School News Briefs

Memorial for Phillips
SAIC held a memorial that celebrated the life of Maggie Phillips at a service last month. Maggie died Sept. 27 after a long battle with cancer. During the 26 years she spent at SAIC, Maggie held many teaching positions including chairing the Art Education and Art Therapy Department.

What Your Peers Are Up To
Taeyoon Choi, and other members of the SAIC student group jang seung, were selected as winners and represented SAIC in the finals of the “C2: College X Culture” Multi-Arts showcase. The showcase was held Nov. 23, and the students performed before a general audience as well as a panel of locally and nationally known professional artists who critiqued their work and answered questions.
Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), Hostelling International Chicago (HI), and the MCA, “C2: College X Culture” is a unique inter-collegiate, multi-cultural performance series starring student performers from Chicago-area colleges and universities.
Choi, and fellow jang seung members Chris Hwang, Andrew Cho, and Sukku Son, presented a digital video work accompanied by spoken word during the event. “The piece is inspired by foreign travels and the production attempts to expand the theatricality of performance by using digital interfaces,” explained Choi.

Alum On The Rise
SAIC film graduate Jean Rene Rinvil (May 2002) has had his documentary (which was also his grad thesis) accepted in the 2002 African Diaspora Film Festival. The festival, held in New York City, runs through Dec. 15. Rinvil’s film, Laviche, shot on location in Haiti, is a highly informative documentary about the current plight of Haitians trying to survive in a severely poverty-stricken country, peppered with commentary by Haitian immigrants living in the U.S. Laviche is scheduled to be shown as part of the festival’s Haitian Night, on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 8:30 p.m.

Diversity Update I
The Office of Multicultural Affairs is now accepting nominations for the individuals who students want to recognize for their commitment to community building within SAIC. The OMA Awards are intended to recognize the exemplary efforts of students, faculty, and staff in the community who promote diversity as a core value in an exceptional way. The five categories last year were: outstanding student group event award, peer encouragement award, outstanding collaborative effort award, faculty commitment to diversity award, and the staff commitment to diversity award.
The OMA Awards 2003 presentation will take place at Masala II on Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 4 p.m. in the Ballroom in 112 S. Michigan. Look for application forms on OMA’s bulletin board on the 7th floor of the Sharp building.

Diversity Update II
The Diversity Leadership Team (DLT) of Staff Affairs has met twice since their first meeting in Sept-ember. Priorities and short-term goals have been identified. The DLT of Staff Affairs priorities are to ensure that the hiring process promotes the development of a diverse campus; to improve the retention rate of existing staff; and to establish reporting tools that can evaluate the success of the previously mentioned efforts.
The DLT of Academic Affairs and Faculty has met four times since the beginning of the semester. Their priorities are focusing on the development of the Global Comparative Curriculum, fully implementing new curriculum in the First Year Program with a central diversity component by Fall 2004.