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Seminars Attract Alums Adding an educational slant to Alumni Weekend were three seminars offered by Transylvania professors and staff on Saturday afternoon. The diverse sessions focused on art and technology, childbirth in relation to evolution, and the search for values in life. Art professor Dan Selter demonstrated how he uses computer technology to enhance teaching. He showed alumni a PowerPoint presentation that included Internet links to his Web site, a series of slides used to teach design principles such as linear perspective and shape analysis, and a link to a 24-hour Eiffel Tower Web cam used in teaching art appreciation. Biology professor James Wagner presented an evolutionary view of pregnancy and health that discussed how changing from a quadrapedal to a bipedal mammal resulted in pelvic changes that make human childbirth difficult. He explained how babies’ soft heads, with unfused skull bones, make it possible for them to negotiate a relatively small birth canal. He related those biological characteristics to Charles Darwin’s idea that natural selection favors traits that increase the chances of survival and reproduction. A session on the Lilly Project looked at how values and commitments play a role in determining one’s life work and fostering a sense of vocation, or calling. The seminar featured Lilly Project director Charisse Gillett, campus minister Dave Carr ‘81, and religion professor Paul Jones. The Lilly Project seeks to create a campus ethos where vocation is important, to identify and nurture future lay and ordained church leaders, and to strengthen ties with other Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) institutions. Randy Cooper ‘77 attended the Lilly seminar and found the session to be very enlightening. “I was amazed at how forward-thinking the Lilly Endowment is in what they’re trying to accomplish and how much Transylvania is in tune with that,” he said. “The Lilly program at Transy ties in with what I’ve always thought of as a very well-rounded liberal arts education the university offers.”
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