Dean's List Dinner Recognizes Academic Excellence
 

For more than a dozen years the School of Humanities and Sciences has celebrated the academic prowess of students with a dean's list dinner for first year students. The event honors students who have completed a minimum of 15 credits in a semester with a grade point average of 3.7 or higher. It is especially impressive that first semester students, dealing with the complex transition into college life, are able to meet these high standards.

	First year dean's list student Joshua Potter, left, with faculty mentor Jodi Cohen, professor of speech communication

This year 85 first year students made the grade and earned invitations to the dean's list dinner. The dinner was held February 17, 2004, after the students completed their first semester at the College. Each student had the opportunity to invite an H&S faculty member who played a significant role in his or her early work at the College.

Attendees of the 2004 spring dean's list dinner were welcomed by Dean Howard Erlich and heard keynote remarks from Jodi Cohen, professor of speech communication. Cohen was invited to the dinner not only as a speaker but as a mentor by Joshua Potter, a first year student majoring in speech communication.

In her address Cohen described the audience as fellow-thinkers who must overcome many challenges to a thoughtful life. Those challenges range from the practical problem of finding time to think, to the psychological isolation and anxiety natural to an active mind, to the disturbing movement toward anti-intellectualism in the United States today. But Cohen concluded that the journey is worth the hardships.

"Quite simply, thinkers are never bored," she said. "And who knows: along the way, we may find truth, beauty, and goodness." HS