UCLA’s Regents’ Professor and Lecturer program draws leaders from various fields to campus
By William Bardelmeier
Nov. 8, 2010 2:22 a.m.
Putting a spin on formal education, UCLA’s Regents’ Professor and Lecturer program is the university’s method of integrating real-world experience into the traditional classroom setting.
The Regents series, which began in 1962, is a program that annually invites distinguished leaders from non-academic fields to teach at UCLA.
Veterans in their fields, including former Vice President Al Gore, Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins and Grammy Award winner Quincy Jones, have held the title of Regents’ lecturer in recent years, said Lori Davison, Regents’ Professor and Lecturer program director.
The Regents program will bring in six people this year ““ Bruce Bills, Arturo Márquez, Skip Victor, Gregory Maqoma, Kasi Lemmons and Patrick Frank.
Approval as a Regents’ lecturer or professor requires academic or nonacademic achievement that is equivalent to the achievements used to decide appointments to regular university professorships, according to the Regents’ Lecturer and Professors program website. Lecturers are nominated by academic departments and are approved by a dean and the chancellor.
The honor of being a Regents’ lecturer is contingent on many qualifications. Yet in the end, nomination boils down to whether or not the lecturer’s stay will benefit the students.
Steve Loza, chair of the ethnomusicology department, said Márquez’s ability to unify sound from two distinct cultures is a major draw for his qualification as a lecturer. Márquez is a musical composer and recent winner of Mexico’s most prestigious artistic honor, the National Arts and Sciences award.
“This is an integral part of ethnomusicology as a subject, how music and society are both represented in musical culture,” Loza said.
While many of these visiting speakers this year are artists, Patrick Frank stands apart as an author and scholar.
“His presence on campus will enhance intellectual dialogue in my department and, we hope, in departments in related fields,” said Maarten Van Delden, who is chair of the Spanish and Portuguese department and nominated Frank as a Regents’ lecturer.
While Regents’ lecturers have merit in their respective fields, some students questioned their effectiveness in teaching at UCLA.
“The only problem is these teachers may have no experience ever conducting a class,” said Dan Peel, a third-year English student.
Teaching experience is not a prerequisite for nomination, though most of the lecturers this year have taught before. However, others see it as an advantage to the lecturer program.
“It’s about getting a variety of artists exposed to our young student artists from outside of the university,” said Barbara Boyle, chair of the Film, Television and Digital Media department. “You’re with your teacher for a long time in graduate school, (so) working with a new personality can be bright, fun and stimulating.”
She said she feels the program’s appeal pertains to the integration of real-life application, and the visiting lecturers’ relevance is not necessarily encumbered by their lack of formal training.
Loza said his goal is to incorporate these lecturers in the department’s events. He plans to feature Márquez with UCLA’s Philharmonia later this year at Disney Hall.
“Most importantly, (the program) inspires the students to meet some of their heroes while providing the opportunity for faculty to construct activities around the invited artist,” Loza said.
