Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,
There’s a small wood near my house, with a peaceful path through, and pretty any time of the year. A sign says Visitors Welcome Dawn to Dusk. One day I entered the woods in very late dusk, but I had a flashlight, and was not worried that it was almost dark. Suddenly right in front of me something ran across the path. It was a raccoon, who scrambled up the nearest tree, about a foot away. It twisted round to look at me with terrified eyes. I passed by quietly and quickly murmuring so sorry little raccoon. Clearly, I had violated occupancy rules of the woods. The sign meant it, after dusk was not when I should take my personal walk, it was for the night animals to rummage and forage and use the space. It was their personal time.
One of the reasons I love coming into work is to speak with people. To talk through ideas, challenges and decide how we can best proceed. Collaboration, cooperation, collegiality are totally wonderful. We celebrate the importance of convergent, cross-disciplinary research. Many aspects of our top-quality education involve teamwork, by faculty devising curriculum and by students understanding the power of combining several minds.
But there is a counterweight. Personal enterprise, where you take time to work alone, think alone, can also be awesome. In fact, it may be the most powerful time – to understand how to solve a problem by yourself, to personally come to a realization is thrilling and encourages anyone to have confidence in their abilities.
As we consider Gen-AI tools, we worry that our students will become lazy and have technology substitute for their effort. It’s a reasonable worry, but one that we’ve had for a long time – will students copy passages from books, will they cut and paste information from the internet, will they ask a friendly AI to complete their Physics assignment? I believe the value of education is that it’s a personal triumph, to have personally met the challenge of becoming competent in various useful areas. Thus, I believe that every student must meet some challenges on their own, through your encouragement and expert teaching, of course, as well as learning to take advantage of teamwork and collaboration. How do we ensure that students value and engage in the mind-stretching personal enterprise of education? I think hands-in, experiential opportunities are a huge part, and we have an advantage at Northeastern University that these opportunities are deeply embedded in our education. How we continue to educate for personal growth while accounting for Gen-AI tools is a crucial topic, that we’re beginning to consider across our College of Science. At this time, Senior Associate Dean Brent Nelson is collecting your experiences and ideas, so please contact him with input. Thank you!
This time of year is an opportunity for another personal enterprise – your personal vote. Each person’s vote is all yours, no-one knows what opinions you expressed, nor has the right to ask. Please take advantage of your vote – I think mail in ballots are outstanding, although my dog loved to come to the in-person polling station. If you need on campus guidance, Northeastern has these policies on lobbying and around political campaign activity.
As the weather turns cooler, and the leaves in Boston fall, my walk through the woods and my election ballot remain part of a personal enterprise that has peace and value.
Warm wishes to everyone.