Letter to the Editor | Experiential education essential

I am concerned about the five-unit limit on ungraded work. I will graduate this year with six and one-half units of ungraded work. One half unit of this is a dance class—Movement Analysis, which combines anatomy and dance—none are NROs, one is an Independent Study in American Indian Texts, and the rest is fieldwork in the wonderful Poughkeepsie community (feel free to contact me about it). I love field work and consider it a central part of my Vassar education.

According to the new ungraded work standards, I have reached the limit with field work alone. I think that others who value ungraded work, in addition to challenging themselves (as in when one takes difficult courses and courses out of their major area using the NRO safety net), as well as doing independent work and those who chose to enrich their education with physical education, are at a severe disadvantage with the new standards. Additionally, note that these four options are lumped together without sufficient attention to their uses.

Field work in particular is amazingly valuable, as it increases Vassar's connection with a community that it continues to be quite isolated from. Field work is also considered important experience that employers and graduate schools want to see. We may think that by reducing the number of ungraded units that a student may have we are solidifying Vassar's commitment to a strenuous curriculum. Yet that is not necessarily true. In addition, it can make a number of unsavory statements, such as the following:
—Vassar students don't need to being doing as much work in the community.
—Experiential education is less important.
—Students don't need as much encouragement to push themselves academically and try work in new departments.
—Independent, self-driven work that delves into subject areas that the current class offerings do not touch upon sufficiently is less important.
—The body is not as important as the mind, and it should be given less attention.
Please, let us not come anywhere near these ideologies! They can be detrimental to the health and depth of a Vassar student education. Instead, let us embrace the courses that are ungraded—field work, NRO work, independent work and physical education—within the eight unit system, which more clearly encourages well-rounded students!

—Emily Myrow ’06