Early on in my career at Kent State University, I wondered out loud, not as the leader of the university, but with my historian’s hat on, when “people,” that is, members of the general public, would no longer know anything about the shootings on our campus in May 1970. I said this to a retired Kent State professor who witnessed the shootings, and her response was rightfully indignant: how dare I suggest the event and its lessons would ever fade from memory.More recently, a public official in Ohio asked me, “When are people up there going to get over that event?” And by that the person meant, w...

Written by Samantha Reid, junior Fashion Merchandising major Numbers and equations have never excited me. Who would have thought that fashion merchandising would be full of them? Thankfully, a confessed math hater has been saved by Microsoft Excel.    The business of fashion requires the analysis of several different factors that go into predicting future sales, styles, and performance. These are all based on mathematical calculations and past sales analysis summarized in Excel. Delving deep into spread sheets to create, organize, and filter through a large data set has become a...

A refreshed May 4 National Historic Landmark Site Tour will premiere during the 2024 May 4 commemoration this weekend.  The outdoor tour signs, which debuted in 2010 during the 40th commemoration, allow Kent State visitors to trace the steps of history of the events of May 4, 1970, through text, video, image, and narration. Written by May 4 Visitors Center founders Laura Davis and Carole Barbato and initially designed by David Middleton, the tour signage includes historic photographs that connect visitors to the activities that took place on the site before, during, and after the protests...