Perspective

Remarks prepared for the Meeting of Arts & Sciences Teaching Faculty on January 11, 2010
(Click on the title; it's a link to a very cool perspective!)

As we begin the new semester, it's time for looking back with satisfaction and looking ahead with anticipation. We are the heart of King College, the touchstone for all that happens here. Our strengths as a School are impressive.

We love our disciplines--enough to devote great time and energy to study, to class preparation, to research, to writing, to speaking. None of us can imagine our lives without the strong connection to a particular body of knowledge and practice. Our disciplines frame our worlds and define our identities.

We like students--enough to spend many hours with them. We engage students in class, in our offices, over email and even on trips that we don't really have to take. None of us can imagine our lives without the strong connections to students. We live for the teachable moments when students catch balls we have thrown,...and throw them back!

We embrace academia--enough to attend odysseys of the mind like chapels, convocations, concerts, plays, college athletic events, and academic conferences.

What's next? How do we build on these strengths? A new semester always gives each of us a chance to re-invent ourselves in ways that people in other professions can only dream about. Tomorrow we begin again. We have the opportunity to start fresh with students we have never met. We have a chance to "do it right" and to win some converts. I have high hopes for us this semester.

First, I would like to see us take up Tim Clydesdale's challenge and become public intellecutals. We need to leave the comfort zone of our campus on the hill and enter the public arena. We should take the knowledge and insight our lifetime of study has fostered and make our cases, practice our crafts, and share our expertise in the broader community of Bristol and beyond. There are those among us who are already bearing light abroad: Pat Flannagan is involved with local choral groups, Dale Brown serves on the public library board, Ray Bloomer works with the Bristol Astronomy Club, Vanessa Fitsanakis speaks at the hospital, Richard Moyer works to educate area farmers and consumers, Jim McClanahan preaches to Holston Presbytery congregations, and Craig Mc Donald volunteers with Habitat for Humanity. We should look for even more opportunities to speak from our informed perspectives and to work side by side with others through volunteering.

Second, I want us to recruit students for our programs. Last spring we increased our numbers dramatically. However, in May we also lost students to graduation. So, we need to swell our ranks once again. Our best tool for doing this is the Core classes we teach. No students take business, education, or nursing classes for Core Curriculum credit. We have the distinct advantage here because all King College students pass through our classrooms. In fact, it's rare that a transfer student has every Core class checked off when he or she arrives at King. Can we spin the disciplines we love into winsome constructions that students not only visit in a Core class, but inhabit for a lifetime? Think Disneyworld, think the National Cathedral, think the U.S. Capitol Building, think the U. S. Supreme Court, think Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, think Avatar.

Third, I exhort us all to strive for excellence in our classrooms. We must model life-long learning, one of our cherished values, by learning ourselves. New pedagogies, new technologies, new techniques must not intimidate us. We need to continue what works and have the courage to discard what doesn't.

Finally, I want us to get a share of the GPS pizza pie. We now have the Bachelor of Technology, our first GPS program in the School of Arts & Sciences. For the first time, we as a school have non-traditional students earning degrees. We need to explore other options. Designing and implementing programs for adult students is a way for us to grow and even to add faculty. We are a creative group; we can do this! If you are interested in helping chart our direction toward one of more new GPS programs, let me know.

Many of you are already involved with teaching Pathway or Quest courses; you understand both the significant challenges and the great rewards of working with non-traditional adult learners. In the past we have provided--without a lot of credit or support--the liberal arts "toppings" for the pie. Now it's time for us to make whole pizzas and even to offer home delivery.

We are poised here overlooking the new semester. Today is about possibilities not constraints. I challenge you to think outside the box this semester. Put on a new attitude. Remember why you chose your discipline, your profession,...and proselytize!