This month we profile our talented Team Member, Kernon Gibes. Project leader and veteran educator Marsha Familaro Enright will also continue her multi-part article on education, focusing on lectures and the Three Period Lesson. • Kernon Gibes RIFI Team Member Kernon Gibes created the college's website, putting in long hours to master the web software and dealing with Marsha Enright's website creation/maintenance naivete! About the college project, Kernon says "it would be wonderful if it succeeded! Particularly if it was fully functioning when my kids were set to go to college! Anyone interested in Rand's ideas would certainly be interested in a secular college that was fully oriented toward teaching college-level materials objectively." ...

Currently, Don is an Adjunct Instructor teaching ethics at Holy Family University in Philadelphia while pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Temple University. He aims to specialize in Social and Political Philosophy, concentrating on Rights Theory. This fall he will begin teaching philosophy at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. However, a circuitous path brought Don to this, his second career. Shortly after getting a B.A. in English, he thought that as a librarian he could be surrounded by books, helping patrons and afforded time to think, which led him to pursue a degree in Library Science at Drexel University. Don was turned on to systems work through courses for radically changing library technology, graduating with an M.S. in Library and Information Science. However, rather than as Librarian, he began a twenty year career as a Telecom Systems Analyst and manager, working on some exciting projects...

Tal "...had no plans to attend college."Our own Tal Ben Shahar has enjoyed some fame these past months in print and on TV; in fact if you google him, his name has two + pages of references on multiple websites, talking about his Harvard course on Positive Psychology, the largest at the University with 850 students. He also teaches the third largest course on The Psychology of Leadership with 550 students. So who is this favorite Harvard Lecturer? Tal hails from Israel by way of Squash. In his teens he was a world-class squash champion in Israel and had no plans to attend college. He was the Israel Olympic Athlete of the Year for 1988, 1989 and 1992. Instead, he figured on a long athletic career—until Life—in the form of military duty–got in the way. During his tour of duty he sustained an injury that prevented him from competing ever again on the world-class level...

With the publication of a new issue paper by Robert C. Dickeson, a consultant to the Department of Education, Secretary of Education Charles Miller may have released the first trial balloon signaling more central control of higher education by the Federal Government.* In his paper, Dickeson argues that colleges and universities are not sufficiently concerned with the "real quality and impact" of their systems on student outcomes and with the "gaping information void" regarding college performance. Additionally, he worries over the accessibility of higher education for low- and middle-income students...

Publicity One of our Team Members, Harvard Lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar, was featured in the Harvard Crimson recently. Tal’s "The Science of Smiling" http://www.thecrimson.com/Article.aspx?ref=511334 (http://www.thecrimson.com/Article.aspx?ref=511334)is the best attended course in the university, drawing over 800 undergraduates (Tal also teaches a course on leadership). His courses emphasize the kinds of Practical Life skills that young people need to be happy and successful...