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Finding aid for the What Matters to Me and Why recordings 5366
5366
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: What Matters to Me and Why recordings
Creator:
University of Southern California. Office of Religious and Spiritual Life
Identifier/Call Number: 5366
Identifier/Call Number: /repositories/3/resources/3083
Physical Description:
1.25 Linear Feet
2 boxes
Physical Description:
74 Gigabytes
284 computer files and 3 computer folders
Date (inclusive): 2002-2022
Abstract: "What Matters to Me and Why" is a monthly talk and discussion series featuring USC faculty and administrators. The series
encourages reflection about values, beliefs, and motivation in the lives of those who help shape our university. Presenters
are encouraged to talk about choices made, difficulties encountered, and commitments solidified. Susan Laemmle, former USC
Dean of Religious Life, started WMMW circa 1999. Claude Zachary, University Archivist began recording the talks on audiocassette
tapes in 2002. When Varun Soni succeeded Rabbi Laemmle in 2007, Zachary continued to produce audio recordings until 2009,
when Dean Soni began to have students create video recordings. Some of the recordings in the collection were copied from DVDs
or downloaded from YouTube. The WMMW program was paused in 2020. The What Matters to Me and Why recordings hold audio and
video recordings from the monthly talks and discussions.
Language of Material:
English
.
"What Matters to Me and Why" is a monthly talk and discussion series featuring USC faculty and administrators. The series
encourages reflection about values, beliefs, and motivation in the lives of those who help shape our university. Presenters
are encouraged to talk about choices made, difficulties encountered, and commitments solidified.
WMMW also represents a creative solution to an important and often unrecognized problem in the university setting: the separation
of intellectual life from personal and spiritual issue. For some time, students have been asking for more informal contact
with faculty. They have expressed their desire to encounter faculty and administrators as rounded human beings, professional
models, and mentors. The people who shape USC, who teach students the ways of their particular disciplines, and who help them
develop marketable skills also have a great deal to pass on in terms of worldly wisdom, moral guidance, and sources of spiritual
strength.
At each WMMW session, the featured guest spends about twenty minutes addressing the topic "What Matters to Me and Why," and
then the floor is opened to informal dialogue for the remainder of the hour. Just as there is no one way to address the topic,
so there will be no one direction in which dialogue will proceed. The WMMW program maintains an arena in which people can
talk about important, personally charged questions in an open, mutually respectful way.
Susan Laemmle, former USC Dean of Religious Life, started WMMW circa 1999. Claude Zachary, University Archivist began recording
the talks on audiocassette tapes in 2002. When Varun Soni succeeded Rabbi Laemmle in 2007, Zachary continued to produce audio
recordings until 2009, when Dean Soni began to have students create video recordings. Some of the recordings in the collection
were copied from DVDs or downloaded from YouTube. The WMMW program was paused in 2020.
The What Matters to Me and Why recordings hold audio and video recordings from the monthly talks and discussions.
The analog material in this collection is stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the analog material. The
digital files described under the series titled "Digital audio and video recordings" are publicly accessible via the USC Digital
Library. Each digital folder- and file-level record in this finding aid includes a link to the corresponding USC Digital Library
asset.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special
Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Claude Zachary, University Archivist, began preserving the files in this collection in 2002. Description of the collection
in ArchivesSpace began in 2021.
[Box/folder no. or item name], What Matters to Me and Why recordings, Collection no. 5366, University Archives, Special Collections,
USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Lectures and lecturing -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Speeches, addresses, etc. -- Archival resources
Born digital
Moving images
Sound recordings
University of Southern California. Office of Religious and Spiritual Life -- Archives