HIST 103 News

A required out-of-class assignment for the course is "Cultural Currents of the University"--see link from the home page of the course. All sorts of campus events are good for filling this assignment. I see notices of a lot of science seminars and lectures going on around campus--any of these would do nicely. Also, I see notice of this event, which ought to be a slam dunk for relating to Tocqueville:

Noon Wednesday 14 September, MU University Chamber - YMCA brown bag seminar on the topic, "Is the Constitution Democratic?"

Thanks to Kinsey Waldgren, Jessica Drutowski, and Miriam Miller (hope I spelled names right!) for dropping by to chat with me about the course in the first Pavek Lounge session last Thursday evening. There will be more of these informal, optional sessions as the semester goes on. They will be announced in class and in this weblog. Jeff, please note these names, as attendance at one of these sessions counts as a make-up for missing an in-class participation item (2 points, in other words).

Greetings to all students in HIST 103 who are subscribed to a section of Cumberland Gap. There have been some problems with the administration of this, owing to changes in university administration of Listserv, the software that distributes mail to the lists. As you probably know, there have been massive changes in university data management over the summer, with some snafus resulting, and this is one of them. Some settings for managing mail got reset without Jeff or me knowing. Some of your messages have bounced (not gone through), and others have been delayed. I'll say more about this in class. In the meantime, I think the problem is fixed now, your stuff should go through, so keep participating. We'll keep you posted if any additional problems seem to be shaping up.

Mr. Armstrong has finished setting up the sections of Cumberland Gap, e-mail list for discussion of the Tocqueville readings. It's time to begin introducing yourselves to your colleagues. Send a message to your list telling who you are, just to get things started. Next week we commence discussion of Tocqueville in the e-mail lists. Hey-hey, we're underway!

If you haven't received a message welcoming you to an e-mail discussion group, a section of Cumberland Gap, then get in touch with Armstrong right away, because you need to be in there.

I just learned this morning that the e-mail account for Jeff Armstrong dedicated to this course, armstrong@plainsfolk.com, was not working. I had a correction made in the settings of the account, and it is working now. So if you tried earlier to e-mail Mr. Armstrong, and the message bounced, this explains it. Now messages should go right through to him.

Greetings, I'm glad you're checking out the blog, where announcements about the course are posted. Here's one.

Ours is a large class with not much time for personal interaction. Some of you may have questions or concerns you don't feel like you can explore in the large group. Or maybe you'd just like to meet and chat. Maybe you're a History major, or are considering that goofy idea, and you'd like to visit about that. Maybe you'd like some coaching on handling these e-mail transactions or the readings in this weird text.

So--this Thursday evening, come on over to a meet & greet in the Pavek Hall Lounge. This is on the first floor of Pavek, the residence hall. Some of you live there. The others, I'll be at the door to let you in. We'll start at 6:30 and go to whenever, come and go as you like.

There will be some other activities scheduled in the Pavek Lounge as the semester rolls on. If you come to one, it counts as a 2-point make-up for having missed a class session.

Just now posted--a rehabilitated website for this course, looking toward the fall term 2005. Get in and look around. There still are a few details to attend to, but the course is substantially there.