Kent State not only has black squirrels frolicking around its campus, but two giant cats as well. The four-foot cats, weighing in at about 50 pounds each, guard a tree outside the pottery barn. The cats are the creations of Marika Patterson, a ceramics teaching assistant at Kent.

The pottery barn, at the corner of Summit Street and Student Center Drive, is just one of Kent's hidden treasures. At first glance, the building appears vacant, but behind the plain brown door, artists transform lumps of clay into works of art.

"It's an art form from the earth," says Debbie Weinstein, a graduate student who studies pottery. "That's what makes it so beautiful and pure."

The inside of the pottery barn could double as a set for a haunted house. Layers of dust cover everything. The scent of damp earth hangs heavy in the air, and fire from the many kilns produces an eerie glow. However, these students are not watching for ghosts. They are too busy with their work.

"We do it all from scratch," says Patterson, clad in clay-spattered overalls and shoes. "We even mix the clay, and we expect to get dirty."

Eva Kwong, a part-time ceramics instructor, says her students are hard-working. "It's a lot of long hours and manual labor, but the hard work and dedication shows in the work," Kwong says, pointing to shelves overflowing with pottery.

At Kent, pottery can be a major, minor, or taken as an elective course. "Kent has a good variety of kilns. We have a great working program with Kent students, and others as well," says Kwong of the pottery program.

Graduate students come from all over the world to use Kent's facilities. The many different styles of kilns enable students to use their own techniques and to pursue their own artistic directions. Some students leave the warmth of Kent's kilns and take their work outside the United States. One student recently displayed his work in Nova Scotia.

The department plans shows and sales throughout the year. It also hosts speakers and reaches out to high school students via tours and displays. "We need to get our work out in the open, not locked inside," Weinstein says. "Art is intended to be shared in order to be enjoyed."