President Nancy Dye Welcomes General Faculty at First GF Meeting of the Year By Linda Grashoff
			SEPTEMBER 9, 1998--The General Faculty (GF) gathered yesterday afternoon for the first meeting of the school year. President Nancy Dye opened the meeting by briefly delivering what she called "two kinds of welcome," one for new and one for returning faculty, before reporting on safety and security matters. Returning to her welcoming message, Dye said that favorable developments over the summer included the hiring of Michael Muska as Delta Lodge Director of Athletics and of Sharon Patton as the John G.W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Dye announced six to nine years of support from the Luce Foundation for a Distinguished Professorship in the Emerging Arts, and a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for curriculum development and experimentation in the natural and social sciences, she said. The program will focus on undergraduate research at all levels of the curriculum. Oberlin is one of 10 independent colleges across the nation to be chosen to receive such a grant. Janice Thornton, associate professor of biology and neuroscience, is the principal investigator. The president identified and described four discussion themes for the school year--student retention, community building, facilities and campus planning, and faculty governance--before asking the divisional deans, Karen Wolff of the Conservatory of Music and Clayton Koppes of the College of Arts and Sciences, to introduce new members of the General Faculty. Closing the meeting, Marcia Colish, Artz Professor of History, delivered her annual encouragement to faculty to identify and mentor potential recipients of Mellon Fellowships in the Humanities. She also reported on the Mead-Swing Lectureship, announcing Eward O. Wilson as a Mead-Swing lecturer this fall.