10 Years, 12 Programs 1 Community
A Report on the State of College Park Scholars as it Concludes its First Decade
Greig Stewart, Executive Director August 1, 2004
I. Introduction
II. Goal One
III. Goal Two
IV. Goal Three
V. Conclusion
INTRODUCTION – In many ways, this new academic year symbolizes the end-of-the-beginning for College Park Scholars. Begun in 1994, Scholars was born from a collaboration between Maryland’s Divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. The Colleges of Arts and Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Life Sciences and the A. James Clark School of Engineering, pioneered the first four interdisciplinary programs. Cumberland Hall, then a vacant residence building, underwent rapid cosmetic renovations to welcome the first class of 450 students led by four innovative faculty. Ten years later, Scholars has grown to 1600 students and approximately 24 faculty associated with 12 programs. Scholars now encompasses the entire Cambridge Community, housed in five residence halls and one academic service building. It has been a decade of building the academic and environmental cores of the program.
Despite our presence in the Cambridge Community, Scholars truly has no borders. As I write this, one team of students and faculty are just returning from the Galapagos Islands. Another team is preparing for an adventure in the Northern Territory of Australia. And faculty from three programs just concluded a planning meeting for their interdisciplinary Winterterm offering, “Scholars in London.”
Scholars’ success has been the result of unexpected opportunities, combined with the focused and intentional energies of talented, creative – and determined – faculty and staff. Scholars is specifically designated as a place for interdisciplinary learning; learning that underscores critical thought and analysis. It is also a laboratory for developing essential communication skills through active learning and self expression. And finally, it is a home that values learning from, and among, a community of learners.
Scholars is mentioned in the University of Maryland’s Strategic Plan (1996) as an essential ingredient for the enhancement of the campus’ undergraduate student body. In 2000, all academic units revisited the Plan. Determined to build on a record of accomplishment and distinction, Scholars proposed three goals for the subsequent five-years. Below, each goal is stated, followed by my analysis of what we have accomplished, to date:
Goal 1: To continue to serve as an exemplary living-learning community for freshmen and sophomores. In this role, Scholars will function to take in and nurture a critical number of talented, promising undergraduate students. In addition, the Scholars community will serve as a model for other learning communities on campus and at other universities.
In spite of the program’s infancy, these past 10 years have earned Scholars a national reputation as a cutting-edge, living-learning program.
- In the summer of 1998, College Park Scholars was recognized as an exemplary
living-learning community by the Joint Task Force on Student Learning.
This task force was formed by the American Association for Higher Education,
the American College Personnel Association, and the National Association
of Student Personnel Administrators. Scholars was singled out for its
ability to make and maintain connections, “...mentally among concepts,
ideas and meanings; and experientially through interaction between the
mind and the environment, self and other, generality and context, deliberation
and action.”
- The University of Maryland has ranked high among the nation’s colleges and universities in academic programs that lead to success, according to a U.S. News and World Report poll of college presidents and deans of students. In 2002, Maryland ranked 3rd among the nation’s most outstanding learning communities, in the category of “Programs That Really Work.” U.S. News eliminated rankings in this category in 2003, replacing it with a list of top-25 programs. Maryland consistently appears on that list. Given that College Park Scholars accounts for more than half of all Maryland’s students enrolled in living-learning communities, we feel confident in taking pride in this campus acknowledgment.
And our data support these claims. First-year retention and graduation
rates of Scholars students continue to exceed those of the campus. And as
we keep moving forward, we take pride in witnessing the acceleration of
the rest of the undergraduate student body in these categories. This pattern
supports the claim that Scholars is an essential ingredient for the enhancement
of the undergraduate student body.
But we don’t rely solely on institutional data and external accolades
to confirm the value of what we do. Two years ago, the Scholars Faculty
Advisory Council initiated an assessment of each of its 12 programs. This
initiative will conclude this year. Preliminary results have identified
opportunities for enhancement together with a growing list of best practices,
generalizable across all programs.
Goal 2: To complete construction and renovation to expand the College Park Scholars community, bringing Cambridge Community Center, Cambridge, Bel Air and Chestertown Halls into the family of improved residential facilities. Adding these four buildings will complete the physical living and learning environments, allowing for residency by more than 1,400 students and a variety of classroom, office and meeting spaces within the community.
The Department of Resident Life has completed its short-term renovation plan for the five residence halls in the Cambridge Community. Living space is now available to 1,500 residents. Significant infrastructural improvement for all the halls is on the books for the end of this decade, according to the campus’s Facilities Master Plan.
Though state-of-the-art colloquia and classroom space has been established, close to half of the Center (a former dining hall,) remains vacant, space that could be well put to use for a much-needed, multi-function room for large gatherings and events. Students, faculty and staff finalized plans for the space in late 2000, but the absence of resources have stalled this initiative. The current budget climate continues to curb advancement of this goal. Together with the Faculty Advisory Council, we are strategizing creative ways to make this initiative a reality in the not-too-distant future.
Goal 3: To enhance student and faculty development, raising the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning here and elsewhere. College Park Scholars programs will continue to provide superior conditions for undergraduate education and to conduct and disseminate research on improved methods and approaches.
