We begin our first interview with Susan Gottardi and Keith Guidry to discuss The Hilliard Art Museum - University of Louisiana at Lafayette's partnership with Lafayette Reads Together (LRT).
The goal of the program is to get the whole community reading, discussing, and exploring the same book. Thanks to the Lafayette Public Library Foundation, free copies of the chosen book are distributed to all interested patrons, allowing everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, educational background, race, and age, a chance to participate in the community read. Lafayette Reads Together has become an annual event with book discussions and LRT-related programs scheduled from January through March each year.
The 2020 community read, Dry by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman, is an amazing, timely novel. Dry is a “cli-fi” (climate fiction) thriller that follows protagonist Alyssa and her younger brother Garrett as they face the California drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—after the taps run dry. The book explores what would happen if all the water ran out. Alliances are formed, enemies are made, and survival is threatened.
For more information on the book and the calendar of events, please follow this link!
For today's second interview, we talked with Jordan Kellmab and Randy Gonzales about UL Lafayette's upcoming reaccreditation. Reaccreditation touches nearly every aspect of the University: governance, leadership, curriculum, faculty, planning and institutional effectiveness, along with academic and student support services, facilities and bidgets, and many other areas.
In addition, UL must develop a Quality Enhancement Plan, demonstrating UL's commitment to improving what students are learning and how they're learning. Extensive discussions have led to the development of the new QEP--Advance: Student Research Experience. This program aims to provide every student to complete creative and scholarly projects related to their respective disciplines, honing skills that will benefit them throught their lifetimes.
The Quality Enhancement Plan for UL Lafayette, Advance Student Research Experience (Advance), supports the strategic mission of the University to increase student productivity and success through engagement in mentored research, innovative projects, and creative endeavors.
For more information, please follow this link!