- Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks.
- I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. On this day
- in history, January 13th, 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC for the
- increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.
- John Diltz will deliver today's reflection. Good afternoon. My name is John Diltz and all my life I've
- been a collector. Stamps, coins, all that stuff.
- But I didn't know that I collected knives until recently. My wife asked for some ideas for Christmas
- gifts, and I said I would really like to have a marlin spike knife. It's a sailor's knife, and I didn't
- have one. There was a long pause.
- And she said, You need a knife? And well, no, I don't need one. I just don't have that one. And that's
- when I knew I was a collector. I already had about 30 knives, machetes, pen knives, some hunting knives,
- lots of pocket knives. I even had a
- had two paramilitary tactical knives, one of which is a Spyderco rescue designed for first responders.
- And it was the first generation one. And if you're into that sort of thing, you now are impressed that
- I have a Spyderco rescue knife.
- And all of this got me thinking about the difference between accumulations and collections. First, an
- accumulation refers to the stuff that clutters my personal world, mostly stuff that came as gifts or
- for very narrow practical reasons, such as books, tools, tackle, toys. For example, I have a whole drawer
- full of screwdrivers. I mean, a big drawer.
- of screwdrivers and three complete sets of socket wrenches. Now, that's an accumulation. On the other
- hand, there's the stuff that I gathered intentionally just for what they are, regardless of their utility.
- For example, I have a collection of early editions by the Indiana author Booth Tarkington.
- I have a collection of political campaign buttons, milk bottles, and 19th century pocket watches. The
- difference between accumulations and collections matters because most of the accumulated stuff, I won't
- mind leaving behind when I die, but the collectibles, those I'd like to take with me. The thing is,
- As you know, not all collectibles travel well into the hereafter. Knives and milk bottles and first
- editions don't travel well at all. However, there are collectibles that actually do travel well. Things
- like joyfulness and gentleness and gratefulness and friendliness and faithfulness.
- hopefulness, peacefulness, especially peacefulness. Peacefulness travels very well. These are the collections
- that are portable. And if I am to be a collector, this is maybe where I should put my energy and my
- money. So here's my New Year's resolution. When I die, I promise to leave the knife collection at home
- with the rest of the accumulations except for that Marlin spike and knife. I'm planning to take that
- along. Happy New Year. What a worthy resolution. Thank you, John. Katie Cerniak will introduce our guests today.
- All right. Hello, everyone. We have four guests here in person today. First, we have Melissa Von Buskirk,
- who is a guest of Ellen Stroman. Oh, sorry. If you can please stand so we can recognize you and welcome
- you, we would appreciate that. So Melissa, are you here? Oh, she. Let's just clap for Melissa anyway.
- Let's welcome Melissa. OK. Thank you. Next, we have Matthew Joseph, a guest of Elaine Barker. Matthew,
- are you here?
- Next we have Amalia Schifras, who's here with the Lake Monroe Water Fund. Welcome. And we also have
- Clara Stanley, who is a guest of Jim Bright. Welcome. And do we have any guests online? Let's see. OK.
- Hi, everyone. So today we have Amy and James Wolfe.
- We have Bill, Cindy Brumberger, Haoxi Wang, James Simms, Marcy Hibbard, Martha Raj, and Sandy Keller.
- Thank you. All right, welcome everyone. Thank you. Welcome guests. If you'd like to learn something
- about Rotary, just turn to the Rotarian next to you.
- Rotary birthdays, we have two rotary birthdays to celebrate, Eric Powell on the 17th, John Bender on
- the 19th. We have two anniversaries to celebrate, Jonas Chang on the 15th, one year, and Lance Eberly,
- 24 years, also on the 15th.
- Announcements next Chamber of Commerce business after hours will be held tomorrow Wednesday January
- 14th 530 to 730 at the Spring Mill Inn in Mitchell Rotary members attend free of charge see me or see
- Christopher one of the middle tables if you have questions The Rotary Book Club will meet tomorrow January
- 14th starting at 7 p.m. At the home of Judy Schroeder and
- The book will discuss E. Jean Carroll's Not My Type, One Woman Versus a President. All are welcome,
- but please let Judy Schroeder know if you are coming so she can plan on whether it's eight people or
- 28 people. And Judy is sitting right there. I'm going to put your hand up, Judy. Okay. So our club executive
- assistant, Mandy Stewart, started today. So let's welcome Mandy.
