VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1                          UP DATED  JANUARY 15, 2005               Weather: Mostly all day

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Cooking For Academic Credit
Queens University vows to defend turf against new kid in town

Charlotte, NC -- Knight Ridder                                                                                       

Queens University of Charlotte officials today vowed to meet the competition from Johnson and Wales University head on. The first students haven't yet entered the new culinary arts school which is still under construction in uptown Charlotte, but Queens is getting ready for the rivalry. "We've got a lot of spunk and plenty of high caloric ideas to throw at them," said a Queens official close to President Pamela Lewis. "If they want a food fight, bring it on!"

When it opens this fall, Johnson and Wales will offer courses of study in cooking, hotel management, hospitality, and event planning. From over 6000 applicants, 1210 were accepted and will enroll in September. "This has exceeded our wildest expectations," said Tarum Malik, Dean of Academic Affairs. Most of the students are interested in the culinary and baking/arts programs, says Brian Stanley, the Director of Admissions for the Charlotte campus. "Being a chef takes more than wearing a big floppy hat and passing off small portions of rich food as art," he adds somewhat defensively.

Queens was founded in Charlotte in 1857, but it has only been a university for the past three years. As a traditional liberal arts institution, Queens offers majors in business administration, nursing, education, interior design, information systems, and organizational communication. "We're proud of our status as a university," says a member of the Queens Executive Council. "It makes us want to defend our new turf against all comers."

Enter Johnson & Wales.

As the fall semester approaches, Queens officials have announced a wide-ranging curriculum overhaul to meet the J & W challenge. Dr. Dorothy McGavran, the Director of the university's liberal arts Core Program, has announced a series of meetings and an end-of-summer faculty retreat to explore creative ways of including food in the university's curriculum. The idea is to attract some of those 6000 students interested in the culinary arts.

"Food has long been the center piece of a good education," says Dr. McGavran, herself justly famous for her cucumber sandwiches. "Just think of the Last Supper, the expression 'food for thought,' and significant works of literature like Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Who Moved My Cheese." After pausing for a bite of one of her cucumber sandwiches, she continued. "Food has been a staple in the study of Western Civilization, from the apple in Paradise to the last meal of a death row killer. We can teach food. And what's more; we can give it a firm foundation in the liberal arts!"

The faculty are excited about changes to the curriculum. "We'll match them soup ladle for egg whisk and crock pot for colander," says an exuberant junior faculty member who is up for tenure next spring. "We'll choke them on their own croquets," threatens one of the lacrosse coaches.

According to Dr. Betty Powell, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Queens program will begin with a pasta arts major using adjunct faculty from the Sodexho Marriott staff that runs the university's dining hall. "The variety of pastas and sauces makes this a natural for a liberal arts school," says Powell. Until other culinary majors can be developed, some departments will offer concentrations for students throughout the College of Arts and Sciences -- Business will offer Restaurant Management, and Nursing will provide Detection and Treatment of Food Poisoning. Other departments will provide food "tracks" within their majors: Religion will provide courses in The Last Supper and Saying Grace; Psychology will have a track on eating disorders; Mathematics will provide courses on dividing up bills for large groups and calculating tips; Art will handle food "presentation"; and English will take on menu writing. All students will learn how to read menus in three foreign languages (one Asian), and all will take a capstone philosophy course in which they will contemplate Descartes' axiom, "Je mange, donc je suis" (L. Edo ergo sum). In addition, the Drama Department has announced its spring offerings: The Man Who Came to Dinner, Dinner at Eight and Sweeny Todd.

Clearing a lingering cucumber particle from her nether lip, Dr. McGavran summed it all up: "An education that ignores food is like popcorn -- it leaves you bloated but never nourished… and sometimes you get a little gas." Before extending her metaphor beyond credulity, Dr. McGavran offered an olive branch and an invitation to the upstarts from uptown. "We hope the J & W faculty will join us for our retreat in the mountains in late August so we can share ideas and expertise. We'll bring the ideas about a food-centered liberal arts curriculum, and they can arrange for the accommodations, prepare the meals, set a beautiful table, and serve us some scrumpti-delicious food." 
                                                                    Staff Writer KATHLEEN PURVIS contributed to this article.