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November 5, 1998 Coordinating Committee for the Certificate Program in the Study of the Liberal Arts through Great Books 1997-98 Annual Report Preface The Certificate Program in the Study of Liberal Arts through Great Books is an innovative attempt to revitalize liberal arts education at UW-Milwaukee. In order to earn the certificate, students must fulfill rigorous requirements in mathematics and foreign language, complete two semesters in the history of western civilization, and earn fifteen credits in the study of great books. The goal of the program is to persuade a significant number of students to take this demanding array of liberal arts courses even though they can obtain a college degree on the basis of easier courses. The program was formally approved in November 1995. Currently, approximately twenty students are officially committed to earning the certificate. ACTC Conference The director of the Great Books Program, Professor David Mulroy, and the program graduate assistant, Chad Schroeder, both attended the fourth annual conference of the Association of Core Texts and Curriculum. This conference was hosted by the University of North Carolina-Asheville and took place from April 17th - 20th, 1998. Panel discussions took place on many varied topics. Among these were presentations on great books pedagogy, the compiling and use of a canon of literary works, as well as presentations on subjects and authors who would not normally be included in a canon of Western authors. Professor Mulroy and Mr. Schroeder were awarded a $1000 grant to attend this conference from the UTIG Mentoring Program, which is a part of UWM's Center for Instructional and Professional Development. First Certificate Awarded Steven Grobschmidt was awarded the first Great Books certificate during graduation ceremonies this past May, 1998. He was a distinguished undergraduate at UWM, graduating with a double major in History and Latin. For two years he held an undergraduate teaching assistantship in the Classics section of the Department of FLL. Great Books Cross-Listed Courses The Great Books program cross-lists approximately thirty courses each semester. The courses cross-listed are those that carry Great Books credit. They are courses in which students read acknowledged classics in their entirety. Courses suggested as Great Books courses by their instructors require approval of the program director acting on advice of the steering committee. To date there have been no disagreements on identifying Great Books courses. Great Books Seminars Although the majority of the courses which count towards the Great Books Certificate are courses already offered by the university, the Certificate Program itself often offers its own seminars. These are taught according to the "shared-inquiry" method that is used at the St. John's Great Books Colleges (Annapolis and Santa Fe). Students are encouraged to critically read texts and then to interpret them for themselves and then as a part of a group, namely the class. The instructor acts as a "tutor" to the group, not lecturing nor imposing a certain interpretation upon the text. One seminar was offered during this last summer semester by Professor Jennifer Watson-Madler, who taught Goethe's Faust (part I). Two seminars are planned for this upcoming spring semester, with a tentative plan being drawn for a third. One of the seminars is to be taught by Professor David Mulroy on Ovid's Metamorphoses (course # 530-101-001), and the other seminar is to be taught by Chad Schroeder, the Great Books Program's graduate assistant, on Sanskrit Classics of Ancient India (course # 530-101-002). The tentatively planned seminar is to be taught by Professor Albert Milani on Euclid's Elements. Great Books Steering Committee The Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences appointed the steering committee. Current members are Professor Jay Beder (Department of Mathematics), Professor Garry Davis (Department of FLL), Professor Neal Pease (Department of History), and Professor Roy Arthur Swanson (Departments of FLL and FICL). The steering committee of the Great Books program met on September 28, 1998 to discuss the possibility of expanding the Great Books program into a major and to identify methods of publicizing the program and attracting more students into it. The director was urged to develop detailed plans for a "Great Books" major. Great Books Web Page Over the past year a internet presence for the Great Books program was established. Seth Fischer, an undergraduate student majoring in computer science, is currently responsible for the maintenance of the web page. Newsletter The newsletter of the Great Books program, Oracle, was completed, printed, and distributed in late fall of 1997. Over 1,500 copies of it were sent to various student groups on campus, all of the incoming class of freshmen students, and many related or interested faculty members. The National Association of Scholars requested fifty copies of the newsletter for distribution nation-wide to faculty members interested in similar academic reforms. Program Assistant Mr. Chad Schroeder, who was hired for this position in February 1997 coinciding with the beginning of a grant from the Bradley Foundation, continued as the program's assistant. His duties remained administrative tasks, as well as recruiting students and disseminating information about the Great Books Program and great books instruction across campus. This spring his duties will be expanded to include instruction in the Great Books seminar on Indian classics. Program Students To date, dozens of UWM students have expressed interest in the Great Books Certificate Program. There are currently in the program nineteen active students, each of whom has satisfied a portion of the requirements. Two of these, Dan Sanford and Jessica McCutcheon, are new recruits as of this fall semester. The Great Books Program students are:
Greg Whitten 8083 N. 37th St. Milwaukee, WI 53209 Remnant Trust Exhibit The Great Books Program was responsible for the arrangement of a display from February 25 to April 30 of some twenty-five rare and one-of-a-kind works of literature which are owned by the Remnant Trust. This display included original copies of many important political documents, such as the first pamphlet pressing of the Bill of Rights. It also included various other original great works of literature or first English translations of great works written in other languages. In order to recognize Mr. Brian Bex, who owns and organizes the collection, a reception was held on March 16th 1998. Several prominent Milwaukee-area business professionals attended. The reception was thus an opportunity for Great Books faculty members and students to meet with potential benefactors of the program. Roundtable Discussions Monthly discussion groups on great books continued. Attendance at these discussion groups is high, being a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members of various departments, and even members of the general public. Midway through this last spring semester, the meeting place was changed from a lecture room in the humanities building to the Special Collections room in UWM's Golda Meir Library. This move was to take advantage of some of the holdings of the Special Collections as well as those that were brought to UWM by the Remnant Trust. The schedule of roundtable discussion for the period from fall semester 1998 through fall semester 1999 is as follows:
John's Tutors Two tutors from St. John's Great Books College (Santa Fe, New Mexico) hosted seminars on April 23rd, 1998, at the UWM. One of the seminars was a discussion of Plato's Meno, and the professors utilized the great books pedagogical method of "shared-enquiry" in order to demonstrate to our own program students how a university founded on this method teaches its students. They also delivered a presentation to approximately forty faculty members and mathematicians of UWM to show how great books instruction can be incorporated into a traditional mathematics and science curriculum. Expenses for the visit were divided between the Great Books Program and St. John's College. |
·| © 1998 UWM - College of Letters and Science Last Updated: October 30, 1998 www.uwm.edu/letsci/committees/fdn/fdn492.html |
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