Friends: My dean sent us an email blast this morning encouraging us to apply for the ADP summer institute at Yellowstone National Park. It sounds like great fun--but I don't want to go around with the American equivalent of the Oxford Round Table on my vita!
The promotional email my dean forwarded reads as follows:
SUBJECT: Faculty Seminar at Yellowstone National Park, August 3-8, 2009
For the 5th year, we are announcing a special one (1) week faculty seminar at Yellowstone National Park, offered by the American Democracy Project in partnership with the Yellowstone Association.
This seminar, Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem, provides an in-depth study of four major political and environmental controversies at Yellowstone: wolves, grizzlies, snowmobiles, and bison. We hear from world-class experts on each issue, study the history of the controversies, and then go out to surrounding communities to talk to citizens on both sides of the issues.
The goal of the project is to learn how to find common ground, instead of the often polarized and extreme positions that characterize too much of our national political life. Some of the most insightful moments come when we interview citizens in the Yellowstone area on both sides of the issues. Following the faculty seminar, some participants bring classes back to Yellowstone at various times of the year, with assistance from the Yellowstone Association. Other participants replicate the program in their own local setting, using local political controversies. And many faculty participants incorporate materials and perspectives from the seminar in their own courses, including films that we have commissioned that we placed on You Tube.
The program begins late afternoon on Monday, August 3rd and concludes on Saturday, August 8th. The tuition, $ 1,175, includes all instruction, five (5) nights of single room occupancy at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, plus several meals, all in-Park transportation, and much more. Please note: Family members are welcome to accompany the participant (most rooms have additional beds). However, family members have limited opportunities to participate in the formal program. We do schedule some free time when participants can go off with family members.
IT sounds a bit ORT-like, doesn't it? Has anyone done this?
