By Alix Schwartz
The college years are supposed to stand out as a special time in students’ life, said Dean Tyler Stovall of the Undergraduate Division at the spring L&S Colloquium on Undergraduate Education. This period, he said, is often romanticized — usually in retrospect — but also associated with negatives, such as the sink-or-swim mentality. The Chancellor’s oft-heard refrain of “excellence and access” also resonates with Stovall, who spoke of the great strength we derive from our diversity, which he illustrated by giving a demographic overview of this very diverse student body.
Held on April 21, the Colloquium on the theme of “The Wonder Years” drew a large audience who braved the unusually hot weather to hear about the dean’s vision of undergraduate education at Cal.
Stovall emphasized the ideal of exploration leading to a deepening focus when the major is chosen. He said there are many different pathways through Berkeley, and some of them may lead you through majors that are poor fits before you settle on the right one. Finding out which options do not work for you is not a failure, Stovall explained, but may in fact be an important step along the way towards finding your passion.
Stovall then spoke about challenges facing higher education, in particular public universities. He spoke of the troubling climate in which state contributions have declined and private resources are emphasized over public good. At the same time, public education is a more popular alternative than ever. There is a strange tension: people resist paying taxes to support higher education while at the same time hoping that public universities will admit and educate their children. Stovall characterized the public university as an essential engine for social mobility.
The second challenge Stovall covered was stress. He spoke of the tremendous pressures on today’s students, many of whom hold jobs, engage in volunteer activities, and have many other demands placed on their limited time. Still, Stovall said, he is impressed with how well our undergraduates meet these challenges. For instance, students run over 700 volunteer programs on campus, and they pioneer their own ways of learning. Sometimes the cost is too much stress, but their achievements are impressive.
The Dean expressed a feeling of being torn about what message to convey to today’s undergraduates. At the L&S Undergraduate Awards Ceremony the previous weekend, he was proud of the winners of the Kraft Prize, all of whom had earned a 4.0 in their first semester at Cal. At the same time, however, he wanted to let them know that if they get a “B” next year they should not worry. Berkeley, he said, is a second chance for many students who come here from a range of life circumstances. For them, regardless of their GPA at Cal, their education here can turn their lives around for the better.
The dean concluded by reminding the audience that the twin ideals of access and excellence are not at odds.
Stovall’s remarks were followed by responses by Professor Karl Britto (French and Comparative Literature), Assistant Vice Chancellor Barbara Davis (Equity and Inclusion), and ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President Carlo De La Cruz.
Britto quoted from a letter he received from an ex-student whom he held up as an example of the best possible outcome of an undergraduate education in L&S: students who are prepared for whatever they end up doing, regardless of their undergraduate major.
He also emphasized the enormous challenges facing teachers in public high schools, who would love to incorporate innovative material into their classes but barely have time to cover all the required material.
In response to the dean’s remarks, Britto talked about his experience as an immigrant who is often bewildered by this peculiarly American mix of resistance to taxes combined with a demand for public services. He asked at what point are we obligated to no longer normalize the degradation of undergraduate education? At what point do we refuse to degrade the quality of the education we offer and insist that we can no longer deliver the high quality education our students have come to expect without the requisite resources?
Britto praised the departmental staff and especially the student affairs officers who serve as sources of information and advice for fellow students and keep them on track through their various transitions.
Davis focused on the importance of identifying critical overarching values. She focused on three of them: fostering student engagement, making better use of peers, and linking formal and informal teaching and learning. These themes apply to all four years of an undergraduate education, she said, and research has underscored their importance.
Davis cited figures from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that suggest a high level of student disengagement nationwide. (Berkeley does not participate in NSSE, but similar findings appear in the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey report each year.) The research literature shows that engagement in one’s education is a prime factor in intellectual growth. Davis recommended several ways the campus can promote engagement: through undergraduate research opportunities, service learning, and active learning in the classroom, which faculty members can incorporate by means such as case studies, debates, and role playing. Not every student can take advantage of every opportunity, but it’s important to make these options available.
Davis also encouraged greater use of peer groups. Learning is a social, not solitary, activity, she said, citing the Biology Scholars Program as an example of a program that embraces this overarching value.
Finally, she stressed that learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom. Students change holistically during their college years, and this change occurs as a result of everything they experience. We can improve their chances of growing holistically by reinforcing students’ own ways of learning and promoting programs that support them, such as undergraduate research, internships, teaching in the DE-Cal program, tutoring, and participating in off-campus programs such as Education Abroad and UCDC.
De La Cruz focused his remarks on the theme of empowerment. As a fourth-year student double majoring in art history and Asian American studies and minoring in global poverty and practice, he has experienced both optimism and challenges. He has thought deeply about the pathways to empowerment that allow student leaders to shape their futures and surroundings.
De La Cruz emphasized that the undergraduate years fundamentally change students by forcing them to question their beliefs and hone their sense of identity and their place in the world. Ideally our students graduate with a sense of their own potential impact on the world and a commitment to improving the institutions from which they have benefited, beginning with Cal. He gave several examples of big and small ways that empowered students can and have changed this university, from the Free Speech movement to the inclusion of the American Cultures requirement (which students pushed for) to the creation of the position of Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion.
One of the three core missions of the university is public service, and De La Cruz made the point that this mission cannot be realized unless we foster student empowerment. He added that we need to apply this principle to students at both ends of the spectrum. An academic probation workshop in which advisors help students change their own behavior is just as empowering as the Kraft Scholars ceremony mentioned by the dean. All of the students we empower will some day become UC graduates, and our goal is to ensure that they can go out into the world ready to transform it.
The presentations were followed by a lively question-and-answer session with the audience.
