Faculty Commons SLO

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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Please join us for the 2016 Veritas Forum, featuring our invited guest Dr. Ian Hutchinson (Physics, MIT) and Dr. Paul Rinzler (Music, Cal Poly and board member of Atheists United SLO) dialogue on “Can Science Explain Everything? An Atheist and a Christian Discuss Scientism” 

Wednesday January 27, 2016

7:30pm Harman Hall, in the Performing Arts Center

The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Eleanor Helms (Philosophy, Cal Poly) with questions from the student/faculty audience. A reception will follow. The event is open to all students, faculty, and members of the Cal Poly (and Cuesta) community. 

We hope you’ll plan on attending and consider inviting a colleague or students. Invitations and more information will be available in early January here and on the Facebook event.

Sponsored by: The Veritas Forum, the Alliance of Happy Atheists, and ASI

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Please save the date and plan on joining us for the A Common Call conference, Saturday April 9, 2016 here in San Luis Obispo. 

Similar conferences have been held in other parts of the country (the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, the Midwest, and Texas) and we are excited about hosting this event here on the Central Coast – and welcoming faculty from Northern California, the Central Valley, and Southern California. We’ll be hearing from Dr. Walter Bradley, co-founder of Faculty Commons, and taking a day to together interact and wrestle with the question: “what does it mean to follow Christ as a Christian professor?”

Registration is now open on the A Common Call website. We hope you’ll save the date and plan on attending. 

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Below is an outstanding 3 minute video that serves as a reminder to continue to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world.

When one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers.

Additional information on praying for the persecuted church can be found here.

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Wednesday Oct 14th a group of faculty involved with Faculty Commons hosted an informal welcome to get to know faculty members new to Cal Poly. Professors Ben Richert and Rich Savage shared a few helpful thoughts – otherwise, it was simply a chance for faculty to get to know each other.

We hope you’re able to join us for future events, including the Wednesday January 27, 2016 Veritas Forum. We’re planning on hosting a 4pm welcome coffee for our guest speaker, MIT physics professor Dr. Ian Hutchinson. The evening program in the PAC starts at 7:30pm. Additional information to follow. 

Operation Christmas Child Packing Party

Each year Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian organization, sends Christmas gifts to millions of children around the world through a program called Operation Christmas Child. These gifts–shoe boxes packed with toys and school supplies by volunteers like us–show the children the love of God.

This year you (and your family and friends) are invited to participate in Operation Christmas Child with your Faculty Commons colleagues!

Here’s the plan:

When: Sunday Nov 8 at 2:30 pm

What: Shopping together for gifts and then packing the gifts into boxes

Where: Shopping at Target at 11990 Los Osos Valley Rd, SLO.  Meet at the front entrance of Target.

Where #2: Packing gifts into boxes at David & Molly ZagRodny’s home (3975 Sunrose Lane, SLO) around 3:30 the same day.

Who: You, your family, and your friends are all invited!  Invite other colleagues, bring your kids, the more the merrier.

Why: Because Operation Christmas Child is an awesome way to show the love of Christ to a child in need.

If you can, please RSVP to Molly ZagRodny (molly.zagrodny@facultycommons.org) or Heather DeBruhl (hdebruhl@calpoly.edu) to let us know you are coming, but feel free to come even if you do not RSVP.

Finally, for more information about Operation Christmas Child you can visit their  website and/ or watch this short video.  We hope you’ll join us!

Blessings,

Heather DeBruhl and Molly ZagRodny

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Please plan on joining us as we welcome new faculty Wednesday Oct 14 12-1pm in UU 220. 

A casual lunch will be provided and an opportunity to meet and interact with each other and faculty new to Cal Poly. 

A couple of tenured faculty will share for a couple of minutes some thoughts and helpful hints – otherwise, similar to last year, no formal program or speaker is planned. 

We hope you’ll invite any new faculty members from your department to attend. Let us know if you’d like a hard copy of this invitation. 

Please rsvp to Brian Tietje by Monday Oct 12th if you plan on attending. 

Sunday Sept 27th, 70 faculty, spouses and kids joined us at the O’Briens for our Fall Welcome Back BBQ & Potluck event.

This was the fifth year we’ve done this, and it’s a chance to connect over a meal and get to know each other in an off campus setting. A few Cal Poly students were on hand to provide childcare – allowing parents to enjoy s0me always appreciated adult conversation. 

Highlights included fellowship around the tables, hearing from a few individuals about what God is doing in the lives of students and faculty on campus, and also what we’re looking forward to this upcoming year. 

If you weren’t able to join us, hopefully at our next event. 

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