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Will the university be organized as it is now, around traditional disciplines grouped within schools or colleges, or will new organizing principles be used? “I don’t see the model changing a lot unless our view of the disciplines changes,” said Professor Hall, and the rest of the panel agreed.
“Universities found students couldn’t do excellent research unless they were trained in sufficient depth in a specific discipline,” Smith of Academic Affairs noted. “Disciplines evolve, but I don’t see a sudden shift.”
As an example, Professor Sonenshein pointed to the traditionally disparate fields of political science and communication. “Now departments of political science and communication are starting to come into existence, but it took decades of people taking each other’s classes, doing research together, publishing articles, and then creating journals for that to occur. It’s certainly not something we [Fullerton] can do on our own because it puts our students at a competitive disadvantage.”
“The real world is interdisciplinary,” said Dean Murray. “However, one has to have depth in a discipline to participate in the real world. But to think we need to choose between disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary exploration is a classic polarized position. We need something in between.” Some general education courses could become interdisciplinary to make them more “futuristic,” he suggested.
The panelists agreed that collaboration across disciplines was increasing and would continue, for example through capstone courses that sum up diverse strands of students’ education. Panelists recognized that cross-disciplinary teams were becoming especially important in the workforce. “We are trained to work in isolation. Now we’re being asked to work collaboratively,” said President Gordon.
For Professor Guerin, the crucial skills to teach are the basic ones: writing, critical thinking, social interaction, working in teams. “We have to ask ourselves how well we do that and how do we know it? How do we assess the effectiveness of what we do and communicate the quality of our programs to an external community, especially as education becomes more expensive.”
Vice President Palmer pointed out that half the job postings in the Career Center look not for specific skills but for the basic ones Guerin mentioned.
Robert Palmer: The university experience is broader than the classroom. Young people come to learn from us in many ways, psychologically and spiritually as well as intellectually. These are valuable experiences.
Will the university be organized as we now know it, around traditional disciplines grouped within schools and colleges?
Ephraim Smith: In the 1970s this was a hot topic of conversation. Universities found students couldn’t do excellent research unless they were trained in sufficient depth in a specific discipline. Disciplines evolve, but I don’t see a sudden shift.
Raphael Sonenshein: [A field] changes more easily if it changes everywhere. Political science and
communication have traditionally been very different, but now departments of political science and communication are starting to come into existence. It took decades of people taking each other’s classes, doing research together, publishing articles and then creating journals for that to occur. It’s certainly not something we can do on our own because it puts our students at a competitive disadvantage.
Steve Murray: The real world is interdisciplinary. However, one has to have depth in a discipline to participate in the real world. However, to stay inside the same boxes and wait for those boxes to evolve is wrong. Change is what we’re about. [But] choosing between disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary
exploration is a classic polarized position. We need something in between. Are our current constructs of general education realistic in today’s world? Some excellent types of interdisciplinary training could be brought in to make them more futuristic.
Jane Hall: The organizational question goes beyond disciplines. What will the administration
chart look like? Will we have deans and colleges? We’ve been doing it that way for a thousand years.
Robert Palmer: That’s why we’re likely to do it for another thousand! The colonial college of 300 years ago is still here in terms of structure. We change slowly, we adapt, we adopt new structures, but it’s been that way for hundreds of years.
In recent years, students in many disciplines have been encouraged to work together to solve problems
rather than each one working alone. Is this trend likely to continue?
Jane Hall: Collaboration is going to be more general, across walls in universities as well as in the work force. Teamwork of people with different skills is becoming the model.
Heather Williams: I’ve learned a lot working in groups. General education has been helpful in teaching students to cross disciplines. It’s always interesting to see how much your work overlaps with others. It creates a more productive team.
Ephraim Smith: Many companies use teams and want employees who can work in teams. They aren’t asking for specific skills but for the soft skill of working with other people.
Kristin Crellin: From a corporate point of view, it’s important to know how to do crossover work. Applicants are asked, “Have you worked in a group? How do you work in a group?”
