Thursday, December 15, 2011
What is College For?
What Is College For?
By GARY GUTTING
The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.
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The Stone is featuring occasional posts by Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, that apply critical thinking to information and events that have appeared in the news.
Most American college students are wrapping up yet another semester this week. For many of them, and their families, the past months or years in school have likely involved considerable time, commitment, effort and expense. Was it worth it?
Some evidence suggests that it was. A Pew Research survey this year found that 74 percent of graduates from four-year colleges say that their education was “very useful in helping them grow intellectually.” Sixty-nine percent said that “it was very useful in helping them grow and mature as a person” and 55 percent claimed that “it was very useful in helping prepare them for a job or career.” Moreover, 86 percent of these graduates think “college has been a good investment for them personally.”
Nonetheless, there is incessant talk about the “failure” of higher education. (Anthony Grafton at The New York Review of Books provides an excellent survey of recent discussions.) Much of this has to do with access: it’s too expensive, admissions policies are unfair, the drop-out rate is too high. There is also dismay at the exploitation of graduate students and part-time faculty members, the over-emphasis on frills such as semi-professional athletics or fancy dorms and student centers, and the proliferation of expensive and unneeded administrators. As important as they are, these criticisms don’t contradict the Pew Survey’s favorable picture of the fundamental value of students’ core educational experience.
Nonetheless, there is incessant talk about the “failure” of higher education. (Anthony Grafton at The New York Review of Books provides an excellent survey of recent discussions.) Much of this has to do with access: it’s too expensive, admissions policies are unfair, the drop-out rate is too high. There is also dismay at the exploitation of graduate students and part-time faculty members, the over-emphasis on frills such as semi-professional athletics or fancy dorms and student centers, and the proliferation of expensive and unneeded administrators. As important as they are, these criticisms don’t contradict the Pew Survey’s favorable picture of the fundamental value of students’ core educational experience.
But, as Grafton’s discussion also makes clear, there are serious concerns about the quality of this experience. In particular, the university curriculum leaves students disengaged from the material they are supposed to be learning. They see most of their courses as intrinsically “boring,” of value only if they provide training relevant to future employment or if the teacher has a pleasing (amusing, exciting, “relevant”) way of presenting the material. As a result, students spend only as much time as they need to get what they see as acceptable grades (on average, about 12 to 14 hour a week for all courses combined). Professors have ceased to expect genuine engagement from students and often give good grades (B or better) to work that is at best minimally adequate.
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This lack of academic engagement is real, even among schools with the best students and the best teachers, and it increases dramatically as the quality of the school decreases. But it results from a basic misunderstanding — by both students and teachers — of what colleges are for.
First of all, they are not simply for the education of students. This is an essential function, but the raison d’être of a college is to nourish a world of intellectual culture; that is, a world of ideas, dedicated to what we can know scientifically, understand humanistically, or express artistically. In our society, this world is mainly populated by members of college faculties: scientists, humanists, social scientists (who straddle the humanities and the sciences properly speaking), and those who study the fine arts. Law, medicine and engineering are included to the extent that they are still understood as “learned professions,” deploying practical skills that are nonetheless deeply rooted in scientific knowledge or humanistic understanding. When, as is often the case in business education and teacher training, practical skills far outweigh theoretical understanding, we are moving beyond the intellectual culture that defines higher education.
Our support for higher education makes sense only if we regard this intellectual culture as essential to our society. Otherwise, we could provide job-training and basic social and moral formation for young adults far more efficiently and cheaply, through, say, a combination of professional and trade schools, and public service programs. There would be no need to support, at great expense, the highly specialized interests of, for example, physicists, philosophers, anthropologists and art historians. Colleges and universities have no point if we do not value the knowledge and understanding to which their faculties are dedicated.
This has important consequences for how we regard what goes on in college classrooms. Teachers need to see themselves as, first of all, intellectuals, dedicated to understanding poetry, history, human psychology, physics, biology — or whatever is the focus of their discipline. But they also need to realize that this dedication expresses not just their idiosyncratic interest in certain questions but a conviction that those questions have general human significance, even apart from immediately practical applications. This is why a discipline requires not just research but also teaching. Non-experts need access to what experts have learned, and experts need to make sure that their research remains in contact with general human concerns. The classroom is the primary locus of such contact.
Students, in turn, need to recognize that their college education is above all a matter of opening themselves up to new dimensions of knowledge and understanding. Teaching is not a matter of (as we too often say) “making a subject (poetry, physics, philosophy) interesting” to students but of students coming to see how such subjects are intrinsically interesting. It is more a matter of students moving beyond their interests than of teachers fitting their subjects to interests that students already have. Good teaching does not make a course’s subject more interesting; it gives the students more interests — and so makes them more interesting.
Students readily accept the alleged wisdom that their most important learning at college takes place outside the classroom. Many faculty members — thinking of their labs, libraries or studies — would agree. But the truth is that, for both students and faculty members, the classroom is precisely where the most important learning occurs.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Snaps from 1st Year MFA Review
Professor Haas and MFA candidate Sakura Koretsune
Painting Professors Chris Watts and Michelle Forsyth in MFA candidate, Jennifer Saracino's studio
Friday, December 9, 2011
A Few Student Projects
Steven, Alyssa, Ayshin, and Michael, Intro to Photography
Alyssa, 12 Diptychs
Seth, Push Pin BA Show
Seth, BA Photo Graduate, Dec. 2011
Katy, Color and Form
Camille, Self Portraits
Andrew, People and their Collections
Joe, Montages
Friday, December 2, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Steve McCurry Lecture
PULLMAN, Wash. - The photography of Steve McCurry will be displayed in the CUB art gallery until Nov. 19.
