Choose your words wisely...

… or at least correctly. A couple weeks ago I wrote a post titled “In our Nation of Immigrants.” I used the word immigrant because in North America, everyone’s ancestors came here from somewhere else. How long your ancestors have been here might be measured in years or decades or centuries or millennia, but we all originally came from somewhere else, and thus I said immigrant.

Liberal Education

We are the College of Liberal Arts, but the University of Minnesota also has Liberal Education requirements for all students. What we call liberal education other institutions call general education or distribution requirements, but whatever you call these requirements, almost all institutions have them. These requirements effectively spell out the kinds of things that an institution believes an educated person should know or understand. Here at the U, these are split into core (disciplinary groupings such as mathematical thinking, literature, history, etc.) and themes (subject matter groupings such as the environment or technology and society).

In our Nation of Immigrants

The University of Minnesota shall provide equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. 
-- Equal Opportunity Statement, University of Minnesota (emphasis added)

I shouldn’t have to say more. But, what a mess! That’s the most polite thing I can call it when the leader of the country decides he wants to discriminate on the basis of religion and national origin. The founding fathers would be so proud.

We are all Americans, regardless of how we look, talk, or pray; we should not deny potential Americans because of how they look, talk, or pray. Support our students; support each other.

On Elephants

Elephants figure large (ba dum boom, ching!) in English idiom.

• The elephant in the room.
• Seeing the elephant.
• Blind men and an elephant.
• White elephants.
• Pink elephants.
• When the elephant dances.
• Elephants never forget.

Elephants are large, expensive, complicated, dangerous, gentle, magnificent, social, intelligent, and most assuredly non-ignorable. Sometimes other colleges at the U think of CLA as an elephant, some days beating out a trail for others to follow, and other days blundering around (see dancing elephants and mice).

Here in UGE we have a baby elephant of our own: the Career Readiness Initiative. It’s new. It’s complex. It’s going to grow into something huge and be pretty expensive. You can no longer ignore it. It’s going to establish or widen some paths in CLA, and we think it’s going to be a wonder and magnificent when it is fully grown.

Spring 2017

I hope you are all enjoying your MLK holiday. I read Dr. King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” this morning, and it is just as inspiring today as it was more than 50 years ago. It’s a new semester, and we should all be inspired as we begin a new semester.

Outstanding Service Awards

Just before winter break, we learned that not one, not two, not three, but four (count em, four!) UGE colleagues were awarded Outstanding Service Awards.

Schedule Builder

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Seriously, this is how I found out that our very own Schedule Builder was going to be expanded to include an improved class search.