Class size created a consistent challenge to the earlier course-related efforts described here. When offered with an experiential-learning fea- ture, honors junior seminar courses often suffered from low enroll- ment. Also, because the topics are advertised in advance, the question arose whether students were willing to experience diversity as the minority, especially in an unknown environment. In cases when stu- dents did enroll, I wonder whether the courses were preaching to the choir of students already interested in diversity issues. The course enrollment in the honors junior seminar also struggled because many students earn the credits required for the junior seminar by spending a semester abroad.
Now, in fall 2009, I regret to report that no formal assessment was conducted to determine the impact of these experiences. In hindsight, I think it might have been fruitful to administer a pre-and post-test instrument to measure where students fell before and after the classes on a sensitivity or awareness continuum. I am not certain what perma- nent impact these efforts have had on the program or the university. The Urban Experience Junior Seminar, which is for non-honors
students, has become one of my favorite classes, and I continue to develop the SEPTA assignment and conduct the Who’s Who in Philadelphia exercise among enrolled students. A third of the students who enroll in my section apparently do so because of the emphasis on spending time in the field as part of the SEPTA Chronicles assignment. Feedback from students, faculty, and administrative peers and supervi- sors on these efforts has been positive. Students in the Urban Education seminar, which is for students in the honors program, reported that they significantly altered their perception of inner-city students. Their journals indicated their understanding of the negative and compounded impact that underserved and under-resourced schools and crime-ridden neighborhoods have on intelligent children. They repeatedly acknowledged the promise of the children, viewing them separately from their circumstances. Overall, students generally appreciated the dynamic contribution that ethnic, social, and econom- ic diversity offers in terms of affecting and effecting their engagement with day-to-day experiences and interactions.
Very telling as a turning point for my institution, I think, was the col- laboration of SEPTA in the City that bridged Academic and Student Affairs. This project pooled resources and priorities from both divi- sions in a way that did not “ghetto-ize” the identity affiliations of those involved and did not wear a banner or stamp of “diversity effort.” People simply recognized that the collaboration provided a valuable experience for new students entering the Philadelphia University com- munity. Still, I am particularly pleased that as of fall 2008, the univer- sity’s Student Development Programs office has positioned diversity programming as a priority initiative that we hope will become part of the institutional culture. In fall 2009 this office initiated a service- learning course, SERV 101. An honors section of this course will be offered in 2010.
As many American institutions of higher education celebrate an awareness of and focus on the globalization of the marketplace of ideas, a demonstrated institutionalized awareness of and focus on ethnic diversity remains conspicuously absent on some campuses. The honors community is often one of the only locations on campus where discus- sion occurs regarding where and how intentional diversity efforts fit. As a member of an ethnic and gender minority serving as honors director at a majority-white institution, I have embraced the following assertion: Because the nature of honors involves preparing fertile spaces for high- ly motivated students to develop as intellectual and cultural leaders, as director and regardless of my ethnic identity, I have a responsibility to
act as one of the thought leaders on our campus concerning how we
approach diversity in the local and global intellectual marketplace.3
Notes
1See, for example, Bill Proudman’s “Experiential Education as
Emotionally Engaged Learning,” as well as other articles in that collec- tion, The Theory of Experiential Education.
2The projects described in this chapter were specifically designed to
involve students and raise their awareness of people whose circum- stances, environment, and experiences were unlike their own because
of economics and ethnicity. While the City as TextTMmodel, of which I
am aware, may have provided me with some impetus with regard to these projects, I did not draw specifically on City as TextTMliterature in
formulating the projects or this chapter.
3By “thought leader,” I refer to serving as one of the university lead-
ers who initiates conversations on issues that traditionally have not been topics of open discussion on the campus.
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