Freshmen forced to drop English course

Hayley Tsukayama News Editor

On Tuesday, Feb. 12, several freshmen students enrolled in English 298, an independent study, received an e-mail from the Dean of Studies Chris Roellke, informing them that they did not meet the prerequisites for independent study in the English department.

All of the students were involved in a journalism project led and developed by Professor of English Don Foster. The independent study is called “It’s Just the Way We Are: Constructions of Academic Community,” and was dedicated to looking at the “academic community as its special topic of study and correspondence,” Foster said.

The project’s objective was “represent the entire community, not just those that might draw the interest of the College Development Office” by having students write in-depth profiles of Vassar community members, Foster said. The pieces would then be posted on the Internet. “From its inception,” he said, “the project has been student-driven.”

The concept for this project was originally developed in Foster’s English 101 course called “Inside Story: What’s News,” which explored news coverage and news media. Some students in that class wrote profiles of different members of the Vassar community, such as custodial workers and cafeteria staff.

Students responded so well to the format of the freshman course that Foster decided to continue the idea into this semester.

Twelve freshman, one junior and two seniors were receiving credit for the course. Each student had submitted an add-form for independent study, which requires only the signature of a student’s advisor and the course instructor.

While the Vassar College Course Catalogue states that independent study courses are “open to students of all classes who have as prerequisite one semester of appropriate intermediate work in the field of study proposed,” the English Department has different requirements.

According to the English Department’s Alphabet Book and its section in the Catalogue, an independent study requires two previous units of 200-level work in English. The Department also requires a separate independent study application, which asks that the student write a course description and have it approved by the Department’s associate chair.

The 12 freshmen did not have the appropriate coursework, and none of the 15 students obtained the signature of English Department Associate Chair Laura Yow.

The group began meeting regularly at the beginning of the semester. Three weeks later, 12 students received word that they were not eligible for the course

The delay came because each department reviews the rosters of all classes only after the add-period is over, said Roellke. Co-Chair of the English Department and Professor of English Michael Joyce said that a few days after the add period ended on Feb. 5, “Our administrative assistant informed us that there were an unusual number of independent study students” for the term. Upon further investigation, the Department found that freshmen had enrolled in an independent study, which violates departmental policy.

After hearing the administration’s hesitation over the project’s format, Foster and the students proposed that the class be converted into an English 280 course—a number reserved for “experimental courses,” Joyce said.

To create any new course, Joyce continued, the professor must submit the idea to the English Department’s Committee on Curricular Policy (CCP) and then to the College’s CCP. “You’d have to know [about the class] the semester before,” said Joyce. “No course had been established, and we have to review all classes to maintain the curricular integrity of the Department.”

Students who lacked the prerequisites have since been encouraged to by administrators to enroll in other classes to meet their registration and major requirements by taking two half-credit classes in the final six weeks of the semester.

Philosophy Walker ’08, one of the seniors enrolled in the project, said, “I feel like the system broke down and nobody caught it. [This course] is what a Vassar education’s all about, and while I understand there were snafus we should have taken care of, I don’t understand why they can’t go with the flow and accommodate us this late in the semester.”

Fellow student Marie Dugo ’11 agreed, saying in an e-mailed statement how “frustrating, inconvenient, and unfair it is to have your semester interrupted four weeks into it.” She continued, saying that it was “unfortunate that so many of my colleagues and I were thrown into this horrible situation when all we were trying to do was fill the journalism gap in Vassar’s curriculum.”

Five students met with Roellke, President Catharine Bond Hill and Dean of the Faculty Ronald Sharp on Friday, Feb. 15 to argue their case. They were ultimately told that the College could not allow the creation of a new course without compromising its standards of curricular integrity.

Foster said in an e-mail that while he regrets the “callous manner in which the first-year students were treated by members of [his] own department,” he maintains that “this was not a case of a 200-level course performing an end-run around the rules. Independent study credit was the last best option for us. At this time, I have no further comment on what preceded the administration’s unwelcome intervention, except to deny that the problem arose from a bureaucratic oversight.”

Roellke said that he does not place blame on Foster, but stands by “implementing departmental regulations.” He also said that he hopes this will not keep the students from working on the project.

The students involved in the project plan to continue their work, most likely in an online format despite the fact that they cannot receive academic credit for any work they do with the project.