Service
I believe that a person's worth is best measured by the lives he
touches,
and by his efforts to make the world better today than it was yesterday.
I do a lot of service as part of my job, mostly in the form of serving
on
department, college, and university-wide committees.
But that's boring. Here are some of the more fun and/or rewarding
things I do.
Ask the Professor
I'm a regular panelist on Ask the
Professor, one of the longest
continuous-running radio shows
in the United States. People from all over the country send
questions to our host, Kathy Bush,
who then asks them to a panel of UDM professors. We answer the
ones we can, joke about
the ones we can't, and joke about other things too. It's
comedy/trivia at it's most professorial.
It airs on 94.7FM and 105.1FM in Detroit, and can be downloaded in .mp3
format at our website.
It's also available as an iTunes Podcast;
we're the first entry that
turns up if you select "podcasts"
in the search tool, and then type "Ask the Professor." Send us
your questions, about anything!
The Red Cross
Shortly after meeting my fiancee, Amanda, she persuaded me to start
giving blood at the Red Cross.
I'd always meant to, but had never gotten around to it, so I have to
thank her for motivating me.
I'm up to 12 donations now, or 1.5 gallons. The trick is not to give that
much all at one time.
Children's Leukemia Foundation (CLF)
I've been raising money for the Children's Leukemia Foundation
of
Michigan for several years now,
and have recently been asked onto a planning committee for future
fundraising activities.
They have a 4-mile walk coming up soon, and several golf outings, but
my favorite is the annual
Hollywood Nights Movie Marathon, which often receives radio coverage
from the same radio
stations that broadcast "Ask the Professor."
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
I donate to the Human Rights Campaign,
because I believe GLBT Americans
should have the same
legal rights as the rest of us, particularly marriage rights and
anti-discrimination legislation. I consider
this to be the most important civil rights issue of my
generation. The progress is slow, but promising.
On a related note, I also volunteer my services as part of the security
patrol for AIDS Walk Detroit,
and I support the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at UDM. I would be
happy to entertain ideas on how
to be more active in GLBT-rights activism, and pass ideas along to the
UDM GSA as appropriate.
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)
I am an affiliate member of the Detroit
Institute of Arts. I visit some of the special
exhibits, for which
members are often given special advance tours and are invited to guest
lectures. I also occasionally
enjoy the foreign films and documentaries shown at the attached Detroit
Film Theatre. But Amanda
and I particularly enjoy the Brunch with Bach series, an exquisite
breakfast followed by guest
performances of classical music and opera. Fantastic, classy,
non-traditional place to take a date.