4B - Thursday, March 24, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4B -Thusda, Mrch24,201 Th Miciga Daly mihigndalycm 0 wl What do you think about architecture on campus? SJ S 0 Quotes collected by Daniel Carlin; photos by Alden Reiss TAUB From F "You ative an TheN geon an ence th entirely trivial Black in Sturg places t ing of la "I th where e he said about fr ture." Exqu to mate theses t OMAN in the Architecture program embark upon. Sturgeon's thesis, Page 1B titled "Cultivating the Enormous: Agritainment-Infratecture within just have to be sort of cre- a new fishing paradigm," begins d tenacious," he said. with studying the $7 billion fish- words were said, but Stur- ing industry of the Great Lakes d his peers must experi- and operates architecturally to e word "tenacious" in an propose a carp processing distri- more rigorous and less bution center and vessel. manner than Mr. Jack These mindful connections his musical pursuits. are so far away from being inside the box that the students need a What is too far? release from the intensity. Stur- geon said when he's working too eon spoke to the wild hard and becomes a "crazy her- hat architecture is reach- mit," it helps to "bring it back to te. the dinner table." In translation: ink now we're in a place Behaving within normal daily verything's on the table," life - outside of the architectural . "We could be talking bubble - assists in maintaining a uit flies, and it's architec- clear mind for the fortitude of an untamed idea. isitely dizzying ideas seem Sturgeon's standard of sanity rialize out of the senior is measured by calling his mom hat the graduate students when things appear to be getting too crazy. "I like the test where if I can talk to my mom about it, it kind of makes sense, it's valuable or some- thing," he said. Accelerating this notion for- ward, he debated with himself the validity of discussing architecture instead of performing the prac- tice, concluding that it is possible to be "too theoretical" in the aca- demic setting. Floating down to reallife So the architecture students are taking 20-minute power naps beside their best friend, the laser cutter, and leaving the gym behind, but for what result? It seems that the students have a variety of aspirations and McMorrough is confident that their education at the University will support eclectic desires and decisions. "For the Bachelor of Science, of course I think people join the degree thinking they want to be architects, but a lot of people don't go on to be architects," he said. "Not because they couldn't, but because they discover other things ... people have gone and become filmmakers or painters or lawyers or all sorts of things." He is sure architectural edu- cation is more about theory than practice. The great reality about that belief is that this unique way of problem solving can translate into a lot of different careers - it's why the Architecture program tries to describe the undergradu- ate degree as liberal arts. Though undergraduates are afforded a more diverse future, those who go to graduate school and receive a Masters most likely want to build - that is the expec- tation. The undergraduate students can walk down varied avenues. Junior Hannah Hunt Moeller tends toward the humanitarian- oriented direction. Alongside her peers, Moeller started a group called design FOR//HUMANS at the University, using her skills to help developing countries. The group submitted two designs for a playground competition for Burmese refugee kids in Mae Sot, Thailand. According to Moeller, their small student-run organi- zation serves as a think tank for community design projects cen- tered around human needs. It fits what Moeller believes architects see themselves as - "activists" and "change-makers." And in this light, the students in the University's Architecture pro- gram go beyond the making and start to make change. *I sALAMRIDA/Daily Undergraduate architecture students must do a Wallenberg Studio to graduate. This event is free and open to the public. Originally commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this dynamic, Pre-registration is required. multi-faceted show highlights the LUCAS www.SarahJenesEventRegistratien.org multicultural and class dimensions From Page 3B of our national health care crisis. "What beauty weighs" is the Supportfor the Sarah Jones A Right to Care " A Right to Care has garnered impossible question that poets, performance has been provided by the King- critical acclaim from around the and all the rest of us too, try Chavbz-Parks Visiting Professors Program country and the world, and has to answer as we watch spring and the U-M Office oftthe Senior Vice Provost. become itself. sold-out Off-Broadway and at It's that cold spring between- the Kennedy Center. season in which Derek Walcott, a native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, sets his poem "Upstate:" "A knife blade of cold air keeps *sevn** *eene *r* Ha*h prying/the bus window open. Program*HealthThe spring country /won't be shut out." The cold climate not- withstanding, Walcott experi- ences a kind of thaw, finds himself ... falling in love with America. I must put the cold small peb- bles from the spring upon my tongue to learn her language, to talk like birch or aspen con- fidently. In Walcott's vision, "spring country" is not only the land- scape he passes, but America itself, which represents a way of falling in love, a feeling "as warm as bread or as a homecoming." The phrase "new beginning" should be an oxymoron: Begin- nings are supposed to happen only once. But, in the words of Walt Whitman, spring allows poets to see the world "as Adam, early in the morning." Poetry finds words to describe what happens when the miracle of birth meets the mercy of return. In "The Continuous Life," Mark Strand writes, "the luckiest / Thing is having been born." He may well be right - but being reborn is pretty good too. Lucas is jumping for joy and springing for spring. To join,* e-mail dwlucas@umich.edu.