The Chosen Ones

This is the response to Ken's item # 5

If the founders of the college intended to provide students with choice once they got to Stockton, it is still must be recognized as a characteristic of the institution. Many freshmen come to the college without having chosen a major and they choose only after having taken many different courses, including a few in General Studies. The flexibility of the curriculum is one of its strongest features and makes it unique in the academy.

Where this is not less true, however, and where it may well not have been such a feature of the college is with regard to transfer students. These students, at least those who have the Associates degree, have had two years already to decide what they will major in. By the time they arrive at Stockton they have decided and they take the fastest route through the college they can find. This must have been the case for transfer students in the early years as well. Such choice, then, has been a privilege shared by those who come to the college soon after the completion of their high school careers. Ironically the complexity of the curriculum, which almost requires experimentation for the freshman, has the potential to be a straight-jacket for the transfer student.

There may be some difference between now and what occurred during the college's early days, however, with regard to fact that where choice exists it is most likely that decisions will not occur in conjunction with the advising or precepting process. Indeed, advising is most frequently something that occurs primarily after choices have been made, and the advisor is now someone who understands the intricacies of a particular major, rather than someone who provides guidance about the college and beyond. The student is more likely to decide on a major based upon success – and, somewhat relatedly, based upon the course that he or she liked and the teacher who inspired them.

There is no doubt that the college has become more discipline oriented. Where choice exists it is between majors, even if there are interdisciplinary routes into each one and a multiplicity of offerings for students to savor beyond the major that they decide upon. I would suggest that one reason for this is found in the decline of the LIBA -- the Liberal Arts -- degree. This started out as a major that allowed students to determine what their degree should look like. Through a precepting process they would begin to determine the courses they needed to take to achieve their objectives. In some instances, a student attempted to work in an area where there was no major being offered at the college; in others, the student fashioned a degree from a wide array of disciplinary and interdisciplinary offerings that they felt they could justify to the faculty as worthy of a degree. This was choice taken to its highest level.

The trouble was that it died -- to all intents and purposes. It became a cadillac (rolls royce, even) degree that very few Stockton students were considered able to accomplish -- an un-Stocktonian notion if ever there was one. If only three or four people per year were taking this path to the BA then it could hardly be said to exist as a Stockton degree.

Fortunately, I believe we are close to returning to our roots and establishing a degree that will accomplish what the LIBA did in the early years. We have been working hard to establish a BAIS degree -- a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies. This will return choice and flexibility to the curriculum; it will allow those who are not meeting the requirements of a particular major to create something different; it will allow those who have left and been stuck a few credits from a degree to return and achieve what they couldn't accomplish years ago; it will cater to the non-traditional student thereby allowing many new groups of people to experience the wonders of a Stockton education.

Simply put, education is not about catering to the chosen ones; each individual should have choice, and each student should feel that he or she is able to choose their own route to the goal he or she is striving to reach. That should be Stockton's mission -- to provide that opportunity for the people of Southern New Jersey.