Oh, the Humanities!

The Humanities program, or "Humes," was one of my great academic joys at Davidson. I'm glad it's still there, and disturbed that it is less popular tin students shying away from the grand theory a liberal arts education in favor of early specialization.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great piece: A Liberal-Arts College That Gets It Right



I also think that current President Carol Quillen is amazing and a terrific leader for the school.

In her exploration of humanism, she told me, she discovered the "experience of revelation through reading the words of people from a distant, alien age." Quillen remains devoted to the close reading of canonical texts. "Life is short," she said, "and those guys were smart." Quillen has a talent for combining academic eloquence with candor and self-doubt.

Each time I have heard her speak to alumni, it has made want to quit my job and go work for her just to be a part of fulfilling her vision.

Also from the story:

Davidson possesses a proud history, a devoted alumni base, and a sterling national reputation. It can pick and choose among applicants who receive generous financial aid and almost always graduate on time. The student-to-faculty ratio is held steady at about 10 to one, nearly all tenure-track. The college even manages to maintain a healthy Division I sports program while avoiding the kind of scandal that is presently consuming the academic reputation of the University of North Carolina, 130 miles east on I-85 in Chapel Hill.

When I visited the college recently, the tenured professors had a lot to say about their approach to teaching undergraduates, which means that they are teaching undergraduates and care enough about it to have an approach. This alone is different from what you often hear at big research universities or adjunct-dominated commuter schools. There’s also a lot of classroom collaboration among professors from different departments, to the point where it seems unremarkable. My questions about how members of the faculty support and evaluate one another’s teaching produced thoughtful answers, not puzzled stares. It was refreshing.

trust me

I think this is another reason why I often hear from recruiters and entrepreneurs, "I will always hire a Davidson graduate, even if they have less direct experience."

Trust's Legacy: Davidson's Honor Code

"Trust can leave a powerful legacy. Davidson students educated in a community of trust become graduates unafraid to try what others claim cannot be done."

alumni pride

I know it's a Warriors' thing, but every time I see a sign like this,


all I can say is "Go Wildcats!"

treefall

Another Class of 1993 alumnus messaged me today that I might want to share my photos of Chambers during the reunion weekend as they may have been the last or most recent photos of Chambers and it iconic cedars before the trees were damaged by heavy storms around the July 4th weekend. The damage is so sever, the trees will have to come down. And beyond their beauty and history with the college, they are some serious trees in the aboral world.


Excerpts from the News from Davidson College:

Heavy rains and winds during a July 4 evening storm are claiming some of the most prominent features of the Davidson College landscape -- the two Eastern Red Cedar trees flanking the front steps of Chambers Building.

One of them lost major branches and substantial portions of its canopy during the storm. The split within the tree revealed that the primary trunk is losing its structural integrity due to cavities forming within. College grounds officials have determined that the tree's imbalance and evidence of additional splits necessitate its retirement from service to the college community.

...

The precise date the two campus icons were planted is unknown, but photographs from the Davidson College archives indicate it occurred during the 1930s.

Eastern Red Cedars are common throughout this region, but the size of this pair has made them noteworthy in the botanical community. The species commonly reach 40 to 50 feet in height, but the Chambers Building pair topped 75 feet.

In addition to providing a symmetrical front for the college's signature building, the two Chambers cedars were decorated with holiday lights as the backdrop of the college's annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. That practice was abandoned during the past few years because the top of the cedars exceeded the capacity of college lift equipment, and concern grew over the weight of the lights suspended on the trees.

The trees were also an accomplice for a memorable student prank. On the night before a Commencement ceremony last decade, students scaled the cedars to access the dome atop Chambers Building, which they decorated with pipe and fabric to mimic a giant graduation mortarboard.

And in other awesome news

Anthony Foxx.  Man of Awesome.

change for a 20

The Davidson College Class of 1993 twenty year reunion was truly something special.

Words to come.

Photos are up.

Classy '93

The 20th Reunion of the Davidson College Class of 1993 was just wonderful! True to my luck, getting there was a farce of airline incompetence and a I will never fly Delta Airlines again if I can possible avoid it (I understand why one person at ATL told me Delta stands for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport.).

But it was truly a delight to see old friends and college colleagues who have now become friends. I want to take a biut more time to process this so I can write about it properly, and when I finish editing an uploading the approximately 250 photos, I'll post.

In the meantime, love to all.

most of three

I love it when Stephen Curry's awesomeness is in the news. But every time I see his name in a headline, I only think, "Go Cats!"

