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Critical thinking is not just private pondering, mental gymnastics, or a bland set of teachable skills - it’s an activity that real people do together in community, according to Martin Fowler, an ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ lecturer whose first book “The Ethical Practice of Critical Thinking” examines the concept.

Award-winning author and public education reform advocate Jonathan Kozol visits ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ on Sept. 23 for its 2008-09 Common Reading Lecture to share with college students the joys of serving impoverished children.

CNN senior analyst Jeffrey Toobin visits downtown Greensboro on Sept. 22 to discuss his latest bestselling book on the Supreme Court as part of the Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series.

James A. “Jay” Hendrickson has been elected to the ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ board of trustees.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ earns a top national ranking in a new feature included in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Colleges” guide. The magazine named ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ the top "School to Watch" in a listing of colleges and universities that have made “striking improvements or innovations – schools everyone should be watching.”

Connie Book, associate dean of the School of Communications, along with student Lauren Limerick, testified Sept. 16 before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. They discussed findings of their recent study of the nation’s transition to digital television.

Two record books from the early years of the Christian Church are now available online through ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s web site for researchers to access anywhere in the world.

A team of students led by communications professor Connie Book traveled to Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 8 to document what happened when the first American media market made the historic switch from analog to digital television.

James B. Piatt Jr. has been named vice president for university advancement at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ. Piatt currently serves as vice president for college advancement at Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio. He will succeed Nan P. Perkins, who retires this year after a 32-year career at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ.