Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion Mike McKenzie believes that a place can either inspire or depress.

“Aristotle had a word for place: topos,” said McKenzie. “That’s from where the word topography comes—it referred to geography. Plato had another word for place, chora, which translates to ‘nursemaid.’ He saw place more as a source of being.

“I think places should be as conducive as possible to positive experiences,” said McKenzie, who worked to transform the fourth floor of Hegeman Hall, home to the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.

McKenzie didn’t think that what few decorations adorned the fourth floor were very collegiate.

“I’m not sure people always know what the humanities are and what we do,” said McKenzie. “My vision was to give the floor more of an academic feel, yet still keep it fun,” said McKenzie.

According to Anne Weed, chair of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, he has achieved just that.

“Whereas the fourth floor used to be just the usual mishmash of flyers haphazardly attached to the wall, Mike has worked hard to elevate the intellectual tone and style of the floor,” said Weed.

In addition to placing two shadow boxes (one containing Native American artifacts and the other a picture of a significant wagon road) and a plaque with the names of the winning teams from his Socrates project outside of his office, McKenzie had a bust of Aristotle—who Professor of Communication Studies Anita Chirco deems her hero—made and then arranged for it to be placed upon a shelf outside of Chirco’s office. 

McKenzie decided to continue the hero/heroine theme when he re-designed a vacant bulletin board to include photographs/drawings of people whom his colleagues admire.

Michelangelo represents the fine arts (selected by Professor of Art Dexter Benedict); Don Quixote, the languages (selected by Professor of Spanish Michaela Cosgrove); Oscar Wilde represents theater (selected by Associate Professor of Theater Mark Wenderlich); Laurent Clerc, American Sign Language (selected by Professor of American Sign Language Dorothy Wilkins and Assistant Professor of American Sign Language Sharon Staehle); Marshall McLuhan, organizational communication (selected by Assistant Professor of Organizational Communication and English Amanda Harris, whose son sketched the portrait); Shakespeare and William Butler Yeats, English (selected by Professors of English Doug Richards and Bob Darling); and Heraclitus, philosophy (selected by McKenzie). A portrait of Assistant Professor of English Alexis Haynes’ hero, Mark Twain, is located just outside his office door.   

McKenzie took Professor of Art Dexter Benedict’s suggestion to use gray carpet (the same gray carpet gracing the walls of the Robert S. and Rebecca Aben Gallery) to cover the board, which is flanked by quotes (voted on by the division faculty) by Albert Einstein (“It is essential that the student acquire understanding of and a lively feeling for values, acquiring a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good.”) and J. Irwin Miller of Caterpillar Tractor (“The calling of the humanities is to make us truly human in the best sense of the word.”).

McKenzie refinished the bulletin board’s frame and arranged for a display case to be built that could showcase works by Division of Humanities and Fine Arts faculty.

The case includes books written by faculty members, CDs produced, and awards won, among other items.

Prior to his latest efforts, McKenzie created the gallery located between the Office of the President and Office of Academic Affairs. He started with artifacts from Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt’s visits to Keuka and then “filled in those bookends” with other historic photos chosen by President Burke from a selection McKenzie gathered.

“His work has involved countless hours digging through the College archives and his own labor of refinishing a rather shoddy bulletin board,” said Weed.

McKenzie said he couldn’t have completed the transformation without help from physical plant employees—especially LaMont Schiers and Rick Becker—and funding from the president’s office and academic affairs.

Said McKenzie: “I see students looking at the [displays] and that’s what it’s all about.”

-- Tanya Cornell-Kestler