You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2009.
Tomorrow, as part of the Carleton Symposium, I will be presenting about the new Graduation Requirements. My presentation will be at 2PM in the Library Athenaeum.
I’ll lay out the outline of the curriculum, the important changes that were made, and briefly discuss how the faculty goes about a shift as major as the rewriting the graduation requirements. I hope to see you there!
A photo I took during a walk in the arb.
CSA Senate Exists to Represent You!
Here are some of the questions we asked this week:
RUN FOR CSA SENATE! PETITIONS DUE FEBRUARY 8TH
• In addition to the SEVEN at large senate seats, there will be elections for President, Vice President, and Treasurer.
• Senate is fun, exciting, and promotes healthy bones!
• Look at the CSA Website for more information apps.carleton.edu/orgs/csa/
Where can I discuss the new graduation requirements?
• The Moodle page discussing the graduation requirements has been updated with the proposals which the faculty are discussing. Feel free to comment.
What is the Initiative for Community, Equity, and Diversity (ICED) Leadership Board?
• It is the committee which will be continuing discussions which began in the Campus Climate Survey and the Diversity Initiative Group (DIG).
• The group will be focusing on how to improve the social environment at Carleton.
• Senate appointed two students, Helen Ashton and Sam Ritter.
• CONTACT Sam Ritter (ritters) or Helen Ashton (ashtonh)
What can we do to make New Student Week better?
• Senate discussed the recommendations of the First Year Experience Task Force
• The Task Force recommended that instead of being run by Campus Activities, it should be organized by a council of involved groups.
• The days could be organized thematically.
• The common reading is not popular among faculty, and may be dropped from future NSW plans.
• NSW may be integrated with the freshmen seminars that will be part of the new curriculum.
• CONTACT: Nimo Ali (alin)
What is the Student Leadership Council?
• The Senate officers proposed a new council of students, each of which represented an administrative division of the college (CSL, OIL, etc.).
• They would inform each other about the activities of different branches of the college, and how they might impact students.
• The focus would be a) cohesion between peer leaders on campus, b) cross-group dialogue, and c) collaboration.
• CONTACT: Pablo Kenney (kenneyp)
Join us for a meeting. Every Monday, Sayles 251, 7PM. We can’t represent you unless you tell us what you’re concerned about.
Gene, formerly a member of the Iowa National Guard. Photo by Carlos Gonzales.
The library is currently featuring a series of photos called Portraits of Home 2, focusing on homelessness and veterans in Minnesota. The photos themselves are accompanied by short narratives and quotes. One reads, “The army turns a switch on inside of you, and they don’t turn it off when they leave.”
Yesterday I went to a presentation with one of the photographers of the exhibit, Carlos Gonzales. He spent one day photographing Gene, a homeless veteran living out of his car. He said that most of Gene’s days are quiet and monotonous. Gene spends most of his time just trying to avoid notice.
If you haven’t stopped to look yet, you still have a chance. The portraits will be up until the end of February.
The Knights, one of Carleton’s best known a Capella groups (and there are quite a few to choose from) has put its concert from Fall term online. It’s an awesome concert, which I was lucky enough to attend. Here’s Kids by MGMT:
Those interested in a less polished, but equally awesome Carleton musician should check out Drew Chambers:
My story in the Carl.
The editors of the Carl printed my story about my inauguration misadventures. I wanted to thank them for their help and support.
My father, who also drove with me to DC, wrote his own account of the experience and posted it on facebook. Here are the last two paragraphs:
In the end, I’m glad Obama is our President. I’m glad I traveled to DC with my son and his friends.
And I’m very, very glad I was not there at the end, when hope died for the remaining purple ticket people, huddled around cell phones, trying to catch a few snatches of Obama’s first address to the nation as President.
The following is a short article that I wrote with Beth Budnick about the upcoming Intergroup Relations pilot. It will be featured in the upcoming edition of the Lens.
Addressing issues of race in the graduation requirements has been an ongoing discussion since 1988, when the faculty approved the Recognition and Affirmation of Difference (RAD). The written goal of RAD classes is to “require reflection on the challenges and benefits of dialogue across differences,” but the program has been criticized for failing to address issues of power and privilege. Some RAD courses undoubtedly do address these issues, while others are limited to discussions of culture.
When the College Council decided to change the graduation requirements for the first time in forty years, one group of students proposed an alternative to the RAD requirement which they called Critically Considering Context. The stated goal of CCC was to provide a safe environment for students to discuss sensitive issues of marginalization. Faculty reacted negatively to the CCC proposal, stating that they could not teach the kind of “transformative experience” that CCC calls for. Dean Bierman said, “What faculty are much more comfortable with is trying to teach issues of power and privilege through content that they are expert in.”
After the CCC proposal was voted down, the faculty voted to support the new Global Citizenship requirement. The Global Citizenship requirement includes one course in International Studies and one in Intercultural Domestic Studies, but, as in the RAD requirement, there is no mention of power and privilege.
As a supplement to the new Global Citizenship requirement, the Education and Curriculum Committee proposed that Carleton pilot a program named Intergroup Relations (IGR), modeled on the University of Michigan.
Plans for the pilot program include:
- A group of students would be trained by the Dean of the College Office to lead IGR groups.
- Each IGR group would model a small seminar class.
- The student-led discussions would focus on “issues of social group identity, conflict, and community.”
- Students who lead the class will get credit.
- The objective will be that students learn to talk across difference.
- The college aims to begin the program in 2009-2010 academic year.
The Carletonian this week featured this unique entry in the security blotter:
Wednesday, January 28 – At 8:00 a.m., a six foot tall chicken was reported to be causing a disturbance in the Burton Dining Hall. He was apparently holding a sign and clucking at patrons attempting to serve themselves eggs. Security responded, identified the chicken, and escorted him back to his roost in Burton Hall.
Here’s video evidence:
