Fitchburg State University’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month will include a series of programs organized around the theme, “Pioneers of Change: Shaping Our Future Together.” The programs are designed to commemorate and encourage the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of Hispanic and Latinx/o/a folks in history and our society. The National Hispanic Heritage Month’s theme for 2024 celebrates “Pioneers of Change: Shaping Our Future Together.” The theme encapsulates the spirit of innovation, resilience, and unity that define the Hispanic experience. Fitchburg State’s campus observance will kick off with an outdoor cookout and music on the main quad at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14. The Center for Diversity and Inclusiveness will welcome the executive boards of the campus African Student Association (ASA), Black Student Union (BSU), Caribbean American Student Association (CASA), and Latin American Student Organization (LASO). There will be a Hispanic Heritage Month flag raising ceremony at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16 to formally launch the month’s festivities. The ceremony will be held on the Alumni Quad between Hammond Hall and Thompson Hall. The events will also include a look at social determinants of health with stories of Latino men in recovery at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3 in the main lounge of Hammond Hall. This panel talk will include Worcester Commissioner of Health and Human Services Dr. Matilde “Mattie” Castiel, along with Latin American Health Alliance (LAHA) President Clara Reynolds and Latino men who are graduates of the Hector Reyes House. Dr. Castiel and the team will discuss identity, public health, her role as the Commissioner, along with the Hector Reyes House and LAHA. Additional programs include a panel discussion featuring students discussing their experiences growing up with Hispanic parents, a young Latinx alumni networking event, as well as cooking and dance demonstrations. See the full list of campus events at https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/student-support/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/center-diversity-and-inclusiveness/hispanic-heritage-month.

Fitchburg State University will observe Banned Books Week in September with programs highlighting children’s books and the challenges facing public libraries. The program will begin with a Banned Book Story time at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 23 in the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library in Hammond Hall. In this program, faculty, librarians and students will read and discuss banned children’s picture books.  There will also be a panel discussion at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 in the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library featuring librarians from surrounding communities who will discuss questions related to book banning and censorship. The panel, to be moderated by Olivia Rossetti of Fitchburg State’s Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library, will include Muir Haman of the Lunenburg Public Library; Marcia Ladd of the Fitchburg Public Library; Sabrina Bonetti of the Leominster Public Library; and Catherine Sebastian of the Leominster Public Library.   The programs, sponsored by the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library, are free and open to the public. The library will also feature a banned book display from the week of Sunday, Sept. 22, displaying volumes that have been challenged or banned in libraries and schools.

Fitchburg State President Donna Hodge, the university's 12th president, outlined her vision for "A Year of Service" as the theme of the 2024-25 academic year at her first State of the University address on Wednesday, Sept. 4 on the main quadrangle. (See photos from the event on the Burg Blog.) "This year, together we will explore what it means to serve one another, to serve students in our rapidly changing world, and to serve our community—our state, this region, and the world," Hodge told a crowd of students, faculty, librarians, staff, trustees, alumni, and community members. "No loftier goal exists for higher education, and Fitchburg State is ready to become its next best version—a place where we celebrate our successes, live joyfully, and balance hope against the numerous pressures our world faces today." Despite changing demographics and other factors affecting higher education, Fitchburg State has met its enrollment target for the fall semester, Hodge said, and continues to enjoy growth in its graduate, online and international programs. This year there are 39 countries - from Albania to Zimbabwe - represented on campus, she said. Hodge described a vision of Fitchburg State becoming a formally designated Hispanic Serving Institution. "This prestigious federal designation will open new doors to national collaborations, new federal funding, and elevated opportunities for first-generation, Pell-eligible, and minoritized student populations," she said. She also described a renewed focus on the local community, from strengthened municipal partnerships and collaborations to enrollment efforts. Citing research showing that public university graduates tend to stay in the area after they graduate, becoming the backbones of their cities and towns, Hodge unveiled a new partnership with the Fitchburg Public Schools. "Looking forward, our vision for growth at Fitchburg State must be ambitious," she said. "We must be dogged in our determination to serve first-generation students, minoritized students, adult learners, and our highest-achieving students from this region. This fall, we will be opening an admissions center at Fitchburg High School—an exciting first step in our mission to recruit and serve students and families right here in Fitchburg. This partnership embodies our commitment to being the university of choice for our local community."  In addition to enrollment growth, Hodge said major goals for the year ahead will be financial transparency and improving campus morale. The event was streamed by FATV and may be viewed online or below.  In addition to outlining her vision for the year ahead, the event included an acknowledgement of years of service by university faculty, librarians and staff members, followed by a fall semester celebration picnic.

"Cooksey Dallas: Train Viaduct; Johnson City, Tennessee" (2005) by Keith Morris Washington. Fitchburg State University’s first art exhibition of the academic year will feature the thought-provoking work of artist Keith Morris Washington, whose large-scale landscapes depict lynching sites from across the United States. “Within Our Gates: Site and Memory in the American Landscape” will be on display in the Hammond Hall Art Gallery at 160 Pearl St. from Tuesday, Sept. 3 through Friday, Oct. 11. There will be an opening reception and gallery talk with the artist at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20. Admission is free and open to the public. Washington’s landscapes, titled for the deceased and the locations of their deaths, do not depict the lynchings themselves, rather they show their sites as they exist now, investigating a past still present. The works are displayed along with contemporary news accounts of the crimes that occurred there. The exhibition includes works depicting the site of the killing of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998, and Cooksey Dallas in Johnson City, Tenn., in July 1920.  The paintings are visually remarkable in their own right, referencing 19th and 20th century American and European traditions of landscape painting including the Hudson River School, Luminism, and Impressionism. Fitchburg State Professor Jeff Warmouth, chair of the Communications Media Department, has followed Washington’s work for 25 years, including exhibitions at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Concord Center for the Visual Arts, and Fitchburg Art Museum.  “His paintings are stunningly beautiful on their own, but once you add the dimension of the historical context, they become supercharged,” Warmouth said. “There's so much going on, from the conceptual aspect of interpreting history, to the artistry and aesthetic choices: the compositions, the colors, the brushwork, the frames within frames that break the landscape up into grids and geometry, to the emotional resonance as we empathize with the people whose lives were violently ended. Contemplating these works is an incredibly powerful experience.”  Washington is a professor of studio foundation at Massachusetts College of Art & Design. His work is featured in the collection of the Fitchburg Art Museum, and he has had solo exhibitions in California, New York and Rhode Island.  Read about upcoming exhibitions on the Fitchburg State website at fitchburgstate.edu/campus-life/arts-and-culture/art-galleries.