- So all of us have one name to learn. Mandy has 160 names to learn. So please be patient and give her
- some time to learn your name. Second phrase of the Meals on Wheels District Grant Project will take
- place on Wednesday, January 21st. Need about five volunteers to help at the Meals on Wheels office that morning.
- Last count from Diana Hoffman. We had three so we need two more So if you can help that morning Diana
- Hoffman is sitting at one that table right there In addition club members are needed to make donations
- of specific items and Diana has a handout as to what they need So, please help meals on wheels, this
- is the second phase of our annual district grant project and
- Happy dollar proceeds for the month of January and February will be given to Teachers' Warehouse. The
- Community Services Committee is meeting here today immediately after this meeting. Meeting is open for
- committee members and others who are interested in learning more about this committee. And I'll be on
- vacation next week. Our club president-elect, Sam Udak, will lead the celebration of service that day.
- And now we have a special grant presentation.
- Hi, folks. I'm here representing the Community Service Committee. And I am delighted to announce the
- award of our second Rotary Foundation grant, inaugural foundation grant. And this grant is going to
- the Monroe County, I'm sorry, Lake Monroe Water Fund.
- It is one of 13 proposals that we received. Last week, we honored Wonder Lab. And for this grant, it
- will be for $4,000. And we're delighted to have an opportunity for Michelle to
- give us a little background on this. But before she does, I do want to say that Michelle and I are co-chairs
- of the Community Service Committee. And because of the tired look on my face, you could probably surmise
- that Michelle was not involved in any way in the grant selection process as an awardee from beginning
- to end. So that was something I ran or led, I should say.
- So one last thing I will say is that this, before she speaks, there will be opportunities for Rotarians
- to roll up their sleeves and put on their boots to work on this grant. So please, Michelle. Thank you,
- Dave, and thank you for taking on the entire process of the grant awards. Much appreciated. And he's correct.
- did nothing, and he did a huge amount of work. So we played tag this morning, so I'm it from now on
- for the next few months for the committee. So our grant is for a project we're calling Forests to Faucets,
- Native Trees for Water Quality and Wildlife. And just to let you know that woodlands and forests are
- the best land cover you can possibly have for water quality.
- soaking up storm water, preventing sediment and other runoff from going into the lake. So our project
- is going to be planting 30 to 35 native trees on a former ag plot that DNR has near Stillwater Marsh
- off of State Road 46. So if you'd like to help us out and plant trees for water quality, and they also
- provide wonderful habitat for wildlife, we're targeting Saturday, April 18th,
- near Earth Day and Arbor Day as the date, and if the weather for some reason is incredibly awful, we
- are targeting the following Saturday. So we'll have more info on that as we go. There's also a public
- awareness component of this, and we're hoping to put a billboard up on State Road 46 touting the benefits
- of native trees and plantings. And of course, we'll include Rotary in that for recognition. So thank
- you to the entire club, to the Foundation,
- to all the folks who are on the committee who reviewed the grants and to Dave. Appreciate it. Thank you.
- standing near the mic. So I'm going to make a quick plug. So I didn't have to ask Steve, 50 men who
- care the giving circle will be meeting Thursday at 530 at Heartwork Brewing Company. And so anybody
- that is interested in rejoining this group that is not met in four years to help support our community,
- please come out or see me. I'm sitting over there. Thank you. Sorry, Steve.
- Thank you, Dave. Now it's time for the Mystery Rotarian. OK, remember the process. I will give a clue.
- If you know the answer, put up your hand. If you're online, raise your hand electronically. Don't shout out.
- And then we'll go through the process with a second clue and a third clue. Hopefully more people after
- the second clue know than after the first clue, but that's not always the case. So here's the first
- clue. Born in Vigo County, Indiana, this Rotarian grew up in Martinsville and has served as a Morgan
- County Historic Preservation Society board member.
- This individual earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the IU O'Neill School. Okay, I see three
- or four, maybe five hands. Okay. Second clue. The recipient of two Sagamores of the Law Bash. This Rotarian
- worked as a staffer for Indiana governors, O'Bannon and Kernan.
- Later, this individual served as chief of staff for Congressman Barron Hill, and then later as a regional
- director for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign. You know the answer, put up your hand. We
- have a few more. Third clue. This Rotarian currently leads CDFI Friendly Bloomington as executive director.
