Annual Report 2000
CLA in words and images
"These kids are geniuses. It's amazing what they're doing, and their teachers have no idea. They are shaping the world we live in. They spend their time writing computer operating systems and playing [computer] games. They don't care about handing in their homework on time, they just want to get back to their computers and change the world."
"You're never too old. I'd advise anyone to go back to college. After all my sons went through college, I thought, that's something that I want to do, too."
"My mother used to say that she had given me life, but my teachers would teach me how to live that life well."
"I learned that there really is no toilet paper on the road less traveled, you have to pack your own; tripe, or pig stomach, doesn't taste too bad; and I'm one flexible student. I don't know if the first two will help me in the 'real world,' but I know that being able to adapt to change will pay off in my career."
"I have met quite a few other international students who studied at the University of Minnesota or are aware of its reputation. Most have spoken very fondly of their stay--except for one woman from South Africa who thought it was just too cold!"
"Media literacy is the ability of the consumer of media-generated messages to choose and discern what's worthwhile and what is the agenda of the people paying for them.... Teaching children about the media is a vital task."
Ed note: In 2001, CLA will launch a new major in critical visual literacy, a joint program combining cultural studies, art history, journalism, and other disciplines.
"Where's the hairball?"
"The arts, and the creativity they cultivate, are an important foundation for graduates who join the work force. The arts are also a strong component of our quality of life, an element that sets Minnesota apart from many other places and thereby helps drive our economy.
"Let me say, though, that I know the arts also have a more intrinsic value. They are the window through which we view the human condition. They are the products of joy and of sorrow. They remind us of what it means to be human in an age of technology."
Ed. Note: Students and faculty mobilized thousands of people to persuade Minnesota's legislators and governor to approve funding for a new art building. In May, Governor Jesse Ventura signed the capital bonding bill, authorizing $18.5 million for construction of a new University of Minnesota Art Building. To date, CLA has raised more than $5.5 million of the $8 million private fundraising goal for the building. The building is expected to open spring 2003; the first classes will be held in the building fall semester 2003.
Groundbreaking for U of M art building with shovels made by art students (l-r: Mark Pharis, art department chair; Bob Bruininks, Exec. VP and Provost; Gerald Fischer, Associate VP Office of Development; Sandra Gardebring, VP University Relations; President Mark Yudof; Regent Patricia Spence; CLA Dean Steven Rosenstone; Eric Kruse, VP University Services; Jeff Kimpton, director, School of Music)
"My graduate students say to me, 'How have you been here so many years and kept so clear?' I say, 'By looking outside and working outside.'"
When asked how she would like to be remembered by colleagues and students, McNaron borrows a line from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: "And gladly wolde [she] lerne, and gladly teche."
"If the past had been something I saw as something totally apart from my own life, I would have never become a historian. Both my historical and political career came out of my own passions (obsessions, some would say) with issues of my own time."
"When I think of Alan Spear, I think of one of the great orators and debaters in the Minnesota Senate. Each time he speaks, there's a mini history lesson. It's simply fun to listen to him."