May 1996 EPEC Proposal for Hampshire College
To: Greg Prince, Hampshire College
From: Chris Kawecki
Date: May 15, 1996
re: The Experimental Program in Education and Community
The Experimental Program in Education and Community is a program dedicated to increasing the variety of quality educational experiences available to students. It accomplishes this by providing experimental structures within which education is more community-based. These structures are individualized but not isolating. These structures are:
Community Classes
Peer Advising Groups
Student Contract Facilitators
Integrated Living and Learning
Each provides several benefits to the college. Each makes use of experienced students to help teach new students, provides a forum within which students can develop group skills, and provides a supportive community with whom to share learning. Each program ultimately reduces faculty workload while increasing the quality of the Hampshire experience.
Student-taught classes and group independent studies have been a neglected option at Hampshire for quite some time. However, recent momentum in student-driven course development indicates a ripe opportunity for Hampshire. The 1995-1996 academic year saw the creation of 5 student-driven courses. These groups were very successful in providing a valuable experience for students to develop a strong sense of how to be proactive in their education and community. This is testified to by the students involved in these courses who were responsible for beginning the work we have seen on Taking Root, the LOGO, the Alternative Higher Education Network (including holding its first conference), the Hampshire History Lecture Series, the Holistic Health Collective, and the Experimental Program, as well as several students who have joined Hampshire on the Road.
This fall, the Experimental Program will open community classes to all Hampshire students. But it will also invite members of the staff at Hampshire, as well as nearby town residents (primarily retired individuals, high school students, and alumni) to participate. These outside participants will be invited both as mentors and learners (though naturally they will receive no credit).
Several students have already planned to facilitate or teach student-led classes, especially division 3 students within the context of their advanced educational activities. Here is a partial list of these courses: Experiential Computer Science, Applied Sustainable Agriculture, Building The New Society: Intentional Communities and Alternative Schools, 25 Years of Hampshire Through Student Film Projects, “Religion, Church, God, Community, and Spirituality”, Beginning With Kuhn, Utopias and Dystopias, Bohmian Dialogue Group, The Humorous Novel, Relativity, and “To Know is Not Enough, and Not to Know is Not Enough”
Some students will be commencing an experiment in peer advising. These groups of 5-7 students, from all divisional levels, will become familiar with one another’s academic work and personal history. They will help each other explore the possibilities for their education (and discover their calling), as well as formalize it in contract form. Each student in a peer advising group will also have at least one student from their group as an official or unofficial member of each of their divisional committees.
Students who are first confronting the Hampshire contract system are often unable to figure out how to make it work for them. Often, faculty members do not have the time to work with students, and students feel in meetings that they are not understood (a direct result of their thoughts and documents being so tentative). Faculty are often similarly frustrated, feeling that the students they are working with are often coming to them with contracts that are far from finished. Student contract facilitators in the Experimental Program will be experts in contract-writing, and in the Hampshire academic system. They will also be well-versed in the resources available at Hampshire (such as the Student Information Network and STAR), in the five colleges, and in the greater community. Student contract facilitators will be a resource available to the entire Hampshire community. Most work done by student contract facilitators will be one-on-one. Occasionally, however, when a student feels particularly in need of support in a meeting with faculty, student contract facilitators will be available to attend the meeting as an advocate for the student.
One of the important goals of the Experimental Program is to create a critical mass of excited individuals. Here, individuals will share the results of their education with the community. Informal presentations and discussions will be widespread. Formal presentations will be held at the completion of projects, and will also function as an opportunity to invite the greater Hampshire community to find out more about the Experimental Program. This living-learning community will begin in the fall with two programs: an experiment of designated housing in the dorms, and community meals. A further possible experiment is mods dedicated to the Experimental Program. Community meals provide not only a place where the various community classes can share their lessons with one another, but also a forum in which traditionally fragmented segments of the entire community are invited to meet: faculty, staff, new students, advanced students, and administration. Open community meals will be weekly, and each week several individuals from the traditionally under-represented groups will be specifically invited. Community meals will also provide a convenient time for Experimental Program community meetings.
In August, the Director will be preparing for the fall. This includes publicity work with the outside community (community groups, high schools, alumni, retirement homes, churches), formalizing policy (in particular, official college policy for community classes), preparing posters and mailings, as well as working with the advising office and OPRA on new student orientation.
Most community classes have already been proposed, and most already have faculty advisors. All students will find an Experimental Program course supplement in their boxes upon arriving at Hampshire. Several new student orientation groups have been advertised as special introductions to the Experimental Program. These groups, led by Experimental Program members, will include interaction with both new and returning faculty. The Experimental Program will host a curriculum meeting in the first week of classes to which all community members are invited. The sponsor of each community class (ordinarily a student) briefly presents the proposal for that class. There will also be a period in which all community members are invited to propose new community classes for the fall or the spring.
Community meals will commence that first week. The first few weeks of the semester, most community classes will be laying the groundwork for their plans in the fall. This includes writing individual or group contracts, and making preliminary plans for the semester. By the third week, students will have turned in a contract to the central records office, and will meet regularly. Ordinarily, community classes will begin and end on semester boundaries.
In November, course descriptions for spring courses will be requested, and by the end of the semester, the Experimental Program community course guide will be ready for distribution. As in the fall, an open community meeting in the first few weeks of the semester will provide a forum for presentation of community classes.
Office, room, and local phone line in August at Hampshire $30
August Director's Salary (1/2 time) $800
Publicity (Posters, Course Catalogs, Letters, Postage) $500
F96 Food Budget $500
F96 Community Meal labor (work study only) $500
F96 Student Contract Facilitator labor (work study only) $500
F96 Student Teacher labor (work study only) $2000
F96 Student Teacher labor (non work study) $500
F96 Miscellaneous Course Expenditures $500
Total Hampshire College Request $2830
Total Work-Study Federal Request $3000