He said, “I always knew that Stonehill faculty members were passionate about their courses and generous in their interactions with students, but I am struck by something different on this visit: a commitment to the larger academic enterprise.”
Now I’m not sure that the Trustee and I would define “the academic enterprise” identically, but I am very sure that he was onto something. Stonehill faculty members do show a remarkable commitment to the broad academic enterprise, and they do so through their courses, their advising, their attendance at Academic Development Day and other opportunities to discuss our common work—as well as through programming that augments the curriculum and faculty-led events that promote collegial conversation about scholarly work.
What’s my evidence that the academic enterprise is alive and well? Well, one major event of the past week offers a good example. Now in its seventh year, the Chet Raymo Literary Series honors our well-loved physicist and creative writer emeritus with a literary event in his name. This year’s guest, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, inspired Monday’s audience with a presentation that was part reading, part personal journey, and part writerly advice. It was also pure enjoyment!
We have several such “signature” events on campus each year, but I am most impressed with the level of ingenuity shown by the faculty in weaving these events into the fabric of their courses or into the enrichment of their students. For example, the English Department undertook a number of initiatives to prepare students to get the most out of this event--from teaching specific individual plays by Parks to teaching selections from Parks’s current project, 365 Days, 365 Plays to working with the English Society to create campus interest in the event. The Honors Program also challenged students to read Parks’s work and to attend the event, and theatre students were likewise urged to attend.
In a stroke of creativity, photography professor Maryjean Viano Crowe invited students to do photographic interpretations of one of Parks’s short plays from the 365 project. These assignments were due on Monday, and after her reading (and about 90 minutes of book signing), Suzan-Lori Parks walked into Cushing-Martin Hall and generously gave time to those photography students as they reviewed the task and explained their individual “translations” of her words into visual medium. This and so many other imaginative projects invented by faculty members--and even the presence of so many faculty members at the Raymo event--are surely signs of a very healthy commitment to “the academic enterprise.”
Obviously, the Raymo event brings an important outside speaker to campus each year, but this year I am also pleased to see such a robust number of events on the calendar that feature Stonehill faculty members speaking on their areas of expertise. The Social Justice and Public Policy Research Series, for example, kicked off on September 21st, with Prof. Rick Gribble, C.S.C. (Religious Studies) speaking about his most recent book on the life of Archbishop Edward Hanna.
The Common Sense Lecture Series--a collaboration of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs--featured Prof. Celeste Lay (Political Science) in the opening lecture on the presidential primaries: how they work and why they are important. These are moments for faculty to share expertise with students--but also for faculty to join each other n collegial conversation about topics that matter to faculty work and to the intellectual life of our campus. Another such important moment will be our discussions at Academic Development Day next week--discussions focused on the critical topic of academic integrity.
The Trustee’s comment made me wonder about how much the campus intellectual culture has truly changed and grown richer in the last decade. And I was reminded of a colleague--dear to many of us--who left Stonehill early in his career, and whose life was brutally cut short in a still-unsolved murder in Chicago on June 22, 2005. Those faculty members who knew Peter D’Agostino will remember that he had uncompromising expectations for how faculty colleagues should sustain each other’s intellectual passions. He was truly committed to “the academic enterprise.” I know we fell short of Peter’s expectations, but I think about him regularly, and I believe that he would find Stonehill today the kind of enriching and supportive intellectual community he hoped for.
For your parts in making Stonehill that kind of community, thank you.
Best regards,
Katie
photo credit: Nicki Pardo
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