“Philosophy, practical concerns lead to school cancellation” plus 1 more

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Philosophy, practical concerns lead to school cancellation Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:32 PM PST A combination of philosophy and waiting to see if snow removal equipment could beat the weather is why the Grand Island Public Schools had one of the final cancellation notices on Monday classes for students. "Our philosophy is that the kids will go to school if the community is going to work," interim Superintendent Harrison Cass said. He said the school district had its employees out working on Sunday in an attempt to clear off the driveways and parking lots for the district's 18 schools and administrative offices. By 9 p.m. or a little later on Sunday, it became obvious that the school district could not keep its drives and parking lots open for students and staff members who would be arriving on Monday morning if classes had not been canceled. Cass said school personnel who drove around Grand Island Sunday night could also tell that people would have difficulty getting out of their driveways and down the city's side streets on Monday morning. That made them realize that a number of Grand Island businesses would likely be closed on Monday or have a late start. It was easier to make a decision to have students stay home when it became obvious that one or both parents also would be home for all or part of the day. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

$500K gift endows philosophy chair Posted: 14 Jan 2011 12:33 PM PST Posted: Friday, January 14, 2011 2:30 pm | Updated: 12:35 pm, Fri Jan 14, 2011. KEARNEY — David Rozema, professor and director of the philosophy department, has been awarded the first Inklings Chair of Philosophy and Literature at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The chair is made possible through a $500,000 endowed fund given by an anonymous benefactor to the University of Nebraska Foundation. "It is quite an honor and quite humbling," said Rozema, who has taught in UNK's College of Fine Arts and Humanities for more than 18 years. The chair is named after a group of 20th-century thinkers and writers at Oxford University who became known as The Inklings. Some of its members included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson, among other renowned writers and scholars. "The example set by the members of the Inklings constitutes a high ideal of intellectual and spiritual maturity, which serves as a goal for our efforts as teachers and scholars," Rozema said. "I consider myself a student of these men." The permanent endowment enables the department to award an annual stipend for salary, research and program support. The chair is awarded to outstanding teachers who use philosophy literature commonly considered among the great books of the Western world. Recipients are selected by the university and receive five-year appointments, renewable for an additional five-year term. The gift provides support for the university's current fundraising initiative, the Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities. More than half of UNK's $50 million campaign goal has been met. Rozema said this new endowed gift ensures the integrity of the philosophy department for many years to come. "Our departmental mission is to provide a challenging, intensive course of study in what is commonly called the great books," Rozema said. "We seek to develop in our students the arts of careful, soul-centered reading and writing. The provisions of the Inklings Chair will enable us to carry out this mission with greater confidence and hope." The Inklings Chair of Philosophy and Literature is the second endowed chair for the philosophy department at UNK. The O.K. Bouwsma Chair in Philosophy was established in 2004. Rozema has taught a variety of courses at UNK, from ethics to seminars on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Soren Kierkegaard and Lewis. The studies of Lewis and Tolkien's works have been a special focus of his research and teaching, and he has published articles on works by Lewis, Tolkien, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, Plato, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Conrad and Wendell Berry. With his colleague, Gene Fendt, he also co-authored a book on Plato's dialogues titled "Platonic Errors: Plato, a Kind of Poet." More about Unk This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

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