The 12 Scholars programs continue to attract accomplished faculty. Leading the Faculty Advisory Council is Professor Ira Berlin, Distinguished University Professor, from the Department of History. Four programs are chaired by Distinguished Scholar-Teachers: From the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Arts and Humanities, Professor Peter Beicken co-directs the Arts program; from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, Professor James Duncan leads the Science, Technology and Society program; from the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services in the College of Education, Professor Ruth Fassinger co-directs the Advocates for Children program; and from the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and Landscape Architecture in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Professor Bruce James leads the Environmental Studies program.
Other Scholars faculty attract campus and national attention. Dr. Dorith
Grant-Wisdom, Director of the International Studies program of College Park
Scholars, Roxanne Lefkoff-Hagius, Director of the Scholars Business, Society
and the Economy (BSE) program, and Dr. Brian Shaffer, BSE’s Associate
Director, were among the select few to participate in the Summer Institute
on Integrating East Asia into the Undergraduate Curriculum, sponsored by
the Inter-College Committee on East Asian Studies and the Curriculum Transformation
Committee. Dr John Merck, Associate Director for the Earth Life and Time
(ELT) program, received the Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dean’s award for Excellence in Teaching for 2004. And it seems as
if one can’t read about the latest discoveries about dinosaurs without
expert commentary from Dr. Thomas Holtz; ELT’s Director.
Scholars is at the forefront of active-learning methodologies, serving as
a laboratory for innovative teachers and eager students. Internships, study
abroad and Service- Learning opportunities abound. Other innovative pedagogies
that respond to the diversity of learning styles include:
- Through a start-up grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s
Fund for the Improvement of Secondary Education, Scholars offers an innovative
approach to learning research. Known as “Discovery,” this
model has developed over the past eight years. Its curriculum now covers
five primary research methods and provides students the experience and
opportunity to implement, analyze and present a pilot study on a topic
and research question of his or her choice.
- More recently, a campus Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant has
provided Scholars the opportunity to adapt Discovery for community-based
research. This past year, an inaugural team of Scholars conducted a research
project on the Lakeland Stars tutoring program. At the center of community-based
research is the collaborative partnership between the researchers and
the community.
- As a result of a recent assessment initiative, the Arts program was
identified as having a peer-education program worthy of emulation. Through
this creative augmentation of its instructional pool, Arts is able to
diversify the number and variety of workshops that contribute to the quality
of the program’s colloquia and spring semester Arts Fair. Learning
through teaching not only helps students understand subject matter better,
the material integrates into their lives through consequent discussions
and reflection.
- During the summer of 2003, three faculty members traveled to the University
of Maastricht in the Netherlands, to witness a curriculum completely delivered
through problem-based learning (PBL). In Scholars, PBL learning teams
have been initiated in the Science, Discovery and the Universe program.
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More recently, the Advocates for Children program has concentrated on developing and practicing advocacy skills in raising awareness and lobbying around issues affecting children and families. Students have eagerly mobilized around these initiatives. Some have even identified opportunities for subsequent research and volunteer commitments. Still others have used these experiences to inform their academic major decisions.
These innovative efforts are not confined to the Cambridge Community. Discovery
has been emulated by other campus departments such as University Honors
and the McNair Program. Annual forays to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan
provide opportunities for faculty and students to share unique learning
methodologies with peers from other institutions attending the national
Wakonse Conference on College Teaching. Scheduled this year are conference
presentations in Washington, D.C., for the Association of American Colleges
and Universities and the Reinvention Center, and at the 8th annual Conference
on Living-Learning Programs and Residential Colleges at Indiana University,
in Bloomington. On average, a dozen consultations occur each year with other
living-learning communities from across the nation.
CONCLUSION – For College Park Scholars, this past decade has been a period of building and fortifying the program’s core. During the next decade, Scholars will preserve learning as the essence of the program.
As Scholars comes of age, we are mindful of our expanding community of learners. Scholars now has alumni. When we first met these students, they were talented and creative freshmen. Today, they are exercising those talents and creativity -- enriched by their Maryland experience – in the real world. We seek creative ways to connect their knowledge and networks to new learning opportunities for current students, through avenues such as internships, field trips, career mentoring and guest lecture opportunities. As we enrich our educational offerings for our current students through activities such as Scholars in New York and travel programs, we strive to find authentic ways to include our alumni. As we develop speaker series and service opportunities, we reach out to our alumni to participate and stay connected. And as with all institutions of higher learning, we rely on our alumni to help us identify resources to enhance the learning opportunities for future Scholars. We must ensure that our alumni can be “Scholars for Life,” should they so choose.
As for today, I couldn’t ask for a more exciting moment in Scholars’ history. The globalization of information and the convergence of technologies and research demand an informed and talented citizenry. Our governments, industries and educational organizations need people who can think across disciplines while simultaneously build on the knowledge they have mined more deeply in their major areas of study. Interdisciplinarity is the bedrock of Scholars. Our students will be well served – and well prepared – for the world ahead.
