Peace & Diplomacy

I was quite enamoured with the friendly greeting at the top of the Weblog screen and decided to use it to introduce myself to all of you on the Peace & Diplomacy floor. (I’m from Oklahoma originally so I automatically hear a friendly twang when I read the word “Howdy.”) Tina Johnson, here. Member of the Odd Class ‘93, thanks very much! Also, happily, Director of International Programs which means I send students to exotic (or not so exotic) places to partake in international, cross-cultural study. I am excited to be working with each of you and look forward to communicating via this interesting vehicle. (I’m not a big instant message fan or internet guru by any means - I infinitely prefer face-to-face communication. However, until we can get everyone in the same room together at the same time - a miracle it will be! - this will have to suffice.) 

Last night all the student-athletes on campus were assembled in order to try to bring back together our community. We all sang the school song, horribly out of tune might I add, and I felt like there was still hope for our first year students to know what it was like living here in the past. My greatest hope is that we can use this change and look back a little farther and remember what it meant to be a successful community. This school is my home. I believe everyone of the students to be apart of my family and I want to continue to build and create a wonderful learning environment that students can thrive in. I ask everyone to also step up and be strong by being true to your heart. Please don’t let the few students who have negative attitudes pull you down; that is not this college. Step forward knowing that there will be obstacles this year, but know there are people here that will do everything in there power to make the most of it and will be there to support you the entire way.

The Liberal Arts creates a way for students to view the world from many different angles. This semester seems to do this more than what I have experienced in my last three years in college. Our college is in a transitional period, so dynamics between the student body is evolving. At the same time my courses are a hodge-podge of different things thrown together and seem completely random, but like anything when you begin to reach a greater understanding of the topics and these seemingly unrelated topics blend together into relevant complements of one another. This is beginning to happen with two of my courses, Microbiology and World Politics and Organization. They initially appear to be at opposite sides of the spectrum, mostly due to the scale difference. Then I realized that the study of microorganisms fits very neatly into the idea of globalization and the future of the world’s political system, the avian flu being a prime example of how theses two disciplines overlap. Interconnectedness between disciplines is something that is always an underlying factor, at the same time overlooked. I find myself trying to separate things in my head and simplifying them, rather than letting them work together to make up the complex design that is the world.