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The Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance

 

Enriching the campus experience

Nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts will give the Robison Lecture on Monday, March 8, at 8 p.m. in Neumiller Lecture Hall, Bradley Hall.

A number of  celebrated speakers, lecturers and performing artists will be making their way to the Hilltop this semester. But that’s nothing new, according to Dr. Robert Fuller, chairperson of the Intellectual and Cultural Activities Committee.

Dr. Fuller, who has been in charge of the ICAC since 1980, said Bradley has always strived to attract top-notch events to enrich the campus and engage students and faculty.  Many high profile speakers, such as Larry King, Charley Steiner and Morris Dees, were on campus last semester and the spring will feature more opportunities for students to complement the classroom education they receive each week.

“If students are to realize their full human potential, they must become involved in the kinds of intellectual and cultural activities that occur outside the classroom,” Fuller said. “It’s important that we prepare students for a life-long commitment to personal growth and discovery by introducing them to serious reflection, intellectual engagement and appreciative participation in the fine and performing arts.”

Since taking over the ICAC, which distributes funding to bring in speakers and performing artists, Fuller said some of the most notable lecturers have been environmental activist Robert Kennedy  Jr., American novelist John Updike, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (author of “The God Delusion”), Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould and American biologist E.O. Wilson.

Fuller also mentioned that some years ago, Bradley hosted a staged debate between 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy, the chief operative for the White House Plumbers during the Watergate scandal.

CFA 100

It’s not uncommon for students to find themselves with one extra hour on their hands when course registration time comes along.

Dr. Robert Fuller’s suggestion?  CFA 100.

The one-hour course, which can be taken up to two times, requires students to attend lectures or performances approved by the Intellectual and Cultural Activities Committee.  The course is designed to expose students to cultural events they normally wouldn’t attend to help enrich their educational experience.

“Many students have stopped me and said, ‘You know, Dr. Fuller, without that class, I wouldn’t have gone to those events,’” he said.  “But they are glad they did.  They are glad that when they leave college, they’ve done some of these things.”

The course was originally created to help fill the gap that was left when the University did away with its Physical Education program, which offered students up to four hours of credit for participating in events like badminton, weight lifting, or racquetball.

Fuller said the ICAC has only two requirements for speakers – their event must be on campus and it must be free to students, faculty and community members.

“It’s really great to be able to hear first-hand the perspective of someone who has gone through such an amazing story,” said junior public relations major Justine Harris, who attended the Feb. 22 lecture by Stacy Nadeau, a model for the 2004 “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.”

“It’s one thing to read a book about someone or by someone, but actually hearing them speak adds so much more.”

Some of the events on campus are presented as an annual or bi-annual lecture or performance series, such as the Robison Lecture or McCord Lecture.  However, many speakers are brought in independently, such as activist and author Angela Davis, who will speak at 7 p.m. on March 9 in Neumiller Lecture Hall.

“I’m proud of a lot of things I’ve done at Bradley,” said Fuller, who has been a Caterpillar Professor for more than 10 years.  “But helping to bring some of these types of great minds to Bradley is what I’m most proud of.  I think that the events that have happened on campus, and the famous scholars, journalists and performing artists that we’ve brought in have added such a tremendous element to the University.”

Upcoming lectures and performances

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