Last modified: Thursday, April 4, 2002
Symposium to discuss "Making the Most of College"
The 20th annual Spring Symposium will be held on April 17 at the Indiana Memorial Union on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. The theme for this year's symposium is "Making the Most of College -- Students Speak Their Minds." Professor Richard J. Light of Harvard University will deliver the keynote address at 9 a.m. in Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union.
The event is co-sponsored by the Office for Academic Affairs and the Division of Student Affairs. It features a keynote address and more than 30 interest sessions. The keynote address and all interest sessions are free and open to the campus community and the public.
Light is the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education in the Kennedy School of Government and Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He teaches statistics, program evaluation and policy analysis at Harvard, with special focus on programs in education. His work emphasizes how to collect and analyze information to improve program management.
Light received his doctorate in statistics from Harvard in 1969, and he was appointed a professor in 1974. He has authored or co-authored seven books. His most recent book, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds (Harvard University Press, 2001), was honored with the Virginia and Warren Stone Award for best book of the year about education and society.
At Harvard, Light recently joined the program at the Kennedy School's Center for Business and Government, to lead efforts to enhance productive relationships among education, business and government. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Light is also director of the Seminar on Assessment. This is a consortium supported by two former Harvard University presidents, Derek Bok and Neil Rudenstine, that brings together faculty and senior administrators from 24 colleges and universities to carry out research on college effectiveness. It is now in its 14th year.
Following the keynote address, over 30 interest sessions related to the symposium's theme will be offered in three different concurrent sessions throughout the day. These sessions also will be held in the Indiana Memorial Union. Interest session presenters represent various disciplines from several IU campuses, including IUPUI, IPFW, IU East and IU Bloomington. A buffet lunch also will be available for $10.50 for those who reserve in advance.
For more information, contact Suzanne Phillips, assistant dean of students, at philli@indiana.edu or 812-856-1626, or visit the symposium Web site at https://campuslife.indiana.edu/Symposium.
