Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, and all Interested,
We are continuing to hold our Friday Open Forums and over the past 2 weeks, we have had s a very diverse group who had a chance to discuss current topics in an open, welcoming, and inclusive manner. I thank everyone who participated. We also attracted people outside of our Department and that is wonderful. All are welcome.
This week we will be discussing the topic of Corporate Sponsorship of University Research. Until we outgrow our current room, 0408 ANSC, we will continue to meet there on Fridays starting at 4pm. We will continue with the same format: introductions; agreeing to our rules for the discussion (see below) which everyone must agree to and if someone disagrees with a rule, we will seek consensus until everyone agrees to the rules; a brief introduction to the topic area; then open discussion.
The basic set of rules for this Open Forum are:
· Treat others with respect and dignity, by taking your turn to talk, not talking over others, and listening to other points of view.
· Don't attack individuals, whether they are in the room or are in the news.
· Don't paint others with broad strokes, categorizing someone as fitting a stereotype.
· Don't get sidetracked by terminology, listen to the thoughts being presented. If someone uses an old term or inappropriate term, talk with them after the forum to discuss your viewpoint with them, and educate them on your thoughts. But don't just stop listening or be confrontational if they use the wrong term, or all discourse will terminate and we will fail in our ability to discuss the issue at hand.
· Be relatable (to establish a social or sympathetic relationship with a person)
· Be succinct in your comments (i.e., try to make your comments more concise)
Again, our graduate students will be responsible for the "rules" and modification of the rules, and reminding others when they stray from the rules during the forums. These basic rules may be modified by them each week, and we will again agree to the rules prior to the start of each Open Forum. We will have the current rules posted each week, and a graduate student will remind us of them before we start.
The graduate students are also responsible for receiving and developing suggestions for topics for the forums, and for identifying people who could lead a forum.
We have decided on the following method to help the graduate students determine what each week’s topic will be and to find leaders for each topic’s discussion. Each week we will have ballots that will have 3 topic options for the following week, and a space for suggesting new topics and leaders. We will collect these each week and announce the next topic early the following week.
Also, since we are early on in this process, this is a reminder of what went out the first week on why we created this Open Forum.
FROM EMAIL Thursday 1/26/17, Everything within the [ ].
[We are living in interesting times. There are many interesting topics in the news that relate to science and are worthy of open dialogue. For many of us, old enough to remember, the turbulent times of the 1960s and 1970s had many issues and topics to discuss. One concept, started in 1965 at the University of Michigan, was labeled a "teach-in". I have copied the first paragraph from the Wikipedia page on "teach-in" below, to provide you a context.
"A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific frame of time or a strict academic scope. Teach-ins are meant to be pra, ctical, participatory, and oriented toward action. While they include experts lecturing on the area of their expertise, discussion and questions from the audience are welcome. "Teach ins" were popularized during the U.S. government's involvement in Vietnam. The first teach-in, which was held overnight at the University of Michigan in March 1965, began with a discussion of the Vietnam War draft and ended in the early morning with a speech by philosopher Arnold Kaufman." Wikipedia, accessed online on 1/26/17
I have had discussions with a few faculty, a chair, a few external folks, and a small group of our graduate students, about starting up a weekly, informal seminar around the concept of a "teach-in". Everyone has been supportive of the concept, and so we shall begin with our first one tomorrow, Friday January 26th, 4pm-5pm in Room 0408 ANSC. The term "teach-in" in my discussions with others, can potentially be misconstrued. Therefore, we shall call these informal seminars, "Open Forum". The first topic will be "Censorship of Science" and I will attempt that one myself. While this email is directed to ENST faculty, staff, and graduate students, it is an "open" forum, so our undergraduate students and others are welcome. ]
I thank you all again and look forward to seeing you and others on Friday at 4pm. I believe this is a way to discuss current topics, learn from each other and our diverse opinions and perspectives, and bring us together with better understanding of each other.