Findlen new director of STS program
The Faculty Senate has approved a one-year extension of the interdisciplinary program in Science, Technology and Society (STS), which will have a new director beginning next September.
After unsuccessful attempts to recruit a director from outside, Stanford, history Professor Paula Findlen made a proposal to strengthen the program and will assume the directorship. She is currently on sabbatical.
If the senate had not approved the one-year extension, undergraduates would not have been able to declare a major in STS this year.
"The program is on a positive trajectory now, and we hate to derail it by not allowing the undergraduates to continue to major in that discipline," said Ellen Markman, associate dean of humanities and sciences.
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During the one-year extension, the program will undertake a self-study, which should result in a report by the end of winter quarter or early in spring quarter.
Markman was asked why a study should be undertaken before a new director is on board.
"[The study] won't be as detailed as if we knew who the faculty are who will be involved in the program, but the program was last reviewed in 1988-89, and it just seemed as it really is due for a thorough review," she said.
Orrin Robinson, chairman of the Committee on Undergraduate Studies, described the program in a memo as "the focal point at Stanford for a distinctive form of liberal arts education that both befits the complex socio-technical character of the contemporary era and prepares Stanford students to be informed and responsible agents in its evolution. "In the program, less technically oriented students learn how to explore STS issues and problems critically and comprehensively with due attention to their interacting social, ethical and technical dimensions."
He said that more technically oriented students find that STS "provides a horizon-expanding complement and a personally meaningful context for their technical studies."
To improve the program, Robinson said, "substantial resources" were being provided by the School of Humanities and Sciences and the provost's office.
Computer science Professor Eric
Roberts praised the program by saying that "it's exciting to see
how much enthusiasm there is for the program, how this project --
which has been in such a state of flux for such a long time -- has
gained some stability." SR