ANN ARBOR—Sixty teachers from Ypsilanti, Willow Run,
Southfield, Ann Arbor, and Detroit school districts came to
the University of Michigan this year to attend a four-part
series of seminars in their disciplines.

Henry Meares, U-M School of Education assistant dean
for student affairs and outreach, coordinated the Teachers
as Scholars (TAS) program, designed “to strengthen the
partnership between local school districts and the
University,” and to provide an in-depth inquiry in a
teacher’s particular discipline, ” he said. The seminars
were offered in biochemistry/biotechnology, physical/biological/and chemical studies, Asian American
experience, and complex systems.

Professors from the U-M College of Literature,
Science, and the Arts were recruited to lead round-table
discussions with participants. The program was intended
specifically to be an experience in the “exchange of ideas
and collaboration on issues” within a particular field,
according to Meares, “not a workshop or lecture series.”

In addition, funding from Ameritech made it possible
to build a technology segment into the curriculum that took
place at the Media Union on North Campus.

“We focused on showing how to use technology as part
of their classroom teaching,” Meares said, “in addition to
using computers for attendance and grading.”

As a result, TAS participants created Cyber School, an
Internet site they can use to continue the seminar
discussions. Cyber School can be found at
http://cyberschool.ummu.umich.edu/.

Based on the success of the program’s pilot year,
Meares hopes to expand the program to six seminars and
include districts across the state. Funding for the first
year was provided by U-M Office of the Provost and the
Woodrow Wilson Foundation, in addition to Ameritech.

The opportunity to work together with the faculty and
staff of the School of Art and Design, almost all of whom
he has met, is what eventually attracted Rogers to his new
post. “Initially, the pull was non-specific,” he said,
“probably related to the powerful external mystique of the
University and the Ann Arbor community. After a couple of
visits, I began to feel the sense of human commitment to
the University by the School of Art and Design’s faculty
and staff. Following the visits, I found myself thinking
of wonderful possibilities.”

Rogers said the School has many strengths, some yet
untapped. “The obvious and essential strengths are the
excellence and commitment of the faculty and staff and the
high caliber of the students.”

Rogers holds a B.E. from Yale University and an M.S.
and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, all
in chemical engineering. He also holds an M.A. in art
the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

He was editor of Leonardo in 1982-85, and his essays
and reviews of his work have been published in Leonardo,
Art/Cognition, Sculpture, The Japan Times, Artforum, The
Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has
received fellowships and grants from the Deutscher
Academischer Austausdienst (DAAD), the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology’s Center for Advanced Visual
Studies, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National
Science Foundation, and quite recently from NASA and
Microsoft Corp..

Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Rogers was professor
of art and coordinator/founder of the Conceptual Design
Program at San Francisco State University. He has lectured
in France and Japan and served as an external consultant
for art programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology,
Oberlin College, and Stanford University.