SAS Summer 09 Deans Ensure Parents that Students Will ‘Stand Upright and Scan the Heavens’

Several hundred parents toured the MV Explorer and met with Semester at Sea co-deans Michael Joseph Smith and Mike Zoll, along with other SAS officials and volunteers, to quell their nerves and hear about the voyage during a pre-board parent tour and “orientation”.

“Our goal is to create a shipboard community of exemplary teamwork and cooperation in pursuit of an integrated learning experience,” Dean Smith, the voyage’s academic dean, told the more than 200 parents gathered in the ship’s student union.

Smith and Zoll, the executive dean, are the SAS trip’s primary administrators. Together, they have constructed a dynamic program that draws upon the talents of an experienced faculty and staff and is certain to inspire students, challenge their perceptions, and expand their knowledge of and appreciation for the cultures, histories and artifacts they encounter on the 67-day voyage.

In addition to calming parents’ nerves about sending their children off to sea on a global journey, the deans noted the challenges students will encounter in expanding their capacity for empathy and their imaginations for experiences.

“We are a purposeful community,” Zoll told parents, emphasizing the points of noted educator Ernest Boyer’s principles for a successful college community. “It is a place where the intellectual life is central and where faculty and students work together to strengthen teaching and learning on the campus.”

As executive dean, Zoll oversees all student life issues and community affairs on the ship and voyage. On land, he is the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Affairs for Semester at Sea/Institute for Shipboard Education and brings more than two decades of leadership experience in higher education to his role.

Dean Smith sets the theme of the voyage—“Human Rights and Social Justice in the Mediterranean”—as the main academic administrator. He oversees all courses and academic work, ensuring its rigor and thoughtfulness. He is a professor of political and social thought at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses on human rights, political thought, ethics, and international relations. During this summer’s voyage he is teaching a course on ethics, human rights and world affairs.

Smith sent parents off into the night with the words of Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, who concludes a section of an essay that discusses the wisdom of opening one’s eyes beyond a small vision to one that is open to scanning the heavens.

“I hope that all of us on this journey will indeed stand upright and scan the heavens,” Smith told the parents. “Surely, an ideal place to do this, will be this summer, on the decks of the MV Explorer as we sail the sea celebrated by poets from ancient times to the present.”