From mcbuell@ucdavis.edu Mon Jan 24 17:12:17 2005 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 14:11:00 -0800 From: Marci Buell Reply-To: academicsenatechair@ucdavis.edu To: academic-senate@ucdavis.edu Subject: Disaster Relief Discussion in the Classroom--Reminder Colleagues:   As a reminder, I hope that many of you are willing to take my suggestion and devote five to fifteen minutes of class time tomorrow, Tuesday, January 25, to a discussion of world disasters, both natural and human caused, and what knowledge of your discipline or of material covered in the course might teach us about worthwhile response or prevention.  My original letter is copied below.   You might also suggest in early morning classes that students repeat some of the morning discussion in their afternoon classes.   In the morning you might also remind students of the memorial convocation at 11:30 in the ARC ballroom.   Thanks,   Dan Simmons     Daniel L. Simmons Professor of Law Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate  Tel:  530 752-4919   ________________________________________________________________________________ From: Gina Anderson Sent: None To: academic-senate@ucdavis.edu; academic-fed@ucdavis.edu Subject: Campus Response to the Indian Ocean Disaster MEMORANDUM TO THE FACULTY   RE:  Campus Response to the Indian Ocean Disaster   Dear Colleagues:   As you are probably aware, the Chancellor has appointed a work group to explore a campus response to the recent disaster in the Indian Ocean.  That disaster is another highlight of the scary times we live in.  Not only do natural disasters take away lives and cause unimaginable suffering, chronic conditions of poverty cause death and suffering in many places, including parts of our own country, and armed conflicts in places such as Rwanda, the Sudan, and Iraq (to mention just a few) add to human suffering.  Perhaps it will be a good thing for our educational enterprise to pause for a few moments and collectively think about these issues.    The Chancellor’s work group is scheduling a memorial program around noon on January 25.  Perhaps, on that date, in our role as teachers we can create an opportunity to expose our students to many different perspectives and some diversity of thought on a single topic throughout a single day.  We might attempt to turn tragedy into an educational opportunity for all of us.    I suggest that each of us take five to fifteen minutes (or more if you choose) of class time in each of our courses on Tuesday, January 25, to talk about the disaster in the countries affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and/or other significant natural and human caused disasters facing our contemporary world, and attempt to relate our discipline and course content to these issues.  I recognize that it might be difficult for many faculty to relate the disaster to their course content (I am teaching partnership tax this semester so I also face that challenge).  Some faculty might simply give students a chance to speak on the issue for a couple of minutes.  Indeed, I will try to suggest to students that in afternoon classes they might relate some of what was discussed in early morning classes on the 25th.  In that way, ideas might be propagated throughout the campus during the day.   I stress that this suggestion is for your consideration.  Nonetheless, I am hopeful that we might undertake a campus wide teach-in on these powerful questions that will benefit our whole community.   Sincerely,     Daniel L. Simmons Professor of Law Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate