An Informative and Stimulating Day at UCONN

Yesterday I attended the CLAS College Experience, The Environment: Politics, Health & Nature – a conference provided by UCONN for their alumni. Faculty presenters included Prakash Fashwan, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science who spoke on “Green Consumption: Potential and Pitfalls of Market-based Environmental Goods and Services.” Debarchana (Debs) Ghosh, Ph.D., assistant professor of geography followed with her presentation, “You Are What You Eat – And Where You Live.” The final presentation, “Can We Predict Species Responses to Climate Change?” was given by Mark Urban, Ph.D., assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

I would like to thank all UCONN staff who made this program possible. All presentations were stimulating and informative. The hospitality was especially commendable. I would welcome more of these programs in the future.

Suggestions and recommendations:
The organization of the program should offer two presentations by UCONN professors detailing their research or lecturing on a timely topic. A third event that I would like to see is a discussion group on a subject of broad interest moderated by a professor or administrator. Some suggestions are: (1) the impact of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on academia, (2) the advent and implications of the “digital library:” dissemination of literature (including textbooks) via the Internet to e-books, laptops, tablets, phablets, etc. and (3) the ramifications of changes in sources of energy on the world economy. Other topics for discussion can be solicited from alumni.