This past thursday, I was startled by the presence of Walmart on Geneseo’s campus. Swarming around the lobby of our beloved union, Walmart’s sweet (and underpaid) employees received the brunt of my anti-corporate leanings. “Would you like a warm cookie?” they asked me. Not today! Why was a corporate entity allowed space for advertising and recruiting within the College? The values of Walmart and fellow corporations are not only antithetical to those of the College, but destructive to the Academy as a whole. Continue reading “Down with the Corpocracy!”
Role of the College Union
During a recent trip to MacVittie College Union, I noticed a posted statement that I had previously ignored. The Role of the College Union clarifies the union’s meaning and goals. (I can’t find this statement online, nor will WordPress allow me to insert a photo of it.) As a “community center,” the union is an “integral part of the educational mission of the college.” The union’s goal, then, “is the development of persons as well as intellects.” Upon discovering this posting, I started to think about the role community plays in realizing the College’s educational goals. Rather than being confined to Geneseo’s academic halls, the spirit of education is manifested throughout the college campus and surrounding community. Continue reading “Role of the College Union”
On Seating
In her recent blog post, Courtney Ciardullo explores the dichotomy of professorial teaching styles and their relation to Stanford’s “Academic Probation” letter. While some professors are uncompromising in the guidelines they set, others allow more freedom in their partnership with students. “Finding a balance in the academic workplace is difficult,” Courtney says “but if achieved could produce a successful and productive classroom environment.” The most constructive professors may exist somewhere in-between firm and relaxed. Representations of this dichotomy can be found in other areas of the academy as well. Particularly, I have seen the physical arrangement of a classroom influence discourse between students. This is to say that depending on how students are positioned in relation to each other, a course’s effectiveness can be bolstered or hindered. Continue reading “On Seating”
Cogito Ergo Sum
In part four of his Discourse on Method, René Descartes presents us with a powerful maxim: “I think, therefore I am.” While searching for absolute truth Descartes discerned that thinking, or generating knowledge, is intrinsically linked to being. To be the object of knowledge is to miss the truth. Still, many communities would disagree with Descartes’s dismissal of received knowledge. In class, Mikaela keenly argued that within the academy it is necessary to be both the object and subject of knowledge. Considering the variety of assignments and course structures, this duality is crucial to academic success. Continue reading “Cogito Ergo Sum”
Call Me By My Name
At first, I found the exercise both foreign and unnecessary. Listening to each of my classmates names, tying these names to the corresponding faces, and committing it all to memory, would require an unfamiliar use of attention and labor. Any benefits of this exercise were seemingly inconsequential.
It was not until reading They Say I Say that I was more fully able to understand the value of knowing your classmates. Graff and Birkenstein describe an academic setting that is all too familiar: detached monologues with little reference to preceding comments. In previous discussion-based courses, I encountered a similar classroom dynamic. Sometimes, students would share entirely disconnected thoughts. More often, the comments would be connected but lack direct attribution, making it difficult for me to piece together the many responses. At the time, I found this discourse to be entirely sufficient. Only through re-analyzing my past experiences have I been able to find the insufficiency. Addressing classmates by name, directly engaging with their ideas, is achingly necessary.
Although our section of INTD 105 has not yet engaged in a large amount of discussion (We are young, we are shy, we are tired), I can already see the ways in which our classroom is starting to address the failures of similar classrooms. Moving forward, I hope we can hone our discussion skills and carry them into the larger Geneseo community.