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Overview | Background | A Typical Session | Upcoming Speakers | Past Speakers | Planning Committee
WHAT MATTERS TO ME AND WHY
Get up close and personal with members of the Stanford community as they reflect on their values, beliefs and motivations. Come discover what really matters to those who help shape the University. And, beginning fall quarter, enjoy these intimate discussions in our new interfaith center, The CIRCLE, on the third floor of the remodeled Old Union – a venue affording improved sound and sight lines! All are welcome. Bring your brown-bag lunch, if you like. Select Wednesdays, Noon – 1:00 pm, The CIRCLE, COMMON ROOM, Old Union, 3rd Floor.
A Biweekly Discussion and Lecture Series featuring Stanford Faculty and Administrators addressing the question:
The purpose of What Matters to Me and Why is to encourage reflection within the Stanford community on matters of personal values, beliefs, and motivations in order to better understand the lives and inspirations of those who shape the University. The presenter is encouraged to share how s/he has chosen to live her/his life, the core values s/he has adopted, and the personal choices s/he has made. We also encourage the presenter to choose any other topic that fits her/his definition of "what matters to me and why."
What Matters to Me and Why is a creative solution to an important
and sometimes unrecognized problem in the university setting.
"Somehow, intellectual life gets separated from personal and spiritual issues," reflects founder Quintus Jett. "The idea [behind What Matters to Me and Why] came up in a conversation with Rev. Floyd Thompkins while I was president of the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA): to bring in professors to talk about these aspects."
The physical setting encourages this deeply personal sharing of experience. There is neither podium nor lectern.
"Another speaker was Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the birth control pill. He read some of his poetry, and talked about being a scientist and an artist, and ... talked about his daughter, who committed suicide twenty years ago. In the question and answer period someone asked him about his daughter. There was a deep silence; you could still feel the pain, after twenty years."
The experience can be as powerful for the speakers as for the audience.
One says: "I felt better about myself because of presenting. I was happy that the reaction was so favorable - I wasn't sure it would be at all. There's a spirit of both accepting and inquiring that I like; accepting in that there's tolerance of difference, inquiring in that there's a real searching for what matters and why." A committee member adds: "The setting generates momentum for a discussion of values ... and it encourages people to understand others. When I'm listening I suspend my own perspective in order to really hear the presenter."
The series has touched people even beyond the confines of the university. It has brought Stanford alumni back onto campus, and introduced local residents to another side of Stanford. According to a fan letter from New Mexico:
"The series has added a great deal to the intellectual integrity of the Stanford community, in my opinion."
Jett concludes: "Ultimately, something like this survives on just the feeling it creates. For me, it was something that was worth taking a risk on."
Victor R. Fuchs, MA, PhD
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Brief Bio:
Victor Fuchs is the Henry J. Kaiser, Jr., Professor of Economics and of Health Research and Policy, emeritus; an FSI senior fellow; and a core faculty member at CHP/PCOR. He uses economic theory to provide a framework for the collection and analysis of healthcare data. He has written extensively on the cost of medical care and on determinants of health, with an emphasis on the role of socioeconomic factors. He has been particularly interested in the role of physician behavior and financial incentives in determining healthcare expenditures. His current research examines the role of attitudes and beliefs in public support for national health insurance. He is also developing a proposal for a "universal healthcare voucher" system in which all families or individuals would be given a voucher -- financed by an earmarked value-added tax -- that would guarantee them coverage in a private health plan with a standardized package of benefits, including basic health services and catastrophic coverage.
Fuchs is a member of the Institute of Medicine and was president (1995) and distinguished fellow (1990) of the American Economic Association. He received the Distinguished Investigator Award (1988) and the Distinguished Fellow Award (1996) from the Association for Health Services Research, and was awarded the Baxter Foundation's Health Services Research Prize (1991). He received a BS in business administration from New York University, and an MA and PhD in economics from Columbia University. He is an honorary member of Alpha Omega Alpha.
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