Child development Professor Richard Lerner joined former Vice President Al Gore on March 20 at two Tennessee universities to co-teach a class that is part of a series on family-centered community development. Lerner's work in the Midwest helped teach students the importance of family in building a comprehensive community, and helped increase Tufts' name recognition in area where the University is not usually well-known.
Lerner joined Gore for single sessions on youth development at Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State University. The entire course, titled "Community Building: A Comprehensive Family-Centered Approach," is an experimental venture of ten sessions that are co-taught by Gore and Congressman John Lewis (D-GA). Distinguished professors such as Lerner will join Gore throughout the series to offer their expertise at specific sessions.
The course attempts to supplant the emphasis placed on business and economic growth in today's society with the importance of families and their needs. The experience of working with Gore was "very stimulating and extremely rewarding," according to Lerner, who said he was impressed by Gore's knowledge and by the ease with which he spoke to the students.
"The [former] vice president is an incredibly smart, deeply and broadly knowledgeable, and keenly insightful person," Lerner said. "What I find strikingly impressive, however, is the breadth and depth of his substantive knowledge, of his understanding and articulate analysis of the theoretical and empirical literatures of the several disciplines associated with the content of the course."
Lerner's trip also brought publicity to Tufts in an area where the University - which tends to attract most of its students from the Northeast - does not enjoy the same name recognition as some other top-notch schools. Still, according to Lerner, all the administrators and students he came in contact with had heard of Tufts, and many expressed interest in learning more about the University's programs.
"At their request, I gave several students and faculty my business card in order to maintain contact," Lerner said. "I have been in touch via e-mail with several of the people I met during my visit."
Contact with faculty and students at other schools is what makes the general public's knowledge of Tufts more prevalent, according to Doug Burns, coordinator of information programs at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
"Whenever Tufts students, faculty, or alumni go out into the world and bring attention to themselves for the wonderful work they are conducting, they are making their school proud while simultaneously promoting its name," he said. "Tufts' popularity nationwide is spreading, and professors like Richard Lerner are only adding fuel to the fire."
Association with renowned public figures such as the former vice president also helps to spread the Tufts name, according to Assistant Manager of Public Relations Pete Sanborn.
Gore hatched the idea for the course two years ago, and it came to fruition through the work of a national consortium of universities led by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Columbia University. It is designed to attract individuals with diverse academic and professional interests in various public sectors who work to foster healthy family-centered communities.
One of the reasons why Fisk, the oldest university in Nashville, was chose as a site for the pilot program is that its first president, Charles S. Johnson, helped to establish contemporary community research more than a half century ago.
Despite concern that many students would take the course simply because it would be conducted by such a renowned figure, Lerner found that the students were more interested in the material presented.
"My sense is that they are now in the class not just because of who Gore is, but because they are gaining an enormous amount of invaluable information from a smart, engaged, and effective professor," Lerner said.
After the course is completed, Lerner will meet with Gore and other co-teachers to evaluate their accomplishments and decide how to move forward in bringing the course to a national level, possibly as early as next fall.
