Liberal Arts Beyond the Classroom

We are Co-Directors of Liberal Arts Beyond The Classroom, an initiative which seeks to engage students in intellectually stimulating and provocative activities which will enrich their educational experience at the University of San Diego. To this end, we began two years ago with a pilot group of faculty members from the College (an effort spearheaded by Eren Branch, Chair of English, and Tom Cosgrove, Associate Vice-President for Student Affairs). These faculty designed their course curricula to include a component requiring students in their classes to attend on-campus or off-campus events (lectures, panel discussions, films, poetry readings, concerts, exhibits, etc.) and write papers offering their reflections. In some cases, faculty members were able to offer students a selection of events that could be connected directly to material being covered in class. Other faculty developed innovative ways of tying the events into course materials. Still others promoted this initiative as a way to help students open their eyes and minds, becoming better citizens of the world and more reflective and engaged persons. Supporting this initiative by incorporating it into your curriculum is of course a way to emphasize the social justice mission of USD.

Those of us who have incorporated this requirement into our classes have been gratified by overwhelmingly positive responses from students. They have thanked us for making attendance at events a requirement because, as many said, they went because they had to, then found that attending these lectures, etc. was interesting and eye-opening. They were exposed to an array of cultural, social, and political experiences they would otherwise have missed.

Since the primary goal of the liberal arts experience is holistic development of the individual, we believe that this initiative may be of interest to more faculty members than the twenty-five who have already incorporated Liberal Arts Beyond The Classroom into their curricula. It is our hope that more of you will consider participating in this initiative. We would particularly welcome participation from faculty in mathematics and the sciences.

To this end, we ask those who are participants in this initiative to provide us with feedback about how you have integrated Liberal Arts Beyond The Classroom into your course curricula, with specifics on: (1) how many events students are required to attend; (2) how much, if any, course credit is assigned for such attendance; (3) whether there is a written component of the requirement; (4) whether you have student feedback to share; and finally (5) what faculty members themselves think about this initiative. For our part, we would like to collect course syllabi from participating faculty and make these available as a resource for others who may be interested. And we plan to organize a resource group of students who have taken courses where attendance at events was required. They will be part of our outreach efforts. We welcome suggestions from all faculty. Let us hear from you!

Vidya Nadkarni (Political Science and International Relations)

Irene Williams (English)