Set for Sept. 28, the 2005 Fall Con-vocation will carry the title "Stretching the Boundaries of Thought and Experience." The annual gathering for staff, faculty and students will run 11 a.m. to noon in Mondavi Center.

Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef will be joined at the podium by campus community members reading their "My Personal Compass" essays to launch a new year-long initiative designed to encourage reflection and active listening.

Members of the campus community are submitting 350-word essays for the My Personal Compass project. The initiative is modeled after National Public Radio's "This I Believe" program. The NPR series is intended to encourage people of different beliefs to listen to one another. "Today the art of deep listening, of hearing and honoring another person's perspective, is perhaps a fading art," said Vanderhoef.

"I'm hopeful, though, that we can reclaim that ability and achieve the greater collective understanding necessary to solve our collective challenges as members of this community and as citizens of the world," he said. For details, see the July 22 edition of Dateline at http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu.