Writing

A good book comforts us. A great book challenges us. This year’s first-year reading selection, “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, is a great book.

This book opened our eyes, engaged our minds, expanded our thinking, at times shrunk our significance, contextualized our evolution and our existence, and reminded us of both our fragility and our ephemeral nature.  It also made us uncomfortable, uneasy, and uncertain at times. I can’t imagine a university’s first-year reading selection, or any book, doing more than that.

The last decade has seen considerable energy and enthusiasm for mash-ups between the STEM disciplines and the Liberal Arts disciplines, with motivations ranging from practical to political, obvious to opportunistic, and sensible to silly. Many colleges and universities, government agencies, and professional societies have set in motion substantial discourse around this fruitful topic. I have had the privilege and opportunity to weigh-in on the value of new pedagogies and degree programs, and to offer opinions – informed through my experience as a faculty member, department head, dean, and provost – on trends in higher education more broadly. Here, I offer some observations and personal commentary on some of the discussions surrounding STEM and the Liberal Arts.

The First-Year Reading for UVM students this year, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, challenges us to think beyond what we know about human health and healing, to open our minds to cultures and cultural beliefs vastly different than our own, and to consider that western medical practices and beliefs – while grounded in science – may be even more effective when practiced in parallel with the healing practices and beliefs of other cultures. But perhaps more than anything, this book looks carefully and critically – with compassion but without bias – at some of the greatest challenges and cultural failures of our society, those surrounding the practice of medicine and healing.

In my role as Provost, I am fortunate to have occasion to promote and celebrate the many accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. These range from academic and scholarly achievements, to successes and innovations in pedagogy, to impactful community and statewide engagement. This week’s release of Humanities, a beautiful new publication of the UVM Humanities Center, is just such an occasion and I intend to take full advantage of it!

Humanities describes many of the exciting activities underway in the humanities and fine arts and demonstrates the rich diversity of scholarly productivity, creative works, and high-impact teaching and learning taking place at the University of Vermont.

Adapted from remarks at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), Orlando, FL.

National four-year public universities have, per student, increased tuition revenues by less than they have lost in state appropriations, while simultaneously keeping educational and related expenses flat (over the period 2006-2011, adjusted for inflation). In other words, public universities are receiving less support from their states, and are not relying on increases in tuition to make up for this decrease in state funding. All universities are taking steps to reduce expenses and contain costs.