One of the highlights of this weekend's celebration of the inauguration of Stephen Charles Ainlay as the 18th president of Union College will be the academic symposium, “Bridging the Academic-Social Gap,” Friday, 7-9 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
Richard Light, the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and director of the Harvard Seminar on Assessment at Harvard University, will give the keynote address, “Making the Most of College.” Light's recent book of the same name won the Stone Award for the best book on education and society.
A distinguished group of college officials will join in the discussion, “Innovations in Residential Living to Bridge the Gap.”
The panel's moderator, Union Professor of Political Science Byron Nichols, was one of seven faculty members chosen in 2000 to lead the creation of the Minerva House System, Union's $20 million investment in transforming the living/learning dynamic in campus culture.
Nichols, who joined the Union faculty in 1968 and has served in many capacities, is a former Danforth Fellow who has long been interested in how faculty-student relationships can be strengthened to facilitate intellectual and personal growth. He has organized different kinds of learning situations at Union, both on- and off-campus. He is the faculty representative of Orange House.
Panelists include:
Victoria Swigert, professor of sociology and assistant dean of the College of the Holy Cross. Swigert is a committee member for the First-Year Experience, which allows students to explore connections between what happens inside the classroom and in the world outside.
Timothy Spears, dean and professor of American Studies at Middlebury College. Spears helped develop the Commons system, whose five residences exemplify the college's conviction that an excellent liberal arts education takes place around the clock.
Suzanne Benack, Union professor of psychology, faculty advisor to Sorum House and a member of the Minerva Council. Benack, who has taught at Union since 1981, was a member of the committee that proposed the Minerva system. Her research has included studies of moral and epistemological development in the college years.
Kent C. Trachte, dean of Franklin and Marshall College. F&M is in its second year of creating a College House System based on the principles of faculty leadership and student governance.