“We give lip service to college
service,” says Terry Weiner in explaining the
title of his upcoming faculty colloquium.
Weiner, professor of political
science and chair of the department, will speak on “Lip Service: Rethinking the
Role of Citizenship in the Liberal Arts
College,” on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 11:30 a.m. in Old Chapel.
“We've lost the role of college
service and citizenship,” Weiner said of liberal arts colleges nationally,
adding that service has become a “devalued function” at most colleges.
“There is little effort to
evaluate or reward college service in the way we do scholarship and teaching,”
he says. “[As a result], faculty members are unwilling to play the service
roles that are important in a self-governing community of a liberal arts college.”
Weiner, who last fall was invested
as Chauncey H. Winters Professor in
Comparative Social Analysis, adds that colleges should also evaluate and
reward faculty who serve the outside community in their fields.
Weiner recalls his time in graduate
school, when students who considered a career at a liberal arts college, were “frowned
upon.” University faculty thought their liberal arts counterparts spent too
much time on service – advising, committees, peer review – and not enough on
scholarship and research that brings resources to the institution.
Times have changed, Weiner says. The
university approach, with its pursuit of resources, has trickled down to
liberal arts colleges. “Trying to narrow the role of faculty … has taken us
away from what it means to be a liberal arts college and made us more like a
large research university.”
Weiner's research is based on the
literature of college service – reports by professional societies, articles by
scholars, reports by foundations – which he will share at Wednesday's talk.
Weiner has the distinction of chairing two academic departments at
Union, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
(1978-1986) and the Department of Political Science (currently). After
receiving his undergraduate degree in sociology and history from the University
of Illinois at Chicago,
he went on to earn his master's degree and Ph.D. in sociology from the University
of North Carolina.
He joined the Union faculty in
1974 and has developed courses in such areas as health care politics, the
sociology of medicine, political sociology, and issues in American education.
He also has published in the major journals of political science and sociology
and health, including the Journal of Politics, the American Journal
of Sociology, and the American Journal of Public Health.
He was associate dean of the
faculty for seven years and acting dean of the faculty for one year; he started
the College's M.A.T. program and, as dean and department chair, has increased
the presence of women on the faculty. Among his community positions, he has
been a member of the Niskayuna School Board since 1990 (currently serving as
president), a member of the board of trustees of Wildwood
School and Family Corp., chair of
the board of the Early Childhood
Education Center,
and an advisor to Schenectady Association for Retarded Children and DARE (Drug
Abuse Resistance Education).
A buffet lunch will follow the
talk at 12:30 p.m. in Hale House
Dining Room.