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.