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IPAC FAQ

1. Where is IPAC?

The IPAC Office is in Room 222 of the Campus Center. The IPAC Conference Room is 220 CC.

2. What does IPAC do?

IPAC, the Interdisciplinary Programs and Activities Center at Oswego, is dedicated to promoting interdisciplinarity on our campus by encouraging interdisciplinary curricular development and supporting a range of interdisciplinaryprograms and activities.  A more specific answer to this question can be found by following the [IPAC Mix] link on the IPAC site's main page.

3. What is interdisciplinarity?

Interdisciplinarity refers a scholarly orientation that features "a process of anwering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic that is too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline, and which draws on the disciplines with the goal of integrating their insights
to construct a more comprehensive understanding" (Repko, 2011 - "Interdisciplinary Research").

4. Who is in IPAC?

Administratively, IPAC is just the IPAC Director and the IPAC Secretary are in IPAC. The programs and activities supported by IPAC are listed, with just two exceptions, in the IPAC Mix - which can be found by followingthe [IPAC Mix] link on the IPAC site's landing page. Occasionally an IPAC Fellow will be found in the IPAC guest room.  It is worth noting that most interdisciplinarity on this or any other campus  falls under the heading of "concealed" interdisciplinarity. IPAC supports supports some distinctive interdisciplinary programs and activitieson campus, but by no means all interdisciplinary programs and activities. Some interdisciplinary scholarship on campus can be traced through the
IPAC lens, but by no means all of it.

5. Are all of the interdisciplinary programs and activities at SUNY Oswego affiliated with IPAC?

No, certainly not. An effort is made to assure that all programs and activities IPAC supports are, indeed, interdisciplinary in nature. But a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship that transpires at Oswego has no direct affiliation with IPAC. IPAC is a relatively small operation. It carefully selects programs and activities to nurture and support based on a number of factors including the distinctiveness of the interdisciplinary effort, the perceived impact it will have on SUNY Oswego and its interdesciplinary persona, and the ability of IPAC to support the program or activity in meaningful ways that won't interfere with IPAC's support of other programs and activities. A careful balancing of principles and practices informs the process of establishing affiliations between IPAC and interdisciplinary programs and activities on campus.
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