College's Centennial Colloquia Culminate in Panel Discussion

Published 02.12.2015

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Moderator James E. Cunningham, retired vice president for information technology and business process improvement, notes that campus lectures will continue as the Dan Doyle Science, Technology and Society Colloquia Series. Doyle, faculty emeritus and the college's Master Teacher in 1984, was a driving force behind the college's just-ended Centennial celebration.Faculty panelists drawn from this past year's Centennial Colloquia Series field a question from the audience. From left are Dorothy J. Gerring and Robert A. Wozniak, associate professors of architectural technology; Lisa R. Bock, assistant professor of computer information technology; Mark D. Noe, professor of English-composition; D. Robert Cooley, assistant professor of anthropology/environmental science; and Craig A. Miller, assistant professor of history/political science.A biometric image on a smartphone – technology only recently embraced by Bock (third from left) – recalls her September lecture on identity protection.While recognizing the role of technology in effecting change, Gerring said it is but one factor in converting public will into progressive action.Nursing major Sadie E. Bebko, of Allegany, N.Y., defends her generation against the suggestion that reliance on technology has left her peers unable to read a map or finish a book. While she and her peers avail themselves of shortcuts, she rebutted, they are more than capable of processing and retaining the complex information necessary to be critical thinkers and responsible citizens.Six Penn College faculty members, who combined for four enlightening and provocative lectures during 2014's Centennial Colloquia Series, reconvened on campus Wednesday night for a roundtable recap. The discussion, titled "Riding the Wave of Technological Change: Revolution or Evolution?" was held in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The group (Dorothy J. Gerring, Robert A. Wozniak, Lisa R. Bock, Mark D. Noe, D. Robert Cooley and Craig A. Miller) ably kicked around the connection between technology and progress, entertaining questions from moderator James E. Cunningham and the audience.
Photos by Elizabeth S. Greis, student photographer