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Teaching-Learning Academy
(TLA) Liberal Arts Study
2011-2012 Academic Year
Guiding Question: “How can we engage and connect multiple voices to strengthen Western Washington University
as a 21st-century liberal arts university?”
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................. 3-5
Credits ..................................................................................... 6
Introduction ......................................................................... 7-8
The Big Question (Fall 2011) ............................................. 9-16
TLA’s Journey (Winter 2012) ............................................. 17-24
The Community Response (Spring 2012) ........................ 25-34
Notes ..................................................................................... 35 TLA’s Journey Footnotes ................................................................................. 35
Citations ................................................................................ 36
Appendix .......................................................................... 37-44 TLA’s Journey: Images and Lists ............................................................... 37-41 The Community Response: Images and Lists ........................................... 42-44
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Executive Summary
I. Purpose The liberal arts is a concept that is constantly evolving. During the 2011-2012 academic year, the Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) explored the definition of the liberal arts and the impact the definition has on a liberal arts education. The enclosed document chronicles our journey towards an understanding of the liberal arts through a synthesis of evidence: highlights from the meetings, collages, images, an explanation of their pedagogy, and transcripts from the sessions. TLA’s meetings consisted of university faculty/staff, students, and community members who dialogued about the significance of the liberal arts. We considered different perspectives towards the liberal arts, the cultural context (e.g. the academic community and the public community) and the historical context (e.g. Western’s historical and contemporary approach to the liberal arts). The purpose of this document is to engage in the discourse on liberal arts education. Prior to this study, academic professionals conducted the majority of the research and dialogue on the liberal arts. However, in TLA’s study, the voices of students and community members were integrally involved.
II. Project Methodology TLA’s process is similar to that of a question and answer approach. During fall quarter, TLA develops our big question through a series of meetings attended by students, faculty, and Bellingham community members. In winter quarter, TLA dialogues to define key terms specified within the big question. Proposals are made during winter quarter that addresses the issues and topics prompted by previous meetings. In spring, TLA celebrates their dialogue over the past academic year with an action (or series of actions) that satisfy winter quarter’s proposals about the big question at WWU. Each section in the document highlights and outlines the findings of a particular quarter, taking the reader through the exploratory process of TLA for the 2011-2012 academic year.
III. Document Elements Four major elements make up the document’s organization—an introduction and three academic quarters of work. The document serves as a road map of our journey, using the main sections to emphasize the various paths we took while exploring the importance of liberal arts and its necessity in both an educational and workplace setting.
1. Introduction The introduction provides the reader with information about TLA by providing historical context, defining TLA in terms of its pedagogy as an inter-community dialogue between students, teachers, community members, and presenting an overview of our purpose and goals toward improving higher education.
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2. The Big Question—Fall 2011 TLA spent Fall quarter brainstorming topics for the big question that they would answer throughout the 2011-2012 academic year. After much exploration, we decided to explore the question: “How can we engage and connect multiple voices to strengthen Western Washington University as a 21st-century liberal arts university?”
3. TLA’s Journey—Winter 2012
During Winter Quarter, TLA discussed the meaning of the liberal arts and established a definition of the terms within the big question. After the different sessions, we compiled a working definition of the liberal arts using shared keywords throughout all of the sessions. We also brainstormed different proposals that would help engage multiple voices in the conversation of the liberal arts. Proposals dealt with subjects of communication, curriculum, co-curriculum, and professional development. TLA discussed these proposals in our meetings and the ways that we could strengthen Western Washington University as a 21st century liberal arts university. This section contains the findings and excerpts from the meeting highlights throughout Winter Quarter, including the Wordles (a web-generated word cloud), based on TLA’s definition of liberal arts.
4. The Community Response—Spring 2012
In spring, we furthered our understanding of the liberal arts by reaching out to the community. TLA participants analyzed Western’s behavior toward the liberal arts by researching artifacts from the Special Collections Department and hosting dialogue sessions. The sessions allowed multiple voices to be involved in the on-going dialogue, while also providing TLA the opportunity to evaluate public opinion of liberal arts. We ended our project and academic year with the annual Academy Awards event. The Academy Awards is a ceremony and reception meant to celebrate individuals and groups whose actions respond to topics from the big question. For the 2011-2012 year, nominees were recognized for their endeavors to strengthen “WWU as a 21st century liberal arts University.”
IV. Findings TLA developed a working definition of the liberal arts based on repeated keywords throughout the different dialogue sessions. From our exploration, we found a liberal arts education to be “an education that provides both a broad-based and a deep foundational experience, that builds an understanding of human culture and of the physical and natural world from diverse perspectives, creates connections and inter-relatedness across boundaries, fosters self-growth, frees up thinking, values creativity, provides intellectual and practical skills, and promotes individual and social responsibility. Graduates from a 21st-century liberal arts university demonstrate that they are committed to individual achievement, to life-long learning, and to the common good.”
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V. Conclusion It is our desire to promote the continued study of liberal arts in education with this document. Our journey throughout the 2011-2012 academic year was one of significant progress and success. As a whole, TLA’s exploration of the liberal arts has contributed to the dialogue amongst higher-education communities with concerns toward the future of liberal arts education. To that effect, this document serves as both an archive of past definitions of liberal arts and as a place where continuing dialogue will take root.
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Credits This document is a product of a year’s worth of effort from the Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA). All information contained resulted from dialogue and collaboration between Western Washington University students, faculty/staff, and outside community members. Students from the winter quarter 2013, Technical and Professional Editing course, have compiled TLA’s findings from the 2011-2012 academic year into this document for public use. Three separate teams were responsible for compiling, editing, and organizing TLA’s work from each quarter into one cohesive document; each team was responsible for a different quarter. In the spirit of dialogue, the document approaches TLA’s journey from a participant’s point of view and captures the various voices of TLA, the editing teams, and the coordinators. A coordinating group was responsible for assisting the teams and synthesizing the individual sections into this completed document.
Course Instructor
Margi Fox
Coordinating Group
Mackenzie Hayes Lizzie Mitchell Kaitlyn Ricks Kalee Youngquist
Fall 2011: The Big Question
Jon Carbajal Maeghan Lee Josh Moore Taylor Oldfield Tyler Zdenek
Winter 2012: TLA’s Journey
David Beier Carly Gerard Mia Jarreau Andre Yinn
Spring 2012: The Community Response
Corrine Beattie Will Crow Nick Hund Hannah Ingham Liv Mothershead Kira Zavortk
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Introduction
I. Mission
The Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) is a program at Western Washington University (WWU) established in 2001 whose mission is to create a community of scholars working together to better understand the existing learning culture, share that understanding with others, and enhance the learning environment by exploring multiple views of teaching and learning at WWU.
