Mini Globe and President

Okay, I’ll fill you in on as many interesting happenings at Shimer that I can muster before I go to sleep…cool things going on at Shimer…well, my favorite “cool” thing is (literally) the miniature “Cool Globe” that Shimer students, faculty, and staff designed and created to increase global warming awareness. The following text is from the e-newsletter I sent out today…

“Shimer has been awarded one of 10-20 “Mini Cool Globes” in response to our submission of the artistic vision “Read the Earth: Great Books and Great Art Supporting Environmental Stewardship.” Shimer students, faculty, and staff have covered the oceans of this miniature globe with quotes about the environment from influential texts, including selections from Maria Montessori, Albert Einstein, Pindar, Darwin, Heraclitus, Lao Tze, Aristotle, and Alice Walker. The continents feature naturalistic images including those of Leonardo DaVinci, Carl Linnaeus, Maria Sibylla Merian, and the Cave of Lascaux.

Shimer’s mini-globe will be auctioned along with larger globes on October 5th at the Auditorium Theatre, at an event hosted by activist/comedian Al Franken. Tickets for the auction are $75.00 (you can also bid online – for general information about the auction, visit www.coolglobes.com). We would like a Shimer alum to win the globe at auction, so if you are interested in bidding, please contact either Stuart Patterson (s.patterson@shimer.edu) or Julia Mossbridge (j.mossbridge@shimer.edu) to receive a free ticket…first come, first serve, but serious bidders only, please!”

The next cool thing occurring to me is that, with a remarkably quick turnaround time, Shimer has named Ron Champagne the Interim President. He has worked closely with Shimer in his past role as Vice President of Development at Roosevelt University, and is President Emeritus at St. Xavier. He’s also a likeable, respectful, kind, responsible, well-read and intelligent guy, at least in my dealings with him so far. Here are some words from the e-newsletter on Ron…

“Shimer’s President Emeritus Don Moon tells us, ‘As President during the Roosevelt negotiations, I met with Ron and got to know him. More importantly, he got to know Shimer and its mission, which he and the then president of Roosevelt held in high regard. I have confidence that Ron Champagne will provide excellent leadership for the College during the coming year.’

Shimer’s Academic Dean David Shiner agrees, adding ‘The transition is being managed at the Board level by Chair Chris Nelson, the President of another Great Books college. Like Ron Champagne, he is a longtime friend of Shimer. Both Ron and Chris should be stable, positive forces at Shimer while we search for the next Shimer President during the coming year.’”

…Now I have to sleep…my kid is sick and I’m afraid I don’t feel altogether vibrantly healthy…more on the Marshall Field donation, The New Digs at 3424, Fall Lecture Series, etc. later. By the way, if you want this kind of news more regularly (albeit a bit more formally), please sign up for the e-newsletter at http://www.shimer.edu/alumninetwork/eletter.cfm . I send one out around the 15th of every month, and there’s no way your email address will be traded/sold/packaged/mutilated/turned into an electronic widget of any kind, at least as far as I can control such things.

Shimer on the Street

I really enjoyed this.

Evolution is a 24 hour process.

Overwhelmed with options...what would be interesting?

Hi Shimerians,

I'm physically new at Shimer, but philosophically old. My parents, aunts, uncles, step-parents, graduate advisor, and good friends all either attended Shimer or work here. I, on the other hand, went to Oberlin because my parents told me they feared Shimer would go bankrupt before I graduated.

Wrong, of course...and that's part of why I'm here. I want to become a full-time natural sciences professor/facilitator/teacher/whatever at Shimer, but there isn't enough money to pay for a new faculty hire. So I'm here as a marketing/PR consultant to get the word out about Shimer...and I'm here as an adjunct faculty member to get a sense of what it means to profess/facilitate/teach at Shimer.

Sara invited me to blog because, in my role as PR/marketing person, I have a sense of the goings-on here and I'd like alums to know about them. We've got an email newsletter and of course the Symposium paper thing...but a lot of folks don't read those. SO...I have a lot to share...some amazing cool stuff happening in this place that both is and isn't Shimer (I loved that post). I'm overwhelmed with ideas about what to share, so I'm taking requests...do you want to hear about Shimer's entry into the mini-cool globe project (www.coolglobes.com), the guerrilla marketing effort underway this summer, plans to create a Crucible-like play with actual readings from the McCarthy era, the new Shimer viewbook, Marshall Field donation of Art Institute memberships to Shimer students, the IIT/Shimer academic cross-fertilization experiment...something else I'm forgetting to mention?

If so, post here or (better) send an email to me at j.mossbridge at shimer.edu.

Groove on Shimerians of many eras...

Julia

The Interim Prez

I'm responding to Sara's question about the Interim President. At least that's what I'm trying to do; I've never been too good with machines. Anyway, the plan is for Ron C (the Interim President) to be around for about a year. We're planning to begin a search for a "permanent" President soon. The Presidential Search Committee consists of 1/2 Assembly members and 1/2 Board members. The Assembly will elect its members this Sunday, and the Board will elect theirs when it meets at Shimer next month. A search like this takes about 8 months (at least the last one did), so allowing for slop of various sorts we should have the new person in tow by next summer or thereabouts. Of course, this is Shimer, where things of this sort don't run on schedule all that often, so take this with several grains of salt.

In other news: how do you like my picture? Lots more gray hair, eh? The student with whom I'm speaking in the photo is Meg Nelson, whose mother was a Shimer student when I arrived all those years and two campuses ago. Time shows no mercy.

Best to all,
David Shiner

First Community Lunch - year two

We also thought you might like to see some pictures from the Community Lunch/Picnic last week. It was a great start to the semester.