The headline, too, is pretty awesome.

Stephen Curry Receives Key To San Francisco For Making A Bunch Of Three-Pointers In Oakland

southern comfort

The T. Hartleys, Four and Five, invited me over for a quick visit while I was at home. Big Hartley was one of Dad's good friends and our former minuter and I realized I hadn't seen him since I was about 11. He lives in Asheville, NC, and his son T. Hartley V is an adjunct Hardcastle brother. Big Hartley was visiting, along with former Dean terry, our Dean of Students when we were at Davidson. Both T. Hartleys are Davidson alumni too.


It was great to visit on the way over to Ellen's birthday party, and share in a superbly crafted mint julep. Hartley V takes his mint juleps very seriously and DAMN they are good. He spent the afternoon polishing the silver and reducing the mint syrup. Hartley V had the opportunity to talk on the mint juleps to the KA house at Davidson recently, and read from one of the definitive texts while we sipped in the parlor.


Added bit of love, I was going to order the book for myself when Hartley V gave me his and inscribed it. I love this book, Hartley's oration, and additional commentary. Among the gems: "the mint leaf, like a woman's heart, is most fragrant when slightly bruised."

Warrior Cat

The Warriors win over the Nuggets in the playoffs was a team effort, but I really consider it The Stephen Curry Show.  And my school spirit is showing as all I want to do is yell "Go Davidson!"

Regardless, awesome.

Mister Secretary, '93

I was just overjoyed reading the news yesterday, and openly teared up watching the live stream from the White House:



Anthony Foxx, friend, Davidson classmate, current freaking awesome mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been nominated by President Obama to be the new Secretary of Transportation. Anthony was always impressive—kind, friendly, wicked smart, and effective as our Student Body President. (I only served one term as an independent before I joined Phi Gamma Delta.) Even then, you knew Anthony was going to be one of those people Who Did Great Things.

If he ever considers a presidential run, I'm in.

Also, bring on the high speed rail.

Reading the feeds on my phone during the morning commute, I had to stifle a school cheer. The news of the nomination of Anthony Foxx ('93) to Transportation Secretary was atop posts of Steph Curry's ('10) freakishly awesome performance at last night's Warrior's game. Go Wildcats!

On the downside: Anthony has now completely ruined the curve when it comes to the "So, what are you doing now?" questions and answers during our class reunion this June.


"Hey there! What have you been up to?"
"Oh, I'm closing out my term as Mayor of Charlotte and successfully hosted the Democratic National Convention while growing the city's jobs and economy and fostering public transit initiatives. I was actually just nominated for a cabinet position in the Obama administration as Secretary of Transportation." What have you been up to?"
"Um...I invented Post-Its..."

Curry Up, Curry Scores

Davidson's Warriors' Stephen Curry perfecting the imperfect art of shooting

Via Sports Illustrated, this is pretty freaking cool.

The easy stat to cite is Curry's lifetime three-point percentage of 44.6, the second highest ever behind Steve Kerr's 45.4 (and without the benefit of the shorter 1990s-era line). That number does Curry a disservice, though, for the other players near the top of that list are guys such as Kerr, Hubert Davis, Jason Kapono, Steve Novak and Tim Legler. All are prototypical spot-up shooters, men whose NBA existence is/was predicated on playing limited minutes, standing at a certain spot on the arc and waiting for someone to pass them the ball, often once the defense has been sucked in another direction. Of the top 40 three-point percentage leaders, only Steve Nash and Mark Price were also primary ball handlers, and neither of them was counted on to score like Curry, who is the Warriors' first (and occasionally only viable) scoring option.]

Rather, to truly appreciate Curry's skill, you have to look at how and where he takes his shots. This season, according to NBA.com, the 6-foot-3 Curry is shooting 65.9 percent on pull-up jumpers (in 176 attempts), 69.8 percent on step-back jumpers (63 attempts) and 72.7 percent on running bank shots (a smaller sample size of 11 attempts). For comparison, Novak has not attempted a step-back jumper. Or a running bank shot. He has, however, taken four pull-up jumpers, and no doubt each one scared the hell out of Knicks coach Mike Woodson.

Certainly, there are other players who sink crafty shots, or are devastating mid-range shooters -- Kobe Bryant, for example. What separates Curry from those players is his consistency and range. Curry doesn't just make a lot of threes; he makes a lot of deep threes. Whereas many of the spot-up specialists camp out in the short corner like gargoyles, Curry usually launches from the top of the arc, and often on the move.

maddening March madness

Well, it was fun, and excruciating, while it lasted.