II. Program Description
TLA is the central forum for teaching and learning at WWU and brings together broad perspectives from across campus. Engaged in studying the intersections between teaching and learning, TLA participants include faculty, students, administrators, and staff from across the University, as well as several alumni and community members. TLA sessions occur on a bi-monthly basis. During each round of TLA, there are four sessions that take place that week – two sessions on Wednesdays (12:00 to 1:20 and 2:00 to 3:20) and two sessions on Thursday (12:00 to 1:20 and 2:00 to 3:20). Participants are welcome to attend as many sessions as they desire
III. Objectives
Cultivate a inter-community space for individuals from different disciplines to discuss, understand, and develop recommendations for the University
Provide a structure for combining student, university faculty/staff, and community voices into institutional initiatives for enhancing learning
Promote professional development resources and workshops that support both scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning
Offer acknowledgement, support, and rewards to those practicing the scholarship of teaching and learning
Share results of TLA study at the campus, state, national, and international levels
IV. History
In 1998, WWU became one of approximately 150 campuses nationwide in association with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Spearheaded by Dr. Kris Bulcroft (then the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education), the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) initiative provided faculty with a venue for longstanding engagement with teaching.
As a participant in the Carnegie Campus Conversations Program, WWU made a formal commitment to research the relationship between teaching and learning. With a SOTL summer fellowship from President Karen Morse, Dr. Carmen Werder (current TLA Director) coordinated with Bulcroft to create a thematic approach, “Recognizing, Reflecting on, and Rewarding the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,” which formed the basis of Western’s SOTL program.
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Participation
Students enrolled in Communication 322, Communication 339, and other various courses in other majors participate in TLA as part of their coursework. Many students choose to participate on a volunteer basis. All members of the WWU community, as well as members of the Bellingham community, are welcome in the TLA meetings. Participants of TLA bring their own unique voice to the dialogue.
V. Dialogue Format: Structured Informality
1. Group Opening
Participants check-in, receive their name badge and are handed a copy of the highlights (a compiled document that overviews the previous week)
Announcements of on and off-campus events/opportunities are shared with the group
Facilitator provides an overview of the agenda and presents the small group dialogue prompt for the day
2. Small Group Dialogue The whole group is divided into 3-4 smaller groups, and they work to respond to the
common prompt
A TLA staff member or participant records each group’s notes which are compiled into one document (highlights)
3. Group Closing The small groups come together to share their notes/key points
At the end of each meeting we share a moment of free thinking and concluding thoughts
VI. What is Dialogue? Dialogue is often confused with discussion. The important distinction between dialogue and discussion is that while dialogue allows for the inclusion of all voices and opinions in the effort to discover connections, discussion is based on defending a point and persuading participants to agree on one outlook. By engaging in dialogue, individuals create “shared meaning among many… [rather than] gaining agreement on one meaning” (Ellinor). TLA uses Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard’s novel, Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation, as their definition and model for maintaining a dialogue structured format.
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The Big Question
Fall 2011
“Dialogue can help us move beyond cultural stereotypes and develop a sense of shared meaning because then we learn who one another is authentically.”
–David Bohm
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The Big Question
I. Session 1: ‘Welcome to TLA’
Overview The Teaching-Learning Academy’s (TLA) primary objective during fall quarter 2011 was to engage students, faculty/staff, and community members with the concept of questioning the state of higher learning. Each session focused on questions designed to prompt dialogue among participants. These questions cultivated an understanding of the campus community and aided in the development of the big question. The first question that we presented to participants was, “If someone were to ask you, what’s the most important issue facing you at WWU today – what would you say and why?”
Participation The first TLA round had the largest number of participants with involvement distributed between students, faculty/staff, and community members. We divided the participants into four smaller groups; the dialogue from the four groups produced three general question categories for further inquiry in later TLA sessions. The format was followed in all subsequent meetings.
90 total participants attended the first round of meetings
56 faculty/staff and community members
34 students
Session Topics Before the first session, TLA participants were asked to complete a survey. One goal of this survey was to compile a list of questions concerning teaching and learning at WWU that TLA participants wanted to explore. TLA created three categories based on the patterns that developed in the responses to the survey:
1. Classes and Advising 2. Attitudes Toward Higher Education at WWU 3. Time & Balance
1. Classes and Advising We began our dialogue by using questions and prompts about classes and advising during the first session. We chose to focus on questions about classroom dynamics and professor expectations:
Why are there so many restrictions and pre-requisites, especially in the first few years?
How do we get students to participate more in the classroom?
Who do we talk to for major questions?
How do we change majors easily and handle the transition?
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How can we develop a program where upper-division students help lower-division students find resources, help with registration, and majors?
How can we connect with what students use outside the classroom so as to teach them better inside the classroom?
How do students know what professors expect?
How can students deal with the financial difficulties and find out about resources, i.e. resources for study abroad programs?
2. Attitudes Toward Higher Education at WWU All of the groups brought up the subject of higher education. Specifically, we questioned the value of a college education and the meaning of an education at WWU.
Why are we here—really? What is the goal(s) of a college education, especially at WWU?
How can we communicate more clearly why we’re here to each other, our families, the public, and the legislature?
What are our students bringing to their university experience?
What are our students taking away from their classes/their degree programs?
How do we keep people’s morale up?
How do we create stronger student-professor/staff relationships?
How do we reinforce lifelong learning including providing experience in crossing boundaries and disciplines?
How do we address negativity and resistance to change, and instead consider innovations?
How do we avoid crushing individuality so that students can shape their own education?
How do we help students make the most of their experiences here at WWU?
How do we create more service learning/application opportunities?
How do we make a place for making mistakes—for learning slowly?
How do we become a Western Washington University “tribe”?
How do we become more integrated into Western’s culture/into a department as a transfer/older student/staff?
How do we provide incoming students with an orientation experience that would connect them to WWU, a support network, upper class mentors, academic advisors, and the natural environment?
How do we offer curriculum and programs that students find interesting and relevant to not only jobs and careers, but to their whole lives?
How do we resist the hierarchical model and engage everyone’s ideas/voices as we enhance our learning culture?
3. Time and Balance We also considered how students address time management:
How we get everything done while still getting recognized for what we do?
How do we balance everything and not feel overwhelmed?
Session Summary
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Participants were most interested in talking about what they could get out of an affiliation with WWU. They described WWU as a tribe and focused on the benefits of being part of a collective group in an academic setting. TLA evaluated WWU as an entity and considered how to improve WWU using dialogue.
II. Session 2: The Importance of Liberal Arts
Overview
During the second week of TLA sessions, we focused on three main patterns that emerged from the previous week of dialogue. We also looked at additional questions that were submitted in the fall opening survey and asked ourselves how we could merge the dominant issues brought up by TLA participants.
Participation
71 total participants attended the second week of sessions 40 faculty/staff and community members
31 students
Session Topics 1. Why attend a liberal arts university? 2. How do we provide students more orienting/mentoring experiences to navigate general
education, major, and degree requirements? 3. How can we make a liberal arts education relevant for students?
