Water selected as next year's academic theme

What do evolution, the arts and water have in common? Nothing — and that’s precisely the point.

Schools and centers across Penn have chosen “water” as next year’s academic theme.

The theme was suggested by the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee, which thought next year’s theme should include some component of sustainability, Binns said.

The theme’s topicality is a major attraction. David Fox, associate director of College Houses and Academic Services, said the idea coincided loosely with President Barack Obama’s Council on Climate Change.

In the past, some themes have been chosen based on big events taking place during that year. Last year’s theme, for example, was evolution, timed to coincide with Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.

College sophomore Justin Rand, the Advisory Board representative for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, also stressed the relevance of water as a theme.

“Water’s going to become the major political, economic and social issue,” he said.

Legal Studies professor Philip Nichols agreed. “Water is so central to human lives and culture,” he said.

The breadth that water offers as a topic is also a highlight, administrators said.

“It’s a wonderful theme because it allows for so many different types of programs,” Fox said. “It includes science, medicine, art, culture and literature. The possibilities are truly endless for this.”

As for the Penn Reading Project, next year’s incoming freshmen will be assigned a book, rather than the visual assignment students received this year.

Although a specific book has not been chosen yet, the organizers are aware of the reading project’s significance.

Binns explained that the Provost’s Office will use the reading project as a jumping-off point to create programming throughout the year, including a subset of academic workshops, courses, conferences and lectures.

Binns also said he hopes the project will link Penn with organizations in the Philadelphia community that are involved with water, citing the Philadelphia Water Works as an example.

Fox said he hopes that future years’ topics will share the breadth of the water theme.

“Each theme year, ambitions have grown,” he said. “The possibilities are unlimited — I hope that this will be the case for future years ahead.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.