In a comment on Dave Huth's post, Dave Perkins carries on the analysis of why the military minor was approved. I think he's right (though the math is a little fuzzy:-) Sympathy for the kids with the rifles, a muddled consideration of precedent regarding transfer of other minors, and the sense that 'it's already here, let's just name it.'
What next? I think we have some avenues for action, and invite posts or responses on the following:
1. Should we push for a gun-free-campus policy? It seems to me that the visibility of weapons on campus has been increasing. I was angered at the inclusion of an armed flag 'honor guard' at the head of the 2007 Homecoming Parade (I could give an analysis of why I think that seemed 'natural' to many people, but why it is deeply alarming in that context.). A general no-guns policy would send the message that, even if this is a community that tolerates ROTC, we are NOT fundamentally a community that turns a blind eye to weapons and violence.
2. Should we continue to launder credits in whole-program units from other institutions in cases where we don't have a cognate faculty group on our own campus? We could push for a general policy that puts some boundaries about how we regard transferred courses (and especially transferred minors [or majors] that are some other institutions creation)? I'm not saying we shouldn't continue to transfer in psychology or education courses from other institutions, for example; yet even now, when we do so, we exercise discernment. That is, we allow some courses to count toward our majors or minors, but not others-- and we make those decisions on the basis of our OWN curricular priorities and beliefs. It seems we have abdicated far too much of our own intellectual responsibility here, and that it is a larger issue than just the ROTC minor.
3. On the parade issue specifically, I think we ought to try to get any ROTC representation to be unarmed (see 1.) and that it be put in its place--somewhere in the parade line up with other academic programs that march, in order of their seniority in the institution. (Think about it.)
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2 comments:
Mark - These ideas are good. i favor all of them, especially the gun-free campus and the parade issue.
I would like to add a "yes" topic for discussion, in addition to "no" topics (no guns, no blind credits, no parade leading, etc.)
As I said in my first post, I would like to see a program of study added at Houghton in Peace and Conflict Studies, or better yet Conflict Transformation.
I have no idea at all how feasible this would be. Our schedules are increasingly crunched with grad programs, 4-hour courses, budget trouble, etc. I'm working on a skeletal proposal, but how likely do folks think this could be?
I am immediately attracted to the gun-free campus idea. I'll think more about it.
Dave, I think we can have a conflict transformation concentration within, say, the intercultural studies major, that wouldn't need to add more classes. I think that's key at this point: don't add more classes. Use what we've got. What do you think?
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