[The Montana Professor 22.1, Fall 2011 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]
Linda Gillison
Classics
UM-Missoula
linda.gillison@mso.umt.edu
In 2005, I joined the editorial board of The Montana Professor and have since served as editor of the journal. During my sabbatical in 2007-2008, colleagues Henry Gonshak (UM-Tech) and Alan Weltzien (UM-Western) served as acting co-editors. Throughout those years, we editors have served with the able assistance and generous support and sometimes propping up of Dick Walton, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy here in Missoula. This service has given me an opportunity to work with colleagues from around the state in ways which would likely not have been possible otherwise. As Dick and I now turn over the leadership position to Phil Gaines (MSU-Bozeman), I'm glad to have the chance for these few "Last Words."
As I've reflected upon several issues of the journal from the years of my tenure with the board, I see that we have been able to address some major issues concerning the Montana professorate and the larger world in which we work. The first issue which I edited was dedicated to the theme of academic responsibility and found guest editors in George Dennison of The University of Montana and Geoff Gamble of Montana State University. That year, we considered evaluation of courses and instructors by students, NCAA sports, the social compact between Americans of one generation and those of the next which has guaranteed societal support of public education, honor codes, the "Academic Bill of Rights," and the nature of academic freedom. In the most recent issue, UM President Royce Engstrom clearly enunciated some of the challenges which confront higher education today as we imagine and try to craft a public policy future which will lead to a healthy university system. We have published articles on the frightening spate of shootings at high school and university campuses, addressing the issue from diverse and articulate points of view.
As the US remained at war on two major fronts with much of our country unconcerned and uninvolved, we considered the mythic nature of war as we make it and have always done so in our history. We reviewed a book by a member of the "Greatest Generation" whose critical and deconstructive view of his own life-changing experience of wartime service intended to offer a corrective to much of the mythologizing which surrounds the heroics of military service and undertakings. We have published articles from diverse points of view about the Transfer Initiative/Common Course Numbering process which has been exercising our efforts and attentions in the MUS for the past several years. We have likewise published articles from diverse experiences on the matter of dual-credit and dual-enrollment courses which may serve to improve the high school experience of Montana secondary school students and also provide them a quicker way through the undergraduate curriculum once they are here on campus. We have recently called for a system-wide discussion of quality in higher education and, more specifically, within the Montana University System.
We have invited colleagues to write about "discipline-changing" books or technologies or ideas and in that connection published a clear and compelling article by an emeritus colleague in Forestry about the global information system. We have invited colleagues to write about the state of their disciplines and offer, in the current issue, an excellent piece by Janet Finn and Ryan Knee (UM-Missoula) on their field of social work as well as a reflection on the public humanities. We have printed articles in honor of past excellent faculty members: I particularly recall the description of Leslie Fiedler who, during his time here in Missoula, rather than order textbooks, simply instructed his students to track down the numerous items on his reading list (gutsy) and who did it all—teaching, service, scholarly publication—while holding generous and open-to-the-public (albeit smoke-filled) office hours in which conversation ranged widely. We have published reports by colleagues from across the MUS which focused on their efforts to improve their teaching and include in this issue such a report from the Butte campus where colleagues in the department of Business and Information Technology have redesigned their capstone course with a view to increased student engagement. A few years ago, a colleague offered to deconstruct a phrase and process with which we all live daily on university campuses—"Strategic Planning." "Let's tear the sucker apart," he suggested, "and see what makes it tick." What a concept!
We have discussed in these pages, then, some of the issues which are most pressing in higher education and in our world, and we have celebrated the continuing efforts of our faculty colleagues and the memories of former colleagues, all of whom have worked hard to provide an outstanding educational experience for our students.
My colleagues on the editorial board, as a group, are eager for the journal to be "edgy"—to offer critical consideration of items of concern to us all. That being the case, I would suggest several topics which demand our attention as we move into the future, and I hope and trust that this journal will take the lead in bringing them before us for discussion. I list these concerns in no particular order.
First, I think we need to be alert to the establishment of dual-credit and dual-enrollment courses, since such courses may affect our existing curricula and may make particular demands of or place particular constraints on the courses which we offer on our campuses or may affect what courses in our programs receive university credit. Likewise, we will need to be vigilant as we notice who makes decisions about the establishment of such courses and whether those decisions arise with individuals or bodies possessing the knowledge and expertise requisite to create and manage the curricula of a system of higher education.
Second, we will need to pay attention to the progress of the Transferability/ Common Course Numbering Initiative which has affected our campuses for a few years now. The initiative arose beyond the campuses and has, since then, taken uncounted tolls of time and energy from faculty members and administrators and had easily foreseeable adverse effects on students and curricula. On occasion, a program faculty has been told that it could not offer one of its courses because a former cross-listing had been eliminated or the course's entire designation (number, title, level, academic home) been altered in consequence of decisions made around the matter of common course numbering without consultation of the affected faculty. Effects on enrollments have also been predictable: courses down by 60% because students are unable to find needed courses due to the stripping of the customary cross-listing; courses on the four-year campuses now determined to be "equivalent"—by shared rubric and number—to a course taught on a two-year campus, all this without consultation of the faculty members involved. Moreover, I am unaware of any intention to assess this initiative in the way that all other academic programs and courses must be assessed.
Third, the search for a new Commissioner is imminent or underway. The Regents have held "listening tours" across the state, and representatives were recently in Missoula. Unaware of the specific topic of discussion, I attended and found few UM-Missoula colleagues present. In discussion of the desiderata, many speakers focused on administrative experience, business experience, and connections with Montana. As faculty members, we need to make our voices heard in all available venues as we speak for our own priorities in this connection. In my mind, we need to see a genuine scholar and teacher with a willingness to advocate strongly for higher education in our state, particularly if we confront during the next session a legislature which is unaware of or even hostile to the immense value of strong university-level education in the creation of a truly educated—not just trained—citizenry able to make wise decisions for our state as it looks to the new, "global" century.
We live, as the old Chinese curse goes, "in interesting times," and we as a university faculty will confront numerous important issues in the coming months. I hope that The Montana Professor will assist in our conversations about them. If you have issues or concerns which you would like to address in the pages of this journal, do contact our new editor, Professor Philip Gaines in the MSU English department (gaines@montana.edu). He will only succeed at his task if we all support him via submissions. All best, Phil!
[The Montana Professor 22.1, Fall 2011 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]