Spring Break
Editorial: New mediums, new minds
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Web site, the United States emitted more than 7.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005, and is strategizing to decrease the intensity of these greenhouse gases by 18 percent by 2012.
This year's Honors Colloquium, which focuses on the implications of interaction between humans and the environment, will attempt to put statistics like these in the limelight.
But to amp up the interest in topics such as climate change, the coordinators of this year's colloquium are using new methods. Instead of boring lecture after lecture, the main focus this year is reaching a variety of people through interactive discussions and films, among other mediums. Communications studies professor Judith Swift has taken it upon herself to introduce one of those mediums to the series: her very own musical.
Kudos to that. It might be unusual to feature a play about climate change in Rhode Island, but one must remember that a university is supposed to be a catalyst for individuality. And that means individual styles of learning. Maybe with these new tactics, more will attend the already jam-packed colloquiums.
The colloquiums are not just meant for honor students at the university. They are meant to encourage discourse on somewhat controversial subjects.
Last year's colloquium revolved around China, an emerging economic superpower, and opened the doors to the university's Confucius Institute for many students. It also encouraged more students to take on the Chinese language this year.
These events are a fine example to stimulate the mind and urge students to poke around on the Internet or their local library and develop opinions on topics that involve the global population.
Though one might not agree with their next-door neighbor on what exactly caused the change in temperature, and why so many people are lecturing about reusing tea bags, buying hybrid cars and finding cloth bags to grocery shop, it's worth discussing.
Next week, Elizabeth Colbert from The New Yorker will be speaking, along with professors from Pennsylvania State University and our own campus. While it's important to give our own professors support, hearing discussion from other parts of the Northeast is just as valuable.
So if on a Tuesday night you find yourself kicking around the Chafee Social Science Center, it might behoove you to step inside, sit down and listen. Who knows? It might spark a new idea for a research paper, strike up a conversation with a stranger sitting next to you or provide another option instead of watching a rerun of "The Hills."
This year's Honors Colloquium, which focuses on the implications of interaction between humans and the environment, will attempt to put statistics like these in the limelight.
But to amp up the interest in topics such as climate change, the coordinators of this year's colloquium are using new methods. Instead of boring lecture after lecture, the main focus this year is reaching a variety of people through interactive discussions and films, among other mediums. Communications studies professor Judith Swift has taken it upon herself to introduce one of those mediums to the series: her very own musical.
Kudos to that. It might be unusual to feature a play about climate change in Rhode Island, but one must remember that a university is supposed to be a catalyst for individuality. And that means individual styles of learning. Maybe with these new tactics, more will attend the already jam-packed colloquiums.
The colloquiums are not just meant for honor students at the university. They are meant to encourage discourse on somewhat controversial subjects.
Last year's colloquium revolved around China, an emerging economic superpower, and opened the doors to the university's Confucius Institute for many students. It also encouraged more students to take on the Chinese language this year.
These events are a fine example to stimulate the mind and urge students to poke around on the Internet or their local library and develop opinions on topics that involve the global population.
Though one might not agree with their next-door neighbor on what exactly caused the change in temperature, and why so many people are lecturing about reusing tea bags, buying hybrid cars and finding cloth bags to grocery shop, it's worth discussing.
Next week, Elizabeth Colbert from The New Yorker will be speaking, along with professors from Pennsylvania State University and our own campus. While it's important to give our own professors support, hearing discussion from other parts of the Northeast is just as valuable.
So if on a Tuesday night you find yourself kicking around the Chafee Social Science Center, it might behoove you to step inside, sit down and listen. Who knows? It might spark a new idea for a research paper, strike up a conversation with a stranger sitting next to you or provide another option instead of watching a rerun of "The Hills."
