Sections

University President Fred Lawrence will teach a seminar in the fall called “Punishment and Crime” that will focus on issues related to hate crime and self-defense, Senior Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully wrote in an e-mail.

“If you don’t let me teach, it’s like shutting off my oxygen,” Lawrence said during a reception Wednesday evening in the Hiatt Career Center.

Despite his hectic schedule as university president, Lawrence said that he told his senior staff that he will find time to teach students. Before coming to Brandeis, Lawrence taught law at both Boston University Law School and George Washington University Law School, where he also served as dean.

“We pride ourselves on being a world-class research institution that takes teaching seriously and I share both of those commitments, “Lawrence said in a statement. “I’m really looking forward to joining my faculty colleagues in the classroom. It’s a great privilege as a president to engage students in that way.”