1. Attending a Liberal Arts University This question was heavily prompted by the fears of liberal arts students. We explored the implications of a liberal arts education on employability.. Our concerns about professional world perception of a liberal arts degree is displayed in the following list:
Tension between life-long learning and rushing to get degrees
Disconnect between individual motivations (jobs) and institutional rationales
Negative view/lack of understanding of post-secondary education
Lack of state funding, individual financial restraints
Slippage between our aspiration of “active minds changing lives” and individual beliefs in being able to make a difference
Disconnect between institutional messaging and some teaching & learning practices 2. Transitioning Between High School and University We focused on the college experience and considered how the effects of class restriction, resource limitations, and informational constraints on a liberal arts degree:
Many restrictions and pre-requisites especially in the first few years
Restrictions on major classes, unused existing resources/services
Limited views on how to take general education classes that advance individual goals
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Inadequate guidance for transfer students
Lack of time to take advantage of existing resources
Financial restraints
Over-stretched existing advising resources
Increased faculty and staff workloads limiting individualized interaction 3. Relevance of the Liberal Arts TLA participants considered how the application of a liberal arts degree on a non-academic setting. We reflected on real-world skills and common problems that detract from a successful transfer to employment:
Need for practical service-learning and integration of useful skills (including technology) in existing course curriculum
Inadequate information regarding existing opportunities
Need for both real-time and virtual venues for information-sharing and communication
Financial restraints
Need for more direct connections with community organizations/resources
Inadequate time/resources for professional development
Increased pace overall, limiting opportunities for slow learning/risk taking, fear of change
Drooping spirits/energy
Session Summary The questions from the first session focused primarily on students’ experience of higher education. We expanded these questions in the second session and broadened our focus to include the world outside of academia and its relationship to students’ employment. Representing a streamlined and synthesized view of our varying opinions, the second session marked TLA’s first effort to draft an overarching question to study for the rest of the year. For the third session participants brainstormed how TLA could merge these dominant issues into one umbrella question.
III. Session 3: Liberal Arts and the Community
Overview In the third round of TLA, participants were presented with nine possible big questions inspired by dialogue from previous sessions. TLA particpants were asked to consider how these questions could be combined into an overarching question: “How might we use these possibilities to craft a single BIG
question for further TLA study this year?” Participation
68 total participants attended the third week sessions
37 faculty/staff and community members
31 students
Session Topics
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We generated questions, which we then grouped together into two larger general categories. These categories reflect a larger focus that emerged through dialogue during fall quarter. We developed the following possible big questions during round three:
1. How do we create more effective communication between faculty, students, and Bellingham community members?
2. How do we work towards better utilization and improvement of the liberal arts so as to provide students with a more meaningful education?
1. Effective Communication We dialogued about ways to create increased communication in all facets at WWU. The overarching goal of these questions is to find ways to better communicate in order to foster a meaningful liberal arts education at Western.
How do we create and foster theory and practices in community which build connection,
socially innovate, and prove meaningful and relevant to students and society? And how could they be infused in our learning processes in education at WWU?
How can we provide experiences for every major that bring the university into the community and the community into the university?
How can we create more effective channels of communication on the purpose and planning of a liberal arts education to students, faculty, and the public?
How do we develop responsible inter-relationships between students and faculty? How do we leverage responsibility on all levels and the community’s responsibility in helping
people attain college education? How can the university foster opportunities for faculty to develop experiential learning
components that give back to or enhance or connect to the community, and enable or encourage students to participate in them, and help everyone see why they are valuable?
2. Meaningful Education The following questions focus on improving the liberal arts at Western in order to create a more meaningful education for students.
How can we maintain the value of the liberal arts education with diminishing dollars by utilizing unused or existing resources?
How can we create a paradigm shift so we transform constraint-thinking into possibility-thinking?
How do we bridge the divide between classroom learning in liberal arts and applied learning in the real world?
Session Summary In round three, we explored possible improvements for higher education. The concluding question for the third round set the stage for the next dialogue session: “How might we use these possibilities to craft a single BIG question…?”
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IV. Session 4: Communicating the Liberal Arts
Overview After three rounds of TLA, we noticed a pattern of key words and concerns: liberal arts education, communication, connection and possibilities. Two big questions, based on these key words and concerns, were proposed during the TLA sessions. Members dialogued on the adequacy and wording of these questions. Participation
63 total participants attended the fourth week sessions
31 faculty/staff and community members
31 students
Session Topics The first group of questions related heavily to WWU’s influence on the community and how to foster that relationship. The second group of questions looked inward, focusing on how WWU can make the idea of liberal arts meaningful to its students and how they can use what they’ve learned both inside and outside of academia. 1. Community and Communication The following questions all pertain to communication and the relationship between students, staff, faculty and the community:
In a time of diminishing financial resources, how do we foster a reciprocal relationship between the community and university that raise awareness and enhance the value of public higher education?
How can we individually & collectively take responsibility for coherently articulating multiple perspectives and voices about what we are doing here at WWU and discover connections between abstract ideas and practical applications?
How can we create more effective channels of communication on the purpose and planning of a liberal arts education to students, faculty and the community through the use of existing and unused resources?
How can we the university community create more effective channels of communication?
How do we define and connect Western, Bellingham, and the community through open and collaborative communication?
2. The Liberal Arts We created the following questions in an attempt to define the liberal arts and what it means to each individual:
What do we mean by a liberal (arts) education? And how might we communicate that understanding better as well as enhance it?
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How can we encourage and enable meaningful individualized educational practices that feel relevant and practical to students’ likes and makes learning less foreign to the life experience?
How can the university community develop experiential learning that strengthens connection to society and moves us into ‘possibility-thinking?’
What does a liberal arts education mean to you?
How can we create an environment where innovative thinking and possibility thinking go hand and hand? And how do we communicate that to the community?
Using our resources to the optimum efficiency, how can we creatively and positively embrace a liberal arts education and foster opportunities for personal growth and exploration for staff, students, faculty, and community members?
Session Summary Using the common themes – liberal arts education, communication, connection, and possibilities –we considered two versions of the BIG question:
What if WWU became a new university and kept its liberal arts tradition? How would we change and how might we communicate this renewed identity?
Or
How can we design a renewed, evolving university and still keep the liberal arts tradition? And how might we effectively communicate this renewed identity?
V. The Big Question Over the course of fall quarter 2011, we explored many different questions, topics, and areas of focus. We considered two versions of the big question, as described in Session 4. During the latter part of the sessions, we pondered concluding focus questions in order to decide on the big question for the 2011-2012 academic year. Through student, faculty/staff, and community member dialogue, we reached our goal for fall quarter and decided on one big question for the year: “How can we engage and connect multiple voices to strengthen WWU as a 21st-century liberal arts university?”
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TLA’s Journey
Winter 2012
“Suppose the educational system is drastically altered to reflect the structure of society and what we now understand about how people learn. How will what universities teach be different?”
