The Daily Pennsylvanian met with Penn Law professor Sarah Barringer Gordon about "Educating Professionals as Engaged Citizens."
DP: What's your personal objective in leading the panel?
SG: First of all, I'd say that the entire idea behind these symposia is important to me. I knew Amy Gutmann at Princeton ... [and along with her] I came to believe that the interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, extra-disciplinary approach to education is what we need to go forward ... you can frame it democratically, you can frame it intellectually, you can frame it professionally -- it's looking outside traditional kinds of boxes to get new conversations going.
DP: How does the topic of the panel relate to President Gutmann's vision for Penn?
SG: ... Education needs to open itself up to people who have not previously had access, and I think that also is very important to me ... being courageous about what it means to be an educator.
DP: What sort of concrete steps do you think can be taken by the administration to realize this vision?
SG: Making it easy for students to navigate across disciplines ... it's a question of clearing the decks, making sure it can happen. I think if we build it, they will come.
DP: How can a member of this community be proactive in addressing the issue presented by the panel?
SG: ... I think there was really interesting tension, maybe the right word is balance, about what was going on here. ... I think everyone was talking about how we [should] keep humanity and engagement in what we do.
