impact
Your community college
Funny
Business
Vol. 2, No. 1
New Girl Tuesday nights on FOX
COD grad’s career on a
‘role’ in new TV comedy
Lamorne Morris used to get in trouble for making people laugh. Now he makes a
living at it. In Hollywood. On a wildly popular TV show.
Morris stars in New Girl, FOX network’s new blockbuster comedy with Zooey
Deschanel. Morris plays Winston, a former basketball player sharing an apartment
with two other guys and one wacky girl named Jess. As roles go, this one’s just
about perfect for the 2003 COD graduate.
“My two passions in life are acting and basketball. Now I am living my dream!”
he says with a laugh. “I make the analogy of playing on the Bulls during the
Michael Jordan era. I’m just happy to be on this team.”
Morris’ first big break came from an unlikely source at Glenbard South High
School. “I used to get kicked out of class a lot for telling too many jokes, so I was
sent to detention a lot. My math teacher, along with the woman who was in charge
of detention hall, would tell me, ‘you know, you should really use those talents
toward something,’” he recalls.
Needless to say, Morris took those words to heart. He studied theater on
scholarship at College of DuPage, took classes and performed at Chicago’s famed
Second City, moved to New York and later to Los Angeles, all in pursuit of his
dream. In this business, he says, you need to be fearless.
“As soon as you get out of your comfort zone, you find out a lot about yourself
and what you can do,” he says. “It is hard work, but when you train yourself to do
something it becomes second nature.”
Morris hosted game shows on the BET and Cartoon networks, acted in awardwinning independent films and appeared in more than a dozen commercials before
landing his dream job on New Girl. The
28-year-old
auditioned for the part 15
“In the Theater program,
times—admittedly his toughest audition
we were close, we were
process ever—and battled nerves his first
day on the New Girl set. “My hands were
tight. We would spend
freezing, I was sweating … this is what I
every waking hour there.
had been working toward my whole life,”
says the young actor.
COD was the coolest, most
relaxed experience ever.”
COD Director of Theater Connie
Canaday Howard remembers Morris as
an inquisitive, collaborative student who
achieved success both in class and on stage. Morris remembers immersing himself
in all things acting—attending classes, rehearsals and performances, going to Second
City, working at Ed Debevic’s and just hanging around his COD peers and mentors.
Most days, he was on the go from 6 a.m. to midnight, totally in his element.
“In the Theater program, we were close, we were tight. We would spend every
waking hour there. COD was the coolest, most relaxed experience ever,” says
Morris, who was involved in more than a half dozen College Theater productions.
© Fox Broadcasting Co. Photo: Autumn DeWilde
“Lamorne is certainly one of our many success stories,” Canaday Howard says.
“He’s very talented and I’m really proud of him.”
While Morris admits he’s had a pretty awesome year, he continues to dream big.
“I want to star in a big budget comedy film with Eddie Murphy or Will Farrell,”
he says. “Even if it’s just me in a big budget project, something that people will
laugh at and enjoy would be fantastic.”
College of DuPage :: impact :: cod.edu/impact
1
Spend a Night in Luxury
When it comes to comfort and
convenience, the Inn at Water’s
Edge is second to none. “Our
guests feel as though they are in
a hotel downtown because of our
luxurious in-room amenities,” says
Jamie Fredericks, assistant hotel
manager.
The six-room boutique hotel
complements the two onsite
restaurants, Waterleaf and Wheat
Café, which are all housed in the
Culinary & Hospitality Center
on the COD campus. Right next
door is the McAninch Arts Center, making it possible for patrons to enjoy
dinner and a show and add an overnight stay.
Rooms are affordable, starting at $99 a night. There are dinner and
brunch packages for two and a banquet room, Silverleaf, for business
gatherings.
“It is a unique educational feature for COD to have a real working hotel
on campus so that the students can learn firsthand how a full-service hotel
operates,” says Fredericks.
