The Lupton funds will allow UTC to fund programs that will enrich the
intellectual life of faculty, thereby indirectly enriching our classroom
performance. I am considering making a proposal for re-creating the
stimulating two-week faculty retreats we did some years ago under a
three-year NEH grant and a fourth year with other funds.

The main objective of those original workshops was to get us thinking about
a new and unique curriculum for the Honors Program. Our final curriculum
was cited by NEH as a model program. However, an unintended but valuable
by-product was, in my opinion, the opportunity to share and discuss
readings with invited scholars noted for their excellence, learn about the
disciplinary approach and work of others at UTC, and create a sense of the
university as a place of intellectual enquiry. As a commuter campus with
heavy teaching loads, there are far too few opportunities for reading and
reflection.

Although we were not looking at the nuts and bolts of pedagogy, I think our
classrooms benefitted from exposure to new ideas, and as faculty we were
forced to look at methods and issues outside our own parochial specialties,
something we expect our students to do in General Education. Several of the
participants in those four years also were able to develop new research
opportunities. For example, Professor Marcia Noe began her exciting work on
Brazilian literature under the guidance of a Yale Professor we invited
down; Professor Maurice Edwards was able to enlist graduate students in
working with TVA on wetlands waste recycling after we visited TVA; I was
stimulated by a University of Georgia entomologist to research and publish
on odor culture in Japan.

None of these and other results could have been predicted. I think the
majority of participants, some of whom are still with UTC, found the
two-week workshops one of their best intellectual experiences at UTC,
renewing the intellectual excitement that we all had in graduate school.
This is probably why we all are still here (it ain't the money, folks),
exploring ideas and the life of the mind.

But before I proceed any further with this idea (brain-storming, deciding
on format and topics, number of participants each year, retreat locations,
and so on), I would like to ask those of you who participated in the past,
if you would like to see in some form such faculty seminars, to send me a
brief email statement of interest and support. I cannot design and carry
out such a program on my own, and I anticipate that funded proposals will
require broad faculty participation.

Depending on the response, I will call a meeting to discuss submitting a
formal proposal. I think this idea might perfectly capture the spirit and
intent of renaissance implied in the Lupton grant. It certainly would raise
morale and make UTC a better place to learn and teach.

Thanks,

Richard Rice