Penn:2004 Presidential Inauguration: Inaugural Symposium

Inaugural Symposium in Honor of President Amy Gutmann

University of Pennsylvania,
Friday, October 15, 2004

Members of the Penn faculty and guests gathered to celebrate with students, staff, alumni, and trustees the Inauguration of Amy Gutmann as President of the University of Pennsylvania by exploring the role of the modern university in strengthening democracy in a diverse global community. For almost three decades, President Gutmann’s writings, public leadership, and teaching have focused on the core values of democratic societies — life and liberty, opportunity, and mutual respect — and explored the roles of education and deliberation in realizing those values at home and around the world.

As the University of Pennsylvania welcomed its new President and rededicated itself to the mission of service to humanity bequeathed by its founder, Benjamin Franklin, the University community explored together the many ways in which universities can rise to the challenges of realizing these core democratic values in the 21st century.

Five interdisciplinary panels brought a wide range of experience and expertise to bear on these questions that are central to understanding the role of higher education — and the University of Pennsylvania — in our diverse democratic societies and global communities of the 21st century.

Except as otherwise noted, all panelists are members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty.

1:30-3:00 p.m.
Concurrent sessions

1. Creating and Communicating Knowledge in an Unequal World Click to watch. How, in an era of staggering complexity and instant global communication, can the flow of new knowledge and information among widely disparate populations strengthen democracy, enhance individual lives, and promote mutual respect and understanding?
Panel Chair:	Ms. Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News
Panelists:	Professor Elijah Anderson, Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences Professor John J. Dilulio, Jr., Department of Political Science, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Annenberg School for Communication Professor Fernando Pereira, Department of Computer and Information Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Location:	Auditorium, Jon M. Huntsman Hall (new location)
2. Improving Lives by Investing in Science and Medicine Click to watch. How can universities like Penn ensure that science and medicine sustain lives and improve the quality of life for all, in a world that is at once desperately in need of their intervention yet also often threatened by their impact?
Panel Chair:	Professor Barbara L. Weber, Abramson Cancer Center, School of Medicine
Panelists:	Professor Arthur L. Caplan, Center for Bioethics, School of Medicine Professor Michael L. Klein, Department of Chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Mary D. Naylor, Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, School of Nursing Professor David S. Roos, Department of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Ralph L. Brinster, Department of Animal Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine
Location:	Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall

3:15-4:45 p.m.
Concurrent sessions

3. Educating Professionals as Engaged Citizens Click to watch. How should educators of future professionals — in business, law, social work, health care, education, engineering, communications, design, and in the arts and sciences — prepare their students to meet the challenges of democratic leadership and contribute to social justice in our ever more diverse society?
Panel Chair:	Professor Sarah Barringer Gordon, Law School
Panelists:	Professor Thomas Donaldson, Department of Legal Studies, Wharton School Professor Sarah H. Kagan, Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, School of Nursing Professor Laurie D. Olin, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Design Professor Dennis Thompson, Center for Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University
Location:	Logan Hall, Room 17
4. Leading and Learning from Local and Global Communities Click to watch. How do modern research universities like Penn productively collaborate with and learn from — as well as lead — the many different communities in which they operate, ranging from the local to the global?
Panel Chair:	Mr. Jon Huntsman, Chair, Huntsman Corporation
Panelists:	Professor Judith Ann Buchanan, Department of Community Oral Health, School of Dental Medicine Professor Michael Useem, Department of Management, Wharton School Professor Dennis Culhane, School of Social Work Professor Margaret Beale Spencer, Graduate School of Education
Location:	F85, Jon M. Huntsman Hall (new location)
5. Making the Most of Our Cultural Differences Click to watch. How does diversity — of peoples, values, ideas, and experiences — enhance the educational and research capacities of universities and become an invaluable resource for democratic societies facing the challenges of an increasingly demanding, dangerous, and unpredictable world?
Panel Chair:	Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Department of African and African-American Studies, Harvard University
Panelists:	Professor K. Anthony Appiah, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University Professor Howard F. Chang, Law School Professor Ania Loomba, Department of English, School of Arts and Sciences Professor Barbara Savage, Department of History, School of Arts and Sciences
Location:	Auditorium, Jon M. Huntsman Hall

5:00-6:00 p.m.
Inaugural Symposium Reception

Location:

East Hall, Eighth Floor, Jon M. Huntsman Hall

Academic Facilitator of Symposium: Lance Donaldson-Evans, Professor of Romance Languages and Past Chair, Faculty Senate

View maps of the Penn campus.

Professor Ania Loomba

Spotlights

Dr. Amy Gutmann's Inaugural Address

Inaugural Scrapbook

Visit Penn's web site