“The new students are in awe until they clean their first room and
realize it is hard work,” adds Mary Beth Leone, assistant professor of
Hospitality Management. “We want them to appreciate and understand all
scopes of the jobs that they will be managing.”
The Inn at Water’s Edge has had a variety of guests come through its
doors since opening in August 2011, including travelers, business groups,
corporate retreats and bridal parties.
“Very different groups with very different needs,” says Leone. “But the
students love it. They are proud to be in such a unique program that allows
them to be a part of their school and industry in a way they couldn’t before.”
{
Hotel reservation: (630) 942-6888
Silverleaf meeting space reservations: (630) 942-6885
Innatwatersedgehotel.com
}
“My legal practice takes me all over the country. No hotel compares with Water’s Edge regarding
service and wonderful employee attitudes. Not even close.” —Skip Simpson, Texas
Always
Room for
Chocolate
If you love chocolate, what more do you need to know about your
bittersweet obsession? Let’s start with a little chemistry. Chocolate contains
phenyl ethylamine—a stimulant that also naturally occurs in the brain—
“Cacao beans, which ultimately end up as our beloved
and may just explain why for so many of us it’s love at first bite.
chocolate, go through a fermentation phase after they are
“It mimics the feeling of falling in love. Who wouldn’t want to replicate
harvested. I think this is a very interesting fact as so many
this daily?” says COD culinary instructor Nancy Carey. The certified master
of the things we love to consume are fermented—bread,
baker and 2011 National Showpiece Champion leads students through the
paces in the Chocolate Room at COD’s new Culinary & Hospitality Center,
wine, coffee, tea, cheese, beer and, of course, chocolate.”
which also contains two restaurants, a culinary market and a boutique hotel.
— Nancy Carey, Chocolatier
“Chocolate is an incredibly complex food,” says Carey. “To work with it
successfully, you need to be patient and take time to understand its inherent
unique “scent-sations”; for example, milk chocolate may smell like milk,
nature.”
cream or caramel while dark chocolate may send an aroma of toasted
Each student in Carey’s Advanced & Decorative Techniques class uses
nuts, roasted coffee or dried fruit or wine.
about 12 pounds of high-quality chocolate each term, all donated by the
Guittard Chocolate Company. And, yes, sampling is an important part of
•Listen for the snap, the feel or sound the chocolate makes when you bite
the learning process. “Students need to taste it to understand how it pairs
into it. The louder the snap, the better the chocolate quality, although
with other foods,” she says.
milk and white varieties produce a gentler snap due to their milk and
Carey recommends making chocolate tasting a feast for the senses:
butter fat content.
•Look for a glossy surface and even coloring on cut or broken edges.
•Hold the chocolate against the roof of your mouth, sweep your tongue
These are signs of a well-tempered, properly cooled and stored chocolate.
along the bottom, note how it melts and feels. Good chocolate melts in
your mouth and feels rich like velvet.
•Savor the aroma by gently rubbing the chocolate with your thumb, then
cup it in your hand and breathe in. Each variety of chocolate conjures
2
•Finally, taste, take in the flavor and enjoy!
waterleaf’s commanding
kitchen presence
Executive Chef Jean-Louis
Clerc came to Waterleaf for the
simplest of reasons: He loves to
cook. The French-born culinary
master began honing his skills
at age 9, learning alongside his
father, and went on to train with
some of Europe’s finest chefs
at world-class, Michelin-rated
establishments. Clerc shares his
remarkable talents at COD’s new
fine-dining restaurant, treating
patrons with his fresh approach
to food, quality and service.
Scan this code with your
smartphone to view
videos from Chef Clerc
and others discussing and
demonstrating fine wine
and exceptional food.
College of DuPage :: impact :: cod.edu/impact
3
tv shows get It cr
It begins with a murder. Some passer-by discovers the body. Squad
cars roll in. A world-weary detective wise-cracks an off-color pun.
Then comes the glamor team. A babe
in skin-tight pants, spike heels and a low-cut blouse.
