All members of the Lawrence community are encouraged to celebrate the Lunar New Year on Jan. 28 in the Warch Campus Center’s Somerset Room.
Cultural dance and music performances will begin at 6 p.m., with a cultural expo to follow. The event is free and open to the public.
Dear faculty, students, and staff,
Welcome back to campus! It is a pleasure to have you return; you enliven what becomes a very quiet place during the break. I hope all of you have come back refreshed and ready to learn. We begin this year steadfast in our commitment to provide insight into the pressing issues that face the world and to create opportunities for learning how to foster communities that include people of different backgrounds and different perspectives. As societies around the world become more polarized, we must rededicate our efforts to come together and learn as one community. Here at Lawrence, even as we have made positive progress, there remains work to be done.
To those ends, Kimberly Barrett, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Dean of the Faculty has already sent a message, and Linda Morgan-Clement, the Julie Esch Hurvis Dean of Spiritual and Religious Life, will be in contact very soon with schedules of events planned for this winter and spring. These events will provide opportunities for us to learn new skills in order to discuss the issues that face our communities and others around the globe. You can also find a schedule of events on the Diversity and Inclusion page and on a new page for Spiritual and Religious Life at Lawrence.
At the end of fall term many of you asked about our policies and procedures regarding Lawrentians who are not citizens of the United States. Our policy has been, and will continue to be, to create a welcoming and supportive community for all, without regard for citizenship status.
For many years our policy and practice have been to protect the information of all members of our community to the fullest extent the law allows, and to establish mechanisms to attract the most talented students, faculty, and staff from around the globe. We take seriously our obligation to uphold the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which sets forth strict conditions for releasing student information to any party, including government authorities. While faculty and staff information is not governed by FERPA, we also respect and protect the privacy of our employees to the extent permitted by law. We will not release any non-directory information, including citizenship or immigration status information, about any member of the Lawrence community without that person’s consent unless we are required to do so by lawful subpoena or other legal directive.
As a learning institution, two of our most central and enduring values are to support all community members and to foster an environment in which all can thrive. We value a learning environment that includes difference in all forms. We remain committed to considering any applicant for admission, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status. We will also continue to consider institutional financial aid for students who may not hold a U.S. passport. We will continue to recruit faculty and staff from around the world and to provide support and resources to non-U.S. citizens. Support and resources can be found here.
During the coming weeks, we will continue to review our policies and procedures that relate to citizenship and immigration to identify opportunities for improvement. All employees will also receive a refresher on FERPA and information security. Please do not hesitate to contact me, Kimberly Barrett, or Julia Messitte our general counsel, if you have specific questions.
I look forward to seeing each of you on campus. Again, welcome back.
Yours,
Mark Burstein
President, Lawrence University
Dear Lawrence students, faculty and staff,
Welcome to a new term, a new year and a new opportunity to make our community an even more ideal place in which to work and learn. It is the perfect time to remember the unique opportunity we have in education to influence the world in which we live. By now you know I am a fan of bell hooks’ writing, and this time of year brings to mind a quote from her book Teaching to Transgress:
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.” (p. 207)
And helping people gain the knowledge and skills needed to practice freedom (or liber, Latin for freedom) is what liberal education is all about. Some of these skills include the ability to think critically but with compassion and to speak assertively but with civility and respect for those who hold a different point of view. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, in collaboration with many of you, will be offering a number of opportunities to practice and model these skills this term.
One of these is our Community Conversations series. These are structured dialogues that facilitate authentic communication across critical areas of perceived difference. The purpose is to promote increased understanding, trust and collaboration. During Winter Term, we will begin two new dialogues. One will be a discussion to help find common ground across political ideologies. The first of three conversations in this Common Ground series will be held Friday, Jan. 13, 1–4 p.m., in the Esch Hurvis Room of the Warch Campus Center. The other new conversation series will invite students and faculty to come together to discuss activism and effective strategies for promoting social change. The first of this series will be held in February. Details will be available soon on our website.
