada Symphony.
There was a packed house of more than 1,200 people at the Jan. 14 performance by the La Mirada Symphony Orchestra at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, held in celebration of the recent naming of Robert Frelly, D.M.A., associate professor of music and director of music education at Chapman University, as the symphony’s music director.
La Mirada board president Pat Ruiz said, “Robert Frelly’s qualifications, honed by his involvement with community, university and youth orchestras, have made him an ideal choice to bring the La Mirada Symphony Orchestra to an exciting new level for its 48th season and well beyond.” Dr. Frelly will continue his duties at Chapman’s Conservatory of Music while serving as director of the La Mirada Symphony. He also is in his 28th season as the artistic director of the Southern California Youth Philharmonic and Chapman’s Conservatory of Music.
For this concert with the La Mirada ensemble, Dr. Frelly featured guest soloist Jeff Cogan, Chapman University associate professor of music and director of the Chapman guitar studies program. The orchestra’s program, titled “Viva Espana!,” included Fannin’s “Fanfare Nueve” for winds and percussion, Chabrier’s “Espana,” Bizet’s Suite No. 1 from “Carmen,” Turina’s “Danzas Fantastics” Op. 22, Rodrigo’s “Fantasia para un Gentilhombre” (with Cogan soloing), and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol,” Op. 34.
David Lee, far left, with art history students.
This holiday season David Lee, adjunct professor in the Department of Art, traveled to China to conduct the concluding portion of an online art appreciation course he taught through Coastline Community College’s EBUS program when he spotted some familiar images.
In an email Lee writes: “Between classes I was wandering campus, getting a feel for the school. I walked into the international education center and that is where found an information panel that included Chapman University!” Among the photos on the panel were shots of Global Citizens Plaza and the statue of C.C. Chapman.
The western art history course was taught via Skype to students hoping to enroll in American universities. For the final four weeks of the class Lee traveled to their suburban campus near Guangzhou to teach classroom lessons.
In addition to teaching drawing and 2D design courses, Lee has been involved in the Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art for the last 10 years.
Professor LeNoir to receive regional Kennedy Center award
Dr. Nina LeNoir
Nina LeNoir, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Theatre, has been selected as one of the 2011 Excellence in Theatre Education Award recipients from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), Region VIII.
The award honors faculty who are leaders in the field of theatre education and go “beyond the call of duty” in devoting their time, efforts, talent and energies on behalf of the students and in support of the other faculty and staff of their institution.
KCACTF is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide. Through state, regional, and national festivals, KCACTF participants celebrate the creative process, see one another’s work, and share experiences and insights within the community of theater artists.
Dr. LeNoir joined Chapman University two years ago but has been involved with KCACTF throughout her career in other regions.
“We’re very happy she made the move to Southern California,” said John H. Binkley, associate chair of the Department of Theatre at Cal State Northridge and chair of KCACTF Region VIII. One resource KCACTF offers its member schools are visiting respondents, or reviewers. Binkley said Dr. LeNoir is a particularly gifted reviewer.
“It’s a very delicate thing to do. … It’s that whole notion of how you talk to young theatre artists and in a way that is supportive yet critical so that they can continue to grow,” he said.
Dr. LeNoir will attend the organization’s February festival in Ogden, Utah, to receive her award. A group of 16 Chapman acting students will also attend to compete in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition.
He’s got miles and miles of heart! Alumnus tours with ‘Damn Yankees’
Brian Drummy '09
Brian Drummy ‘09, theatre performance, has been cast in the current national tour of Damn Yankees out of New York City.
Drummy, the son of Michael Drummy ’74, Chapman University’s assistant vice chancellor and chief admission officer, moved to New York City after graduation to pursue his dream of starring on Broadway.
The tour of this Broadway classic is on the road now and will perform in 60 cities across the country for the next three months. Brian has two featured solo songs in the show, including the showstopper “You Gotta Have Heart.”
- John Dean
Chapman University will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-ins and investigation with two days of events open to the public on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 26 and 27 in the Chapman School of Law. Several prominent Watergate figures will be taking part, including John Dean, former White House counsel who ultimately testified against President Richard Nixon, and Alex Butterfield, who served as deputy assistant to President Nixon and maintained the Oval Office’s secret taping system.
It has been four decades since the day in 1972 that Dean, then 34 years old, learned that police had arrested five men for breaking into and entering the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Events that unfolded in the week following the break-in would lead directly to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, the nation’s 37th President.
“In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, legislation was born, rules of legal ethics were shaped, and presidential powers and immunities were altered forever,” said Tom Campbell, dean of the Chapman University School of Law. “For the legal community, Watergate is a pivotal marker in the development of modern law.”
The first event will feature Dean speaking on “Watergate Revisited” at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 in Kennedy Hall 237. Dean will be joined by Chapman law professor Ronald Rotunda, a recognized authority on ethics who was assistant majority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee and later was advisor to Ken Starr in the Whitewater investigations. Also joining the presentation will be lawyer/historian Jim Robenault. Dean will walk the audience through the first week after the Watergate break-in, laying out the legal and ethical dilemmas he faced as he learned more about the unfolding situation. Three units of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit are available to legal professionals attending this presentation. The presentation is free but advance registration is required and may be arranged by emailing masanche@chapman.edu.
The commemoration continues with a law symposium exploring the legal legacy of Watergate. Titled “The 40th Anniversary of Watergate: A Commemoration of the Rule of Law,” the symposium kicks off Thursday evening, Jan. 26, with a welcome dinner that will feature Jill Wine-Banks, former assistant Watergate prosecutor. Wine-Banks was one of the only women involved in the Watergate investigation and as such, will be speaking about her experience in this role as well as what the historical event has meant for women 40 years later.
The symposium resumes Friday, Jan. 27, with a full schedule of other panels and talks, all to be held in Kennedy Hall 237. In addition to Dean, program participants will include Butterfield, Rotunda, Campbell, Scott Armstrong (a staff member of the Senate Watergate Committee and former Washington Post journalist) and a roster of visiting law professors from across the nation. Topics will include “Obstruction of Justice: Does History Have it Wrong?” and Dean’s lunchtime keynote, “Watergate’s Unanswered Questions.”
Symposium pricing is as follows: Welcome dinner only, $75; symposium only, including luncheon, $75; welcome dinner and symposium, $125.
The symposium is presented by Chapman Law Review, a student-run scholarly journal published by Chapman University School of Law. Symposium registration is required by filling out an online form here and calling 714-628-2605.
The Friday symposium will also be webcast live at www.chapman.edu/law<http://www.chapman.edu/law.
