this is fascinating! I'm wondering how much the argument depends on there being a civics course requirement. I had the sense that these institutes might function as honors colleges -- not as providers of service courses.
I would say that the inside view is more complicated. For one thing, the new civics requirements are generally able to be satisfied by more than just these centers (so, it isn’t as though the centers are stuck slaving away at merely providing a single gen ed course). The new centers are typically using those courses as large pools for identifying and attracting honors-quality students into their new majors. In other words, they are not necessarily forced to become pure service departments (unlike English). Given their “startup money,” they’re creating scholarships, study abroad trips, internship programs, and other honors-level opportunities as well, and that seems like it gives them a pretty good chance of a competitive edge in the “gen ed market” (which is unlikely to go away any time soon).
Given that these centers are interdisciplinary, it would be more accurate to describe them as an attempt to provide private school education within a public university—something the Lyceum Program at Clemson University is doing with extreme success (which is why it serves as a model and guide for most of the new centers).
Perhaps you are right but you are describing English departments too — except that there is always demand for English. But I sense that the potential capture of these centers is serious — there is too much money on the table
the point of civics is to teach people that equality-under-the-law requires the first-amendment concepts of medium-neutrality (brown v. EMA) and content-neutrality (RAV v. St. Paul), right? shouldn't they learn this in high-school?
I think it’s necessary to have semi mandatory civics classes when you have college grads that do not know the three branches of government for cry Pete 😁
this is fascinating! I'm wondering how much the argument depends on there being a civics course requirement. I had the sense that these institutes might function as honors colleges -- not as providers of service courses.
Yup. But from the inside view the demand is service courses not boutique, especially when legislatures get involved.
I would say that the inside view is more complicated. For one thing, the new civics requirements are generally able to be satisfied by more than just these centers (so, it isn’t as though the centers are stuck slaving away at merely providing a single gen ed course). The new centers are typically using those courses as large pools for identifying and attracting honors-quality students into their new majors. In other words, they are not necessarily forced to become pure service departments (unlike English). Given their “startup money,” they’re creating scholarships, study abroad trips, internship programs, and other honors-level opportunities as well, and that seems like it gives them a pretty good chance of a competitive edge in the “gen ed market” (which is unlikely to go away any time soon).
Given that these centers are interdisciplinary, it would be more accurate to describe them as an attempt to provide private school education within a public university—something the Lyceum Program at Clemson University is doing with extreme success (which is why it serves as a model and guide for most of the new centers).
Perhaps you are right but you are describing English departments too — except that there is always demand for English. But I sense that the potential capture of these centers is serious — there is too much money on the table
the point of civics is to teach people that equality-under-the-law requires the first-amendment concepts of medium-neutrality (brown v. EMA) and content-neutrality (RAV v. St. Paul), right? shouldn't they learn this in high-school?
I think it’s necessary to have semi mandatory civics classes when you have college grads that do not know the three branches of government for cry Pete 😁
Civics for jocks excellent . But shouldn’t they have more centers for urbanism ??