Faculty Involvement 
June 9, 2006
Dear Colleagues,
In anticipation of the second pilot year of the University Dialogue, we write to ask that you consider integrating Dialogue activities into your fall and spring courses. The title of this year’s series is “Power to the People: A University Dialogue on Energy.” Ten Discovery Authors (nominated by a committee of faculty, staff, administrators, and students) are currently writing five-page page position papers on the topic of energy which will help students appreciate a variety of scholarly approaches, political or ideological positions, and methodologies.
The Discovery Program will provide a packet of these readings to faculty and first-year students, and
(at your request) to students in particular courses that address energy issues. To facilitate planning for
the coming year’s courses, the Discovery Authors’ abstracts are available at:
http://www.unh.edu/academic-affairs/discovery/dialogue/u-dialogue.html.
We expect to be able to provide access to the complete reading packet (both on-line and hard-copy versions) by early August.
The goal of the Dialogue is to draw members of the campus into a series of discussions focused on a central topic. The position statements will serve as the basis for various small-group dialogues in and out of classes. Larger events each semester will bring some of these groups together and connect students with the authors of the position statements. We will invite one or more nationally-recognized speakers to campus as well. Finally, toward the end of the year, students will be part of an even larger discussion, the Town Hall Meeting, at which the university community will look back on the year’s conversations, discuss questions raised, and consider implications to be explored.
We hope you will be willing to involve your students in these conversations. If appropriate for your course, you might assign one or more of the position papers, encourage (or require) students to attend events related to the Dialogue, or arrange for a Dialogue Author to visit your class. There are a variety of ways to involve your students, and we are available to help you make connections to next year’s Dialogue.
We’re looking forward to a year of engaged discussions, and we would be grateful for your help. If you have any questions or special requests, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Joanne Curran-Celentano
Director
UNH Discovery Program
Cliff Brown
Co-Director
UNH Discovery Program