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March 20, 2006 Vol. 77, no.
10S
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| LIBERATE YOUR LUNCH:
Fiat Lux cofounder and BioE Ph.D. candidate Nicolas Fawzi (left)
and cofounder and history Ph.D. student Tom Burnett discuss
freedom with other members during a lunchtime gathering of
the student enlightenment club. The name, Fiat Lux, Latin for “Let
there be light,” is UC’s motto. (Rachel Shafer
photo)
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Sciences
and humanities mix in unique student club
Fiat Lux blends philosophical discussions with social activities
Three years ago, BioE Ph.D. student Nicolas Fawzi met history Ph.D.
student Tom Burnett when they were both looking for a place to live.
They ended up as housemates, together with two other first-year graduate
students. None of the four shared the same field and their academic
and personal differences were rich ground for social and philosophical
discussions. “There were four of us living in this house, and
we realized we had something special,” says Fawzi. “All
my engineering colleagues were like, ‘Wow, you know people outside
of engineering?!!’ We wanted to make that available to the rest
of campus. So our house became the seed for the club.”
The club is Fiat Lux, a 60-member Berkeley student group dedicated
to enlightenment, now in its fourth year. “We’re not just
about personal enlightenment or finding ways to feel good about ourselves,” explains
Burnett. “We’re more about asking important questions together,
learning new things from each other, and maybe changing the world in
a small way.”
Although it sounds like a scholarly group dedicated to intellectual
exercise, the club is lively and social, bringing together students
from all over campus — undergrads and grads, majors and backgrounds
of all kinds — to discuss issues, and in so doing, find friendship.
Twice a month, the club has dinner at a cafe to examine a predetermined
topic; recently, that topic was understanding human fears.
Fiat Lux also meets over brown bag lunches. Recently, on a sunny Wednesday,
seven members sat in a circle on Memorial Glade, eating lunch. Erica,
a philosophy freshman, led the gathering in a discussion about freedom. “When
are you liberated, or when do you feel liberated?” she asked.
She revealed that nude body-painting left her feeling decidedly free.
Burnett said inline-skating, bicycling and being in love made him
feel free.
“Why is the enjoyment of love freedom?” asked Babak Heydari,
an EECS Ph.D. student from Iran.
“I feel fulfilled,” Burnett responded. “Not lacking.
To me, freedom is part of the experience of love.”
Later, Fawzi asked Heydari about the meaning of freedom in Iran versus
America. “There are different kinds of freedom,” Heydari
said carefully. “In Iran, culture and society rank first and
individuals adjust their freedoms accordingly.”
This triggered a larger question. “Is the club’s search
for enlightenment an Occidental idea?” Fawzi asked.
Said Heydari, “No, we discuss these things as well. I ran a similar
club in Iran where we asked these same questions, such as ‘What
are the ultimate goals in life?’”
The group then moved to talking about the liberating qualities of
being in nature and, paradoxically for some members, the freedom marriage
offers.
Fiat Lux also organizes purely social outings such as movie nights,
cultural field trips to San Francisco, and campus lectures. As for
the future, Fawzi and Burnett are grooming other members to lead the
club after they’ve graduated. The search for enlightenment will
go on, but a vibrant community has been found.
For more information, go to http://fiatluxclub.berkeley.edu/fl_home.html.
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