09-18-02
COLLEGE TO LAUNCH SAMPLE CENTER
FOR MANNERS AND CIVILITY
AT SPEAKER SERIES ON OCTOBER 1
Last year Corry Journal publisher George Sample presented Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, with an endowed gift to create the Janet Neff Sample Center for Manners and Civility. This year the center is up and running, and it will be inaugurated publicly on Tuesday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. when Penn State Behrend welcomes the Rev. Bernice King as its first speaker of the college's 2002-2003 Speaker Series. King speaks strongly about nonviolent conflict resolution, and her presentation topic addresses goal relevant to the center.
The center honors Sample's late wife, Janet, who was viewed by her family and friends as a model of graciousness throughout her life. In addition to providing support for the study of contemporary manners and civil interaction, the Janet Neff Sample Center will offer speakers, research opportunities, seminars, project-based classes, and community outreach activities.
"Manners become part of your character," said Sample. "If you're not a gracious person, you're going to stumble and fall on your way up the business ladder. It's just that important."
"Our first step in developing the center was to review the research on manners and civility that's already been done," said Cathy Sargent Mester, senior lecturer in communications and director of the Janet Neff Sample Center. "From that, we determined the most effective ways of reaching Penn State Behrend students and the surrounding community."
Academic officials decided that the Janet Neff Sample Center for Manners and Civility would be placed in the communications program in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences because behavior, both good and bad, is considered a level of communication. A new course, Communication and Civility, has been developed and will be offered regularly by the Communication and Media Studies program. Mester is also advocating civility-themed projects that can be integrated into other communications courses and into freshman seminars and first-year interest groups at Penn State Behrend. The new center is also creating a bank of speakers who can speak knowledgeably on this topic. Mester would like to develop community outreach and take the message of manners and civility directly to students through seminars for teachers in kindergarten through the twelfth grade.
"There is a general sense that young people today are less well-mannered than previous generations," said Mester. "If that's true, we need to address the problem early in their education. We also need to conduct research that will show us whether that idea is true or not." Mester added that research on manners and civility is in its infancy, with numerous studies of civility in the workplace, but very few that address the college student population.
Mester will require students in her Communication and Civility class to participate in this year's CROP Walk together. The CROP Walk raises funds to fight hunger locally and worldwide.
"We remain civil to one another because of our connectedness and our shared sense of responsibility for the community," she said. "The CROP Walk gives students an opportunity to share in that responsibility and to sacrifice for others. This is one of the best hands-on activities I could offer this class."
Mester will also work with the Residence Life staff of the Student Affairs Office to bring the message of manners and civility to students outside the classroom through advertising on campus and through residence hall programming.
Mester said that income from the Sample's gift will continue in perpetuity, so the classes in manners and civility will be ongoing. She has formed a seven-person steering committee for the center that includes faculty, staff, and students, to ensure continued attention to the center's mission and activities.
Contact:
Cathy Sargent Mester
814-898-6207
E-mail: csm1@psu.edu