Author: Matthew

philosopher, iconoclast, technoboy, musician, conjuration battle-mage, dean

Building (Honors) Bridges

This fall, we’re piloting a new-ish type of course: the Honors Bridge.

When I became dean of LAHC, one of the programs in my portfolio is the Honors Program. I spent a good bit of time last year in conversation with colleagues, both here and in other institutions, thinking about Honors. I was very lucky to have a spirited group of faculty in the ad hoc Honors Workgroup, and they helped formulate a new direction for Honors, building on the great work of the past.

One of our major concerns is access — which is another way of saying that we were concerned about the inclusiveness of the program. I have often pointed out that decisions on the “front-end” of a decision-process often have unintended but destructive effects on the implementation end. I think that’s a good way to look at Honors programs.

Continue reading “Building (Honors) Bridges”

PechaKucha!

Check out this opportunity from Theresa Glenn and our Communication Studies department.

Join us for a student speech contest coming up early next month.  The date is set for Tuesday, October 9th — two weeks from today.  The theme for this year is “What’s Your Story” told in a 10X20 or 5X40 PechaKucha format.  If you’re not familiar with the Pecha Kucha format you may explore this special type of public speaking arrangement at www.pechakucha.org.  Basically, students will ‘tell their story’ using 10 PPt slides and speak on each slide for 20 seconds or a new option this year is to use five slides and speak on each slide for 40 seconds. Yes, the slides are timed.    Also, the theme is broad, but we are looking for students to tell a personal story of struggle, triumph, survival, and/or all of the above.  It must be a true story and appropriate for the college scene.

EXAMPLES:  

Prizes, prizes, prizes!  Yes, we have prizes for the top three student presentations.  A $100 Visa gift card is the first place, $50 2nd place, and $25 for 3rd place.  

Please contact: Prof. Gretchen Harries at gharries@austincc.edu if you have any questions.  Submissions are due to Gretchen by Monday, Oct. 8th.  She is willing to help the students as well with their entries. 

Thanks for your support.  Whether you encourage your students to compete or offer extra credit for just attending, I appreciate your support.  Last year was an amazing launch of the speech contest.  I’m looking forward to an even bigger, better event this year!!!

Here are two events to consider: The Austin Art Alliance is holding this year’s city-wide PechaKucha at 2003 Wheeles Lane, Austin 78723 (East I35, just south of 290). Communications Studies is hosting a PechaKucha for ACC students at HLC 4000, to kick off Comms Week. Join us and PechaKucha!

LAHC Convocation resources

Thanks to everyone who attended our LAHC Convocation last week! And I’d like to offer special thanks to those who presented. I’d like to make some resources available to you concerning these topics.

If you’d like to know more, you may contact presenters and view the materials they have provided us. If you have a question or comment for me, email me directly or click on Ask Matthew.

How to buy an organ, part 1

Some of you know that I am a classically-trained organist. What does that mean? Well, mostly it means that I know what all the knobs, pedals, and switches on an instrument like this are for.

I play for at Christ Lutheran Church, just up the road in Georgetown, where I’ve been principal organist for over thirty years. Thanks to a generous bequest, we’re replacing our aging organ with a new Viscount, like the one pictured above.

First things first: Where do you start when you go shopping for an organ? In the next several installments of this series, I’ll tell the whole story—mainly because I’ve had so much fun with this process. Along the way, maybe you’ll pick up a few interesting details about life in the world of organs. Continue reading “How to buy an organ, part 1”

Happy birthday, philosophy!

Today is the traditional birthday of philosophy, May 28, 585 BCE. It’s a great story, so I’ll tell a version of how philosophy was born.

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Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus (died c. 546), one of the first people to be recognized as a philosopher in the western tradition, used previously collected data to predict an eclipse that occurred — you guessed it — 28 May 585 BCE. When the eclipse came on the day he predicted, people praised him, saying he was “favored by the gods.” Thales, however, told everyone that the gods had nothing to do with it, and explained how he had used math to work out the date of the eclipse.

So, Thales’s explanation of his prediction came to represent the separation of philosophy, which relies on evidence and arguments, from the Greek religious tradition.
Since the core of philosophy is what we can work out with our own reasoning ability, I’m going to encourage everyone to celebrate the birthday of philosophy by doing some serious thinking. 😉

The Universal Solvent

When I was a naïve novitiate psychotherapist, I had the good fortune of a psych hospital’s support to attend professional conventions, partly to learn, and partly to represent the hospital. I remember my first psychoanalytic convention: I was thrilled to sit in the presence of famous psychoanalysts, soaking up their wisdom. I was at just such a convention when I had my first shot of Universal Solvent, neat.

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Part-time equity is a full-time job

I recently read “Part-time students receive attention” on the TCCTA site. I want to share this article with you if you haven’t seen it, and I’d like your indulgence to raise two issues, for reflection.

First, we’ve all heard the claim that full-time students tend to graduate. Reactions to this range from a broad yawn to injunctions to sign everyone up for a full-time load the next available opportunity. Of course, we are not merely interested but also committed to student progression and completion, but I see taking comfort in this dictum to be a bit one-dimensional. After all, my Inner Philosopher urges me to say, the causality might run the other way: Graduating may cause you to take 30 hours a year.

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Conflict and inquiry

I wrote this a while ago for another blog, but — in this season of conflict that we call the last week of the term — I thought I’d share it with you.

“We’re having a conflict, and we need help resolving it.”

This familiar sentiment often brings people in to see therapists and counselors, (and even philosophers!), and most people start off seeking conflict resolution. Let’s think about this notion of conflict resolution.

First, some preparatory observations. Suppose I ask you, What is the absence of conflict? Is it peace? Harmony? Equanimity of mind? While there’s some truth to responses in this vein, if you look a little harder at conflict, you might begin to suspect that the absence of conflict is . . . death.

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Crash course with dinner

ACC Arabic students at Phoenicia Resto

Last week, I had the good fortune to attend an end-of-the-term dinner with Fahim Idais and forty or so of his Arabic students. The company was great, and the food was magnificent — we practically took over the Phoenician Resto Café. Other than the baba ganoush, one of the highlights of the evening was that I got a crash course in Arabic greetings when Fahim had all the students go around the table and introduce themselves. How’s this:

مرحباً
اسمي ماثيو

I’m proud of our Arabic program, and of the department of foreign languages that supports and sustains it. Not many community colleges can boast about offering so many languages. The central image for our recent International Festival features most of them: Russian, Spanish, Japanese, French, Chinese, German, Italian, and Korean. ACC also teaches ASL and Latin. And English. 😉

Did you know we offer Arabic I through IV? We have an AA in Arabic, too.

Why do we teach Arabic at ACC?

Because people first started talking about the concept of zero in Arabic.

Because it’s one of six official languages of the United Nations.

Because it was a major artery of culture in the Middle Ages.

Because Arabic is spoken by 313 million people today.

Because Aristotle’s works were preserved in Arabic.

Because it’s the lingua franca of the Arab world.

Because it’s the language of the Qur’an.

Because Arabic grammar is sweet.

Because ACC is happening.

Because it’s there.

Why not?

As dean, I get to experience pretty amazing things, but this time, it wasn’t just a dean thing. Rather, I was invited to this party, by one of the Arabic students. Let me  put it like this:

أنا والد لويزا

Thanks, Luiza!

And thanks to you, Fahim, for everything you do for our students!