Smoke from Thurgood Marshall College’s multifaceted, years-long debate concerning the Dimensions of Culture undergraduate writing series has dissipated.
As part of an ongoing effort to reform the D.O.C. curriculum, the program’s directors will now consider adding an upper-division elective to the program designed to give students the chance to apply the program’s teachings in a practical context.
The idea for the elective was originally proposed in April 2008 within the Academic Council of Excellence report, a list of recommendations for reforming the D.O.C. program written by seven Marshall College students.
The report called for the creation of a new aspect of the program that would allow students to engage in practical applications of D.O.C. themes, such as volunteer work or internships.
The report was issued in response to a decision by college administrators against renewing the contracts of two D.O.C. teaching assistants ‘mdash; Scott Boehm and Benjamin Balthaser ‘mdash; for their refusal to teach according to a curriculum that they said had become too patriotic and uncritical of social issues.
The proposal is currently being channeled through the D.O.C. steering committee, a body comprised of D.O.C. directors and professors Robert Cancel and Robert Horwitz, in addition to several other faculty members, two teaching assistants and two undergraduate students.
Marshall Provost Allan Havis said he believes the class would instill excitement in Marshall students to give back to their community.
‘The chief idea ‘hellip; [is] to make an upper-division elective D.O.C. that involves public service ‘hellip; [so that students can] talk about the social initiatives in a seminar capacity,’ Havis said.
The elective would be an entry-level upper-division course followed by a four-unit ‘socially relevant externship’ that would reflect the previous seminar, Havis said.
According to Horwitz, however, a reformation of the D.O.C. program should be focused less on creating a new course and more on efforts to ‘hire regular faculty’ and ‘reconceptualize what they should be doing.’
Marshall College junior Mina Girgis agreed that the program requires some reform. After completing the D.O.C. series, she said that prior to its upheaval, teaching was ‘pretty much all over the place,’ often characterized by inefficient lectures and disgruntled students. Girgis said that while his professors often strayed off topic, students ‘were basically able to learn mostly everything from [their] TAs.’
There remains a continuing dialogue among faculty, the steering committee, teaching assistants and students to collectively shape the direction of D.O.C.
According to Havis, the revision of D.O.C.’s existing courses has taken precedence over any new course, with the campus’ budgetary constraints as a determining factor.
Cancel and Horwitz will meet with the steering committee this summer to decide whether to add the new course. In the meantime, Havis remains hopeful regarding the development of D.O.C. as facilitated by these implementation groups.
Readers can contact Kelsey Marrujo at [email protected].