94-02-17 Scholars Address Purpose of Public Higher Education

SCHOLARS ADDRESS PURPOSE OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 17 -- What should we teach at public
universities?  And
how should we teach?  To whom are teachers and researchers responsible, and
how can their work
be assessed?  These are some of the hotly debated issues that will be the
focus of a conference on
"Teaching, Learning and Research in a Public University," sponsored by the
University of Virginia's
Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural Change on Thursday and Friday,
Feb. 24-25.  
     The conference will feature talks by two Nobel laureates in physics --
Kenneth Wilson and
Norman Ramsey -- as well as such nationally known scholars as Dominick
LaCapra, Patricia Meyer
Spacks, Herbert Blau, Catharine Stimpson, Paul Gross, Naomi Scheman and Bill
Readings.  Gordon
Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
(SCHEV), and Margaret
Miller, SCHEV's associate director for academic affairs, will also address
the conference.
     The Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural Change, a humanities
research and
teaching center established in 1988 by SCHEV and directed by U.Va. Professor
of English Ralph
Cohen, has planned the conference in cooperation with U.Va.'s Office of the
President and the
Department of Physics.  A number of U.Va. faculty and students will
participate in the conference
as commentators.
     The conference will be held in four sessions, from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
and 2 to 5 p.m. on
both days, in Zehmer Hall Auditorium at 104 Midmont Lane.  A public lecture
by Kenneth Wilson
will be held on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. in the Dome Room of the Rotunda. 
All events are free
and open to everyone; no preregistration is required, and free parking is
available in the Zehmer
Hall lot.  For further information, please call (804) 982-5586.
                               ###
                                                February 16, 1994
                                

[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Thu, 17 Feb 94 10:28:17 EST]