Weapons, Mandela, and the Opportunity Before Us |
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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. |
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I’ve been thinking a lot about weapons. They kill. They maim. They destroy. They wreck lives. And they are tragically in the news on steroids. While having breakfast the other morning, scrolling through yet more tragedy, I glanced over at my bookshelf and my eyes fell upon Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. If you’ve ever been to my office, I have a set of artifacts on my wall—an original 1994 ballot with his name on it when he was first elected president of South Africa and my photograph of the last page of his original speech given in the docket on April 20, 1964, which he concluded with his famous statement that he was prepared to die for the ideal of a democratic and free society. I literally held that document in my hands when visiting the Apartheid Museum Archives in South Africa (I get chills even now thinking about this).
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It occurred to me at my breakfast moment that Mandela’s quote, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” uses the weapon metaphor in a positive way that all of us have dedicated ourselves to when we chose to work in higher education (whether you are a faculty or staff member). At WP right now, we are actively engaged in dialogue on what a curriculum that undergirds all disciplines should look like—foundational not only to student learning, but one’s pathways in life. Much swirls in this space. Why are we doing this? Is this really something one can brand? What will it mean for me and my current UCC course(s)? What’s meant by skills and social justice?
Whereas I have thoughts on these questions, I frame them in the form of imagined future news clips that collectively characterize something unique about tomorrow’s WP education:
- William Paterson University students now better understand why one-third of their college education comes in classes that aren’t explicitly linked to their major but further enable student success.
- Parents and students are appreciative of new ways that core courses are emphasizing how knowledge can be applied through skills that benefit job and graduate school opportunity.
- Northern New Jersey institution turns element of general education into a certificate, an adaptation of the Purdue Cornerstone Program that after launch garnered $7 million in support from the NEH and Teagle.
- Faculty working together across department and college lines to build a set of interdisciplinary courses that recognize that the problems and challenges of society don’t conform to university disciplinary structures.
- The world may be in chaos, but northern New Jersey institution general education curriculum remains a beacon for collaboration across difference, passionate in its belief that society needs its graduates to be able to work peacefully for economic, political, and social rights, justice, and opportunities.
On page 166 of Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela had this to say, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation.” The people he speaks about sound a lot like many who enroll at WP. They will be graduating into a tumultuous world. Our UCC can be one tool that we can look to with pride as our contribution to making it just a little less so. Thank you, colleagues, for your efforts in this regard, and thank you Nelson. Your country by all rights should have come unglued, but it didn’t.
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Wellness Day Thank You. Wellness Day was a big success thanks to its session presenters and planners. Thank you to Daisy Rodriquez, Nicole Bartolotta, Rose Mitchell, Rebecca Bohmer, Payton MacDonald, Lucia McMahon, Jim Shelley, Erin Stelma, Sandy Hill, Jill Guzman, and our friends at the American Heart Association, St. Joseph’s Health, Atlantic Health, and the Passaic County Health Department.
Ideas for Faculty Mentors to Engage their Sophomore Mentees. Students are highly focused on their pathway to degree during the registration period (i.e., spring and summer classes). Faculty counsel on careers, the importance of performance in pre-requisites to downstream major courses and electives, opportunities for engagement in academic student organizations, and the criticality of meeting with their advisor to register and obtain help arranging their schedule are valuable ways faculty mentors can help mentees. Mentors in a department are also encouraged to collaborate to offer a workshop or discussion opportunity with faculty or alumni relevant to student academic goals. The Career Development Center can be a valuable help in this regard.
NSSE/FSSE Results Available on the Institutional Effectiveness website. Faculty and staff are encouraged to browse the National Survey of Student Engagement and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement results now posted to the IE website. What may be of particular interest is the comparison results between what students think and faculty think. Those results can be especially illuminating.
What Works Conference Proposals Due November 9. Please consider submitting a session proposal for the What Works for Student Success Conference (December 18). This third annual virtual conference is a great way to showcase what is benefiting students both in and out of the classroom. Here is the LINK.
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287: The current number of distinct UCC courses (excluding cross-listed courses).
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23,000: The approximate number of enrollments in UCC courses in academic year 2022-23.
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#7. Rank order of “solving real world problems” among 10 areas that WP seniors were asked about on the NSSE with respect to how much their experience at the University contributed to their knowledge, skills, and personal development. We can do better...
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#9. Rank order of “being an informed citizen” among 10 areas that WP seniors were asked about on the NSSE with respect to how much their experience at the University contributed to their knowledge, skills, and personal development. We can do better...
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“Education is the key to preventing the cycle of violence and hatred that marred the 20th century from repeating itself in the 21st century.”
— Elie Wiesel
“Every word has the power to change the world.”
— Mahmoud Darwish
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education.”
— Martin Luther King
“There are two days in the year that we cannot do anything, yesterday and tomorrow.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
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The Provost’s Office is Brenda L., Claudia T., Claudia C., Jonathan, Kara, Rhonda, Sandy, and Josh. You can reach us at 973.720.2122 provost@wpunj.edu
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