–Lawrence H. Summers
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TLA’s Journey
I. Introduction The Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) finished fall quarter with the development of the big question: “How can we engage and connect multiple voices to strengthen WWU as a 21st-Century liberal arts university?” To explore and research this question even further, we continued our dialogue into winter quarter, engaging the voices of over 250 participants (students, faculty/staff, and community members) throughout sixteen meetings. We explored the big question by defining what a liberal arts education means to the represented populations, and by brainstorming what measures might improve WWU as a liberal arts institution. Using this data, we developed several action proposals to address the big question with tangible goals. II. Exploring the Big Question
During the first TLA meetings of winter quarter, we set about defining the key terms within the big question for ourselves. Members determined that in order to address the big question, we first needed to create a working definition of the liberal arts. Specific questions guided each TLA session towards the development of a tangible definition.
Guiding Question: “What words, phrases or images would you use to communicate what a liberal arts education means?” In an attempt to both visually and textually narrow the diverse answers to the guiding question, groups gathered words and images that came up in dialogues from week one. We used magazine and
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newspaper clippings of images and words that represented our answers, and then compiled them into a word and image “quilt” (Figure 1). This word quilt represents one of the many “definitions” of the liberal arts that TLA developed over the quarter, and was our first attempt at capturing the essence of the liberal arts with words. A comprehensive list of words and phrases used to create the word quilt is available as figure 4 in the appendix.
1. What is a Liberal Arts Education?
To address the big question that TLA composed in fall quarter, our first step was to define what a liberal arts education meant to us. We merged the ideas generated by our four session groups into the following comprehensive statement:
A liberal arts education is an education that provides both a broad-based and a deep foundational experience that builds an understanding of human culture and of the physical and natural world from diverse perspectives, creates connections and inter-relatedness across boundaries, fosters self-growth, frees up thinking, values creativity, provides intellectual and practical skills, and promotes individual and social responsibility. Graduates from a 21st-Century liberal arts university should demonstrate that they are committed to individual achievement, to life-long learning, and to the common good. (Note: The italicized words designate recurring language from multiple groups.)
Combining the recurring language from the multiple groups, we created two Wordles to encapsulate our multi-faceted definition of the liberal arts (Figures 2 and 3). Wordle™ is a website that generates word clouds that emphasize frequently used words. These Wordles feature words expressed by members during the TLA meetings and illustrate the different perspectives on the liberal arts. Not all of these words made it into the big definition of the liberal arts.
2. Integrating Other Voices To broaden the scope of voices working towards defining and preserving a liberal arts education, TLA created a thread on the WWU online forum, The Viking Village, so that students not involved in TLA were able to offer their input on the liberal arts and join in the conversation. Many people shared their ideas about and definitions of the liberal arts. This thread may be viewed at: http://vikingvillage.wwu.edu/topic/need-opinions-liberal-arts.
Figure 2: Wordle #1.
Figure 1: Liberal arts collages. See appendix for full image.
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Beyond simply defining the liberal arts, participants also brainstormed which direction the next TLA meetings should take in order to successfully answer the big question. The participants drafted a list of groups and departments whose opinions they would like to hear regarding the big question:
Admissions Office
Recreation Department
Academic Advising Office
Career Services Center
General campus community
Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE)
Younger students who plan to attend college (e.g. senior high school students)
Bellingham Activities Senior Center
The Washington State Legislature The groups then developed the following question to answer at the next round of TLA meetings:
“What is ONE thing that you think would make the liberal arts education at Western stronger and more in tune with the 21st century?” To prepare for the next meetings, we encouraged participants to read the New York Times article, “What You (Really) Need to Know,” written by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University. The article calls attention to the lack of progress in higher education over the past few decades. Summers argues that higher education is in dire need of modernization and offers suggestions based on current theories for modernizing higher education. This article informed later dialogues on
proposed initiatives to improve higher education at WWU. III. Gathering Data: 21st-Century Liberal ArtS
In early February sixty-five people (thirty-one students, thirty-four faculty/staff/community members) created four different groups to further the dialogue on liberal arts. In this round of meetings, we dialogued about specific proposals to strengthen WWU as a liberal arts institution. The following dialogue topics are taken directly from our meeting highlights.
1. Communication TLA brainstormed how communication on campus could be improved. Groups came up with the following options to enhance the communication at WWU:
Sponsor forums to develop multiple statements of what a liberal education means for
various audiences
Explain why a liberal arts education is valuable
Figure 3: Wordle #2.
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Highlight WWU as a liberal arts university in all promotional materials and talks
Consider changing the name of General University Requirements (GURs) to de-emphasize
the “requirement” and highlight the gains
Develop a visual representation to illustrate what a liberal arts education means
2. Curriculum We dialogued ways the curriculum at WWU could be improved to reflect an ever-changing and developing liberal arts education. Members of TLA focused on improving the effectiveness of the General University Requirements (GUR1) criteria. The following initiatives were developed:
Provide more opportunities for service-learning/internships/practicum experiences for all
students
Enhance relevance of coursework by integrating current issues
Design curriculum in partnership with members/organizations in the local community
Enhance diversity throughout the curriculum by deliberately addressing diverse perspectives
on topics such as language, ethnicity, and gender
Embed practical and intellectual skills, especially for communication, teamwork, critical
inquiry, and civil discourse, into all courses
Create options for linking courses within and across quarters for all students
Offer 300 and 400-level GURs that are integrated with major courses to constitute a liberal arts education
3. Co-Curriculum We dialogued several ways WWU could better connect students with opportunities beyond school:
Offer more focused outreach on opportunities available on and off campus such as distance
learning programs2, Study Abroad3, and Semester at Sea4
Provide class-free time as an opportunity to present/participate in scholar’s week5
Combine the Career Fair6 with the Majors Fair to highlight the link between being a
marketable employee and having a liberal arts education
IV. Action Proposals
Using these dialogue topics, we developed proposals for possible ways to strengthen a liberal arts education at WWU. TLA met on February 22nd and 23rd and March 7th and 8th to further explore and develop the following proposals.