- and in his second stint as a Rotarian. This individual rejoined the club in 2021 and currently serves
- as club treasurer. Put up your hand if you know quite a few now. And our mystery Rotarian is John Zote
- sitting in the back there. John served eight years as the state of Indiana Democratic Party chairman
- and as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
- Closer to home, John previously worked as director of the City of Bloomington Housing and Neighborhood
- Development Department. And John is a graduate of Leadership Bloomington, Monroe County and has served
- on the Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals. He's also taught as an adjunct instructor at the O'Neill
- School of Public and Environmental Affairs. I'm really happy now that he's spending time as Rotary Treasurer.
- So congratulations, John.
- I saw, Sally, you were one of the first ones with your hand up. Did you get it right? Excellent. Whitney,
- did anyone get it right online, you know? We didn't have people raising their hand. Okay, no hands online.
- So anyway, congratulations, John, Judy, and thank you. Rotary International, seven areas of focus. I
- show this every now and then just so we're reminded of the things that we care about as an international
- organization.
- You can see that, you know, up on the top left, water and sanitation is the primary focus, and so our
- grant to the Lake Monroe Water Fund fits right into that. But January is Rotary Vocational Services
- Month, using our professional expertise to make a difference.
- announced this, but the happy dollar proceeds in January and February given to Teachers' Warehouse.
- And I think we're ready for our speaker introduction. Sally Gaskell will introduce our speaker today.
- Hey everyone. Jane McLeod is a Provost Professor Emerita of Sociology at IU.
- Her research looks at mental health and health inequalities. She received all of her degrees, a bachelor's,
- two master's, and a PhD from the University of Michigan. Her first job was at the University of Minnesota,
- and she came to IU with tenure in 1998. She served not only as chair of the sociology department, but
- as an associate vice provost and executive associate dean of the college. I first met Jane when
- She became president of the board of Voces Nove, the small choir that I've been part of for 20 years.
- Jane led that organization for, I believe, four years and, excuse me, under her leadership, we adopted
- a new strategic plan and produced the biggest project in our history, the Vonnegut Requiem. Jane is
- herself a member of the UU choir, the choir of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Bloomington,
- and oh, she's also president of the UU congregation.
- Jane retired last May from teaching and administration. So when I heard that she was involved in something
- new in Bloomington, I took note. I went to my first traveling university program two days ago and got
- to hear one of Bloomington's treasures, Scott Russell Sanders, who talked about our commonwealth living
- in a shared world. It was a dark and cold Sunday afternoon and what a wonderful interlude it was to hear
- Scott Sanders. I know you will be interested in learning about the traveling university as well. So
- please welcome Jane McLeod. Well, thank you very much for allowing me to visit you today to tell you
- a little bit about the traveling university, which is an organization that I established with retired
- IU faculty this past fall.
- To understand who and why we are, I need to take a step back to talk about the impetus for our establishment,
- which was an op-ed in the New York Times, and the history behind that, which involves the Polish Flying
- University. So on April 14th of 2025,
- Masha Gessen published an op-ed in the New York Times about how universities should respond to threats
- to higher education. You may recall that this is around the time that the president began his most public
- attacks against universities. In their op-ed, Gessen argued that universities, quote, must abandon all
- the concerns, rankings, donors, campus amenities, that preoccupy and distract them and focus on their
- core mission,
- the production and dissemination of knowledge," end quote. Gesson further encouraged universities to
- act like universities, not like businesses. He argued, don't close your DEI offices. Don't pull back
- on what you teach. Don't agree to federal oversight. Quote, spend your endowments. Accept more, not
- fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach, not by buying real estate, but by bringing
- education to communities. Create a base.
- become a movement. And Gesson identified two models for doing this. The first is to follow the example
- of Bard College, which actively reaches outside of its walls to provide education. Bard teaches in the
- New York state prisons. It runs micro colleges in Holyoke, Massachusetts for young mothers and low income
- women, and at the public library in Brooklyn. It operates 10 high schools from which students can graduate
- with associate's degrees from Bard College.
- The second is modeled on the Flying University of Poland and involves offering courses outside of the
- formal university structure. In brief, the Flying University of Poland offered clandestine academic
- education at historical moments when Polish sovereignty was under threat. And I was inspired by that
- article and realized that I'm not in a position to do the former, but that I might be in a position
- to do something like the latter.
- So what was the Flying University? Well, what's now referred to as the Flying University existed at
- three moments in Polish history. And the history begins in the late 18th century when the Polish-Lithuanian
- Commonwealth, or the first Polish republic, was partitioned after a period of civil unrest and sustained
- external assault and its lands divided among its neighbors, Imperial Russia, Prussia, and Austria's
- Habsburg monarchy.
