Professors commemorate Davies, Kuenne at faculty meeting

University professors remembered two recently-deceased colleagues — religion professor Horton Davies and economics professor Robert Kuenne — during a faculty meeting Monday.

The faculty also approved a 2009-10 academic calendar with a relatively short winter recess.

Religion professor John Gager spoke about Davies, who died in May at age 89. Praising the "warm interest" Davies took in his students, Gager highlighted his former colleague's "pivotal role in the growth and success" of a new graduate program in religion that began the year before Davies joined the University faculty in 1956.

Gager also emphasized Davies' energy and industriousness, describing him as "always at work on a writing project" and noting that "his energies also flowed into painting and drawing."

Economics professor Harvey Rosen spoke about Kuenne, who died Nov. 5 of Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 81.

Calling Kuenne an "inspirational teacher," Rosen remembered the breadth of his former colleague's intellectual pursuits. Kuenne's two principle interests were oligopolies and national defense, Rosen said, and his work was notable for the ways it combined technical knowledge and ethical and philosophical concerns.

"He always marched to his own drummer," Rosen said.

Later in the meeting, Deputy Registrar Robert Bromfield presented the 2009-10 academic calendar for approval. The calendar — which will not affect current undergraduates who graduate in four years — includes a 16-day winter recess lasting from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3.

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The vacation is slightly shorter than recesses in recent years, which have lasted about three weeks. Last year's winter recess lasted 23 days, as will this year's, and the recesses for 2007-08 and 2008-09 will last 19 and 23 days, respectively.

Faculty members approved the calendar unanimously without commenting on the length of the break. Bromfield said after the meeting that the occurrence was not out of the ordinary.

"Winter recess is fewer than three weeks in some years," he said. "It depends on how late in September the fall term starts, and lots of things in the calendar govern that ... This is not unusual."

The Committee on the Course of Study, a group of about a dozen administrators and students, will meet today to continue discussion of possible changes to the academic calendar for future years.