Environ Mental Studies & Leadership Programs

Internal Environ Mental Climate Control

Efforts to sustain creative innovation and
address the future of liberal learning in a
context of dramatic change are evident
within all sectors of the higher education
community. We invite you to share your
best efforts to translate educational vision
into concrete practices. (AAC&U Call
for Proposals)

Civic Responsibility these days amounts to
installing street lamps where darkness was,
making sure dogs are leased on community
trails, parking monitored in front of the library
(all roads: fire lanes from now on), containment
of second-hand smoke, posting exit maps on
each floor, and lock down procedures in
each class room posted in full view.

Of course: it’s more than that;
these merely address our
liability issues.

Laissez Faire in the Class Room.

When the veil drops and the whelm filters
removed it’s like turning over a rock.
Creepy crawlers I know are there:
now—in full view.

A student who giggle-whispered the whole
semester complains about the girl who-quoted-
poetry-and-gave-“inane opinions”-on-the-
difference- between-art-&-science wasting our
precious time.

No wonder hard balls & mallets trump upside
down flamingo & hedgehog croquet – cover-up
& denial: the price paid for control by any means. .




No doubt I am urging ping-pong in a rugby
environment: this place not calibrated to
consider pedagogy: green talk & sustainability
serving us well, enrollment up & melt-down
procedures improving so who in his Right
Mind would bother questioning assumptions
& worry about different ways to put IT
in play?

Years ago I quit trying to wait for regional &
local environmental conditions to fit what I
needed to do in a classroom climate and just
figured: Ice Cream in Hell! I’ll do what makes
sense, polar bear warmings be damned.

Obedience

Lean in and listen to the corn shoots
(Barbara McClintock); pay attention
to car radio songs, read palms & tea
leaves, dip into the bible & Koran &
I Ching to consider where my finger
falls & what it reveals.

Hark!
Oyez! Oyez!
Crow outside.
Coyotes behind the wood shed.
Student papers & exams: all
telling details all informing :
news from beyond.

Colleges,
universities,
state systems,
and other partners
are using this moment
to engage the public and
the larger academy with
core questions about
what really matters
in college.