Academic Fusion

There’s a spectrum of possibilities for going green, and Bentley continues to spin the color wheel.

Sketching caricatures, fashioning hemp into jewelry, designing bold banners – these are just a few of the artistic endeavors that a new student organization has brought to campus.

Bentley Student Artists (BSA) is not even a year old, but already counts 90 students in its ranks. The group has its roots in an academic society whose members held regular meetings and workshops throughout 2009.

Managerial Economics and Liberal Studies major Christine Varriale ’10 was among those who discovered a passion for artful experimentation.

Words matter to Dan Everett. The university’s new dean of arts and sciences spent years in the Amazon River jungle, studying language and its broader cultural meaning. He has been quick to master the Bentley lexicon.

For winter break, Bentley senior Daniel Merica enjoyed a well-deserved reward: a family vacation to Hawaii. His days were filled with sun, sand and relaxation — until January 12 at 11:53 a.m. (HST).

A new seminar series explores topics outside the typical realm of business, but builds business skills nonetheless. The not-for-credit learning opportunities are sponsored through the Jeanne and Dan Valente Center for Arts and Sciences, and funded by a gift from Bentley parents Diane and Dennis Albano.

Students keen to organize a semester-long seminar submit a detailed proposal to the Valente Center.

Sometimes, a hearty collaboration starts with something as simple as a good lunch.

Three years ago, Bentley Assistant Professor of Finance Irving Morgan (left) had a research paper starting to simmer. He ran into Fred Ledley in the faculty cafeteria and asked the professor of natural and applied sciences to review some initial findings. Ledley liked what he saw, and suggested working together at some point.

A group of Bentley professors aims to compose a bestseller list of future business leaders by prompting students not only to read challenging literary works, but to experience an “aha” moment.

The cover of a recent Chronicle Review sums up academic reaction to a new book by linguist Dan Everett. Rendered in caricature, Bentley’s dean of arts and sciences exchanges scowls with the man who has dominated the field for some 50 years.

“Angry Words,” reads the headline. “Is Noam Chomsky’s reign over linguistics at an end?”

Everett chuckles at the illustration but answers the question with a serious “yes.”

Most college seniors spend a good deal of time pondering their own future. For Ryan Miamis ’12, it was just as important to consider the future of the ground beneath his feet. 

Working with Professor of English and Media Studies Gesa Kirsch, Miamis spent the 2011-2012 academic year studying how urban dwellers might develop a “land ethic.” That is, a guiding philosophy for making decisions about land: using it, preserving it, changing it and more.   

For Daniel Marrano ’13, the history of Bentley University is much more than the stuff of dusty documents and yellowed news clippings.

“Basically, my whole family has gone to Bentley,” he says of a clan that includes his mother, father and two siblings. “I’ve always been interested in the history of the school, because it’s part of my own history.”