Mini-Grants Fund Exploration of South Bend’s Industrial Roots, Develop Students’ Writing

CSC News & Reflections
Summer 2004

In order to stimulate partnerships between faculty, students and the local community, the Center for Social Concerns developed the Rodney F. Ganey Faculty Community-Based Mini-Grants.

For 2004, the two Ganey Mini-Grants went to foster efforts to explore South Bend’s industrial past and to support educational effort in the South Bend Schools.

The first mini-grant went to Jessica Chalmers, Ph.D, assistant professor of Film, Television and Theatre (FTT), in collaboration with the city of South Bend and FTT graduate students, to support a theatrical production and book project titled “Avanti: A Post-Industrial Ghost Story.” The project explores the history of South Bend’s Studebaker Corridor and the city’s redevelopment plans for the post-industrial era.

A second mini-grant was awarded to John Duffy, Ph.D, director of the University Writing Center at Notre Dame; Kathleen Tonry, a graduate student in the University’s Department of English; and Gloria Wilkeson, education services manager at the South Bend Tribune, for “Writing UP,” a program designed to develop writing skills in children enrolled in South Bend Community Schools.

The Ghost Story

For the Avanti project, Chalmers set out to investigate how the Studebaker became South Bend’s largest employer, and how the city’s fortunes mimicked the company’s boom and bust cycles.

But, she also saw the story of Studebaker as a metaphor for the shifting economic and labor conditions in America, as the country moves from a manufacturing to a service economy, and the way in which global outsourcing impacts workers.

For Avanti, that process will involve the entire community. This summer the South Bend Regional Museum of Art is showcasing the working process of the production, including photos of the industrial decay. The Northern Indiana Center for History will highlight images from the industrial period. Lectures, art projects by school children and area museum displays also are planned. A Web site listing dates and information is at www.nd.edu/~avanti.

Writing UP

One of the priorities in the South Bend Community School system is to improve students English and language arts skills. Based on Indiana’s most recent assessment test, the 2003 ISTEP+, fully one-third of ninth graders failed to pass this portion of the exam.

For Kathleen Tonry, of the English department, these challenges presented an opportunity for Notre Dame to assist the local community. In conjunction with the University’s Writing Center and the South Bend Tribune, they put together the Writing University Partnerships (Writing UP) program.

“The goal for every high school student will be to produce a polished and professional opinion piece appropriate for the Op-Ed section of the South Bend Tribune,” explained Tonry.

Groups of two to three students will work with student tutors or faculty to develop their skills, added Tonry. The teams will then work together to create a piece of writing for the South Bend Tribune that offers a reflective, incisive and articulate intervention with the public policy debate.

“This program is motivated by a deep optimism about the role and importance of public debate,” said Tonry, “particularly as such debate creates strong civic communities, and encourages our basic democratic processes.”