1. Communication Proposal
Title: Dialogue on the “liberal arts” Audience: Community members
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Brief Description: TLA would sponsor a series of dialogue sessions with various audiences (including but not limited to: alumni, community members, and Associated Students representatives) to talk about such topics as:
A historical context for the liberal arts
Definitions/misperceptions surrounding the term “liberal arts”
Adaptations of the term for various audiences
Ways to strengthen Western as a liberal arts institution
Dialogue sessions would be scribed, transcribed, and compiled into a brief white paper to be circulated broadly. Benefits:
Dialogue sessions would lead to an understanding of the liberal arts across the campus community as well as with stakeholders in the community
Communities on and off campus would become more aware of the goals of a liberal arts education and could work towards common goals
Members of communities beyond campus would be more likely to support and fund campus efforts
2. Curriculum Proposal Title: Reflection on Student Learning Audience: Senior administrator for service-learning, and faculty willing to help facilitate structured reflections Brief Description: Provide senior year/capstone opportunities for structured reflection on what students have learned from their education at WWU. Benefits:
Structured reflective opportunities provide a chance to draw connections across courses, as well as co-curricular and community-based experiences
These reflective opportunities would show the broader value to a liberal arts education beyond simply taking required courses
Structured reflection would give students the opportunity to recognize the ways their education (knowledge, skills, and values) applies beyond the classroom
3. Professional Development Proposal Title: Engaging Practices Audience: Department and faculty Brief Description: This proposal would offer an ongoing series of educational workshops on high impact, engaging learning practices such as:
“Flip-Learning” (where students “teach” more by receiving information outside of class and using class time to interact and apply the information), as well as ways of explaining why they are learning certain concepts/skills/values
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Involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in workshops to take advantage of learner expertise
Benefits:
Provide faculty (especially those teaching GUR courses) with resources on how to better engage students and make use of both current information about learning and how to incorporate emergent technologies
This series would also help develop a GUR teaching-learning community, and result in optimal learning for students, especially in foundational GUR courses
4. Co-Curriculum Proposal
Title: Expanding Scholars Week Audience: Scholar’s Week Committee, George Morris Brief Description:
This proposal would increase participation opportunities and information about Scholars Week by promoting it more broadly
This proposal would dedicate a portion of class time each day of Scholars Week to provide more opportunities for campus community members to participate
It would also communicate events widely across the university and also promote broadly with the Bellingham community and enable them to participate easily
Benefits:
Brand WWU as an institution that takes pride in its students’ scholarly and creative achievements and seeks to showcase them in a significant way with audiences on and off campus
5. Recognition Proposal
Title: Recognizing Engaging Practices in the Liberal Arts Audience: Western website operators, potential donors Brief Description: This proposal would develop a set of ongoing recognizable events and initiatives to acknowledge individuals, departments, and programs that embody the spirit of a liberal arts education, such as demonstrating engaging practices. Benefits:
Highlight the value of the liberal arts at WWU in general
Acknowledge individuals and groups that do the work and provide incentives for those who would like to
6. Considered Proposals
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We proposed these items in the February and March meetings, but we did not select them as TLA’S focus for the 2011-2012 Big Question. Many of the following ideas were integrated into the selected proposals.
Title: Increasing Service-learning/Practicum Experiences Brief Description: This proposal would incorporate service learning into existing classes at all levels, advocate their importance, advertise them widely, and increase the variety of available experiences. Benefits:
Interest in service-learning projects that are a part of course expectations
Practical and applied experiences that would provide integrative learning
Proposal would respond to a national mandate to incorporate civic learning opportunities into the undergraduate experience
Title: Offering upper-level GURs Brief Description: Proposal would give certain existing upper-level courses a GUR designation. Benefits:
Extending the general university requirements beyond the first two years would provide opportunities to explore potential majors, make connections between lower & upper-level courses, & provide students more opportunities to challenge themselves as part of the general education curriculum
Extending the GUR designation to 300 and 400-level courses would also send a strong message that the GURs are not simply courses to check off in the first two years, but an interwoven piece of a liberal arts education
Title: Combining the Majors Fair with the Career Fair Brief Description: This would involve an event informing students about majors, as well as offer interactive dialogue opportunities to explore career possibilities. Benefits:
Capitalize on the existing connection students recognize between academic interests and employment opportunities
Expanding work opportunities by introducing students to connections between their academic majors and careers that might not be obvious V. Concluding Thoughts Over the course of winter quarter, we explored the big question, and defined the term “liberal arts” for ourselves using the dialogue from our sessions. Furthermore, we brainstormed ways to improve WWU as a liberal arts university and drafted proposals framed around these ideas.
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The Community Response
Spring 2012
The liberal arts… “It’s a lot of different ways of seeing the world.”
– Barbara Rofkar, Faculty
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The Community Response
I. Introduction In spring quarter, Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) invited community members from Western Washington University and the city of Bellingham to attend dialogue sessions where they could express their perceptions towards the liberal arts. The dialogue from the dialogue sessions complemented the information that was gathered earlier in the year. In addition to the dialogue sessions, TLA examined historical texts in Western’s Special Collections Library to find documentation of Western Washington University’s awareness of the liberal arts; the combination of historical and contemporary sources offers context to the liberal art’s constantly changing definition. With each new voice that enters this discourse, our understanding of the liberal arts grows; we invite the reader to add their own voice to this on-going exploration.
II. The History of the Liberal Arts at WWU The following quotes are from sources found in the Special Collections Library by TLA participants. These quotes demonstrate Western’s historical pursuit of the liberal arts.
1. 1911-1916 Before WWU gained university status, it went through several name changes. In the early 1900’s it was known as The Washington State Normal School Bellingham. The Washington State Normal School taught its students that they should encourage exploration in the classroom. The following quotes come from periodicals in Special Collections:
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“Each year had a required course list from Music and English to Physics and Algebra, as well as elective class choices. This broad education style is a liberal arts hallmark” (21). “From 1890-1905, students had to sign a pledge saying they would teach in state public schools after going through the Normal School education program. But by 1911, ‘the new school code provides that all students enjoy free tuition in the state normal schools and still be under no obligation to teach after leaving an institution.’ This allows for an exploratory learning approach to college for the first time, without requiring students to jump into a trade” (80). “The purpose of the education training dept is to provide a ‘laboratory where methods of teaching may be tested and criticized’” (93).
“The conditions surrounding a training school [such as this one] make it possible to adapt the work of the school more closely to the needs of the children… many children will not go beyond the grades, [so] manual training, domestic science, forestry and agriculture have been emphasized in certain classes, in order that the vocational tendency of these subjects may be suggestive to the children in the choice of an occupation” (96).
Faculty were also concerned with the educational progress of community members:
“A list of general lectures by members of the faculty is offered each year, in an effort to bring some of the opportunities… of the normal school within the reach of the parents of our public school children… additional topics are added from time to time” (88).
2. 1917-1920 You can see from the following curriculum from the college that the Normal School tried to offer a diverse and widely focused education. Even though WWU offers infinitely more programs now, the fields of study started out diverse at the Normal School
Majors offered:
Home Economics
Rural School Teaching
Physical Education
Industrial Arts
Minors offered:
English
Social Science
History
Music
Spanish
3. 1928-1934 Ten years later, Washington State Normal School still offered varied inter-disciplinary courses:
“There is need of curricula which will develop well-informed, clear-thinking individuals who are self-disciplined, capable of forming judgments on adequate information and having many-sided life interest” (38).
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“Western offers variety of classes in literature, history and science for two year-course. These classes are offered to guide students to ‘face the problem of (their) own ‘philosophy of life’” (39).
