The Long Road

60/365: Old Main from the Inside Out Originally uploaded by cplong11 University budgeting and strategic planning was the focus of the final Academic Leadership Program (ALP) sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) held at Penn State, April 12-14, 2012. No two topics have more impact on the life and direction of an institution than these. In reflecting on this final ALP seminar (the other two were at Indiana University and the University of Chicago), I began to imagine what it might look like for Penn State to pursue a bold strategic vision of the new public research... (read more)

Jane McGonigal Originally uploaded by Joi At the 2012 Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium at Penn State, I had the honor of introducing Jane McGonigal, Creative Director of Social Chocolate, and game designer extraordinaire. In his book, The Grasshopper, Bernard Suits writes: "Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."Jane McGonigal quotes this in her own book, the name of which I am omitting for reasons that will become clear presently. She then goes on to say: "Compared with games, reality is too easy." Now, I feel the same way about giving introductions, it is... (read more)

Plato's Philosophers 3 Ways Originally uploaded by cplong11 For episode 54 of the Digital Dialogue, I am joined via Skype by Catherine Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Zuckert is the author of many on the history of political philosophy and the relationship between literature and politics. I will link to her CV on the blog, but I want to mention a few of her excellent books here in reverse chronological order: Natural Right and the American Imagination: Political Philosophy in Novel Form (Savage, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1990), 277... (read more)

low gravity, a photo by andi.vs.zf on Flickr. LAUSDeanLong: Over the past two years, I have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the culture of drinking at Penn State with the presidents of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council. Sam Loewner and I focused on the controversial administrative responses to State Patty's Day, while Geoff Halberstadt and I established a Dialogue on Drinking in which we discussed, among other things, what we owe to one another as students, faculty and administrators. So I thought we might continue this tradition with Lauren Perrotti, President of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council for... (read more)

Chris at the Mansueto Originally uploaded by cplong11 In her address to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Academic Leadership Program at the University of Chicago last Thursday, Martha Nussbaum offered a compelling defense of a liberal arts education. She advocated for an education for democracy in the face of increased global emphasis on education for economic growth. In the United States and around the world education policy has come to be driven by a concern more for economic growth than for a flourishing democracy. One need only look as far as the 2006 Spellings Report (pdf) to see this... (read more)

Photo of the Paterno Statue, January 2012 Photo taken by Paterno Fellow Carolyn LaskyOriginally uploaded by LAUSatPSU Dear Liberal Arts Student Colleagues: Joe Paterno said that he wanted to be remembered as an educator who made Penn State a better place. However impressive his record as a football coach, his most lasting and meaningful legacy remains the contributions he has made to enrich the educational lives of our students. Nowhere has this legacy been more palpably felt or more deeply appreciated than in the College of the Liberal Arts. Joe, Sue, and the entire Paterno family have established scholarships... (read more)

Digital Dialogue 53 Originally uploaded by cplong11 On episode 53 for the Digital Dialogue, I am joined by Christopher Moore, Lecturer in Philosophy and Classics and Mediterranean Studies at Penn State.Christopher received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2008. His areas of specialization include: Ancient Philosophy, Socrates, Aesthetics and Democratic Theory. He has a number of articles in press and forthcoming, including: "Chaerephon, Telephus, and Cure in Plato's Gorgias," Arethusa (forthcoming May 2012)"The Myth of Theuth in the Phaedrus," in Status, Uses and Function of Plato's Myths, Catherine Collobert, Pierre Destrée, Francisco Gonzalez, edd. (Brill, forthcoming Spring... (read more)

361/365: South Carolina Marsh Originally uploaded by cplong11 LITCHFIELD, SC - Vacation can be a time for moments of insight and tenderness. One such moment came this week for me at a restaurant here in South Carolina called Studio Café. (You can see my Yelp! review here). The restaurant is also an art studio and the owner, Pat Ghannam, both shows here work there and serves tables when they are short staffed. She was serving us that day and she mentioned that the chef was her husband and a co-owner of the restaurant. At few minutes later, when other... (read more)

Long at HASTAC2011 Originally uploaded by cplong11 ANN ARBOR, MI - The story I told at the 2011 meeting of the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) conference is rooted in my pedagogical practices of using digital media technology to cultivate communities of learning in the classroom. The story itself is told at a moment of intense transformation in education as we move from a culture of print scholarship to that of digital scholarship. The main thesis of the presentation is that by drawing on the best virtues of both print and digital scholarship a new educational... (read more)

the table is set...Happy Thanksgiving, a photo by mil8 on Flickr.LAUSDeanLong: Returning home is always fraught with complex emotions and feelings, for you return to a familiar place a changed person. I wonder how students are feeling about their return home for Thanksgiving this week in the wake of the complex emotional, intellectual and psychological experiences of the past two weeks. LaurenPerrotti: Some students have already made up their minds by posting facebook statuses warning friends not to bring up the Sanudsky case. Others plan to tell family and friends that it is their week off and they are taking... (read more)