Creating a new university from scratch cannot be fully explained in a few paragraphs, but there are a few core aspects which I find critical in any institution. My logistical preferences include a small (student body < 4,000) liberal arts womyn’s college built into a residential area amidst a larger city.
Considering the increasing interdependence of the world community, I feel like it is imperative that the core of this institution revolve around international diversity and development – not only will students travel abroad and enjoy emersion into a different culture, but the curriculum will intensely focus on aspects of world significance. The university will have a stellar language program and be known for its study abroad experiences. Finding students from all over the world and from all different economic classes is important to integrate what we do in a classroom to how we live as a community of people.
The university will uphold a strong set of values like intellectual integrity, honesty, equality, and above all, respect. A campus-wide honor code will be upheld at all costs and guide the actions of our community on and off of campus – we will treat our workers with respect through fair wages and healthcare; student concerns will be considered by individual boards with a variety of representatives; parents and alums will be directly involved in the happenings of the community by whatever means available; participating in the larger city will be of upmost importance, incorporating neighboring colleges, high schools, and non-profit organizations.
I feel like I can talk about this for hours – there is so much to consider when developing a new university, but one of the most important considerations in developing an institution is transparent values. Understanding that finding similar values for a large group of people is difficult, there will need to be a representative community voice to monitor the actions of the changing, evolving university.
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6 comments:
Jenn--
I really like the way you want to bring the students into the community more. I think that is an awesome thing to incorporate into a campus and into student activities. As for your abroad programs, I think that is a fantastic idea as well. I was wondering how you would get funding to do that. I know that is such a set-back for so many students that desire to go abroad.
I love how you want to expand the horizons of students. Besides the travel abroad opportunity and language programs, is there another specific way you would encourage students to learn about another culture?
Both of you bring up an interesting problem in modern schools - encouraging a global education. Funding these iniatives would be less than difficult in a culture like my university where it is so highly valued - much of the endowment fund would be invested into a global education. I also feel like a critical part in the desire to learn of other cultures is operating outside of the media perceptions of countries - bringing students to campus who are from different areas of the world is key; finding alternative perspectives breaks down stereotypes; travel is a necessity.
"intellectual integrity, honesty, equality, and above all, respect" I really love these values. And I can tell that diversity is also important to you.
Your university is very internationally oriented. I like your viewpoint and focus on the big picture.
My favorite part of this is that, at your university, "there will need to be a representative community voice to monitor the actions of the changing, evolving university". I agree to a certain extent. How nice it would be to have sort of a "checks and balances" type of thing going on at a school, so that, as the university grows and expands, the students will still feel safe and secure in thinking that their university is still in it "for them". However, how realistic is this? Is there any way that there can be a representative voice for the ENTIRE community? Boy would it be nice!
This sounds like the most amazing university ever. Not even kidding, this entails every value that an individual should strive for in life. The values, the cultural and global awareness, and intergrity system sound amazing, along with community involvement. Kudos.
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