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Activism for credit at Berkeley
NoIndoctrination.org announces a course offered this spring at UC - Berkeley:
This spring UC Berkeley is offering "Ethnic Studies 198: The Prop. 209 Project." (In 1996 California voters passed Prop 209, which prevents the state, including UC, from giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity.) The course description states students will analyze data "to craft a political strategy for a successful 'pro-diversity' initiative in the State." The course findings are then to be presented to the chancellor, an outspoken critic of Prop 209. An application form for those wanting to take the course included the following: "Please describe any technical skills that would be useful in a political campaign."UC Regents' Policy on Course Content states that the university must "remain aloof from politics ...."
The course is a "DeCal" course, meaning that it's part of a program designed to allow undergrads to design and run their own courses. It is being sponsored by Harrison Dekker, a data services librarian at Berkeley. In the past, DeCal course have centered on such subjects as Janet Jackson's choreography, Dr. Suess, civil liberties, male sexuality, and The Simpsons. Look at the current offerings here to see the range of courses and to read course descriptions.
Berkeley's DeCal program--which is short for "Democratic Education at Cal" and which claims to be the largest program of its kind in the nation--puts an intriguing spin on familiar debates about what it means to bring politics into the classroom. It's one thing when professors impose one-sided political views from within the framework of an academic course. It's quite another when students voluntarily coordinate a politicized course of their own design and invite all interested comers to join them. It's still a big question whether students should get credit for their political activities--just as it's a big question whether they should be getting credit for studying South Park or the "History and Culture of the Hookah". None seems particularly academic; all seem to be confused about the difference between the things one does on one's own time (watch TV, smoke, lobby) and the things one does, or ought to do, in an academic setting.
NoIndoctrination.org has picked up the course description of Ethnic Studies 198 as an example of Berkeley's politicized classroom -- but in the absence of a professor actively doing the politicizing, the issue shifts dramatically from ideological grounds (after all, students are just as welcome to offer a DeCal course on conservative lobbying) to more purely academic ones. Should Berkeley be allowing students to design their own courses for credit? If so, should such courses be required to meet a reasonable standard of academic seriousness if they are to proceed? Sitting at the complicated crossroads of academic freedom and free association, DeCal raises serious questions about how, in accommodating a trendy push for student-motivated learning, a university can allow students to dumb down their own curriculum.
Thanks to Mike McKeown for the tip.
UPDATE: NoIndoctrination.org has updated its site to clarify that Ethnic Studies 198 is not a DeCal class after all. Courses numbered 98 and 198 are typically DeCal courses at Berkeley, and as recently as spring 2005, Ethnic Studies 198 was offered as a DeCal course on multiracial issues. NoIndoctrination.org notes that this term, Ethnic Studies 198 "is part of the Chancellor's Diversity Research Seminars for Undergraduates and was promoted by the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education." So, despite the misleading course numbering, Ethnic Studies 198 does appear to be a professor-led course in which students get credit for politicking, and in which taxpayers fund them while they do it. The course also has an application form that asks students to explain why they want to take the course, whether they have ever won an award from an undergraduate research program, and what knowledge or experience they have of California politics. That last question sounds just a bit like a litmus test, not to mention a job application.
Posted by acta online at April 25, 2006 08:46 AM
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Comments
I think the distinction you make between academic topics and "things one does on one's own time" does even begin to hold up after the most cursory scrutiny. Given that popular history is a hugely selling American commodity; given that literature itself is first and foremost a pasttime; the problem is clearly not about the academic study of leisure activities.
Right now, *South Park* is shaping more minds than probably any high literature. Why shouldn't this be a topic of academic study? I admit that the key here is "academic study," that for *South Park* to be included in a college setting it must be subject to a rigorous form of analysis. But your post offers no proof that this is not the case. The bottom line is that when the next Constance Rourke comes along to write about "the American national character" for the late 20th and 21st centuries, programs like *South Park* and *The Simpsons* will take the place of Rourke's emphasis on minstrelsy, regional humor, almanacs, and so on.
A few more points: students have always designed their own courses for credit. These are called "independent studies." Again, academic rigor must be upheld, but there's no reason why a group of interested students shouldn't be able to come together to help assemble a class that meets their intellectual or social interests. Finally, the assumption that such classes provide only "indoctrination" is just that: purely an assumption. Imagine a course on environmentalism. Every student might enter such a DeCal class with the assumption that protecting natural resources is important. But anyone involved in environmental issues knows that there is no consensus among environmentalists about what resources are at risk and how to protect these resources. Such a class would be no different from any business school class, in which increasing profits and the success of capitalism are the assumptions behind nearly every course. Provided that these courses allow students the room to disagree, and provided that these courses analyze their topics with proven intellectual tools, I see no problem with them.
Posted by: M at April 26, 2006 01:32 PM