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"Afghan Girl" photo by Steve McCurry |
McCurry is an American photojournalist whose most famous photograph, Afghan Girl, has been in National Geographic. His work has been featured in every major magazine worldwide.
Photos displayed in the gallery include, "Three Men, Jodhpur India, 1996,” "Train Station, Agra, India, 1983,” and "Dust Storm, Rajasthan, India, 1983.”
The exhibit is sponsored by the ASWSU Student Entertainment Board.
McCurry will also talk about his work with National Geographic 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the CUB 220. The lecture is free and open to everyone.
For more information about McCurry, please visit his website,http://www.stevemccurry.com, or his blog, http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Steve McCurry Lecture and Exhibition at WSU
- 10.15.11 to 11.19.11/ Steve McCurry Exhibit/ CUB Art Gallery/ Opening Reception 10.25.11, 5-7pm
- 11.17.11/Steve McCurry Lecture/ 6pm CUB220
This event is sponsored by VPLAC. Considering that Mr. McCurry is being paid in the low 5 digits for his presentation and um-exhibit, it is important you go and take advantage of your student activity fees.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sample Student Work From Week 6
Still Life Studies, Seth, 4x5, 2011
Camille, Digital Capture, Study, 2011
Mazdak, Digital Capture, Ghosting Sequence, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
2011 SPENW REGIONAL CONFERENCE-Spokane, Washington
Visual Evolution
November 4 – 6, 2011Spokane Falls Community College
Spokane, WA
http://www.spenw.org/conferences/2011-spenw-regional-conference/
Conference Chairs: Ira Gardner & Melissa Rackham
About the Conference:
The 2011 SPE Northwest regional conference will examine what many media theorists describe as a ‘21st Century Renaissance’ brought about by innovations in digital imaging and internet technology that are comparable to the impact of Gutenberg’s press.
The transformation from analog to digital and the convergence of still and motion photography into compact media technology constitutes a renegotiation of traditional ideas about photography and visual literacy that is emerging into questions about how photographers are addressing the impact of New Media.
Schedule of Events:
Thursday: Photography film screening of Beyond Iconic: Dennis Stock with the New York filmmaker Hanna Sawka, welcome reception, and early registration.
Friday: individual imagemaker presentations, panel discussions, First Friday evening gallery tour, SPE member exhibition and reception at the Kress Gallery in downtown Spokane!
Saturday: imagemaker presentations, trade show, keynote speaker and honored educator presentations
Sunday: student portfolio reviews
Visiting Artist Lonnie Graham
Lonnie Graham's stance on photography is that it should involve the sharing of ideas and experiences with the artist establishing a strong role within the community. This philosophy serves him well as a Professor at Penn State.
'There's a conviction I have about people, a passionate regard for life. I think I'm looking for some real, essential thing. And I'm very curious about that.'
As a very accomplished photographer and teacher I will now let his work speak for him! Until of course he comes to the WSU campus this coming Tuesday, September 27th at 6pm to give a lecture!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
WSU's Photography Areas Mission and Description
Photography Area Mission
Lens based imaging (photography) is the primary mode of visual communication in our highly globalized and networked world. The BA/BFA curriculum in photography focuses on the complexities of image production through studio art practices. This includes negotiating the multiple layers involved in the making/taking of images. Memorable photography strikes a balance between craft, form, content/concept, emotion, and expression. The photography area strives to empower students to become active and critically informed image-makers. While many of the tools and conceptual skills taught, are applicable to photography on a broad level, the areas primary focus is on photography within the Fine Art context.
Lighting Studio
The photo facilities include a professional quality lighting studio, and both a large format and mid size digital print lab with professional film scanners. There are also traditional wet darkrooms, which are suitable for alternative processes and silver printing. In addition, the area maintains quality DSLR kits, 4x5 View cameras with a variety of lenses, and Digital Medium Format equipment for BFA and MFA candidates. The Digital Media area is intertwined with the Photography area and provides both resources and instruction in time based media including video, installation, and performance.MFA in Photography
Washington State University’s MFA in Photography program is selective and competitive. The MFA in Photography is part of the School of Fine Art’s broader studio arts MFA program. Our MFA is interdisciplinary and requires that students participate in critiques, classes, and exhibitions with MFA candidates in painting/drawing, sculpture/ceramics, printmaking, and new media. Students also study with a variety of faculty in disciplines outside their area including visiting artists and lecturers. Our students come from a variety of places including regionally, nationally, and internationally. Most recently we have had students from Germany, Iran, Japan, Egypt, and China.
Graduate Photo Studio
Geographically, WSU is located in the Palouse, which is a region that straddles both Washington and Idaho. Located eight miles from WSU, is Moscow, Idaho; home to the University of Idaho. The two universities enhance the vibrancy of the area, which includes UI’s Prichard Art Gallery. WSU is approximately 5 hours from Seattle, Boise, and Portland.
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