But still, Go Cats!

Wild Cats

I attended a Davidson College alumni event last night and got to hear the new President of the college, Carol Quillen, speak. The event was at the Zoo, after hours, in the dark, and the external power was out, so there certainly was an "effect," going on. I've heard many "new" Presidents speak over the years and I have never been more impressed with an academic leader as much as I was last night with Dr. Quillen.  And I have met many.

Her articulate vision of what makes Davidson College excellent, and what they need to do to both preserve this excellence and become the absolute leader in quality liberal arts education in the digital age was at the very least intensely inspiring.

During the Q&A she spoke to the students' reaction to the Chick-Fil-A nastiness, the abusive Amendment 1 in North Carolina, commitments to diversity, and advanced education design—structurally, philosophically, programmatically, and digitally. I came away in awe of this women who has taken passion and crazy super smart and applied to into action and a plan for transformation while retaining the essence of Davidson. I only wish I were going through Davidson now. I think while hiding so far in the closet, which was absolutely necessary for my survival at the time, that unfortunately meant I had to hide from many of the opportunities Davidson had to offer even then.

I spoke to her a little afterwards and listened in on her talks regarding adaptive learning/teaching programs which are so different from the software I encountered during my MLIS which were more focused on distance learning delivery than actual teaching or learning. Oddly enough, when reading my digital magazines this morning I came across two related stories. One on the rise and fall of Blackboard as the dominate player in the edtech market. Personally as a user, I hated the Blackboard system. Hated it.

Driven and created by Professors, Coursera is the new emergent leader in education technology, not only designing learning systems for their own students, but making available some of the best courses in the world available online for free.

And how the Minnesota legislature could really use it themselves as they appear to be a bunch of frakking morons, banning delivery of MIT, Harvard and other courses online because they aren't in Minnesota (and paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars in registration fees).

Someone needs a lesson.

Alumni family

I am off to a Davidson alumni mixer downtown.  It just occurred to me that only yesterday I wrote of Hartley (whose father in law just passed) and Joe (whose father also just passed).  T. Hartley III and IV, And Joe Jr. and III are all Davidson College Alumni.  As are brother Mac and I.

Al, Carolyn's father (and T. Hartley IV's father-in-law) went to Penn, as did brother Jay.

No point really, other than we do seem to keep an academically related family too.

Davidson back in March Madness

Yeah Baby!

The Davidson Wildcats, now without the awesome Steph Curry, have made it back into March Madness, with a nail biter of a win last night.

Davidson survives, wins Southern Conference title

Steph Curry back at Davidson

Great story: star basketball player left Davidson before he graduated for the NBA.  Now that the lockout is continuing, he has re-enrolled full time, is working with the basketball team as much is as allowed, and hopes to graduate.  CBS sports has a write-up.

It's a pretty awesome story (even if CBS refers to Davidson as a "university" and not a college).

Awesome story for Davidson and for Curry.  Right on.

and go Cats!

it's the little things

Davidson College, my alma mater, is hosting an alumni educational series on Ethics. I included several Ethics classes in my self-designed curriculum and loved all of them. At the time ('89-'93), Dr. Lance Stell was the main Ethics professor, now there is an Ethics department, and Dr. Stell (then, and I imagine still, a professional Medical Ethicist, pager and everything) is now the "Thatcher Professor of Philosophy and Director of Medical Humanities."

Dr. Stell was one of the few professors with a cork or white board on his office door, and I made it a habit of leaving pithy little aphorisms every couple of days.  The Davidson Alumni College Program is called "Ethics: Theory and Practice."

 I wonder if he remembers that one of my favorite thoughts I scribbled on his door once was "In Theory, there is no difference between Theory and Practice. But in Practice, there is."

march meds

So, March Madness is finally over, but I doubt it will give way to April Sanity.

And Duke is on top. Again. Ugh. Insufferable.

Fellow Davidson Alum Christy (Vacca) Wright said it best in her FB update: "Dear Duke Fans, Silence is golden but duck tape is silver."

And by the way, Oh snap: "Stanford vs. Duke basketball: The difference in admissions standards"

Foxxy!

Anthony Foxx, friend from Davidson ('93) and all around exceptionally superb human being is now the mayor-elect of Charlotte, North Carolina. And in voting for Anthony, Charlotte elected the first democrat to the mayor's office in Charlotte in more than 20 years.

I am so excited for Anthony, and for Charlotte—he can only bring great things.

Congratulations Charlotte!

(Wikipedia)