Cornellians!
COVID didn’t kill us, but it did kill off a venerable tradition at Cornell and many other universities. In ages past, students, faculty and the general public would eagerly attend talks by visiting intellectuals with something to say. Our pivot to a Zoom culture certainly made life easier, as it meant we could all stay in pajamas while listening in to those conversations. If we were listening, that is, rather than just keeping the audio quietly going while scrolling through a bunch of other tabs.
Let’s change that. One of the great privileges of attending a world-class university is that world-class leaders and thinkers constantly pass through our campus. I’m not talking about the rage merchants: the professional provocateurs who thrive on campus shouting matches or the ones who specialize in engaging our emotions and driving us crazy. Because owning your enemies on social media may be fun, but it’s ultimately nothing more than entertainment (and probably not very good for you).
No, I mean the kind of leaders and thinkers whose names you don’t know or may have only heard once or twice. These are the real-world folks whose ideas, proposals and initiatives quietly shape society around us. They aren’t celebrities and we don’t pay them a king’s ransom for their visits — and most wouldn’t accept it anyway. They’d probably agree with me that accepting scores or hundreds of thousands of dollars from a college to give a speech isn’t what intellectual life is all about, especially since that money could all be put toward your education.
In that connection, I’d like to invite you to join me in reviving a culture of attending guest lectures. This year, I’ve taken over as the director of Cornell’s Program on Freedom and Free Societies. We aim to spread light, not heat. Our mission is to bring in speakers who have something to say—and often enough, something you’re unlikely to hear in your classrooms. You may find their ideas controversial, or you may find them encouraging. Either way, this is your chance to hear them for yourself and to ask them, in person, why they think as they do. Or what policy recommendations they’d suggest, based on their data.
Our first speaker this year is Dr. Sally Satel, a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at Yale. She’ll be here on Monday, Oct. 6, at 5:30 p.m., to discuss medicine in the age of social justice, and whether the rapid incorporation of anti-racist and unconscious-bias training in U.S. medical schools these past few years has been wise or appropriate. Bring a friend, ask a question, and be part of the revival of live intellectual exchange at Cornell. It’s free. I’ll see you there.
Mike Fontaine is a professor of Classics, director of Cornell’s Program on Freedom and Free Societies, and a Faculty Fellow at Flora Rose House. In years past, he was Cornell’s acting Dean of Faculty and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. He has been at Cornell since 2004. He can be reached at mf268@cornell.edu.
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