Rachel Mann, who spent most of 28 years at U.Va. as a graduate student and academic administrator and is now an adjunct instructor in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies‘ Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies program, has an interesting take on this summer’s leadership crisis. In a post on her “Metta Knowledge” blog, she looks at it through the lens of Native American traditions of leadership.
Native American leaders, she writes, are consensus-builders, seeking input and carefully measuring the impact of their actions on all affected parties. “Native Americans have always understood the importance of our interconnection to and responsibility for others beyond narrow self-interest,” she writes. The new spirit of reconciliation, she says, “bodes well” for U.Va. and for higher education as a whole.
It’s a fairly lengthy read by Web standards, but worth the time if you’re interested in such things.
Looking for a good reason to spend a blissful, long summer weekend on the Grounds of the University?
I’m told there are still a few spaces left in the U.Va. Office of Engagement‘s annual Summer Jefferson Symposium (modeled after the successful “Summer on the Lawn” series that was formerly run by the School of Continuing and Professional Studies), to be held June 21-24. “Jefferson’s Love of the Written Word” features Jefferson experts, including U.Va. history professor Peter Onuf, and U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan. There are lectures, tours, meals and receptions, and participants have the option of staying on Grounds at Brown College. (You can read the whole schedule here, and register here.)
The event is part of the Office of Engagement’s Lifetime Learning program, so if the Jefferson Symposium doesn’t work for you, you may want to check out some of the other options.
Just in time for the opening of the academic year, a couple of U.Va. entities are sporting brand-spanking-new websites. Check out the one for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (above), and another for the rapidly emerging College Arts Scholars program, described as “an enrichment program for exceptional students overseen by the chairs of the departments of Music, Drama, Studio Art, and Dance” that gives a “small group of undergraduate students … direct access to the best resources in the arts at the University of Virginia, including personal introductions to our most distinguished arts faculty.”
If you’re at U.Va. with a new institutional website that you would like to show off, click on the “comments” link below and share the URL with the rest if us!
This sounds like a lot of fun, especially with the apple harvest just around the corner:
The University of Virginia School of Continuing & Professional Studies will be offering a series of short noncredit courses examining localized food production through the lens of Slow Food, the global, grassroots movement that connects the pleasures of the table with a commitment to the craft and heritage of food and drink production. The inaugural offering of “Planet to Plate: A Case Study in Slow Food” will focus on an American icon that lives on in Central Virginia — the apple. The class will build a working knowledge of the history, traditions, and craftsmanship evident in apple production, and use this framework to discuss modern-day issues such as agritourism, commercial production, specialty markets, and the future of sustainable food production in Central Virginia.
The instructor, Lisa Reeder, will be teaching the course on the heels of attending the Terra Madre conference in Italy as a delegate of Slow Food USA. Terra Madre is an international network of over 7,000 food producers, cooks, and university educators who come together each year to discus global food sustainability issues.
Future offerings of “Planet to Plate: A Case Study in Slow Food” will focus on other notable local products, such as goat cheese and vinegar.
The course will meet for three Monday evenings from 7-9 p.m. beginning Nov. 1. The fourth session will be a Saturday morning field trip. The program cost is $100. Registration is encouraged by Oct. 22. 434-982-2779; www.scps.virginia.edu.
