Watch: Interview Vlog on Winter Symposium 2016

The Office of Academic Affairs has sponsored a Winter Symposium for over 15 years. The symposium was an initiative by former Provost Michael Reardon as a way to bring faculty together to learn, discuss, reflect and take action of important issues that shape our curriculum.

This year’s symposium, “What does it mean to be educated in the 21^st century,” will have us explore this topic through multiple lenses.  View the video below to hear more about what Professors Gina Greco and Maurice Hamington have to say about the upcoming Winter Symposium 2016.

Imagining an Educational Hybrid of ‘Utility U’ and ‘Utopia U’

Earlier this month, Professor Lisa Zurk, our new Associate Vice President for Research and Strategic Partnerships, gave me a copy of the September 13, 2015, New York Times Magazine, The Education Issue, “Collegeland.”

The Issue had over 10 articles, ranging from high cost college tuition, remedial education, campus architecture, and teaching Shakespeare. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, had an article in the “College Crossroads” section that caught my attention.

Appiah pointed out the tension of the distinct visions sometimes held of higher education:
Utility U. approach: “how college can be useful—to its graduates, employers and to a globally competitive America.”
Utopia U. approach: “college centers on what John Stuart Mill called ‘experiments in living’, aimed at getting students ready for life as free men and women.”