Issued by: Laura Hunt
414-229-6447
llhunt@uwm.edu
Date: May 1, 2002
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Issued by: Laura Hunt Date: May 1, 2002 |
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| Faculty teaching in the Odyssey Project include (from left) Lakshmi Bharadwaj, associate professor of sociology; David Southward, visiting assistant professor in the Honors Program; Jennifer Madler, assistant professor of German; and David Mulroy, associate professor of classics. |
MILWAUKEE -- Usually considered to be the prerogative of the affluent, the study of college-level humanities is now within reach of the not-so-affluent with the launch of Odyssey Project, a free six-credit course for low-income people offered by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
On Saturday, May 4, members of the first class to complete the Odyssey Project course will be honored at a graduation ceremony on the UWM campus. The ceremony will be held at 1:30 p.m. in Greene Hall, 3347 N. Downer Ave.
The 17 students who are finishing are mostly African American women and many are single parents. All must hustle to make ends meet financially. But they also are interested in cultivating their minds.
Those who satisfactorily complete final exams and term papers will be awarded six college credits from UWM, says David Mulroy, associate professor of classics and coordinator of the Odyssey Project. For some, the program has sparked a desire to return to college, he adds.
The group, which originally numbered 30, began their studies of Greek philosophy, world literature, intellectual history, and art history in October. They simultaneously worked on English composition skills.
"The spirit of the program is based on the idea that liberal arts should be accessible to all people," says Mulroy. "It assumes intelligence on the part of participants, but not a high level of education or training."
Working in partnership with the Children's Outing Association, the Odyssey Project's classes were held at the COA Child Care Center at 909 E. Garfield Ave., in the Riverwest neighborhood. Classes have been held twice a week in the evenings for most of the school year.
UWM faculty teaching the courses include Mulroy; Jennifer Madler, assistant professor of German; Lakshmi Bharadwaj, associate professor of sociology; and David Southward, a visiting professor in the Honors Program.
UWM launched the program last fall with a $40,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), administered by Bard College in New York. Besides coursework, the project paid for transportation to and from classes, books, and child care for the participants, who are aged 17 to 35.
The Odyssey Project was modeled after the Bard-Clemente program at Bard College in New York founded by writer Earl Shorris. Among Shorris's nonfiction books are "Latinos: A Biography of a People," "New American Blues: A Journey Through Poverty to Democracy," and "Riches for the Poor: The Clemente Course in the Humanities."
Shorris believes that study of the humanities makes contemplation, the necessary precursor to action, possible. Those in poverty are kept there by society's insistence on training them to do a task, rather than teaching them to reason and try out new ideas, he says. "The distinction is between doing and thinking, between following and beginning."
Programs funded through Bard already operate at 12 sites across the U.S., including in Chicago. And the Bard-Clemente program has inspired a number of similar programs, such as the Great Books program for the homeless at Notre Dame University.
UWM was one of five new sites begun this academic year. The Great Books Program in the College of Letters and Science and The Milwaukee Idea office jointly administer the Odyssey Project, which now must attract a funding source to continue.
The Bradley Foundation has given $20,000 to ensure that the program can continue for another academic year. But Mulroy says more fund raising is necessary to renew the program each year. The cost of offering the course is between $40,000 and $50,000 per year.
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