Foreword

Symposium on American Values

In October 1984, the University Symposium became part of the busy fall schedule at Angelo State University. Since its inception, it has introduced thousands of Angelo State students and hundreds of its faculty to prominent scholars and artists, and it has prompted considerable thought and discussion among the members of the University community. In addition, citizens from throughout the West Texas region have participated in sessions of the University Symposium. These were among the program's original objectives.

The general purpose of the University Symposium from the outset was to enrich the academic environment of a developing regional public university located in rural West Texas by bringing outstanding scholars, artists, and citizens to the campus for a program of formal lectures and informal conversations. The University Symposium, of course, shares this purpose with many other fine programs on campus, in a process in which there are never enough contributors. The University Symposium annually seeks to call attention to the learning community's vocation of addressing important issues and topics in serious fashion and to provide opportunities to members of the University community for personal dialogue with knowledgeable lecturers who come to campus with the expressed intention of engaging in such discussions. Again, while not unique, the University Symposium program has emphasized the centrality of personal interaction involving visiting lecturers and Angelo State students and faculty.

The theme of the first University Symposium was "Perspectives on American Values," an appealing and challenging topic at the time, but one selected without intending to make the consideration of American values the guiding orientation for all future programs. Over the next several years, however, discussions in planning sessions returned again and again to the overarching theme of American values, until the University Symposium evolved into an academic enterprise dedicated to addressing the countless facets of the broad subject of America's national values.

The papers presented in this collection attest to both the variety of topics associated with the general theme which have been addressed since 1984 and to the high quality of those inquiries. Kenneth Stewart has rendered an invaluable service to the Angelo State University community by compiling and editing these papers which represent much of the intellectual legacy of the University Symposium.

The University Symposium, also, must be understood in terms of the shared commitment to its purpose by the members of the University Symposium Committee. From the beginning of the program in 1984, all of the student and faculty members on the committee have dedicated themselves, most with commendable passion, to achieving the objectives of the University Symposium and have participated actively in planning, promoting, conducting and evaluating the program. Their dedication and service have made the University Symposium the significant event which it has become each year in the life of Angelo State. It was my privilege as Chair of the Symposium Committee to have worked with these men and women from the inception of the Symposium project and to have shared with them in the challenges faced each year in presenting a program which we could celebrate as one worthy of its purpose.

Full acknowledgment also must be given to the generous financial support and personal and professional encouragement which have been given to the University Symposium project by the Presidents of the University: Lloyd D. Vincent, Michael P. Ryan (interim), and E. James Hindman. Without their support and that provided by other administrative officers, the program would never have been possible. Ms. Joan McCarthy, Administrative Secretary in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, has provided so very efficiently and pleasantly the extensive staff assistance for the annual programs.

The University Symposium program also has been supported by many of the University's faculty, especially by faculty sponsors of the student honor societies on campus. Alpha Chi National Honor Society student members and faculty sponsors have played a particularly active role in the presentation of the programs each year. Of course, it is entirely fitting to acknowledge the contributions to the program which have been made by Angelo State University's faculty and students because it is to them and their intellectual, personal and professional development that the University Symposium is dedicated.

E. James Holland, Chair
University Symposium Committee
1984-1996