Mabel Z. Wilson, founder of the Western Library, said:
This seems to me to be a core tenet of liberal arts- discussing and seeing issues from a variety of perspectives. […] It is because we believe that a life without liberal arts is a meager existence and because we want to give our students every possible chance during their days to know them. (Imprint on the Liberal Arts, WWU Libraries, Fall 1990, Vol 3/No 1, On Mabel Zoe Wilson, First Librarian)
4. 1923-1939
The Weekly Messenger was a student newspaper for The Normal School. In it, WWU’s president at the time, Charles H. Fisher, expresses his opinion on the liberal arts, considering it to be a privilege. He stated, “…a course in liberal arts is required of freshman at the university. This is to give the students an outlook on the significant problems of life.” In 1936-7, students could major in the following departments, considerably more than was available two decades before (Blue Book 11-12):
Art
Education
English
Foreign Languages
Geography
Handwriting
Home Economics
Industrial Arts
Journalism
Mathematics
Music
Nursing Ed
Physical Ed for Women
Physical Ed for Men
Printing (Graphic Arts)
Science
Social Science
Speech
Typewriting
Teacher Training School
5. 1940-1977 WWU underwent several name changes throughout the years, but finally became Western Washington University in 1977. Even through war and other hardships, education was still very important to the WWU community. The university believed that in order to survive, a student needed to be a well-rounded individual. The following quotes were taken from Arthur C. Hicks’ history of Western, entitled, Western at 75:
In the late sixties the pressures of mounting enrollment forced the adoption of a more flexible program, which permitted the student two options. The first of these retained the interdisciplinary courses; the second reverted to the pattern of departmental offerings that
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prevailed during the forties and fifties. These changes were made after intensive study by the Committee on Liberal Education chaired by Edwin R. Clapp (Hicks 85).
The board established [a] third cluster college in the fall quarter of 1969 with the charge to provide an academic stetting in which minority cultures and histories were to be studied and to create institutional procedures that would enable the student to assume as time went on a greater responsibility for the direction his studies and the ultimate shaping of his educational experience (Hicks 88).
6. 1984 By January 1984, Western administration prepared a planning council to address a renaissance in liberal arts education. This renaissance called for a redefining of WWU as a liberal arts institution. Ellen Faith argued in her paper featured in The Future of Western, that “…the need for the liberally-educated man or woman is as great as ever, or greater, as the pace of social change intensifies” (19).
The planning council sought to answer the question: “…[how can the university] balance its commitment to the liberal arts with social demand for more vocational training?” (20).
Because unbridled technological growth and its roots threaten other human freedoms and possibilities, liberal education is ripe for a renaissance. However, that renaissance is only possible if the values of renewal are actively prized by institutions and individuals… If liberal educators are unwilling to consider and carry out such a dialogue, primarily because of the polarization and distance between rational and non-rational modes of intelligence, routine-operational forces that we will find liberal education an easy target (39).
7. 2000 The following quotes come from Perspectives on Excellence, a collection of essays on significant aspects of Western’s past and present:
“The rigidly prescribed classical curriculum, with its assumption of an unchanging body of knowledge and its underpinnings the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, gave way to the much broader liberal arts curriculum. The liberal arts added the sciences, history, modern language, and the emerging social and behavioral sciences, in combinations almost as numerous as the institutions offering them” (xii). “…convinced that a liberal arts education was particularly valuable to prospective teachers. ‘They need to understand what we mean by civilization and in the problems of civilization find a basis for education’…” (xv).
III. Current Dialogue
During spring quarter, TLA invited student, staff/faculty, and community members (regular TLA participants and individuals new to TLA) to engage in the dialogue on the liberal arts (see figure 1). The diverse voices and perspectives shared in the
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dialogue sessions contributed to a shared understanding and plan for strengthening the liberal arts at Western. The transcripts from the dialogue sessions show how participants reflected on the questions and contributed to the discourse on the liberal arts.
IV. Defining Liberal Arts TLA hosted four different dialogue sessions focused on the liberal arts. In the dialogue sessions, Bellingham community members and Western Washington University students, faculty/staff, and community members voiced their opinions about the liberal arts. Not only did participants share their definition of the liberal arts, they explained how their understanding had evolved through dialogue. The dialogue kindled new ideas and provided a space for reflection. Participants offered the following remarks:
1. When you hear the term Liberal Arts what do you think of? What words, phrases, and images come to mind?
Faculty: For me it seemed like a lot of different ways of seeing the world and different cultures, different concepts. – April 25
Staff: When I think of liberal arts I think of like a lot of choices and freedom in where you want to take your path. Freedom comes from where you want to craft your art. – May 24 Faculty: I feel like a liberal arts education is one that exposes you to a variety of ideas, schools of thoughts, fields, but most importantly, teaches you how to think critically and pick apart other ideas. That’s what it sounds and feels like to me. – May 9 Staff: Well, I really like the analogy of potluck…as we develop, we usually try new things or we are exposed to them, pressured, we begin to expand our interest in different foods and tastes. I really think the liberal arts education promotes curiosity and that lasts your whole life. – May 9 Staff: I feel like a liberal arts education is one that exposes you to a variety of ideas, schools of thoughts, fields, but most importantly teaches you how to think critically and pick apart other ideas. –May 24
2. Do you think Western is a liberal arts school?
Faculty: … are we a liberal arts school? Well we are in some places, but we are also a professional school…we are preparing people for a specific profession…so I think we are many things at Western, liberal arts is just a big chunk of it… -- May 9
V. Misconceptions of the Liberal Arts
Figure 1
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Participants were asked to share what shaped their understanding of the liberal arts. Participants reflected on the way that politics, culture and class informed their ideas and opinions. One participant struggled to express how the liberal arts skills applied in technical, professional settings.
1. Do you think that there are misperceptions of the liberal arts? Why?
Student: Well I think that the term liberal is so fiercely associated with politics, the news, or some political show. It’s liberal versus conservative. So, because it has such an embedded meaning, people are exposed to news all the time, that the actual definition of liberal is being free and open to different ideas is lost to the societal meaning of it. – April 25 Student…But the liberal arts goes back to the basics of understanding everything and I think that in today’s industrialized countries, that’s looked down upon as being too broad, because you should specialize and find something to advance. – April 25 Faculty: …one of the issues is that people don’t realize that you really do get applied skills out of the liberal arts education…the ability to communicate, think creatively, do these kinds of things… comes from a liberal arts education… -- April 25
2. To what extent do people’s associations with the term “liberal” affect their understanding of/approach to a liberal arts institution?
Student: I think for me, I tend to be a bit more conservative. And so when people use the term liberal it tends to be liberal versus conservative. So I think for me…when I was deciding to go to college, it sort of had this negative stigma attached to it. So I thought…if I went to a liberal arts college I would have to abandon all of my morals and everything. – April 25
3. Well I think this leads into our next question perfectly, which is, can all subjects be thought in a liberal arts way?
Faculty: …can all subjects be thought in a liberal arts way? Maybe if what we talk about is ‘can we connect’, ‘can we see the interconnectedness among disciplines’, maybe that’s what a liberal arts way is. At the same time…I think there is some disciplinary focus [within the liberal arts]. – May 9
VI. Value of a Liberal Arts Education Besides defining the liberal arts, participants were asked to think about their own educational experience. Many students spoke of how the General University Requirements (GURs) enhanced their education. Others felt that the connection between the GURs and their specialization was poorly communicated. Community members also reflected on the interpersonal skills gained from a “well-rounded” education.