A crew-cut hulk with rippling abs beneath a tight
tee. A reformed geek in a tailored lab coat. They’re
CSIs. Crime scene investigators. Cool science with
a capital C.
©2012Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Photo: Matthew Rolston
In 60 minutes, they’ll do it all.
Process the scene. Find the fingerprints. Discover
damning DNA. Run a stunning array of
elaborate tests. Empathize with eyewitnesses.
Finger perps. Sweat them in the box. And hand
them over to the sage detectives and swaggering
DAs who will lock ‘em up for life.
Only problem, say College of DuPage faculty
and graduates who’ve worked and now teach
criminal justice: The police procedurals, legal
thrillers and other fictional accounts too often
miss the mark.
That, they say, can create false impressions
for would-be criminal justice professionals,
prospective jurors and citizens in general.
Popular shows about cops, lawyers
and CSIs can be “good and bad,”
said COD Chemistry Professor
William Peacy.
“They pique interest, which is
good,” he said. “The downside is
that they can be unrealistic.”
Peacy should know.
“I was doing the job before it was called
a ‘CSI,’” he said. “We were called evidence
the dark
of the
matter
4
COD students collect and analyze evidence under the direction of instructors Theo Darden,
far right, and Eric Thompson, with tie, in the Forensics Lab.
technicians.” He also worked as a patrol officer and patrol supervisor, among
other duties.
Compared to the do-it-all CSIs on TV, Peacy says the real-life role is highly
specialized.
“There is a division of labor,” he said. “Collectors collect and lab people
process. They are two very distinct groups. Unless you are in a small department,
the collector won’t be conducting his or her own investigation on the scene they
There’s no fiction like science fiction.
If you think crime and court shows distort reality, wait till you hear what they’ve
done to dark energy. The teller of this science and fiction tale: COD graduate Joe
Bernstein, a man fascinated with space—that “final frontier” of Star Trek fame.
But unlike most little boys and girls who dream of planets and galaxies,
rockets and astronauts, Martians and moonbeams, Bernstein stuck with the hard
part—the chemistry and calculations, science and technology that accelerate
imagination into expertise at warp speed.
Today, with an associate’s degree from COD, a bachelor’s from the University
of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan under his rocket belt,
Bernstein studies the cosmos at Argonne National Laboratory.
Bernstein’s forte is dark energy and dark matter—the little-understood stuff
of which the universe is mostly made.
In a recent guest lecture at COD, Bernstein talked plenty about known
space commodities—clusters and super clusters, cosmic messengers, photons,
particles, cosmic rays, super novae, gravitational waves and more.
riminally wrong
vacation and dealing with multiple other cases while you’re waiting to put all the
pieces together.”
Klein also said that to deliver the investigative capabilities jurors now expect
as a result of TV accounts, “You’d have to have 100 more crime labs at taxpayer
expense. It pains me how unrealistic it can be.”
Among the flaws, Klein cited: While TV accounts often show instant hits on
fingerprints and DNA, it rarely happens that way. Among other things, she said,
the expense of DNA testing is often unaffordable for many lower-level cases. But
jurors ask why you left it out.
Klein and Peacy also said that crime shows can breed false understanding of
the law.
“People think that just because they get arrested, they have to be read their
rights,” said Peacy. In reality, “They only need to be read their rights when they
are asked questions pertaining to the case. If they start talking away, anything
they say can be used in court provided they aren’t asked any questions about
the case.”
Maybe that’s why TV detective Joe Friday used to say,
“Just the facts, ma’am.”
© Fox Broadcasting Co. Photo Cr: Greg Gayne
Photo by Corey Minkanic/special to College of DuPage
just processed. It is best that the CSI just deal with
the evidence and let the evidence speak.
“It isn’t always that exciting,” said Peacy. “It can
involve long hours with little sleep.”
Peacy also chides TV costumes. “Look at
the way they dress to collect the evidence in the
field,” he said. “They may look good, but it’s highly
impractical.
