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Lawrence K. "Larry" Magrath, Ph.D. |
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University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma Interdisciplinary Studies Program |
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This webpage remains online as a memorial and tribute to
Professor Magrath who died February 24, 2007. |
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In the summer of 1972, I received a phone call from a small college in Oklahoma -- the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts -- requesting that I consider flying down and interviewing for a position in their Interdisciplinary Studies Program. My first reaction was "where is this place?" But my curiosity got the best of me and I accepted the offer to come interview for a position. I arrived in Chickasha and immediately fell in love with the intellectual concept of the IDS program and was impressed with the quality of the people who were involved with it. So here I am, 32 years later at the same institution. We are part of a global community, and it is exciting, challenging, and frustrating to deal with all of the complexities associated with life at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. However, this institution and in particular the IDS program, have allowed me to indulge in my passion for trying to understand both the past and the present and how we can potentially shape the future in a more humane way -- to try to seek out and enhance the best in all of us as individuals and as cultures; while trying to understand the bad things from the past and learn from them so that we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. In my office I have two pictures -- one of Martin Luther King with a quote from the "I have a Dream" sermon. The other is a reproduction of a Norman Rockwell painting "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," which was his celebration of the wonderful racial/ethnic/religious diversity in America. I think that those two pictures might tell the insightful person much about who I am and why I am here at USAO. Both my mother and her mother used to comment that God wouldn't have made so many different kinds of people and ways of thinking if he didn't find diversity pleasing. That has always been one of the guiding ideas of my life -- look for the best in those who are different, and try to forgive the worst. My grandmother used to tell me, "don't judge others until you understand what they have been through and how they think." It has been excellent advice. We need to be bridge builders and try to make connections between distant and diverse peoples and places -- to understand that we have only one "spaceship earth" and that we all share it. And because of that we need to cherish and preserve it for those who come after us. The following is a quote from the syllabus of Foundations of Life Science (IDS 2023) "We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, rather we borrow it from our descendants, thus we are only temporary custodians who should be judged on the quality of our stewardship of the earth's biosphere and held accountable for those things that we do to the quality of the environment and our moral behavior towards our fellow humans and all other living thing." This is adapted from an American Indian idea that "We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, rather we borrow it (hold it in trust for) from our children." Another quote from the same syllabus "God has permitted us to develop new technologies as a way of checking on our growth and development as moral beings. Let us pray that we do not fail God's test."
In recent years, I
have become almost obsessed with the idea of ethical behavior on the part
of those of us in the sciences -- are we paying attention to the
consequences of the new sciences/technologies that we are creating? In the
past we have tended to create specialists who are experts in a narrow
discipline, but who have no real idea about how their work will impact
humanity. That is a luxury whose time has come and gone -- if it ever
was. We must be concerned with the implications of our work on the rest of
humanity, in some cases our actions, in other cases our inaction. Here at USAO I feel that I am part of a program that strongly encourages these
kinds of questions to be asked both by faculty and students, and for us to
attempt via dialogue to try to come up with ideas and options that offer
hope for the future. Recently I was invited to help judge a science fair at
Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City. While there I noticed a
poster that I thought had a very important message for all of us -- "Don't
take away a person's hope -- it may be all they have." I see the USAO
Interdisciplinary Studies program as one of the ray's of "hope" for the
future of humanity. We can either complain about the darkness, OR we can
light a candle. |
At USAO:
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1727 W. Alabama |
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