1. Would you say you had a liberal arts education and, if so, how?
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Faculty: I actually was a nurse… I studied general nursing but the way you did nursing on the floor was specific…I spent time in pediatrics because kids don’t let you tear them apart. When I actually had time to come back and do liberal arts it…was so … fulfilling; it put things together in a way that a specialty of that sort doesn’t. But I have to tell you somebody said to me when I finished: “Oh great, now you have a liberal arts degree. That and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee.” That’s how people thought of it. – April 25 Student: …I transferred from the Philippines, which is focused on “Get good grades and finish everything.” I moved here and I found this array of “Do community service, and communicate with people,” and I think being in a school like this gave me a chance to connect to other people and be well rounded…With GURs, there is no connection, not with science because I’m business majoring, but I enjoy it because I’m not only focusing on business every day; I have something to think about other than just numbers and stuff. A liberal arts education…helps me a lot to be open minded and well rounded. – April 25 Staff: When I think of the liberal arts, it’s well rounded. I think of… a buffet; you pick and choose what you can. You’re not going to take everything but you are going to get the majority of things and that’s what helps you [better] understand yourself…your society, the world…as a whole. – April 25 Student: I transferred to Western my fall quarter and did all of my prerequisites at a community college. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was able to take different courses… I took Gender & Sociology: I [took]…Mass Media & Communication and Geology and Mass Media Writing. The fact that I was able to take so many different…courses…helped me to understand what I did wanted to do when I came [to Western]. – April 25 Student: …[GURs] are courses you have to take, no one ever … told me why, no one told me “I know you’re getting a specialized degree, but this will help you with life”. …I think they present it, even here, [as] a hurdle you have to jump over, instead of something to be happy about or useful to you. It’s presented as something you just have to do. – April 25
2. Do employers value a liberal arts background? What marketable skills come from a liberal arts education?
Faculty: …I can tell you one thing, I go and ask employers “what are you looking for, are you looking for a specific major?”…there are some employers who do want specific majors but most of them say: “oh, it’s not a particular major: we’re looking for skills”. Interpersonal skills are huge. Some of that is born within you and a lot of it is developed by just being independent with different classes and all different experiences. – May 9
Faculty: …People don’t realize…that you really do get applied skills out of the liberal arts education. We see this unregimented ability to communicate and think creatively… That comes from a liberal arts education, primarily I would say. …the ability to synthesize ideas from other sources [and] build on other ideas... are all applied skills. – May 24
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VII. Strengthening a Liberal Arts Education at WWU We applied the information acquired from the previous quarters, the dialogue sessions, and research in the Special Collections Library to propose changes to improve the liberal arts specific to WWU. We also acknowledged people who consistently showed commitment to TLA and the liberal arts during spring quarter.
During the 2011-12 academic year, we addressed the big question: “How might we engage and connect multiple voices in strengthening Western as a 21st-century liberal arts university?” As a result of this study, we drafted suggestions for enhancing the GURs as part of a strong liberal arts education and found three major areas of interest:
1. Perceptions and Communication 2. Curriculum 3. Professional Development
1. Perceptions and Communication
Adopt/adapt a university-wide statement that points to the overall goal of a liberal arts education such as this one developed by the TLA:
“A liberal arts and sciences education is an education that provides both a broad-based and a deep foundational learning experience. Graduates from a 21st-century liberal arts university demonstrate that they are committed to individual achievement, to life-long learning, and to the common good.”
Figure out how to conceptualize and communicate the relationship between the general education requirements and academic majors/minors in acquiring a liberal arts education
Consider revising the name of the GUR to something that more clearly conveys its role in a liberal arts education, for example the “core”
2. Curriculum
Increase service-learning/community-based/practicum opportunities as part of existing general education courses as well as at the major level because they represent potentially important learning experiences for all the liberal arts goals
Mark some existing upper-level courses for general education credit to signal that the liberal arts core extends throughout the undergraduate career (rather than simply something to “get out of the way” in the first two years)
3. Professional Development
Promote engaging practices to faculty teaching general education courses and provide exemplars and models. (TLA has generated a list that includes practices such as “flip learning” where students gather information outside the classroom such as from readings/taped lectures and use the in-class time for dialogue and application)
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Provide multiple development opportunities for general education faculty with support for participating in them including offering modest honoraria
Recognize exemplary work of GUR faculty individually and collectively. For example, a GUR faculty award might go to an exemplary individual or to a whole department that demonstrates an especially strong commitment to their general education offerings
The proposals pertaining to professional development and curriculum went to the Committee for Undergraduate Education and were accepted by the committee.
4. Recognitions Every year, TLA hosts the Academy Awards Ceremony. The purpose of this ceremony is to recognize individuals who contribute to the learning culture at Western Washington University. For the 2011-2012 Academy Awards, TLA recognized individuals who strengthened Western Washington University as a 21st century liberal arts university. The criteria for nomination are as follows:
Encouraging diverse perspectives
Creating connections and inter-relatedness across boundaries
Fostering self-growth
Valuing creativity and free thinking
Learning and sharing intellectual and practical skills
Understanding and demonstrating individual and social responsibility A full list of Academy Award recipients and nominations can be found in the appendix. The main purpose of our Academy Awards is not to recognize and reward the involvement of only a few participants, but to emphasize the involvement and value of all participants in TLA. Everyone involved in TLA helped contribute to the conversation in some way.
IX: Concluding Thoughts As a result of spring quarter, TLA developed a comprehensive understanding of the liberal arts and its implications for the WWU community. We provided students, staff/faculty, and community members with an opportunity to express their ideas and the relevance of a liberal arts education. Our spring quarter dialogue inquired into the significance and importance of studying the liberal arts in order to create a shared meaning within the community. The proposals that were created in response to diverse perspectives and ideas are relevant to all liberal arts institutions. This document preserves spring quarter’s dialogue and contributes to the important and extensive conversation on the liberal arts within the academic community.
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Notes I. TLA’s Journey Footnotes 1 WWU’s General University Required courses, classes required for all students to earn a degree at WWU. 2 Programs that allow students to earn their degree in non-traditional settings, such as online. 3 Program for students to earn an education in a foreign country. 4 Program that offers mainly Humanities courses aboard a cruise ship that travels the globe for a semester. 5 Annual event held for a week in May to celebrate research and academic projects by undergraduate students at WWU. 6 A free networking event that allows WWU students to meet with hiring managers from private companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies to discuss employment and internship opportunities.
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Citations
I. The Big Question
1) Bohm, David. “What is Dialogue” Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation. Print. 2008.
2) Querubin, Cecile. "Dialogue: Creating Shared Meaning and Other Benefits for Business." Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the ISSS. Vol. 55. No. 1. 2011.
II. TLA’s Journey
1) Summers, Lawrence H. "What You (Really) Need to Know." New York Times 20 January 2012, n. page. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/the-21st-century-education.html?_r=4&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all&>.
III. The Community Response
1) A Framework for Excellence: Strategic Planning Committee Final Report. Publication. Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University, 1991. Print.
