Welcome
CRVE Survey
Dear Emerson First-Year and Transfer Students,
We hope you enjoyed and learned something from the Common Reading and Viewing (CRVE) events this year on Civility/Incivility. In order to help us understand what worked well and what we might do better in designing future CRVE events, we ask you to complete a quick survey. Your input is valuable to us, so please take a few minutes to visit the following site to complete the CRVE Survey:
Thanks
On behalf of the CRVE Committee,
Richard Zauft
Emerson College Observes Constitution Day September 17
Emerson College will observe Constitution Day, September 17, by having Performing Arts students read the Constitution aloud on the bandstand on the Boston Common from 10 am - 11 am on Wednesday, September 17, 2008. A class of first-year acting students, led by Performing Arts faculty member Craig Mathers, will be giving the text of the Constitution loud and articulate life!
Dear Emerson Students:
As the CRVE committee coordinators of the 2008 Common Reading and Viewing Experience (CRVE),
we welcome you to the Emerson community and take this opportunity to give you some information about this
important transitional experience to college. The purpose of the Common Reading and Viewing Experience
(CRVE) is to introduce you to intellectual work at Emerson, in which close-reading, creative expression, critical
thinking, and reasoned argument are central. To that end you will read a book and several articles, attend a
media/performance event, and respond to a panel discussion of faculty and students on September 3-4 during your
Orientation Week. This year's CRVE theme is civility and incivility.
Enclosed you will find:
- The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States,with an introduction by Pauline Maier (read before arriving on campus)
- READING GUIDE and QUESTIONS (read and consider)
- Postcard to mail to Emerson with your responses about civility (mail back to Emerson by August 15)
Please read the book and assigned readings before you arrive on campus. The READING GUIDE provides the names and url addresses of the assigned reading and questions for you to consider. These will help you organize your thoughts in preparation for the CRVE events. Your postcard will be displayed and posted as part of an exhibition at the Emerson College Iwasaki Library in September.
On September 3 you will view a compilation of YouTube videos and film clips that depict various expressions of civil and uncivil behaviors. Following the media viewing, Emerson College students in the performance group RareWorks will perform a series of skits about civility. The next day a panel of Emerson College faculty members and students will discuss issues and questions of civility posed in your READING GUIDE, including the role of
civility in politics, media, and society, the rights and limits of free expression, civil disobedience, and the merits of civility codes of conduct.
The READING GUIDE and QUESTIONS can also be found, along with additional supporting text, film resources, and links to related web sites, here on the CRVE web site. Please visit the CRVE web site discussion forums, accessible to you in mid-August, to take full advantage of the CRVE experience.
We look forward to meeting you, as do our faculty and staff colleagues at Emerson College, as you embark on your academic career with us in September. Welcome to Emerson College.
Sincerely,
The 2008 CRVE Committee
John Gianvito, Department of Visual and Media Arts
Michelle Johnson, Department of Journalism
Joshua Polster, Department of Performing Arts
Jeff Talman, Department of Visual and Media Arts
Jessica Treadway, Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing
Richard West, 2007-08 Interim Director, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Sharon Duffy, Office of Student Life
Erica Schattle, Library
Nicole Brown, Library
Richard Zauft, Office of Academic Affairs