One of the highlights of this year’s Homecoming weekend at Carthage was the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the beautifully-renovated Straz Science Center,  dramatically transformed to the tune of more than 40 million dollars!  Unfortunately,  I had to miss the festivities, and my crazy schedule this semester has kept me from making any side trips up that way.  Not until tonight,  when I mistakenly came to campus for a play performance that was actually this afternoon,  did I finally have the opportunity to see for myself what all of the fuss was about.  My heavens!  Even though I walked through the door with rather high expectations,  I was blown away by what I saw.  It’s a gorgeous and impressive facility …. and for all the envy and frustration it stirs in my all-to-human heart,  it also makes me very glad that all of this money was spent so wisely and that my colleagues in the natural and social sciences have such a marvelous place in which to do their work.

More importantly, I suppose,  Carthage’s science students now have a marvelous place to learn.  One of the main reasons why this particular architectural firm was chosen to design the building was that they had a proven track record for creating structures that were conceived right from the start with students in mind.  This is clear when you compare what this building looked like as originally designed, with essentially no gathering spaces whatsoever for students in any of its hallways –  no chairs or benches and not even any place for them.   Students were simply expected to stand around in the halls – or sit on the floor.  The renovated Straz Center has ample and beautiful gathering spaces for students.

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But of course,  a great science building needs more than places for students to relax and talk together.  The classrooms also must be state-of-the-art, and to my amateur eye the classrooms in the building are all that anyone could want.

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One of the best things done in this renovation is how the building now opens up to Lake Michigan rather than “ignoring it” or “turning its back to the Lake,”  as Bill Hoare put it when we talked on my Morning Show.  The designers have found all kinds of ways to bring the beauty of the Lake into the heart of the building- and for those of us who toil all day in a building with almost no windows at all,  this is maybe the biggest cause for envy.

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Of course,  having several conference rooms with spectacular views of the lake could be a bit counterproductive when it comes to people concentrating on the matter at hand.  Still, there has to be something inspiring and energizing about a view like that, and I don’t think they’ll regret that choice one little bit.

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There is also an outdoor plaza overlooking the lake that has to be one of the most beautiful spots on the entire campus.  In January it’s not likely to be all that popular a destination,  but in the warmer seasons I’m sure it will be wildly popular.

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And all this doesn’t even include the wonderful glassed-in atrium at the south end of the building, which is what really transforms the Straz Center into a work of art.

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So what’s a bedraggled music professor who has to teach in the banged-up, too-small, rather-blah Johnson Arts Center …. a building in ferocious need of renovation …..  supposed to do with his or her feelings of envy about this amazing new facility?  I’ve got several things that are  keeping the green demons of jealousy at least somewhat at bay:   1) The Straz building is the oldest building on campus-  constructed in 1961-  so no Carthage structure deserved/needed renovation more than it did.  2)  The natural sciences, by their very nature,  need to be taught in up-to-date facilities.  There’s no way around it.  3) For sheer number of students serviced,  the Straz building is our most significant classroom structure – and renovating it has already had an enormous impact on the greatest possible number of Carthage students.  So for all of those reasons,  this renovation simply had to occur-  and I don’t think there’s any room for discussion about that, even among those of us in the arts, whose patience has begun to wear thin.

But what saves me from envy more than anything is remembering what it was like to study music at Luther College back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  My classmates and I (the class of 1982) were the last class at Luther NOT to enjoy the comforts of the Jensen Hall of Music (the cornerstone of which was laid at the end of our junior year.)  Our department’s classes, rehearsals, lessons and activities were scattered amongst the CFL, Koren,  TOHS I, TOHS II, Korsrud,  and Norby House –  six different buildings,  five of which were not even designed with music in mind.   And yet –  we made music at an incredibly high level.  I think the Nordic Choir, in particular,  took great pride in being one of the finest college choirs in the country despite the fact that we rehearsed in the upper floor of the college’s heating plant.   And even then,  I was already struck by the irony of taking voice lessons from one of the country’s most able voice teachers – David Greedy – in a very ordinary house that was actually located a block off of campus.  In other words, our facilities could not have been humbler,  but that didn’t stop us from achieving extraordinary excellence.  And that’s very much the attitude of the Carthage music department – and the attitude of our colleagues in theater and art as well.  Yes, we need larger and better spaces to do what we do – rather desperately, in fact – but we’re ready and able to bring our creative gifts to bear on making the best of where we are until that point in time when the college will be in a position to give us a new home- or extensively renovate where we are now.  Until then,  we are committed to offering our students the very best experience that we possibly can….. just as our colleagues in the sciences have done for years.

Monday morning,  when I walk into the Johnson Arts Center,  I suspect that the floors will look a little grimier …. the walls will look a little drabber …. the rooms a little smaller and darker ….. and the whole place a little older than it did before this weekend when I finally laid eyes on the new Straz Center for the first time.  But I think the moment Robert Billins (one of my freshmen) walks into my studio for his voice lesson and we begin to get to work,  I will be reminded of the special joy and satisfaction that comes with working with young musicians ….  whether it’s in a place as sparkling as Luther’s Jensen Hall of Music or UW-Parkside’s Rita Tallent Picken Center for the Arts and Humanities …… or in the rather ordinary building that the Carthage music department, for the time being, calls home.

Be it ever so humble.

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Pictured above:  From several years ago,  voice studio class in my office ….. with (left to right) Bryan Chung, Bob Petts, John Kryl, Fletcher Paulsen, Mike Anderle, Max Dinan,  Nick Huff, David Duncan, and Jack Lambert.  Things were cramped but we made it work!