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“It started because whether it’s at the college or among those who retired here, there’s a wealth of information in Durango,” said Gary Rottman, who leads the six-person team that organizes the series, “and that should be shared with the community.”
The speakers this fall include a mix of former and current FLC faculty members and a cross-section of community members. Among them are a retired radio broadcasting manager, a retired hospital CEO and the semi-retired great-grandson of John and Louisa Wetherill, the family that introduced Mesa Verde to the world at the 1893 Chicago Exposition.
“We vet the speakers to make sure they’ll be interesting and know their stuff,” Rottman said. “We want them to be excited and enthused about it. Between the six of us, we have a lot of connections in the community, so we come up with a good list.”
Enough people are interested that the group has had to turn away a few speakers for the fall, but that gives them a place to start for the spring, which they are working on now, he said.
The group has also been trying to reach out more in the community, holding lectures at the Strater Hotel and the Durango Arts Center in the past couple of years as well as at various locations around the college campus.
“(FLC President) Dene Thomas, who co-sponsors this through her office, sees it as an outreach of the college to the community,” Rottman said. “We typically have 70 or 80 folks in attendance.”
The single biggest challenge is time, or rather the lack thereof.
“If you have an hour talk and a half hour of discussion, there’s so much that you haven’t covered on some of these topics,” Rottman said. “As a community, people are intellectually looking for something to learn about, so we have been throwing around the idea of trying to put together an all-day session with three or four speakers to go into a little more depth.”
In the meantime, inquiring minds will find plenty on offer in the fall series, which starts Thursday.
abutler@durangoherald.com
Lifelong Learning Schedule (PDF)
If You Go
The Fort Lewis College Lifelong Learning Series lectures begin at 7 p.m. Thursdays and will be held in Noble Hall Room 130 unless otherwise noted:
Thursday: American Anti-Intellectualism – “Libety or Tirrany” (sic), by Bob Griffith.
Sept. 22: Fault Lines in the Middle East, by Katherine Burgess.
Sept. 29: Colorado Universal Health Care: In Sickness and in Health, by Mike Todt.
Oct. 6: Transforming Public Schools, a panel led by Yvonna Graham in the Lyceum at the Center of Southwest Studies.
Oct. 13: The Desert is Home – The Wetherills, by Harvey Leake.
Oct. 20: Marijuana Tourism, by Lorraine Taylor.
Oct. 27: The Hydro-illogical Cycle, by Denise Rue-Pastin.
Nov. 3: Outrageous Politics in the 2016 Campaign, by Paul Debell.
Nov. 10: Confronting Climate Change – Then and Now, by Jim Judge.
Nov. 17: Sirens of Song – The Divas of Opera, by Kerry Ginger in Roshong Recital Hall in Jones Hall.
