At the Rose Cafe, Dr. Hill led a discussion regard possible improvements to the Rose Scholars program. I thought many people raised a lot of really valid and great points, with many centering around promoting more socialization and camaraderie within the program. While the event programming certainly seems to be fairly diverse and varied overall, and the quality of events that I have attended have been quite high, they do not truly center around socialization at their core, which means that it is quite difficult to facilitate camaraderie through these events. I definitely feel that having events centered around socialization, such as frequent food/ice-cream socials would help alleviate this problem.
In addition, while I feel the Rose Cafe programming and speakers have each been pretty great, I have noticed that there is a lack of STEM/technology topics at the Rose Cafe. It would be great if the cafe could perhaps invite professors in computer science, physics, etc. to talk about issues such as AI research and other major scientific research trends. For example, I know that this semester there is a Cornell CIS Seminar Series on Artificial Intelligence offered that features lectures from computer science professors on various AI topics that is open to the public, and in the lectures that I attended, it has been extremely well-attended. Thus, I feel that if the Rose Cafe were to offer more STEM/technology topics and speakers, I think it would draw a great deal of interest, perhaps even from students and people outside the Rose Scholars program.
I’m an engineering major, and I totally agree with you about the need for more STEM based events. I came to Cornell thinking I would go to a ton of lectures, but I never seem to have time.
I’ve also started avoiding Rose Cafes since we restructured to make them more “intimate”. I never feel like I know enough about the topic, and, even though I know the cafes are intended to inform, I don’t want to join in a conversation I know nothing about. I would much prefer it if they brought in more science and technology related speakers.
I also just really to tour wherever it is they make Cornell Dairy ice cream. I think that counts as a science related event.
I’m also an engineering major, and I also agree that it would be great to have more STEM related Rose Cafes. As someone who is just not that interested in business and economics, I have always been slightly annoyed with the large number of Rose Cafes on topics in those areas. I don’t mind listening to talks on those topics on occasion, and I do have plenty of other interests that are not STEM-related, but I would have really appreciated some more variety.
Ooh, you’re also interested in Artificial Intelligence? I know that I, for one, would jump on an opportunity to hear a lecture about it, since rapidly-expanding fields of technology such as BMIs or AI have the potential to drastically change the world we live within the next decade or two! Though other Rose events are often thought provoking and they address many philosophical and politically relevant issues, I agree that the Rose Scholars should be allowed to have insight into the technology of the future as well, since that is likely what’s going to most visibly shape our world!