It would be difficult to move around in a crawlspace
or attic in that attire.”
COD graduate Thomas Doggett, a forensic
photographer, concurs.
“Very little of what I do is like CSI on TV,”
Doggett told COD’s photo club last fall. “Ninetyseven percent is routine, not like TV.”
For Doggett and his fellow police photographers,
of course, boring can involve domestic batteries,
criminal damage to property, traffic crashes,
surveillance, death investigations, lineups, sexoffender registration and the odor of dead bodies.
“If you have a nosy personality, this job is for you.
Everyone has to share with you,” said Doggett.
“I’m a nosy person,” he said. “I get to see what’s
going on. I get behind the [crime scene] tape.”
As for police procedurals and courtroom dramas,
COD Criminal Justice Professor and attorney
Deborah Klein says they get it wrong, too.
“You don’t see the hard work,” Klein said. Legal
shows create the illusion that detectives and prosecutors focus on one case at
a time, have unlimited budgets and move quickly. This creates false notions
among students and juries alike.
“On TV,” said Klein, “you never see the day-to-day frustrations or case
juggling lawyers and investigators encounter—making phone calls, getting
answering machines, leaving voice messages, having witnesses away on
Bones Thursday nights on FOX
COD graduate Dr. Joe Bernstein
studies dark energy and dark matter
for Argonne National Laboratory.
Photo by Corey Minkanic/special to College of DuPage
He talked about gravity, which should be pulling all this stuff together.
But his real focus is on dark energy—a mysterious “something” that’s slowly
pushing things apart, even though scientists don’t know yet what it is.
And don’t, for a nanosecond, think this is some frivolous scientific folly.
Rather, said Bernstein, it’s the key to “evolution and the fate of the universe.”
For something so serious, it’s sure been misrepresented in modern media. In
video games and fantasy novels, dark matter ranges from magical to evil. In the
movies and on TV, dark matter threatens the universe, disrupts spaceships, turns
human shadows into puddles and even increases the reproductive rate of penguins.
“Let’s just say physics are not a priority in Hollywood,” said Bernstein. “But it’s
useful if it excites people, especially nerdy kids like me.”
As for all those aliens on TV, Bernstein said, “The odds are over-whelming that
there’s life out there, but not necessarily intelligent life.”
College of DuPage :: impact :: cod.edu/impact
5
making an
impact
A personal message from College of DuPage
President Robert L. Breuder
Dear Neighbors,
While the world races forward, College of DuPage
strives to provide its students with the skills and
training they will need to meet the demands for the
workplace of today—and tomorrow.
In this issue you will read about Lamorne Morris,
who started his theater career on stage at COD’s
McAninch Arts Center and is now part of Fox’s
new primetime comedy, New Girl. Discover how
students in the hospitality program are learning
how to run a full-service hotel; how a couple who
took a ceramics class at COD now own and operate
a Wisconsin pottery studio and gallery; and how art
and photography programs change lives.
There are many COD success stories. I am pleased
to share also that, despite a challenging economy,
we maintain a peerless financial standing. Recent
examples of our success include:
•COD’s unrestricted reserves, for unexpected
challenges and opportunities, have grown from
30.9 percent of the operating budget in 2008 to
61.8 percent in 2011.
•COD received reaffirmation of the coveted
Triple-A (Aaa/AAA) bond ratings from Moody’s
Investors Services and Standard & Poor’s, the
highest ratings possible. These bond ratings allow
the College to save taxpayers millions of dollars by
allowing for the lowest interest rates possible when
borrowing for construction.
•COD has just opened four new buildings on
its campus totaling almost 300,000 square feet:
the Homeland Security Education Center, the
Culinary & Hospitality Center, the Student
Services Center, and the west side of the Berg
Instructional Center.