2) Hicks, Arthur C. "General Catalogue." Western at 75. Bellingham, WA: Western
Washington University, n.d. N. pag. Print. 3) Perspectives on Excellence: A Century of Teaching and Learning at Western Washington
University. Ed. Roland L. De Lorme and Steven W. Inge. Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University: Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, 2000. Print.
4) “Students Association of Washington State Normal School” Blue book 1936-1937,
Reserved pg.11-12, Blue Book 19-20-21) 5) Washington State Normal School Annual Catalogue. Bellingham, WA: Washington State
Normal School, n.d. Print. 1910-1939.
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Appendix
I. TLA’s Journey
Figure 1
38
39
Figure 2
40
Figure 3
41
Figure 4: The List of Words in the Squares
The Future
Have a heart Kids What should I learn in college? DREAM Some of the finest schools in the country Growth Intervention Truth
Transform world experience
Proposal writing reason
What do their peers think?
Learning commons
Books for fun, freedom hearing
More than a diploma
What happened to the library Arts?
Open your mind
Rethink everything
Great Innovator
PLAYING
Bold, bold flavors refreshingly light
Attracting angels
This is the year
A dangerous undertaking
Illuminator
Get inventive
“There’s always this “Berlin Wall” between professional and educational institutions’” this should be crossed out
Looking for Value
So human
“Relentlessly authentic”
A life less ordinary
Understand
Respect
Peace-Loving
Seed Creativity
You never stop growing
Grow
Measures of success.
Evolution
Change
What is a LIBERAL EDUCATION?
Better you
Debate goes on see what you can experience with leadership & dialogue a big journey there’s a reason we’re responding.
Get inspired
Watching twentysomethings talk
We’re listening
Get down to business
Growth, Profit, Flexibility
Accomplishment
Well rounded
A new Path to Recruitment
Asking questions
Growing lifelong learners
New beginnings
Exercise your BRAIN
An ides man
Humanities
Building a foundation
Powered by knowledge driven by people
What should I learn in Life? The Essential Learning Outcomes
When the Going Gets Tough Step Up
Don’t Just Get a job … Save the World!
Apply Knowledge
Small changes big impact
Experience -> Growth -> Green Energy
Thinking Make a different
Creative
Education
Climbing
Magical
Wander?
Discover
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Imagine Liberal
Play together
Free your head!
Seed Creativity
Compassion
We hear you
Pot Luck
Come Together
Ideas go 360
Open to the world
101 ideas
Masters and PhD
Scholarship
Why would you want to be like someone else?
Trek
Daring
Liberal
Life
Dreams
A privilege
Handle with Care Fragile Contains: Freedom
Scales
More certainty
Start spreading the news
Shatter tradition
Sustainable future
Reach
Art
College
Hello my name is
Mind
Freeing
Conquer its as easy as putting one foot above the other
There’s a point to this. It may take four years to find it, but there’s a point
Have a Heart
Free your head
Hearts on Fire
Together: Connect, Communicate, Conquer
Innovation not for wimps
Brighten
A beastly debate
Spring Awakening
Global vision international
Base camp
Less ordinary
Success
Nothing happens the same way twice…it’s always an experiment.
Linguafranca
Boundary
Do more innovation
Film
Ideas for good
Stage
More than 80% of employers want colleges place more emphasis on teaching students oral and written communication skills, and critical thinking and analytic reading skills.
Sweetness and might
Incentives
College Expands great-value Opportunities
Where do you want to end up?
Open
Brought to you by –you
So much to gain
Now, Supporting the idea
Human
Celebrates art
Having trouble remembering what you’re taking?
Create
Active your climb
To do good things for others
BASECAMP
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II. The Community Response
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Figure 1
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Figure 2: Academy Awards Recognitions TLA recognized following people and organizations:
Alex Allyne
Alex Reed
Alyssa Jones
Amy Appleton
Adre Blick
Andrea Peterson
Ann Gunderson
April McMurry
Babafemi Akinrinade
Barb Quick
Barbara Rofkar
Ben Miller
Beth Parker
Bethlehem Heckman
Bill Lyne
Blair Kaufer
Brad Smith
Brent Carbajal
Brittany Otter
Bruce Shepard
Caite Holman
Carmen Werder
Carol Janson
Catherine Riordan
Catherine Vader
Cathy Mcdonald
Charles Hoffman
Charles Sylvester
Charlotte Guyetter
Cher Carnell
Christina Keppie
Colin Moy
Cyndie Shepard
Dan Guyette
Dan Larguier
Daniel Espinoza-gonzales
Daniel Purdy
Daniel Solomon
Danielle Smith
David Hamiter
Deb Currier
Diane Johnson
Dmitri Simuel
Don Pham
Dong Vo
Donna Qualley
Dwan Shipley
Ed Hunter
Effie Eisses
Elena Pereyra
Elizabeth Betsy Raymond
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Stephan
Esther Heckman
Evan Derickson
Firass Asad
Gabe Gossett
Gerry Prody
Gracielle Loree
Haley Agrenn
Heather Dalzell
Helen Solomons
Jacob Acton
James Sweeney
Janis Farmer
Jason Kanov
Jenny Hebert
Joan Ulin
Joanne Demark
Johann Neem
John Deng Duot
John Farquhar
John Purdie
Joseph Garcia
Judy Pine
Julene Sodt
Spring 2012
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Julia Sapin
June Frasier
Kali Legg
Kara Yanagida
Karen Henriksen
Karen Stout
Karen Powell
Kathleen Saunders
Kathy Young
Kelsey Benton
Kevin Carey
Kim Marsicek
Kristen Larson
Kyle Evans
Lauren Huddleston
Lauren Lyshall
Leah Wood
Leslie Hall
Leza Madsen
Linda Joy
Margaret Fast
Margi Fox
Marie Raney
Mark Peyron
Marli Williams
Martha Moores
Matthew Miller
Mialee Jose
Michael Schardein
Michelle Becker
MJ Mosher
Monica Aebly
Nathan Marino
Patrick Dizney
Paul Chen
Paul Piper
Precious Angelie Barrientos
Randi Sanders
Renee Collins
Richard Maneval
Rick Osen
Robert Borquez
Roberta Kjesrud
Roger Gilman
Sandra Daffron
Sandra Gottschalk
Sarah Wilson
Scott Pearce
Scott Roberts
Shawn Knabb
Shevell Thibou
Shurla Thibou
Simone Senn
Stephnie Shaw
Steve Fleishman
Steven Vanderstaay
Susan Anderson
Susan Brown
Sylvia Tag
Tasha Chicovsky
Teresa Sherwood
Tim Costello
Todd Haskell
Tristan Goldman
Tyler Baxter
Victor Nolet
Whitney Dunbar
Zach Neuhaus
Center for Equity and Education
Center for Service Learning
Human Services Program
Hybrid Bus Team
Prevention and Wellness
Prevention and Wellness Services
Senior Center
Student Outreach Services
Teaching and Learning Leadership
The Peer Sexual Health Education
The Teaching-Learning Academy
Village Studies
Western Libraries