- In the Russian and Prussian partitions, teaching in Polish was outlawed. Polish universities were closed.
- Primary and secondary schools were only allowed to teach as much as people needed to know to be peasants.
- Instruction in science, philosophy, history, language, and literature was suspended, and girls were
- not allowed to attend school beyond middle school. There were several attempts to establish legally
- functioning Polish universities during this period, but they failed.
- The Royal Warsaw University was established in 1818, but was closed by Russia after an uprising in 1830.
- An attempt was made to create a university called the Main School in Warsaw in 1862, but that only survived
- until 1869 when it too was abolished after another uprising. So as a response to these closures, Polish
- academics began to offer secret courses in private apartments in Warsaw beginning in 1882.
- The instructors were Polish professors who'd been dismissed from Polish universities when they were
- closed. And the course offerings are largely uncoordinated, sort of whoever wanted to offer something
- that was what was being offered. And they emphasized self-education because meeting in person was risky.
- It was a time of real innovation in the development of self-learning materials. And the first courses
- were directed towards women.
- In 1885, Jadwiga Szywinski, pictured here, united the various groups offering courses into a single
- informal and illegal secret university that became known as the Flying University. Flying because the
- universities were changed frequently to prevent authorities from learning the location and arresting
- the teachers and students. Students were charged minimally for the courses and those fees were used
- to provide honoraria to the teachers
- and to create a secret library. The curriculum covered five main subjects, social sciences, pedagogy,
- philology, history, and natural sciences. And Marie Curie was one of the students. In the buildup to
- World War I, some say in an effort to convert the Polish people to their cause, Polish partitioners
- allowed the flying universities to become a legal entity in 1905 as the TKN or Association for Scientific
- Courses. It was allowed to operate with the status of a scholarly society, not as a university. So much
- of the teaching remained in secret. And the sources I consulted estimate that about 300 professors taught
- for the TKN with an average enrollment annually of 2,500 students.
- When Poland regained its independence after World War II, several new universities were established,
- and the TKN stopped operating as such and became the Free University, which operated until World War
- II. Poland was invaded in 1939 and occupied by Nazi Germany and Russia. Poland was once again divided,
- this time into areas directly incorporated into the Reich, directly incorporated into the Soviet Union,
- and a German-controlled central government area. The Nazis believed that Poles needed no education and
- no higher education and intended that the public be turned into serfs for the German government. The
- only societies that remained open were trade schools and courses for factory workers. In the territories
- occupied into the Reich, education in Polish was banned and punishable by death.
- Maybe I have a slide there. Throughout the Polish territory, the Germans abolished all university education
- for non-Germans. All institutions of higher education were closed. Their equipment and most
- of the laboratories were taken to Germany and divided among German universities, while those buildings
- became offices and military barracks. So in response to these actions, the secret to teaching society
- was established to provide education first to
- to primary and secondary students, and then to university students. Estimates indicate that about 1.5
- million children received education through this society. A network of underground universities grew,
- including universities in Warsaw, Krakow, and Lviv, with estimates indicating that almost 10,000 students
- received master's degrees at the secret universities, and several hundred others received doctorates.
- So you can see there's a long history of this kind of clandestine education in Poland. And I don't think
- we should underestimate the courage that was required to offer these courses. It was a dangerous time.
- Members of the faculty were sought, found, captured, arrested, beaten, or killed for their commitment
- to education. The end of World War II brought a communist regime to Poland which continued to censor
- Polish language, history, and culture.
- Polish higher education became dominated by state universities run by the Ministry of Education, and
- members of the ministry were appointed by the government and approved by the Polish Communist Party.
- The articulated logic was that because the state finances the universities, it should be able to make
- decisions about what is taught and how it is taught. In effect, educational institutions became instruments
- of state ideology. And in response,
- The tradition of the Flying University was revived once again for the final time in 1978 when a group
- of 61 Polish intellectuals, including university faculty and writers, established a clandestine university
- in Warsaw and named it for its predecessor, the TKN. Its main purpose was to provide lectures and seminars,
- to publish scholarly writings, and to stimulate research with a particular emphasis on what they referred
- to as areas of darkness,
- topics that were prohibited by the state curriculum. The instructors included professors who were active
- at state universities and research centers, former professors who'd lost their jobs for political reasons,
- distinguished writers, and artists. They first operated openly, published a declaration of their intent,
- and gave public lectures. But that led to the arrest of members and the decision to move their activities
- underground again. Teaching was conducted in small groups,
- with no permanent meeting place, the time and place of each lecture was kept secret and communicated
- person to person or through a clandestine press. The courses that were taught by the Flying University
- were not intended to substitute for state universities, but were intended to supplement them. Many of
- the students were actually official students at state universities who took additional courses through
- the Flying University.
