Theme 1: Students - History of Philosophy: PreSocratics, Plato, Aristotle (November 29, 2006)

Cole Kirchner (student), John Powell (course teacher).
Notes taken ck, edited and transcribed jwp

What of your undergraduate education so far has been was striking, important, or memorable?

  • Dept's meeting with majors on preparing for grad school, including discussion with faculty on options and alternatives. (Two students, transferred from UC's, saw this as symbolic of different attitude toward students at Humboldt. --Another, who had been a fisheries major here at Humboldt, had gone to a similar session in that department.)
  • Having teachers who think teaching is kick ass. This was unexpected and is of great value.
  • Compared to UCLA, the teachers here interact with students more--more and more open office hours, smaller classes, etc. ("Richmond is destroying this.")
  • Sympathy and attention paid to each individual student. Educational experience is more personal.
  • Arts provide students a lot for the students' money.
  • Education is a lot more involving, more prominent in my life because of the small classes and the contact with mostly good teachers. It doesn't feel like education is separate from the rest of what I do so much as when I was going to community college.
  • The natural environment, and the fact that it gets incorporated into classes, even basic classes.
  • Social, Environmental, and Political Activism (jwp question: how many would endorse this as important to you personally? 9 of the 17 present raised their hands.) This activism spills over into the local community, which helps make people take it seriously.
  • Faculty who put emphasis on awareness and actions concerning social and environmental issues, many of them of crucial importance.
  • Not standardizing the education. Keeping departments open and not rigid. E.g., Philosophy dept's inclusion of Continental and Eastern philosophy.
  • Encouraging (not just in philosophy dept) self-reflection, re-examining our beliefs.
  • Profs more understanding and less rigid regarding when our own issues intrude in our class performance. Recognition that for some of us our lives outside class are just as important as in class.
  • Real professors, as opposed to grad student teachers at other schools. Small enough classes that conversations with professors don't feel like intrusions.

What will our graduates know and be able to do?
What are the goals of an education?

(Think in terms of outcomes, action verbs, but don't worry about final wording)
  • Humboldt will put our graduates on at least an equal footing with grads of other schools when it comes to competing for admission to graduate school, and give us at least an equal education to what other good schools provide.
  • Our graduates should (strike that) will have a broad education with a worldwide perspective, including understanding other countries and cultures as part of the curriculum. We won't have graduates who are only narrowly educated or provincial.
  • Our graduates will have options which include economic options and spiritual or enlightened options, and will be able to see them, and be able to think about them and choose. They will see economic values but will also see other values.
  • Our graduates will have strong analytic skills for looking at big picture issues. They'll see beyond face value of questions, be able to go deeper.

(After reviewing the current draft from the WASC Theme 1 group) What's left out?

  • It is a mistake to separate #1 on the draft and #5. (#1 is ". . .actively work toward . . .justice in workplace and communities," #5, "demonstrate competence in . . . major fields.") Five should be how One is implemented.
  • Creativity is not stressed enough, or independence. Our graduates will be able to think for themselves, be creative, innovative, artistic.
  • Economic competitiveness is neglected. We are partly here so we can make a living. Our graduates will be able to compete, and not just in Humboldt County but in the global economy. The document has got to at least mention something about economic preparation, or it's ignoring a major part of what brought us here.
  • Humboldt graduates should --oops, will be equipped to be self-sustaining, productive in society.
  • Our graduates will find self-fulfillment, will know how to use their strengths in a satisfying way.
  • (In response to some of the items above) Our graduates will be able to compete economically without leaving other important values by the wayside. (much discussion) Our graduates will know how to balance economic and other values.
  • There's also something missing here about how small classes help put us on a more equal footing (jwp question: equal to or with whom?--answer seemed to be, equal with those who are making decisions on policy or making business decisions) by giving confidence and practice in thinking and discussion and debate. (discussion) --Auditorium classes prepare us to fit into the power structure that already exists. Discussions with profs (especially when they are urging activism) prepare us for changing or taking control of power structures. (discussion on how to make that into a goal, how to link with measurable objectives. Much frustration.) --Our graduates will have the confidence to enter into debates as equals with those who shape policy and those who are deciding large social and environmental issues. This is one reason small classes are important indicators of quality in higher education.
  • Our graduates show awareness of how they fit into the world without sacrificing individuality.
  • --It's isolated here. There has to be emphasis on seeing beyond your immediate surroundings and getting to know your place in the world.
  • Our graduates join themselves to their areas of study and use their understanding to be creative and compassionate.
  • Our graduates walk away with a wholistic perspective on things. They are not only specialists even when they are specialists. G.E. has a crucial role.
  • Our graduates appreciate and know a wide range of cultures and things like that. (jwp: ? --attitudes, ways of thinking, sets of values.
  • Our graduates will keep a balance of old hippie and hardcore intellectual and economic (corporate, even) values.
  • Our graduates will be equipped to make connections with grad schools, employers, communities, and government services internships. The career center here is pathetic. Our graduates will make smooth transitions (with interviews and resume writing and contacts) into the places they go after graduation. --Now there are only a few tables, maybe a dozen, most of them local employers, on the quad for what, a thousand graduates a year, fifteen hundred? It's scary.
  • Our graduates will continue an emphasis they learn here on being creative and on applying knowledge positively to produce changes for the better.