We operate in the same manner our taxpayers would
run their own homes. We do not spend more than
we take in, we set aside savings, and we have shown
resourcefulness and commitment to meeting
challenges head-on.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert L. Breuder
President, College of DuPage
6
At COD, “There was a pottery wheel for everybody,” Diana Johnston remembers. It was exactly what she and
her husband needed to launch into successful careers as studio and gallery owners.
Fire Your Imagination
The 1970s. A beautiful house on the California coast. Newlyweds Tom and Diana Johnston
attend a Raku party with friends and San Francisco potters, who bring small bisque pots for the
guests to glaze.
“In Raku, you take the pot out of the kiln when it’s red hot,” Diana explains, “and you swing it
through the air, and the glaze crackles and you put it on hay and it starts on fire, turning it black.
It was the most incredible thing.”
Fast forward a few years, Tom and Diana have moved to Lombard, and they are telling the Raku
story to a friend, a glass blower and potter.
“Let’s take a class together at COD,” he suggested.
That small decision turned out to be life changing.
Today Tom and Diana own and operate a pottery studio and gallery in Mineral Point, a lively,
art-centered town in the rolling hills of southwest Wisconsin.
Describing their COD classes as “a wonderful launchpad,” Diana and Tom credit teachers
John Wantz and Sarah Hermanson with starting them on the path that led to Brewery Pottery and
the Johnston Gallery.
“I just fell in love with clay at COD,” Diana remembers. “I told myself, ‘I want to do this,
somehow.’”
After a stint in Madison, during
which Diana joined a pottery coop and Tom did organic farming,
the couple moved to the Mineral
Point area, eventually bought the
sprawling old brewery building on
the edge of town, and turned it into
a studio, gallery and living space, in
which they’ve raised two children
and enjoy a lifestyle that is the envy
of their customers.
“Self-discipline and motivation
are important to anyone who is
self-employed, because there are a
million things to distract you in life,”
Tom points out.
Diana concurs. “We haven’t lived
big, but we’ve done what we’ve loved.
It’s important to us to work together,
to have fun at what we do, and to
want to go to work every day.”
www.johnstongallery.com
www.brewerypottery.com
Photos by Leah Crubel, Leah Crubel Photography LLC
Continuing Education
offers a wide variety of
classes that could change
your life. For information,
call (630) 942-2208.
Tom and Diana Johnston
Art for
heart’s
sake
PHOTO: CHRIS JOHNSON
Art for art’s sake certainly
has its place, but students
and faculty at COD are also
delivering art that’s changing
lives here at home and
around the world.
Ethan is one of the children
COD students photographed to
help raise awareness of what
life is like for children with
disabilities.
The Teenage Archetype Card Deck
was developed by COD students and
faculty to help evoke conversation and
interpretation for teens in a classroom
or therapeutic setting.
For the past 12 years, Photography Professor Terry
Vitacco’s students have been capturing images of
Easter Seals children.
For their final semester project, each photographer
is paired with a family. Over several weeks, they
photograph the youngsters learning, living and loving.
They package the photographs into an exhibit at Easter
Seals DuPage in the Fox Valley Region, and as photo
essays, some with music and narration.
The goal: hone the photographer’s shooting skills,
teach them how to manage an extended project and
add to their portfolios.
But a funny thing happened on the way to gallery.
“By connecting learning to the community,” said
Vitacco, “we have raised awareness of what life is
like for people with disabilities and helped to break
down stereotypes. Students have found that disabled
people have a sense of humor, like to play and have
fun, and face the same issues we all do.”
College of DuPage :: impact :: cod.edu/impact
Mary Alice D’Arcy, past president of Easter Seals
DuPage, told COD Photography’s i-Site blog, “These
photographs give our families hope that their child,
although diagnosed with a special need, can still
achieve much in their life and have a chance to
participate in everyday activities. For people who see
the photographs, it reminds them that our services
are offered to children who are children first. It just
happens that their child’s body works differently
than some other kids.”
