As Georgetown embarks on its next massive fundraising campaign, a group of administrators and professors are re-imagining the Georgetown education of the 21st century.
“What would excellence look like in 2015?” asks Assistant Provost Randall Bass. It is a question he has thought about a lot. Bass, along with Provost James J. O’Donnell, is leading the Undergraduate Learning Initiative with the goal of revolutionizing the Georgetown experience.
The ULI is one-part educational innovation and one-part marketing. In Dec. 2003 Georgetown completed the $1 billion Third Century Campaign. Now, as the university prepares to launch its next campaign, expected to be even larger, it must entice potential donors with a compelling story of what Georgetown is all about – in this case, undergraduate education.
Since last January, administrators and professors have been brainstorming around such broad themes as the shape of the undergraduate career, expanding the role of the student and expanding the role of the classroom. A number of bold proposals have already emerged from the ULI, many of which were proposed to the university’s board of directors in Nov. 2004.
The First Year Experience
In the School of Foreign Service, all freshmen take a 15-student seminar. The seminars are taught by full-time faculty members in their area of expertise. The program is expensive; 23 professors will dedicate a teaching slot to the SFS pro-seminar program in 2005.
Adding the program to the McDonough School of Business and the College would require nearly 100 professors to participate – around 15 percent of the full-time main campus faculty. Developing a fund to add seminars to the MSB and the College is only one way the ULI wants to improve freshman year.
Another model, upon which the ULI hopes to expand, is the John Carroll Fellows program. Carroll Fellows participate in two signature courses. The first semester is focused on public communication skills and a later course, taught in part by Lauinger Library reference librarians, focuses on research methods.
An improved first year experience is the foundation for many of the other changes envisioned.
Undergraduate Research
As students develop more research skills in their freshman year, the ULI hopes to create more opportunities to expand this. Currently, only about $100,000 per year is available for undergraduate research.
Most of this funding is available through the Georgetown Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. The fact that most student have never heard of GUROP indicates the size of the program. GUROP provides funds for students to assist professors conducting research. The funds available for the program cannot keep up with the demand.
Endowed funds for undergraduate research will be a focus of this campaign. The program seeks to create an endowed coordinator of undergraduate research. But undergraduate research, like expanded seminars, requires a heavy time commitment from faculty. In order to devote their time to undergraduate research, professors will have to be relieved from some of their other duties. In short, the university will need more professors.
Students as Teachers
Two working groups have formed to discuss the role of student teaching. One group focuses on the relationship between undergraduates and graduates. The other group looks at expanding the role of undergraduate teachers.
Although endowed professorships are already common, the ULI aims to create endowed assistantships, particularly to provide more funds for graduate students to work as mentors.
One model for undergraduates as teachers was a program created by Professor Heidi Elmendorf. Elmendorf taught a microbiology class for all liberal arts majors. Rather than requiring the students to attend the weekly lab, students were given the option to teach science in a public school.
As a result of Elmendorf’s program, students majoring in biology now have the option to complete a teaching thesis. Under the teaching thesis, students take a course in teaching in the spring of their junior year. During senior year, the students create and teach a curriculum and write their thesis on their experiences teaching in public schools.
Experience and Credit
In addition to teaching, undergraduates perform a wide variety of community service. The Sociology Department offers a unique opportunity combining research and community service. The course is called Project D.C.: Urban Research Internship. Students who participate in Project D.C. work part-time at a Community Based Organization or for a D.C. Public Agency and conduct a yearlong research project aimed at improving the organization.
Another area that the ULI seeks to examine is study abroad. While Georgetown has many programs that send students overseas, there is very little course work back at Georgetown that helps students process their experience.
A program that serves as a model for the direction study abroad may move is the Social Justice Practicum. The practicum is a summer program that sends students to study sociology in foreign universities but also to help foreign communities in need. The program is the result of collaboration between the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Center for Social Justice and the Office of International Programs.
Expanding the Classroom
Working in inner-city D.C. or inner-city Santiago is not just about exposing students to a new environment, but about expanding the classroom – the idea that students do not just learn at desks.
Another goal of the ULI is to expand and improve the classroom on campus. Although this includes more dry-erase boards and more space for students to work in small groups, it also seeks to increase the relationship between academic life and residence life.
The ULI hopes to have more faculty living in campus residences and to have more themed floors like the Justice in Action Living and Learning Community.
Many of the themes of the Undergraduate Learning Initiative are already being explored. The fundraising dimension of the ULI has not yet begun. For now, the purpose of the initiative is to develop new ideas and integrate existing opportunities into a more comprehensive, enriched educational opportunity.
The ULI is intended to unfold over the years as a running dialogue of undergraduate education and a laboratory of innovation in higher education.
Georgetown may never have the financial resources of some of its competitors. The Undergraduate Learning Initiative hopes to compensate with creativity what Georgetown may lack in funds.
