History of the Colloquium

History of the Colloquium

How did this event get started?

Like so many great ideas, this one began around the photocopier!

In the summer of 2004, the TPC began as a conversation among Ginny Ratsoy, Gary Hunt, Nancy Flood, and Deb Draney, inspired by an idea brought back from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference in Ottawa. The idea was passed on to Annette Dominik, who formed the first colloquium committee of what soon turned into a campus-wide initiative, with over a dozen people responding to a call for volunteers to make it happen.

The committee brought together a number of instructors whose brainstorming led to an event enabling us to share teaching ideas with our own colleagues here on campus. The Teaching Practices Colloquium was born. Building upon the past successes, and still driven by an interdisciplinary committee, subsequent TPCs aimed to provide an even more enriching experience for all.

We hope that this annual event will continue to strengthen ties between colleagues in different disciplines. As TRU grows, it becomes increasingly important to keep the channels of communication open. This event is one such channel, and we hope that the energy of everyone who teaches here will carry the colloquium forward from year to year, in the spirit of collaboration and shared purposes.