Question It! Change It!
“Education in Crisis”
2023-2024
The Business, Arts, and Sciences, Question It! Change It! Colloquium Series, is a forum for students and the broader DelVal community to engage in informed and guided conversations about contemporary problems and issues. Faculty in the School of Business, Arts, and Sciences, will present lectures addressing these current issues from their respective disciplines, facilitate discussion and provide resources to deepen our understanding.
Problems in our educational systems were not caused by Covid-19, but the global pandemic both exposed and accelerated serious issues. At the K-12 level protracted disinvestment in many school districts has impacted infrastructure and resources – including for the mental health well-being of students – and further exacerbated racial disparities in educational opportunity. Teacher and staffing shortages have only compounded inequities. The very real battles over lockdowns and masking mandates deepened political rifts over what should and should not be taught or even voiced and displayed in public schools and has added to a broken teacher pipeline. These divides over the content of curricula continue in higher education – whether from cancel culture or anti-woke activism. The former undermines while the latter is a direct threat to academic freedom. What does academic freedom mean in a time when tenured positions are dwindling and institutions increasingly rely on adjunct faculty, who comprise part of the precarious “gig” economy, to save the bottom line? And the spread of generative AI technologies only further complicates the role of teachers and faculty in our educational systems as they grapple with how best to support teaching and learning in such a dynamic and contentious environment. Please join us as we engage in a series of discussions about “Education in Crisis” over the academic year as part of the School of Business, Arts and Science’s Question It! Change It! Colloquium series.
Schedule of Events (Fall 2023)
Wednesday, September 20 - "Education in Crisis: Academic Freedom”
Panel Discussion led by Dr. David Timony, Chair of Education
Panelists: Dr. Brian Lutz, Chair of English, Dr. Jessica McCall, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies Coordinator, Dr. Sheena Sood, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Time: 6:30-7:45 p.m.
Location: Life Sciences Auditorium
Wednesday, October 11 -“Book Banning”
Presentation and Discussion: Dr. Brian Lutz, Chair of English, Claire Drolet, MLS, Access Services Librarian, Assistant Professor
Time: 6:30-7:45 p.m.
Location: Life Sciences Auditorium
Wednesday, November 29 - “Northern Erasure and Southern Discomfort”
Presentation and Discussion: Dr. Wil Turner, Associate Professor of English, Dr. Craig Stutman, Associate Professor of History and Policy
Time: 6:30-7:45 p.m.
Location: Life Sciences Auditorium
Stayed tuned for our Spring 2024 schedule which may feature the following presentations:
- Broken Teacher Pipeline
- School to Prison Pipeline
- Education and Generative AI