We will also continue our Community Conversation on Safety. This is a dialogue between the Lawrence community and the Appleton Police Department. The next discussion will be held Thursday, Feb. 9, 8:30–noon, in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Room of the Warch Campus Center. To register to participate in these dialogues and to find additional ways to get involved with efforts to make Lawrence more inclusive, visit the “Get Involved” web page on the Diversity and Inclusion website. You can also sign up to participate in a Community Conversation by emailing div-inclusion@lawrence.edu.
Finally, I ask that you mark your calendars for our first regional diversity conference. It will focus on inclusive pedagogy. The theme is “Teaching All Students Well: Preparing an educated citizenry for wise participation in a diverse democracy.” Derald Wing Sue, professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University will deliver the keynote. The conference will also feature several concurrent sessions to highlight the work being done locally to practice inclusive pedagogy. It will be held Aug. 17–18 at the Warch Campus Center.
In conclusion, as we consider the possibilities that the privilege of a Lawrence education provides in this new year, let’s not forget the responsibilities that accompany it. As one of the most famous founders of our nation, Thomas Jefferson, stated in 1779, “Those persons, whom nature has endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens.”
Best wishes for a happy new year!
Kimberly Barrett, Ph.D.
Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Dean of the Faculty
What do Assistant Professor José Encarnación, current student Irene Durbak ’17, alumna Carolyn Armstrong Desrosiers ’10, former non-degree-seeking student Christopher Ducasse, journalist Fritz Valescot, LUCE (Lawrence University Cello Ensemble) and the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra all have in common?
Find out Friday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. in Memorial Chapel when Janet Anthony, George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professor of Music, speaks about her 20 years of music-making and cross-cultural exchange in Haiti.
There will be performances of Haitian music, including two works composed by non-degree seeking students at Lawrence, short film clips from Kenbe La directed by Armstrong Desrosiers and Stephan Anunson, and reflections on the transformative power of music.
We hope to see you there!
The Lawrence faculty and staff community is saddened by the tragic deaths of former colleagues Shannon O’Leary and Adam Clausen. They were killed Dec. 26 in a car accident in Oregon.
Clausen was a visiting assistant professor of physics at Lawrence from 2007 to 2011, while Shannon held a fellowship at Lawrence from 2008 to 2011. Their 4-year-old son Felix survived the accident, and a GoFundMe campaign has been created to support him.
Join us to celebrate the winter 2017 exhibitions in the Wriston Art Galleries!
Opening reception: Friday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m.
Performance by We Go From Where We Know* at 8 p.m.
Dreams of the Floating World: 15 Views of Tokugawa Japan
Curated by the students in Brigid Vance’s HIST 388: Early Modern Japan
Leech Gallery
The Fine Print: Women Artists in the Dr. Robert Dickens ’63 Collection of Contemporary Art
Hoffmaster Gallery
Lawrence University Studio Art Faculty Exhibition
Tony Conrad, lecturer of art
Rob Neilson, Frederick R. Layton Professor of Art and associate professor of art
Benjamin Rinehart, associate professor of art
John Shimon, associate professor of art
Meghan C. Sullivan, Uihlein Fellow of Studio Art
Kohler Gallery
*We Go From Where We Know’s performance will feature the following LU faculty and staff members and alumni:
Julia Blair ’11, voice, viola
Loren Dempster, cello
John Gates, voice, percussion
Brian Pertl, didgeridoo
Leila Ramagopal Pertl, harp
John Shimon, guitar
Due to ongoing maintenance, the Warch Campus Center is closed for the remainder of the week. There are no planned activities in the center this week, and those who office in the building have made other arrangements to complete their work.
Please direct any questions to Director of Human Resources Rochelle Blindauer.
A message to faculty and staff from President Mark Burstein:
Dear Lawrence faculty and staff,
I am very pleased to announce that Catherine Gunther Kodat will be joining Lawrence as our next provost and dean of the faculty. Katie will also join the English department as a full professor with tenure.
