Faculty Commons SLO

A group of Cal Poly faculty members have arranged for a time and place where Christian faculty could spend an hour visiting and getting acquainted. Apart from opening with a greeting and prayer, we will have what is a fairly rare opportunity–to visit with other teachers and not have to terminate our conversations so fast. There will be no formal program.

Thursday April 28th 12:10-1pm UU 204

(Chumash Auditorium, left side, facing the Plaza). RSVP if you have time, or just show up. Hope to see you there.

A Common Call was a one day conference here in San Luis Obispo, bringing together Christian faculty from different universities (including Cal Poly, UCSB, Cal State Monterey Bay, San Jose State and UCLA) to hear from Dr. Walter Bradley, co-founder of Faculty Commons. Dr. Bradley shared his experiences of four decades of teaching and research, seeking to live out and express his faith in and out of the classroom. And not just successes, but fears and failures as well. Time was set aside to discuss in smaller groups the two main talks, and two panel discussion groups.

Here’s a few thoughts from faculty that attended:

“Excellent time, especially just hearing ideas about how to minister on campus.”

“The conference was outstanding. I especially appreciated Walter Bradley’s final comments on ‘gold mining’ regarding choosing research topics.”

“What was a highlight? Simply time to meet and talk with other faculty at table discussions and lunch.”

“It was encouraging to hear all the speakers, panelists, and just hanging out with other Christian faculty who are intentional about living out their faith.”

This is something we’d like to consider hosting again in the future, and would appreciate any thoughts or feedback on topics, speakers, or format. 

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A group of Cal Poly faculty – Stephen Lloyd-Moffett, Todd Long, David Zoller, and Kendrick Walker – will be participating in a five part lecture series on spiritual experiences and disciplines this month and next at St Barnabas Episcopal Church in Arroyo Grande.

 More information on this series can be found here. Feel free to contact Todd Long if you have additional questions. 

We hope you’ll plan on joining us Saturday April 9, 2016 for the “A Common Call” conference here in San Luis Obispo, featuring Dr. Walter Bradley (co-founder of Faculty Commons). Additional information and registration can be found at aCommonCall.org

A group of Cal Poly faculty members have arranged for a time and place where Christian faculty could spend an hour visiting and getting acquainted. Apart from opening with a greeting and prayer, we will have what is a fairly rare opportunity–to visit with other teachers and not have to terminate our conversations so fast.  There will be no formal program.

Friday, 26 February 11:10am – 12:00 noon UU 204

(Chumash Auditorium, left side, facing the Plaza). RSVP if you have time, or just show up. Hope to see you there. 

We hope you’ll plan on joining us Saturday April 9, 2016 for the “A Common Call” conference here in San Luis Obispo, featuring Dr. Walter Bradley (co-founder of Faculty Commons). Additional information and registration can be found at aCommonCall.org

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The January 27, 2016 Cal Poly Veritas Forum “Can Science Explain Everything? An Atheist and a Christian Discuss Scientism” featuring MIT professor Dr. Ian Hutchinson and Cal Poly professor Dr. Paul Rinzler is now available to view on-line. Enjoy. 

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Thursday January 28th the Veritas Forum hosted a faculty response panel to the previous evening’s Forum. Participants included, from right to left – Dr. Jodi Christiansen (Physics), Elizbeth Barrett (Psychology) and Dr. Ken Brown (Philosophy). Cal Poly Senior (Mathematics) Erin Griffin served as the student moderator. 

This was an opportunity for a much smaller group of students to hear three different perspectives on the Forum, and ask additional questions from faculty members. Several of the students who attended are part of Polyhymnia – the Cal Poly Philosophy Club. 

We hope this served as an example of continuing the dialogue on campus on the interaction between faith and science.

In addition, group of students will be meeting Tuesdays 6th and 8th week (Feb 9 & 23) 11:10am-12pm in 38-204 to watch and discuss a short clip from a previous Veritas Forum. 

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Many thanks to everyone who participated in Veritas Forum Wednesday evening January 27th, 2016. 

The event exceeded our expectations. The 1298 seat Performing Arts Center was completely packed – with another 100 students (including at least one faculty member) sitting on the floor in the lobby, watching via close circuit TV. 

The two sponsoring campus groups: The Veritas Forum and AHA (Alliance of Happy Atheists) felt that both speakers did an excellent job representing Christianity and secularism respectively. Above, our guest Dr. Ian Hutchinson (left) Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT interacting with Dr. Paul Rinzler, Professor of Music, Cal Poly and member of the Board of Directors of Atheists United SLO. Many thanks to Dr. Eleanor Helms (Philosophy, Cal Poly) for her excellent job moderating and facilitating the Forum.

Students and faculty had an opportunity to text in questions, which are available for viewing on slido.com. 

In addition, the Forum is now available for viewing (or simply listening) on-line. 

Afterwards, both Dr. Rinzler and Dr. Hutchinson took an additional hour to answer questions from students.

We appreciate everyone who worked to make this event so successful. Please let us know your thoughts on the evening, and suggestions for future topics and speakers. 

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Please join us for the 2016 Veritas Forum events:

1. Faculty welcome coffee with our guest presenter, MIT professor Dr. Ian Hutchinson 4pm Wednesday Jan 27th in the Chandler Lounge (UU). This is an opportunity for Christian faculty members to meet Dr. Hutchinson and pray together for the evening’s program.

2. The 2016 Veritas Forum, featuring Ian Hutchinson dialoguing with Cal Poly professor Paul Rinzler on “Can Science Explain Everything? An Atheist and a Christian Discuss Scientism”

Wednesday evening Jan 27th 7:30-9:00pm in the PAC. The dialogue will be followed by Q&A from the audience, with a reception to follow. This is a free event open to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the campus community.

3. Faculty Response Panel: 3 professors will from a variety of religious/non religious perspectives will share their thoughts and perspective on the evening’s forum and take questions from the student/faculty audience. Thursday Jan 28th UU 220 11am-12pm.

Please contact us if you’d like additional invitation cards.

We encourage you to pray for the impact of this event, and to consider inviting your students or colleagues to consider attending.

Additional information can be found here.

 
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