- There were no official registration lists so that students could participate secretly. Rectors at state-run
- universities said that those students would be expelled if they were found to be participating in these
- courses. And it was, again, a dangerous enterprise. Professors who were discovered faced reprisals.
- They were forbidden to publish. They lost their university positions. They lost their passports. They
- were arrested. They were beaten.
- And the most recent flying university was active until 1981 when martial law was imposed and many of
- the professors were detained. So the overarching goal of the flying university was to provide free academic
- instruction outside of formal state controlled educational institutions and in that way to revive and
- protect academic freedom.
- It provided a structure in which to explore these areas of darkness, particularly the social sciences
- and humanities that were restricted by the state curriculum as a supplement to state university education.
- It gave faculty who had lost their positions an opportunity to interact with students and publish their
- work and provided a more comprehensive education to students than was possible in state universities.
- So despite differences in the specific circumstances that gave rise to the various versions of the flying
- university, there were important commonalities. They were established in response to limits on academic
- freedom, both what could be taught and how it could be taught. It reflected a deep commitment to preserving
- knowledge that would otherwise be lost, especially the threat and loss of Polish history and culture.
- And there was an investment in educating the public, especially early on women and throughout younger people.
- So you might ask yourself, given this specific history, what relevance does the flying university have
- for us? Indiana has not been partitioned. People are not yet being, they're not being threatened with
- death for teaching disciplinary content, although they are being sanctioned. So there is a changing
- context of higher education in the state of Indiana, with the state asserting more control over higher
- education. In the recent budget, as part of Bill HTA 1001,
- The governor was given power to appoint the three trustees who used to be voted on by alumni, thus depriving
- the latter of a vote that they've had since the 1890s. There's now a discussion of bringing back alumni
- representatives. Faculty now go through a five-year post-tenure productivity review, which raises concerns
- about kind of the erosion of tenure protections, which is the strongest protection we have of academic freedom.
- degree programs deemed to be low enrolled or being consolidated or eliminated, including language programs
- for which IU is known internationally. And there was also SEA 202, and the content I take here is directly
- from the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, which places requirements on
- how and what faculty teach at the institution. The concerns being the areas that I highlighted in yellow
- with an unclear definition of what counts as providing intellectual diversity in the courses that you
- offer, what it means to provide a variety of political or ideological frameworks within a curriculum
- that's established by the board of trustees rather than by the faculty,
- and that faculty may be evaluated based on other criteria established by the Board of Trustees, which
- raises concerns about what those might be. So it was in this context that I read Masha Gessen's op-ed
- and decided that it was time to start thinking about how to establish something like the Flying University
- here in Bloomington. And I established three goals for the Flying University to preserve and disseminate
- knowledge and understanding that might otherwise be lost.
- to create a space where faculty can teach disciplinary content without fear of reprisal, and to provide
- up-to-date information about topics of civic interest to new audiences. And I see the last of these
- as important as the first two. I think there are a lot of people around the state who are interested
- in the information that a university can provide, but who don't have direct access to that information.
- So I reached out to a few retired faculty leaders who agreed with me that we should not formally affiliate
- ourselves with IU. And then I started contacting retired faculty I know to gauge their interest
- in participating in the organization and or in providing lectures. And I got positive responses from
- almost everyone. I convened a faculty council in August, which included myself, Margie Hershey from
- political science,
- Mike Grossberg from history and Pat Foster from biology. And we agreed to start slowly in the fall,
- just offering, you probably won't be able to read that very well, but to offer lectures on four different
- topics in Bloomington by faculty who are outstanding speakers and who are known in the community. So
- we offered our lectures at public libraries and churches.
- Although I think some people would see our initiative as inherently political, we are committed
- to maintaining a non-ideological, non-partisan stance. We really want people who are genuinely curious
- to come out to our events. So in the fall, we had events on immigration and politics, on courage in
- the face of hate, people who resisted the Klan historically in Indiana, on climate change, and on PBS.
- So the spring schedule for Bloomington has now been finalized, which you can see on our website. I don't
- know if I made this a live link. I don't know how to get my... Can you? Okay, and then there's like
- a little events tab on the side. So we have a spring schedule for Bloomington, which has now been finalized,
- which you can see on our website.
