Campus News in Brief
Fienberg inducted into Academy
Stephen E. Fienberg, Maurice Falk professor of statistics and social science at Carnegie Mellon, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., Saturday.
Fienberg was among this year’s 202 new fellows and 23 foreign honorary members that composed the academy’s 227th class of fellows. Among this year’s inductees were former Vice President Albert Gore Jr.; former Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and filmmaker Spike Lee.
Criteria for induction into the academy include exemplary scholarship, artistic triumphs, and service to society.
All new members are nominated and elected by current members of the academy. Members are divided into five basic categories: mathematics and physical sciences; biological sciences; social sciences; humanities and the arts; and public affairs, business, and administration.
The academy is an independent research center that conducts studies of current issues across several disciplines. Academy research focuses on science, technology, global security, social policy in U.S. institutions, humanities, cultural studies, and education. Some of the academy’s current ongoing projects include subjects such as the state of the humanities, the independence of the American judicial system, the future of the Internet, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the future of mass media, and feasible universal education.
H&SS unveils new gen ed website
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS) has unveiled a revamped website detailing the general education (gen ed) requirements for H&SS students. The website includes an outline of the requirements, a listing of the courses that satisfy one or more gen ed requirements that are searchable by department or gen ed category, and other features.
The goals of the website are to eliminate confusion between the listed courses that satisfy requirements and the actual courses offered each semester; to streamline information that students were receiving from advisors about fulfilling gen ed requirements; and to increase the accessibility of information about gen eds.
“While the gen ed program has enormous potential for making students’ coursework more varied and interesting — given the range of courses and flexibility in taking them — it was still being used in the ‘get it over with’ tradition of too many gen ed programs,” said Kristina Straub, associate dean of H&SS and member of the H&SS General Education Committee. “We wanted a way to help students use the gen ed to allow them to explore new ideas and to expand on or complement their major areas of study.”
The committee hopes that H&SS students will use the website to design general education programs that excite them. In addition, they believe that increased access to lists of courses with space for non-majors will draw more students from other colleges into H&SS courses.