The University prides itself on encouraging students to expand their intellectual horizons in Mr. Jefferson's Academical Village. In reports and initiatives such as the 2020 Commission on International Activities, the Commission on the Future of the University and the Capital Campaign, the University sets goals for itself to further encourage intellectual inquiry, including the expansion of internationalization and global development in the curriculum and the development of students into "global citizens."
Last year a group of students, eager to embrace similar goals of expanding the global curriculum at the University, initiated the creation of a Global Development Studies major. After being encouraged by faculty members including former College Dean Edward Ayers to pursue the program last semester, the students outlined the potential major and garnered the support of many faculty members. This first student-proposed major initiative, however, recently has run into a roadblock: funding. As students continue their efforts to see their program realized, they disagree with administrators about the best way to move forward.
Bold in the pursuit of knowledge
Two years ago, interested students formed the Global Development Organization to encourage discussion of issues such as poverty alleviation and global health. Soon after forming the group, however, its members realized dialogue was not enough; they felt they needed a place to learn and study about these issues as well.
"They realized that having weekly meetings of discussing international development weren't enough, that there was a big gap in the curriculum where there was this student interest," said third-year College student Kendall Wallace, committee chair for the Developmental Major Committee. "So a year ago, in last October, the Development Major Committee was formed to shape an interdisciplinary major focused on global development."
The committee set out to design a major in which students could combine a particular interest -- such as researching the economical development of a country -- with learning about that country in greater depth. This curriculum would allow students not only to apply a learned developmental theory to a global situation, but also to further their research by studying the interdisciplinary aspects of politics, sociology, anthropology and economics.
Wallace explained that to fully understand issues such as a society's economic development, "you need to have a foundation of basis of the cultures that you are going into, of the political circumstances and of the environmental aspects and of the health [issues] of the place."
According to Wallace, the University curriculum is "insufficient" in this area for both the needs of students and faculty. She further explained that a developmental studies program would be a selective "rigorous interdisciplinary major" similar to the University's Political and Social Thought major. The curriculum would consist of many of the core politics, economics, sociology and anthropology classes the University currently offers, in addition to two third-year seminars and a fourth-year thesis. According to Wallace, a professorship needs to be created to run the major, as well as to teach the seminars and oversee fourth-year theses.
Global Development Organization member Pat Casey added the major is necessary because there is no structured way to study interdisciplinary development issues at the University.
Aligned with University goals?
According to Wallace, a global development major such as the one the committee is proposing will broaden the horizons of students at the University and increase awareness of international issues, serving two goals the University has professed.
Although he would not comment on the global development major, Arthur Garson, executive vice president and provost, said internationalization is one of the three goals of the Commission on the Future of the University.
The Commission's report discusses the needs to prepare "students to be effective, ethical, and globally literate leaders in an increasingly interconnected world," and to transform the Academical Village into a "global village."
The 2020 Commission also issued a report devoted to ideas about how to increase international awareness at the University. That commission's stated goals include planning "curriculum so students become familiar with various cultural perspectives, encouraging them to explore subjects in that global framework."
The goals of the University's Capital Campaign, a program committed to raising funds, include recruiting donors to help establish programs of international study at the University.
According to Wallace, although the Development Major Committee's goals appear to run parallel to professed goals of the University, she said the administration has not shown adequate support for the idea.
"Those goals are right in line for our proposal but for some reason the administration is ignoring one of the great opportunities to further those goals," Wallace said. "We are putting it in their lap; we have student and faculty support."
Where's the money?
After developing the curriculum for the Global Development Studies major, the Development Major Committee found itself in the unique position of having been the first group of students to ever develop a major on their own, leaving them unsure of what to do next.
"There has never been a student initiative at this University that ended with a formation of a major," Wallace said.
The group turned to Ayers, who encouraged the group to seek faculty support for the major.
"His analogy was, [that] it's this group's job to push the faculty up to the door, and [we were] going to need that faculty support to turn the knob to that door" to open the way for the major to be created, Wallace explained.
The group then changed its focus from research and creation of the major to obtaining the necessary faculty support. One strategy the students used was forming an interdisciplinary faculty advisory board with seven faculty members, including Richard Handler, associate dean of academic programs; Politics Prof. Robert Fatton; Economics Prof. Bruce Reynolds; and History Prof. Mark Thomas.
Reynolds said he has mainly served as a "sounding board" for the students, making recommendations about the feasibility of students' goals while considering limitations on faculty and the University.
After feeling they had established significant faculty support, group members moved on to obtaining funding. According to Wallace, the group met resistance at this stage of its project.
"What the administration keeps saying is ... we need someone to take ownership of the project before we can get fundraising; in other words, we have to have gotten one person on the faculty to take ownership of the program before we can approach people to create a professorship," Wallace said.
Handler expressed his support for the idea of the major, but also said he had concerns about the likelihood of finding a faculty member to sign on to the program.
"You have to have a faculty who are specifically devoted to teaching the courses" before funding can be sought, Handler said, adding that although faculty support for the idea exists, most faculty members are too busy with their departmental duties to take on the extra work of developing a new program.
Wallace said she believes the first step is not to get someone to sponsor the program, but to raise the money to create the position and the major. She said doing this will enable either a new faculty member to develop the program or will allow a current faculty member to free up her or his time as the money raised can be used to hire someone to fill his or her current position.
According to Wallace, that is what occurred with the creation of the Political and Social Thought program. When a donor approached the University with the idea of creating the program, a professorship was created, and Michael Smith, who directs the major, was brought in to develop it.
The cost of a major
According to Milton Adams, vice provost for academic programs, the amount of money needed to create a major depends on how much work has to be done.
"It depends on what's involved," he said. "The resources that would be required for a new major would depend upon how much the new major could use existing courses. If it's a major that uses existing courses, and faculty members are already teaching those courses, it may be very little money."
He added that if the global development major requires an endowed professorship with administrative responsibilities, financing the program would be costly.
Although Adams was unable to specify a specific amount of funding needed, Handler said the major would likely cost several million dollars to be developed correctly. He also said that for the major to succeed, the major's supporters would need to find enough money for two professorships.
Wallace noted the success of the program depends on finding enough money.
"We really are depending on a donor when creating this new program." Wallace said. "It is necessary to the success and integrity of the program and to the
professorship that we secure an endowment."
Wallace refuted the claim, however, that two professorships are necessary to begin the program, saying that although two professors would be "ideal," having two would not be necessary to launch the program.
Wallace said her committee is continuing to seek support for the program.
"We are trying to get the word out to interested parties ... who are willing to have their name attached to it," Wallace said. "All we need is an interested alum saying 'Hey, this is cool, Here is the money.'"
According to Garson, there are "absolutely" donors available for a variety of internationalization-related programs.
Reynolds suggested the major could become a reality if a University faculty member agrees to develop the program.
"The University can pay for anything it really wants to do," Reynolds said. Funding, "shouldn't be a show-stopper."
Determined to keep going
According to Wallace, the committee will keep on working towards its goals despite meeting roadblocks.
She said the group will keep meeting with the administration and finding ways to push toward the creation of the major by emphasizing how it correlates with the goals of the University.
"I guess you can accomplish that goal of the 2020 Commission without it, but what significance will it have if we don't have this?" Wallace said.
Temitope Awosogba, another member of the Developmental Major Committee, said the project was important in making the University a "top university."
"All of the top universities [the University is competing with] already have the program," Awosogba said. "I don't know if there is a way for the University to achieve its goals of being a top university without creating a program that is international in scope"
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