Professor Bill Rose has unveiled a new kind of seminar series which is hoped to reach the non-university community—he said: “I have lived here for 45 years, but I haven’t done a good job for the local community. I’d like to change that, now that I am retired. How does the university help the local community? How do we communicate? I have found that non-university residents are inhibited about coming to campus—-many feel isolated from the university community.
I also perceive that university faculty do not think that community service is as highly valued by the University as service away from home. Maybe we can correct that to some degree. The Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw is off campus and is an entity of the city, not the university—-could it serve as a place where the town community and the university meet?” As a Carnegie Board member, I have planned a seminar series for the next 10 months on subject related to Natural History of the Keweenaw—a big part of the museum’s mission.”
“The seminars will happen every second or third tuesday from September to April. I contacted experienced senior researchers to address topics that connect with our lives— about things that should interest teachers, students, residents and the university community. I am hoping that the presentations will attract the community as well as the university, partly because we will do the sessions in a newly remodeled room in the Carnegie Museum—in downtown Houghton in early evenings. We have comfortable chairs, refreshments and good projectors. There will be informative discussions about important local themes. We will cover lots of science issues—earth science, botanical and animal issues, the atmosphere and weather, Lake Superior, First Nations communities and global change. But we will target a general audience. I think the topics are all things of broad interest to Keweenaw residents. What do University researchers think are important local issues to discuss? What are residents interested in? We will find out.”
The Seminar information is all on a web page:
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~raman/SilverI/CarnegieSem