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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017
FSB professor wants to ‘be everything’ Yes and yes
PROFILE
Jim Friedman runs the world of cre-
AUDREY DAVIS NEWS EDITOR
David Eyman is right-handed, but last summer he painted his entire deck with his left hand. Next year, he wants to do his whole house. He’s not a professional painter. He just likes a challenge. He’s been an industrial designer, coowned a design studio, pitched business ideas “Shark Tank”-style, manufactured a line of products and worked as an executive coach. But students in the Farmer School of Business now him better as “Professor” — at least for now. “I think a lot of times, we’re told that we’re supposed to be doing one thing, and I never thought that was a good idea for me,” Eyman said. “I’m right now on my fifth or sixth career, maybe even seventh, I don’t really remember...” When he leaves Miami, he plans to be an author and a painter, but, if he could, he would be everything. The walls of his shared office in FSB are covered in hundreds of bright yellow sticky-notes with a few stray orange, green and pink ones. Each note tells a different story, though the only one who knows that story is the student who wrote it. Students in ESP 103: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking are required to show up on the first day of class with 12 packs of sticky-notes which equal 1200 pieces of paper per person. They’ll use almost every sheet throughout the semester. His desk is a mess of papers, toys and Nerf guns. It’s a dream world for anyone under the age of 10. He used to have a collection of ninja toys on top of his whiteboard that students could try to shoot down with the Nerf guns. If they knocked one over, they got to keep it. The last ninja was defeated a few weeks ago. A steady flow of students walk in and out of the office at all times, popping in just to say ‘hi,’ to ask a question or to talk to the other professor in the room. It’s never quiet, but he doesn’t mind.
ativity in FSB’s Institute of Entrepreneurship. He’s both Eyman’s boss and mentor. “And he’s just extraordinary,” Eyman said. When Friedman came to FSB “a million years ago,” there was only one class on creativity, and he felt that was not enough. He made it his goal to create opportunities for students to learn more about creativity, and so the student-led organization IGoodea was born. “It’s what a little kid would say,” Friedman said. “‘Oh, that’s an IGoodea!’” Friedman and one of his students in the organization wanted to find someone to host a creativity workshop around four years ago, but they didn’t know where to start. “I said, ‘Well, let’s try this. Type into Google: ‘Creativity Cincinnati,’” Friedman said. Eyman was the first result. “So, we started stalking him a little bit,” Friedman said. They discovered he went to the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). “Well, I went to DAAP also,” Friedman said. “That was very interesting.” Then Friedman saw that Eyman grew up in Wyoming, OH. “Well, I’m from Wyoming, OH,” Friedman said. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I know this guy?’” Friedman and his student decided to compose an email that would convince Eyman to come to Miami, but Friedman didn’t want to take the traditional route. “I wanted to try something new,” Friedman said. “I typed in ‘Do I know you? Should I?’ I left my name and hit send.” His student was shocked. You can’t do that! You didn’t even say ‘hello!’ “Three minutes later, I get an email saying ‘yes and yes,’” Friedman said. They called up Eyman, took him out to lunch and brought him to Miami. For the first three years, he hosted various workshops until he accepted a full-time
EYMAN HANGS OUT IN HIS STICKY-NOTE COVERED OFFICE. RYAN TERHUNE PHOTO EDITOR
position a little over a year ago. Rainbows on your birthday It’s 11:37 on a Wednesday morning. Eyman stands in front of his class in Laws 303, three minutes before the class begins. He looks like a modern-day Albert Einstein with a mess of curly dark gray hair. He’s dressed in a red, checked button-down that’s left untucked. He’s wearing black-framed glasses and a pep-
pered scruffy beard covers his face from ear to ear. The topic of the day is storytelling in business. Eyman shows a series of ads to fit his point, from AllState to John West salmon. Finally, he plays an ad showing a mousetrap with cheese and motivational background music. The mouse goes to take the cheese from the trap and the CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
Heritage Logo raises awareness of school-tribe relationship MYAAMIA
JULIA ARWINE
THE MIAMI STUDENT
Neepwaantiinki: we learn from each other. This phrase is at the heart of the new Miami Heritage Logo (MHL), an image created through collaboration between Miami University and the Myaamia Tribe. The logo is meant to raise awareness and interest about the relationship between the two communities, a relationship that too often goes unnoticed on Miami’s campus. In 1846, the Myaamia people were forced to leave the homeland that the university now occupies, but it was not until the 1970s that the two entities began to form a partnership. Over 120 Myaamia tribe members have attended Miami since 1991, with 31 Myaamia students currently enrolled. The Myaamia Center, established on campus in 2001, does research for the tribe and provides support for Myaamia students. Every year, members of the university make two trips to the tribe’s current home in Miami, OK to attend cultural events. “What goes on here is very unique,” said Bobbe Burke, coordinator for Miami Tribe relations at the center. “We’re not aware of any other university that has an element like this...it represents a lot of trust.” Despite the tribe’s distant location, the Myaamia people are able to feel connected to the school through correspondence such as the Miami Nation News, or aatotankiki myaamiaki, a paper that is produced by
THE NEW LOGO IS MEANT TO REPRESENT THE CONNECTEDNESS BETWEEN MIAMI AND THE MYAAMIA TRIBE. CONTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS AND MYAMMIA CENTER.
members of the Myaamia Center and distributed to all Myaamia households. In Oxford, however, this connection is not often reciprocated because it is just one element among many on campus. Burke and her peers want to do a better job of creating a strong awareness about the tribe, she said. The Miami Heritage Logo, revealed to Miami students and faculty in an email cosigned by President Crawford and Miami Tribe Chief Douglas Lankford, is part of a joint agreement between the tribe and the university that was signed on Oct. 21 and celebrated with a ceremonial coin toss at the football game that day. The platform was engineered largely by the Myaamia Center, as part of their ongoing mission to do “research on language and culture revitalization, the improved success of students who become familiar with their heritage, and other research on health, botany and language,” according to the email. The logo will be used on future promotional material and merchandise, and royalties from merchandise bearing the logo will be used for scholarships and support for Myaamia students enrolled at the uni-
E V E N T S
versity. Burke hopes the presence of the logo in the bookstore and around campus will pique students’ curiosity about what it means and, by extension, prompt them to learn more about the university’s connection to the Myaamia tribe. As of right now, however, use of the logo is restricted to mostly web-based material, such as on the Myaamia Center’s website and social media. The logo uses colors and shapes to symbolize different aspects of the tribe-university relationship. It consists of a black diamond and a red diamond connected by a white diamond with a red circle in the middle of it. The black part represents the Myaamia tribe, their deep ties to their homeland, and their earned respect and wisdom. The red part stands for Miami University and its responsibility and commitment to gain and share knowledge. The white connection represents the tribe and university’s shared vision, cooperation and the concept of neepwaantiinki. The red circle in the center symbolizes fire, or koteewi, and is meant to be the most significant element of all. “If you have a fire, in order to keep it going somebody’s got to tend it,” Burke said.
T H I S
“That’s what this is all about…this shared space that we have, we all have the responsibility to keep it going.” The making of the logo was a collaborative effort headed by Julie Olds, the tribe’s Cultural Resources Officer, and designer Alyse Capaccio of University Communications and Marketing. Olds and Capaccio, along with members of the Myaamia Center, have worked on the project for about two years. “Mostly, the guiding question was, ‘What’s an image that exemplifies the relationship but is also respectful and appropriate?’” said Olds. “There were a lot of voices that went into that.” The final image is inspired by the Myaamia tradition of ribbonwork, an art form that predates European contact. Because most traditional ribbonwork patterns are family-oriented or have a specific meaning, Olds and her peers knew it was important to come up with something entirely unique that could be broadly used, but that still had a great depth of meaning. “I don’t know if it could be more ideal,” Olds said. “I think it’s very thoughtful.” arwinejk@miamioh.edu
W E E K
Spooky Night Hike Hueston Woods State Park Tuesday, 8 -9 p.m.
Day of the Dead Celebration MacMillan Hall lobby Wednesday, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Fallin’ for Goggin Bunger Quad (behind Goggin) Saturday, 3 - 6 p.m.
International Games Night King Library, first floor Saturday, 4 p.m. - Midnight
Meet at the Indian mound in the Hueston Woods campground for a spooky outdoor adventure. Hikers are advised to wear practical footwear. Leave your flashlights at home, and keep those cell phone flashlights off, too. You’ll be hiking by moonlight.
Join Global Initiatives and the Center for American World Cultures for this year’s celebration: Healing and Resilience of the Americas at Times of Change. Learn from guest speakers, help build a “garden of hope” and sample traditional pan de muertos.
Come for the free food truck fare (think: caramel apples, funnel cakes, empanadas) but stay for the inflatables that will fill the quad behind Goggin. Don’t forget to grab your free t-shirt. This year, students can tie-dye their tees in their favorite fall colors.
This Saturday, take a break from your study nook in King and head to the library’s first floor for this marathon gaming festival. Play table-top and electronic games from the University Libraries’ game collection or bring along your own favorite board game.