{"id":3599,"date":"2015-03-18T19:50:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T23:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/03\/23\/faculty-examine-furmans-role-in-the-community\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T14:24:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T18:24:50","slug":"faculty-examine-furmans-role-in-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/faculty-examine-furmans-role-in-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty examine Furman’s role in the community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Public<\/a><\/p>\n

From community volunteerism and internships to educational outreach and research collaborations, Furman impacts the Greenville community through a myriad of endeavors.<\/p>\n

Those connections are rewarding, enriching and sometimes prickly. But they are all important, according to a panel of four professors who took part in a Tuesday presentation titled \u201cPublic Engagement and the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, we incur the responsibility to give back,\u201d said philosophy and poverty studies professor David Gandolfo<\/a>, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Gandolfo explained that Furman is part of the Greenville area\u2019s social makeup and a liberal arts education makes students aware of the problems that reality presents beyond campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at this university and are able to function because society provides what we need,\u201d he said. \u201cTherefore, we have a social obligation to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel discussion led a series of events celebrating the inauguration of President Elizabeth Davis<\/a>. Each event focused on how universities are engaging the public, and examined Furman\u2019s role in the local and global community.<\/p>\n

Political science professor Danielle Vinson<\/a>, Ph.D., encourages many of her students take jobs as interns in the Greenville area. She is also frequently quoted in the local media, particularly during election season. Vinson says her work outside the classroom provides a \u201creality check\u201d and ensures that she is teaching relevant information.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes theories outlive their usefulness,\u201d she said. \u201cIt really makes us reconsider what we are teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, public engagement can have hazards. Education professor Paul Thomas, Ph.D., said his editorial pieces for The Greenville News on corporal punishment and third grade retention have sometimes been met with criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to spend some time explaining,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have to sometimes deal with things that are uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Gandolfo said the guiding principles of a liberal arts education \u2013 exploration and critical thinking \u2013 encourage community connectedness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt liberal arts schools, we want to learn things differently,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this way, a liberal arts education is very amiable to community involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health sciences professor Alicia Powers, Ph.D., who often conducts community-based research on nutrition and health, said universities should be change agents. They should work to improve lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we identity a problem, we have an obligation to try and solve it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Content<\/strong><\/p>\n

Furman to hold inauguration ceremony for President Davis March 19<\/a><\/p>\n

Building ‘a community of experts’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From community volunteerism and internships to educational outreach and research collaborations, Furman impacts the Greenville community through a myriad of endeavors. Those connections are rewarding, enriching and sometimes prickly. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":14562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,28,21,36,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-education","category-health-sciences","category-philosophy","category-politics-and-international-affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33155,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599\/revisions\/33155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}