- And then we've expanded the location. So our goal was always to take education out of Bloomington into
- surrounding communities. So we have events this spring in Columbus, in Martinsville, in Nashville,
- in Bedford, and in Paoli. And we're offering events on a range of topics. As Sally mentioned, our first
- event of the spring was on the Commonwealth. We will have events on
- the relationship between story and memory with a documentary film screening. So if you can go to the
- events tab. Yeah. The exploration of Mars on vaccines, on autism, on museums and their role in society,
- on the social safety net, and in celebration of its 250th anniversary,
- an event on Abraham Lincoln's views on the Declaration of Independence that will be in May. So that's
- a little bit about what we've been doing and why, and I'm just gonna stop there and see what questions
- or comments you might have. I see Connie has a question. Oh, thank you.
- I have attended one of your lectures. It was Margie. It was just wonderful, as she always is. I have
- a question for you, though. It's a teeny bit off-subject, although not really. If I'm understanding
- what I read quickly this morning, a black assistant, I think, professor has gotten in a lot of trouble.
- Because apparently, some of his students, which I'm assuming are white,
- He was referring to white professors as white supremacists. What worries me about that is, do the students
- have that much power to get somebody in trouble over something like that? Yeah, you know, I actually
- didn't read that story, so I don't know the specifics. But students have quite a bit of power now, right?
- In the case of the social work faculty member here at IU, there was a student who submitted a complaint
- to our senator
- Jim Banks about material that they considered challenging and offensive that was offered in the classroom.
- And that person was moved out of that class and was sanctioned. A person's not able to teach but under
- supervision. So it is a situation. And what's a little concerning too is that complaints can be submitted
- anonymously, right? So you don't actually know
- who submitted, you don't even really know for sure that they were actually there, right? There's no
- way to verify that. And I know when I was, that anonymous system first came into place when I was executive
- associate dean in the college, and those complaints would come to us and we basically, well, I mean,
- what are we supposed to do with this, right? I mean, I can talk to the faculty member and say, someone
- said this thing happened, did that actually happen? And of course, there are always two perspectives
- on the same situation, so the person would,
- Nearly always say, well, that's not how I remember what happened. And there's no way to follow up with
- the student and try to have a conversation between the two of them to come to some common understanding
- about what happened. I mean, I feel like normally what happens is if someone says something that you
- disagree with, you say, I disagree with that.
- or tell me more about why you feel that way. But we've sort of taken that out, right? People don't have
- to do that anymore. They can just say, they said something I don't like and that that's worrisome. Anything
- else? Any questions online? We do not have any hands raised. So I assume we don't.
- No questions. Again, thanks for having me. Thank you for, one, the historical background of this, and
- then the mission that you're on. I guess I'm really curious about how do you balance between the social
- good of this and getting the name out there for this, while also holding the controversial nature of
- it given current
- you know, political, you know, pushing down of stuff like this. I'm sure it's not an easy balance to
- come here, but I'd love to hear your perspective on that. Yeah, no, I appreciate the question. You know,
- I just don't worry about it that much. And maybe I should worry about it more. But we decided not to
- formally affiliate with IU. And I guess it was both because we
- we're concerned about how IU might understand what it is that we're trying to accomplish, but also we
- would be concerned about how folks at the state level might interpret IU involvement in something like
- this. I mean, in a way, it shouldn't be controversial at all, right? Faculty have always gone out and
- given talks on the things that they know about as part of our goal, our job as public servants. But
- because of the time, it's just a little less clear to me how this would all be interpreted
- we decided not to formally affiliate with IU. And with one exception, I've only been working with retired
- IU faculty. So I've had a few current faculty who've asked about giving lectures. And again, I mean,
- it should be completely non-controversial, but I just don't know how that involvement would be read
- by other parties. So there's only one
- current faculty member who's going to be speaking in our series. And that person is very close to retirement,
- basically said like, you know, whatever.
- but then I'll just retire if they get unhappy about it. So, and really, I mean, I don't know if anything
- would happen. I mean, maybe not, right? But everything just feels so unsettled that we just decided
- in some sense to play at the savings, right? So I always use a non-IU email. When I email about the
- traveling university, we're all sort of just making, trying to make clear, right? We are not sanctioned
- by IU and we are doing this because of our strong desire to provide education to the
- general public. I think there's a question here. Thank you for your presentation. At a time when retired
- faculty are feeling unwanted because they have been banished from votes and from committees,
- Do you find that your outreach is a way of helping those people who feel disenfranchised otherwise?
