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Dr. Valerie Lehr, Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs
Remarks at Johnson Hall of Science Dedication Ceremony
October 20, 2007

Over the past twenty years, the need to increase the number of students broadly, but to bring women and people of color into the sciences more particularly, has taught us much the conditions under which students best learn to do science. Among the conditions are confronting real world problems, mentoring while students carry out meaningful research, and working and studying in groups so that the environment is cooperative, rather than competitive. It is also true that science is increasingly interdisciplinary, and that institutions need to be able to work across traditional academic divisions and areas in order to provide necessary science education.  What this combination of conditions suggests – and what data confirms -- is that science education can be best done in liberal arts colleges such as St. Lawrence.  Liberal arts education asks students to think about how the more narrow majors and programs in which they work are connected to broader knowledge. It asks that students to appreciate that seeking knowledge is a life-long, unending pursuit, and that learning to ask good questions is just as important as learning to answer them. In the liberal arts, we expect that all students will learn the rhetoric and communication skills to necessary to work wit and communicate with others. 

In some ways, Science is a model or other areas of the curriculum, such as the ability of scientists to involve students in serious research, even while it can learn from other programs, for example in considering how to build program that are multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary.  But, the most powerful education that we can provide, and again an area where liberal arts institutions have an advantage, is in fostering discussion and collaboration across the divisions of the university.  As the Association of American Colleges and Universities has noted in its report Liberal Learning for a New Global Century, the most significant problems that we face require that students be broadly educated.  Robert Kennedy clearly recognizes in his work on the environment that citizens, as well policy makers must be able to draw from and understand science in order to make informed decisions.  He also recognizes that the desire to be informed can best grow from experiencing the natural world, and I would add, from writing and art that works to connect us to nature.

Our environmental programs are a powerful example of how we enable students to bring together the study of science and other areas of the curriculum.  For the past 20 years, our various environmental studies combined majors have asked students to "recognize and explore the holistic nature of environmental issues: the past behaviors and events, the present state, and the future scenarios that drive the functions and interconnections of the scientific, social, political, economic, technological, and ecological realms of our environment" (109).  Our recently created Conservation Biology major is built on the assumption that in a global world, the study of environmental science is best enhanced by global studies, economics,  etc.  Further, this is an education that is best accomplished by students have experiences in our local community, but also outside of the Northeast.

The addition of the Johnson Hall of Science helps us to move forward with the task of developing a scientifically literate student body, as well as with our goals of broadening the base of students who will be scientists.  Much feminist scholarship suggests that we are most likely to produce the most “objective” results if we in fact have diverse people asking questions, questioning metaphors, and bringing potentially new perspectives into science.  We are proud of the fact that new ways of teaching, as well as other social factors have allowed us to significantly increase the percentage of our biological science students who are female, thus contributing to that broader base.  The Johnson Hall of science will help us to move forward with developing programs that can attract and retain students in the sciences because we now have a building that is designed to enhance the pedagogies that we know work so well.