Themester gets rolling, topic sparks debate

The College of Arts and Sciences is putting the whole world into the hands of its professors and students.

The College, with the help of IU’s Office of Sustainability and other departments, will attempt to lay out the issue of sustainability, with this year’s themester, sustainability: Thriving on a Small Planet. The Themester kickoff will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday in Dunn Meadow.

The goal for the themester is to take a broad, complex societal issues and explore them in an interdisciplinary way, said  Michael Hamburger, professor of Geological Sciences, who is spearheading the theme this year.

This semester will be full of classes, speakers, workshops and programs focused on some aspect of sustainability, said Stephen Watt, associate dean for strategic planning in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The keynote event, Hamburger said, is a visit from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who will be speaking on issues related to humans and global environment.
Friedman wrote “The World is Flat” and “Hot, Flat, and Crowded.”

Sustainability is something to be addressed on various fronts, such as economics, geology, arts and humanities, Watt said.

“This is really an extraordinary opportunity for students to learn about and engage with issues that undoubtedly represent the biggest challenges facing their generation,”
Watt said.

He said the College isn’t taking a particular view — it’s presenting multiple views, so it can be looked at from different disciplines.

“Education, I believe, is to a take a variety of informed perspectives of the problem and let the students and observers decide among competing perspectives, which are the
most persuasive or compelling,” Watt said.

Like last fall’s evolution theme, and next fall’s war and peace theme, the topic is complicated and even controversial.

“We aren’t seeking controversial topics,” Watt said. “We’re seeking urgent and important topics.”

This year there are more events, speakers and classes than last year, Hamburger said. And almost all of the events are free.

“I hope students get involved,” he said.