- Yeah, that's such a good question. And I'll be honest, no one has expressed that exact sentiment to
- me. But everyone I have asked to participate has been willing to participate and offer an event.
- And faculty like to share what they know. And so I think this does offer people an opportunity to continue
- to engage with students of all ages who attend our events. Yeah, so again, no one has said that exact
- thing to me, but I certainly hope that this offers people an opportunity to remain engaged with their
- intellectual life in a way that they may feel is no longer available to them otherwise.
- have you reached out at all to other campuses to see if any other campus is interested in starting something
- similar? I know this is just the beginning, but. Yeah, no, I'm really glad that you asked. I mean, certainly
- our hope is to reach out to other IU campuses. It's true, we haven't yet. I mean, so basically the traveling
- university is an operation that's located at my kitchen table. So, right, so we're just like, I wanted
- to kind of spend this
- first year to just figure out how to do this.
- and how to figure out how to get outside of Bloomington. We started in Bloomington in the fall because
- I know venues, I know people, we could get those things set up. I've been going around, I spoke to the
- Rotary in Martinsville and trying to go kind of around to other organizations around the state to let
- them know about what we're doing. And I would like folks from Purdue and from Ball State to help us
- reach other areas of the state that are more distant from here. But you're right.
- spends more time this summer trying to reach out to folks at other IU campuses, which would be a logical
- next step given the IU connection. Thank you for that. Can you speak a little bit about the format of
- these presentations? Are there particular age groups that are more appropriate to attend than others?
- And is there Q&A? What would somebody expect?
- Yeah, so the most typical format for these is that someone will give a 45 minute to an hour
- long presentation, followed by Q&A. We're going to mix that up, mix that up a little bit. Well, actually
- the folks who did
- climate change, Tim Lonergan and Steve Vigdor did. They did much more questions throughout. We're trying
- to move into some other formats. So one of the events in the spring is that Eric Sandweiss is going
- to give tours of the two museums on campus and then of the campus in between. So that'll be a much different
- kind of format that also be much smaller. It'll just be about 25 people. But so far it's a pretty traditional
- lecture followed by Q&A kind of format.
- We would like to offer short form courses maybe next year, so maybe things that where people come three
- or four times and those would probably be smaller and would have to be registered and would be kind
- of more interactive.
- Yeah, and I'd say in terms of age, you might not be surprised that we tend to skew a little older on
- the age range in terms of who's been attending the lectures, but I think all of the content is appropriate
- for people of all ages. I mean, middle and high school students could come and we would certainly wanna
- encourage that. Can you have the programs you've done so far, can you share some of the surprises that
- you've had or which program was really received
- you know, much better than others. Oh, gosh, I don't know how to answer that question. I mean, they've
- all been so. Yeah, so we've had top programs on lots of different topics so far. I think I mentioned
- climate change, immigration and politics, PBS, and
- KKK, the Klan. And I think they've all been pretty well received. Attendance has varied. So maybe not
- surprisingly, when Jim Madison talked about the Klan, we had almost 150 people there. Margie Hershey,
- talking about immigration and politics, brought in over 110 people. I think a more typical size for
- the events is anywhere between about 40 and 60 or 70 people. So I won't say.
- Even though I knew we were bringing in stellar speakers, I've been surprised at how many people have
- attended, because we're this young, scrappy organization. Basically, I put up some Facebook posts, and
- I tell people to talk to their friends, and I hope that people come.
- And a lot of people have come. And that has been sort of surprising to me. We have about 200 people
- now on the listserv. And so I think we're just kind of filtering out little by little. So yeah, I guess
- in answer to your question, the most surprising thing to me has been how many people have come. Because
- I just don't know how people are finding out about this. I mean, we're trying. But I don't really know
- how to keep telling people. I don't really know how to do this. So I'm just hoping that we do something
- and it works.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this. I've attended a couple of the classes and I appreciated
- hearing that next year you may do some multiple classes. I also, when you first began, was reminded
- of the Danish folk school movement and the way it contributed to democracy, not only in Denmark, but
- Sweden and other places. And I find myself wondering if,
- I know that there are some groups in some of our cities that are moving the Danish folk school model
- into urban neighborhoods with younger people. And I'm wondering, well, I just think that'd be terrific
- if it could happen. Yeah, I think that would be terrific too. I don't know anything about that. So maybe
- I'll have to touch base with you, get your contact information so I can learn some more.