Besides being featured in the annual exhibit,
students’ photo essays have been published in
The Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, Naperville Sun,
Liberty Suburban Newspapers and more.
Another COD art project is making a worldwide
impact on teenagers and mental health professionals
who work with them.
While channel surfing one afternoon, COD Art
Professor Jennifer Hereth happened upon a televised
story about a Nebraska teenager who walked into a
mall, killed seven people and himself. Before doing
so, he texted his family and friends:
“I’m a loser. I’m a burden. I’m a loser. I’m a
burden but now I’m famous.”
Stunned by the loss of life, the young man’s
hopelessness and his apparent inability to express
himself with words instead of weapons, Hereth asked
herself, “Do our teens really find it so hard to open
up? We need to help.”
After talking with youth therapists, Hereth
learned how difficult it can be to get kids to
communicate, and how adults in their lives often
struggle to ask more than, “How was your week?”
To help remedy a shortcoming in youth
therapists’ conversation-starter toolbox, Hereth
worked with therapists and more than 50 COD
student and faculty artists to create original works
based on “archetype” emotions and experiences
meaningful to teens.
All the artists donated their time and the
ownership of their work to create and publish a set of
archetype cards, which are now used by therapists in
the U.S. and abroad. Proceeds benefit youth charities.
Of art for art’s sake, art as service to others, and
art for commerce, Hereth said she and her COD
colleagues teach the value of all three.
“I tell my students to make art that’s meaningful
to them, or why bother. If it’s not meaningful, that
will show in the art. At the same time, I tell them not
to be afraid of the commercial world. It’s nice when
your vision resonates with others or, in the case of
our archetype cards, when your vision helps others.”
Pictures worth a thousand words, indeed.
The cards may be purchased online for $50
per pack, plus shipping and handling, via http://
iartistsinfluence.org/#home.
7
impact Vol. 2, No. 1
Published February 2012 by the Office of Marketing
and Creative Services at College of DuPage
President
Dr. Robert L. Breuder
Associate Vice President
of External Relations
Joseph Moore
Marketing Director
Laurie Jorgensen
Writers
Jeff Elijah, Bruce Hetrick
Jane Lelugas, Jim Vosicky
425 Fawell Blvd.
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-6599
Art Director
Lou Demas
Designers
Mark Brady
Cathy Saddoris
Direct all comments and questions to the editor at impact@cod.edu.
©2012 College of DuPage. All rights reserved.
College of DuPage Board of Trustees
David Carlin
Board Chairman
Naperville
Erin Birt
Board Vice Chairman
Wheaton
Allison O’Donnell
Board Secretary
Winfield
Dianne McGuire
Naperville
Kim Savage
Darien
Nancy Svoboda
Downers Grove
Joseph C. Wozniak
Naperville
Lydia Whitten
Student Trustee
Woodridge
CAR-RT WSS
Residential Customer
impact
Your community college Vol. 2, No. 1
In this issue
Funny Business. Lamorne Morris is living his dream as Winston on FOX network’s new

Visit Us on the Web
We hope you enjoy this issue of impact and discover
something new about your community college.
There’s more to these stories, so be sure to check out
our impact web page for other highlights, photos
and video interviews.
cod.edu/impact
blockbuster comedy, New Girl.
Spend a Night in Luxury. COD students learn firsthand how a full-service hotel operates at the Inn
at Water’s Edge, a six-room boutique hotel on campus.
The Dark of the Matter. COD graduate Joe Bernstein studies dark energy and dark matter for
Argonne National Laboratory.
Fire Your Imagination. Tom and Diana Johnston took a ceramics class that served as a launching
pad to a successful business in Wisconsin.
Art for Heart’s Sake. Students and faculty are delivering art that’s changing lives here at home and
around the world.
impact
Vol. 2, No. 1
Your community college
Funny Business
COD grad Lamorne Morris (right) is on a ‘role’
in the new FOX primetime comedy New Girl.
© Fox Broadcasting Co. Photo: Autumn DeWilde