Another personal note – I moved.

Another personal note – I moved.

-Jim Stellar

As College students and faculty make their ways back to campus in and around this Labor Day weekend, I do the same, but to a different place.  As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I am now Provost at CUNY Queens College.  I have been on the job a week and a half and am loving it.  My new e-mail address is James.Stellar@qc.cuny.edu.

I want to ask my colleagues from Northeastern and the larger Boston community to continue the great conversation in this blog.  While we now cannot do that over coffee or walking around campus, we can work at a distance.  A blog is meant to do that.  Also, I do have some projects pending with you folks – thank you.  Let’s keep going.

I also want to invite people at Queens College to talk to me about the blog.  Already a few projects are in the pipeline with colleagues from here.  If you read the blog, I hope you will agree that one of its strengths is that the co-authors have been from student, staff, and faculty walks of life.  We share experiences, theories/ideas, and blends of the two.  I hope to add colleagues from industry and other colleges and universities.

Certainly, my new environment has got me thinking.  One new thought is about integrating Experiential Education with large scale globalization and diversity.  The borough of Queens is large (it would be in the top 10 American cities, if it were one), and it is remarkably diverse (one of the most in the nation).  These properties are reflected in the public institution that is Queens College. 

Another thought relates to General Education, an ongoing project at Queens and the larger CUNY.  Both strengthen liberal learning.  Anyone who was Dean of a College of Arts and Sciences for 10 years, as I was, and who encouraged experiential education (and particularly cooperative education) would have to believe that.  Also, I read over the summer, an interesting book on general education in a public university edited by Judith Summerfield (at Queens College) and Crystal Benedicks (at Queensborough Community College). This is a good starting point.

I like to connect what happens on the job with the academic thinking behind it to enrich both.  I did that, like all neuroscientists, in the lab.  I now have a new administrative job at a great new place.  So, expect some new learning.  

Let’s keep working together.