- I mean, there are kind of the, there's the freedom school movement as well. And there are still freedom
- schools that operate around the country, including a couple in Indianapolis in the summers. I would
- love to offer something like that here in Bloomington. So yeah. But yeah, let me talk to you more about
- that. I would like to find out more. Hi.
- I think this is just a really wonderful effort, and it looks like you've got just a pretty stellar lineup
- coming up, too. How are you selecting the programs and who's going to be presenting? Yeah, really, really
- good question. Well, at this point, to a large extent, we're a coalition of the willing. But I certainly
- have given some thought to topics that I think are particularly timely.
- And, and then I've given some thought to people who I know are well known in at least some segments
- of the local community and around the state, so that we're
- giving presentations by speakers who are known to people who might draw those people in. And so it's
- been sort of like somewhere in between there, right? Like I thought we really should have something
- on climate change. Oh, I found some people who are interested in giving lectures on climate change.
- Oh, I'd really like to have something on autism because it's been in the news a lot. Well, I have some
- people who are willing to do that. So there are certainly topics that we haven't offered yet that I
- would like to. I would like to be able to offer
- either a single lecture or a series on like what's up with critical race theory and why are people so
- worried about it. It was kind of what is happening in terms of trans rights and what are the concerns
- there. So there are some topics that aren't currently on our schedule that I would like to be able to
- add to our schedule next year. And so what I have to find is retired faculty who feel that they have
- the expertise to provide an event in that area.
- So it's been, again, sort of like somewhere in between the various kinds of things I think it would
- be good for us to cover on the people who are available to offer things. And then in some cases, like
- with Scott Russell Sanders, I just said, will you just offer something? Because anything you offer would
- be great. And he said yes. And he thought long and hard about what he wanted to offer. And that's what
- we offered. I was a little bit concerned about the mechanical side of this.
- I would assume that this is all online. Is that correct? It's not. So currently, our lectures or our
- events are all in person. And we'd like the part of the challenge has been that some of the venues in
- which we hold our presentations have the capacity to offer online and some don't. And I decided for
- this first year, we wouldn't do anything online because I didn't want
- certain presentations to get privileged over others in terms of whether or not there could be an online
- audience for it. We've also been asked about whether we'll record them and make them publicly available.
- And I just have to work through the intellectual property right issues related to that. So I'm hopeful.
- I would like to make the events more accessible. But I just need to think about these things about how
- to balance different venues
- which I'm really committed to having these events at lots of different kinds of places, how to balance
- that against kind of their capacities to offer virtual events. So yeah, I mean, I'm glad you mentioned
- it. It's something I think about a lot. And we get lots of questions about, you know, why aren't you
- recording it? It's like, well, then I have to get these intellectual property agreements ready. And
- it's all things we can figure out how to do. But again, kitchen table, me, laptop.
- So we're just sort of going step by step and trying to get a little bit better every semester.
- Thank you. Thank you. Jane, thank you very much for a great presentation. Who would have thought that
- all the things you're good at, that you're also good at guerrilla marketing,
- In honor of your talk, a donation, excuse me, be made this quarter at Amethyst House. I'd like to thank
- today's volunteers, Lynn Schwartzberg, Katie Cerniak, Sally Gaskell, Whitney Cordova, John Diltz, Kyla
- Cox-Deckard, Michael Shermas, Cindy Neidhart, Dave Meyer. I'd also like to thank our staff, Tyler and Mandy.
- I do want to say with my being gone next week, one of the things that I do at the end of the meeting
- is I check to see which members forgot to sign in. And about 10 members today forgot to sign in. So
- with Mandy being new, please make sure that you sign in. If you're not going to eat, either let her
- know or circle your number. So that way we can record everyone who's here and we can properly bill people
- who are here.
- So our next regular meeting will be next week January 20th will be upstairs in the Georgian room and
- Charles Sykes will define. What is Motown? So be there or be square So Tyler, would you please share
- the graphic for the four-way tests and please stand if you're able and join me of the things we think
- say or do first is it the truth and
- Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will
- it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun? Recording stopped. Hey folks.
- I know some of you may have been following the Mohammed's legal saga. You know, that's the Afghan family
- that the club supports. I got a call just a few moments ago from the attorney for Amina's husband, and
- he is going to be released from detention. Because he won his case of habeas corpus, he's being unjustly
- detained by the U.S. government.