Dean's Reading Circle

For instance, about twice a month Honors College students are invited to the Dean's home, next to the residence halls, for book discussions and evenings of music appreciation. Books are announced in advance, and those students who are interested are given a copy of the book to read and keep. Music appreciation evenings often complement Manhattan musical events the students may be attending with the Deans, and no advance preparation is required from the students.

Evenings at the Dean's house begin with food. Music appreciation evenings usually feature exotic cheeses and fancy pastries. Book discussions follow a more elaborate dinner, the menu for which is often suggested by the book.

For E. M. Forster's Passage to India, the dinner consisted of lamb with a variety of curried dishes. For Brideshead Revisited, a novel of society life in England, the students enjoyed a formal six-course dinner. But for So Long, See You Tomorrow, set in a small town in the Midwest, the students were served baked ham, potato salad, chocolate cake and ice cream.

After dinner or dessert comes the work with the music or the book. On musical evenings the Dean provides a lecture augmented both with selections taken from his collection of several thousand compact discs and with illustrations played by him at the piano.

This spring the music focused on the development of the Requiem since a number of Honors students heard either Mozart's or Verdi's Requiem on two different evenings with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.

On book evenings the students play a more active role and the discussion often includes moments both of serious reflection and also of delightful laughter.

Richard Garner, Dean
Adelphi University
Honors College
Earle Hall, Room 100
1 South Avenue
Garden City, NY 11530

p - 516.877.3800
f - 516.877.3803
e - garner@adelphi.edu

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