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In September 1969, 5X���� began the 1969­-1970 school year, and the band Crosby, Stills & Nash released the song, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” The third line of the song pronounces “I am yours, you are mine.” As students, we loved the song and the album on which it would appear for its new musical ways, sung to a generation seeking difference to create positive change.   Near the end of the school year, on May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard unexpectedly and without warning shot and killed four Kent State students and wounded nine others. The bond —“I am your...

In the southwest corner of South Dakota, on the Nebraska border and at the southern end of the Badlands, sits the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is home to the Ogalala Lakota Nation. This fall, faculty and students from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Kent State Salem traveled to the reservation in what has become an almost annual excursion. The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the trips over the last three years, which made this return visit quite significant for members of the group. Leading the way was Lorene Martin, program coordinator for the BSN program on the S...

Before he graduated in December 2022, digital media production alumnus Sam Teyssier had already racked up some impressive credits: He’d worked on television shows including “American Rust” and “A League of Their Own,” as well as Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award winner “Cha Cha Real Smooth.” These experiences — which he began seeking out in his hometown of Pittsburgh during the summer of 2021 — have prepared him for post-graduation life. Teyssier, ‘22, first joined sets as an extra so he could make connections for the roles he was trying to get: COVID safety assistant, ...

Dear Members of the 5X���� Community, Our return from winter break has offered many positive opportunities to reconnect with one another across all of our campuses. I hope you are recharged for a strong semester ahead. I’m writing to share with you that some acts of vandalism were recently discovered on our Kent Campus, and that the damage included defacement of public art installations and a restroom, in part, with the use of racist words. We have no way of knowing when these incidents occurred. What we do know is that vandalism, particularly when it involves hateful a...

It was another day in Zone 5 of Kent State’s maintenance detail, and maintenance facilities worker Beth Smerchansky pushed a cart loaded with a tool bag and a wet/dry vacuum to a job in the Kent Student Center.  Smerchansky, of Ravenna, normally performs general maintenance work in the student center, the Warren Student Recreation and Wellness Center, DeWeese Health Center and the Ice Arena.  But what was different that day was that Smerchansky performed skilled duties that she has been learning in a training program that is changing the trajectory of her career and that o...