On Campus Partners (a Video Short)

My final project is a short that argues for more democratic city planning. Specifically, I suggest that Campus Partners should listen and respond to the student voice. In all honesty, Campus Partners rubs me the wrong way; even if it did reinstate the student advisory panel, I would be unhappy. Nonetheless, small improvements are improvements.

I am the first speaker on the short. Through my narration, I hoped to inform the viewer of basic information about Campus Partners and its agenda. During this segment, I flash pictures of its “achievements.” Logan Stake and Sarah Gange direct the last two portions of the film. Respectively giving personal opinions, they illustrate motivations for wanting to join in this discussion of “revitalization.” During their parts, I show pictures of students of the Ohio State University. By disconnecting the specific voice from a specific body, I hope to suggest that these two voices are common (almost universal) throughout campus.

Finally, I have included links from which I gathered information for my video, and I have cited the source of my soundtrack.

1. The Campus Partners webpage

2. The Ohio State University webpage

3. The University District webpage

4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox Soundtrack:

“Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail (Behind a Chinese Restaurant)” by Alexandre Desplat

“Kristofferson’s Theme” by Alexandre Desplat

“Stunt Expo 2004” by Alexandre Desplat

Video Project Proposal

Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment is a non-profit corporation; its mission is to “improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods of the university District which surround the Columbus Campus of the Ohio State University.”

One focus area has been High Street; Campus Partners hope to accomplish the following goals:

• Restore High Street as the symbolic heart of the University District
• Re-establish High Street as a vital “Main Street”
• Create a place for new economic opportunities, and
• Reinforce High Street as an environment that supports learning

Campus Partners claim credit for the following “improvements” on High Street:

• South Campus Gateway, which opened in 2005 with a total investment of more than $154 million
• Newport Music Hall opened a night club on its second floor
• Urban Outfitters opened its first store in Ohio
• Starbucks opened a café
• Buffalo Wild Wings opened a restaurant and bar in 2007, occupying a 8,000 square-foot building
• In 2008, Panda Express opened a restaurant

Ohio State has funded the study of high Street with $75,000.

The Student Advisory Board, which had been founded in 1996 to encourage student participation in the planning and improvements for the University District, had been disbanded after the opening of the South Campus Gateway. According to the Campus Partners webpage, this panel dissolved because of a lack of interest. The Campus Partners Board of Directors only offers one seat to a student representative.

 

Campus Partners claims to work in the interest of the University and its students. But how can the board understand the needs and wants of the campus when only one vote represents a student population of 60,000? High Street was meant to be a “symbolic heart” and an “environment that supports learning.” Where is the heart in the Ugly Tuna? What is to be learned from BW3s?

 

I have a few possible angles…

• Argue for more student representation
• Argue that Campus Partners has thus far failed in its mission
• Argue that the University should stop funding this dysfunctional partnership

Notes on the Visual Essay

The pictures of my essay lost detail when I posted them. For the sake of clarity, here is a transcript of the text used in the images:

1. NATIVE CULTURES of COLUMBUS cultivated PAWPAW Trees, which Produce the largest edible Fruit Native to the Continent. They recognized the Superiority of the Flesh of the PAWPAW, which is high in Minerals, Fat, and Protein.

2. Ohio FARMERS and GARDENERS continue this Agricultural TRADITION today.

3. YOU CAN JOIN THEM: Grow, Eat, and Share the Pawpaw.

I manipulated the text with capitalization. I tried to mimic the style used when making official decrees during the New World colonial period. This style also influenced my picking of a font. To further age the text, I washed out its color.

By aging the text, I hope to inspire the reader to think of the past. My story begins with a history; however, it also begins with a modern image. The textual element of the first picture is meant to guide the viewer to visualize the way Columbus looked before Columbus, and ultimately to see “change.”

For these same reasons, I manipulated the light and color of the photographs. I wanted them to look old, as if they were printed on yellowed paper (of course not too old so to be distracting). The lack of vibrancy is meant to invoke a longing in the viewer for an older Columbus, the Columbus shaded by green pawpaws instead of the one smothered by gray concrete.

The last image, however, has a green horizon – which is to suggest that should a culture change occur, Columbus could restore its utopic attributes, and its inhabitants could regain access to the lost Garden.

Of course, this is an ambitous thesis to present in three photographs edited by a novice… but that was the scheme.