THANK YOU - Wes and Fresno City
Carol Enns
A successful event on Saturday at Fresno City College with Wes McMIchael and colleagues hosting the annual meeting for Central Valley Philosophy Association.
Wonderful to hear from three of our local professors since the aim of CVPA is to create friendships and conversations with our colleagues. Dr. Max Parish (Fresno City College) challenged asked everyone to entertain the Aristotelian perspective to include things humans “care” about to be things that are “good.” Dr. David Jennings (UC Merced) tried to rescue philosophers as a valuable moral worth, even when faced with a drowning child – should we spend our time saving children? Finally, Dr. Wendell Stephenson (Fresno City College) selected a provocative sentence from Hobbes to question whether power is the same in all forms of government as people in a democracy see themselves as quite different that those in a dictatorship. A special thank you to each of you for providing our program.
We have attendees from Fresno City, Porterville College, Reedley College, Clovis College, Fresno State, Madera College, UC Merced and the College of the Sequoias. Many of the folks I have worked with over the years have retired or are retiring, like myself. It is bittersweet to announce that Wendell Stephenson will be retiring at the end of the next semester but an honor for CVPA to meet in a beautiful conference room in the “Old Administration Building” at Fresno City. Wendell is quite proud of his efforts to save this lovely brick building with two interior, grassy courtyards, a large balconied, auditorium and many other facilities. Wendell presented papers at CVPA meetings. With the many retiring it is important that we revitalize the CVPA.
Wes McMichael (Fresno City) and Jeff Yoshima (UC Merced and founding member) are moderators for the listserve and they keep the annual meetings going. As a replacement for me, we are adding Jacquelynn Alavarez – thank you Jackie! Jackie teaches at Fresno City, Fresno State and Madera, so her networking may engage more professors in CVPA. Some of you may know Jackie from her work with Andrew Fiala at the Fresno State ethics center.
Again, a BIG thank you to Wes, the speakers and Fresno City College for a successful 2018 conference.
Carol Enns
Philosophy Professor
Kern 730A