Katie comes to Lawrence from Lewis & Clark, where she is dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. She began her academic career at Hamilton College, where over 17 years she rose from assistant to full professor, chaired the English and creative writing department, and directed American studies. She won the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award at Hamilton in 2008. Between Hamilton and Lewis & Clark, Katie served as acting provost and dean of the Division of Liberal Arts at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Katie’s academic background, accomplishments, and interests are a perfect fit with Lawrence. She started her undergraduate career at the Peabody Institute as a piano performance major. She completed her bachelor of arts degree summa cum laude at the University of Baltimore and her doctorate in English from Boston University. Katie has received many honors, including a Fulbright Lecturer Grant to Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (ELTE) in Budapest, a research fellowship at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford, and the Millicent C. McIntosh Flexible Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Her recent book, Don’t Act, Just Dance: The Metapolitics of Cold War Culture, has received significant acclaim. Between college and graduate school, Katie was a reporter for the Baltimore City Paper and then the Baltimore Sun, where she was a metro desk reporter and the paper’s chief dance critic.
Katie’s interest in Lawrence drew early attention from the search committee. Our interactions with her only increased our interest. Among the many references we received, one colleague told us: “She is super smart. She is very organized. Katie is capable in all of her work. She is highly responsible and firm when firmness is needed. She is a good listener, open to ideas of others. She has a clear sense of priority and focus for what matters. Her approach is certainly open to revisions. She is not in any way loose in her thinking or assertive of her own view, but she is firm as well.” Others commented on her high standard of transparency and ethical leadership and her sense of adventure and interest in having fun.
In terms of her ability to represent the faculty within the administrative structure, another colleague said: “She is a passionate advocate for her faculty. I see all the passion of her breadth of knowledge articulated there. I know her academic background, but if I just saw her operating, I would not be able to identify her particular discipline. She has been at a liberal arts school and has been at a conservatory. She knows the terrain very well.”
Katie will formally join us in July, but she and her husband, Alex, will be on campus for a welcome reception on January 17 immediately following the faculty meeting. We will be in contact with more information about this reception in a few weeks.
I want to thank Tim Spurgin, who chaired the search, and the members of the search committee for this wonderful outcome. Search committee members included: Ameya Balsekar, Dominica Chang, Scott Corry, Samantha George, Pete Gilbert, Mark Jenike, Cathy Kautsky, Jenna Stone and Nancy Wall. They invested a significant amount of time and energy in the process. Also, thank you to the many members of our community who interviewed finalists this fall and to the Tenure, Promotion, Reappointment and Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, which met last week to consider Katie for a tenured position.
From the beginning, it was clearly a difficult task to find someone who had the temperament, experience, and love of the liberal arts to carry forward the very successful tenure of Dave Burrrows. I think we have found such a person and I am thankful to everyone involved. I am particularly grateful that Dave will remain at Lawrence as a professor of psychology after he steps down from the provost position.
I know you will all join me in welcoming Katie to Lawrence. I hope all of you are enjoying the break and that everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
Yours,
Mark
Giving Day 2016 participants,
A sincere thank you to each of you from me personally and from the Board of Trustees for your help in making Giving Day a huge success. Whether you contributed your time, talent or treasure (or some of each), you were an important part of this collective community effort.
I want to especially thank the students, faculty and staff members who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in the program itself. Alumni and friends thoroughly enjoy hearing from students about their experiences on campus, their academic work and goals, from faculty members about their research and teaching, and from staff members about their important work for Lawrence. They love seeing Conservatory students and faculty members perform. And they enjoy the spirit of good fun and the strong sense of community we have.
If you were a behind-the-scenes contributor to the day (before or after), we appreciate your efforts as well. Without you, Giving Day wouldn’t be possible!
If you were a donor, you have our deep gratitude for your generosity.
My very best to you and your families for the holiday season.
Susie Stillman Kane ’72
Chair, Lawrence University Board of Trustees
Lawrence faculty and staff interested in purchasing egg rolls as part of the Hmong American Partnership’s annual fundraiser may have their orders delivered to campus on Wednesday, Dec. 21. To do so, fill out an order form and note that you would like your order delivered to the Lawrence campus.
Please contact Diversity Center Coordinator Chris Vue with any questions.
