According to the President's Office, the stated goal of the Colloquia is to provide students with the opportunity to explore pressing social concerns as well as the opportunity to enrich their educational experiences by engaging in interdisciplinary work. To this end, the College has brought together prominent authorities established in their respective fields to guide debate among participants of the program. The debate will hopefully provoke participants to go beyond campus orthodoxies of thought.
President Anthony Marx, explaining the impetus behind the creation of the Interterm Colloquia program, said, "We wanted to increase opportunities for educational programs during Interterm, connecting with student interests in pressing topics by bringing together prominent thinkers and across varied views. The proposal [for the Colloquia] emerged from discussions with the Committee of Six and then donors were solicited."
"The colloquium came out of a desire from the College to offer students an opportunity to engage on issues not typically offered during Interterm," Neltja Brewster, Interterm Colloquium Coordinator, explained.
"Campus life is punctuated by high-impact visitors who give a view beyond the ivory tower; these colloquia, with a dedicated group over a period of days should both generate that kind of energy and, by the depth and detail of inquiry, give students, and the faculty who teach them, an upclose view of the critical skills and drive needed to be change agents in the public arena. These colloquia should give them a chance to find their voices in debates that are freer, more conflictive and more high-stakes than they often find in the classroom."
This Interterm, there are three colloquia scheduled, titled American Empire (Jan. 20-22), Immigration (Jan. 21-23) and Public Education (Jan. 24-27).
The American Empire colloquia will be led by Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University and a Senior Fellow of Stanford University, and Ronald Steel, Professor of International Relations and History at the University of Southern California and Pulitzer Prize finalist. The colloquia would deal with American foreign policy and its impact at home and aboard.
Immigration, led by essayist Richard Rodriguez and Victor Hason, Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, will bring to the fore the issues facing immigrants to America.
Wendy Puriefoy, President and Founder of the Public Education Network, and William Howell, Associate Professor in the Harris School of the University of Chicago, will lead a debate with regards to school choice and education access issues.
Howell, commenting on his participation in the colloquia, said, "I am greatly looking forward to the January colloquia on public education. It will provide a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and practitioners to reflect upon the educational challenges that we, as a nation, face. I fully expect the discussion to be engaging, informative and provocative."
Students voiced similar sentiments regarding the new colloquia. "I think it's great that we're expanding Interterm events and providing some more education, enriching events for students, especially those who will be on campus at that time," said Gudrun Juffer '08. "It'll be a nice break from what can be long days of watching TV."
"I think that they are all modern issues that a liberal arts student should be thinking about, if not directly working in," commented Michael Chen '08 on the colloquia topics.
"The colloquia, led by nationally known figures, are open by request to a relatively small group of students, so as to ensure in-depth conversation over a few days," President Marx emphasized. "Students should apply to join colloquia and I hope will take advantage of this opportunity. Each colloquium will also host a public event for those who cannot join the full program."