FROM:  Sibdas Ghosh, Chair
               General Education Review Committee
               Department of Biological Sciences
               UH 327; x 5138
 

DATE:  March 31, 2000
 
 

RE: Recommendation of Self Study Report for 900-100 (World of the Arts)

The General Education Review Committee has met on Tuesday, March 21, 2000, at 3:45 p.m. in UC 213. The committee has approved to forward the self-study report for 900-110 (World of the Arts) submitted by J. Michael Allsen (WOTA Instructor, Music Department) and Linda Hurstad (Chair, Theater/Dance Department). The GERC also recommends that the UCC accept the report and take appropriate actions.
 
 

CC:  Dr. Lawrence Schuetz, Co-ordinator
        General Education Program
 

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1. Sources of Information in the Report.

This report was written with formal input by WOTA faculty members J. Michael Allsen, James Butchart, Thomas Colwin, Jane Ferencz, Marc Kotz, and Charles Grover, in response to an e-mail questionnaire. This report also reflects our informal conversations with many WOTA faculty members. All WOTA faculty have seen a draft of this report, and have had an opportunity to comment upon it. The current and recent faculty responsible for WOTA is drawn from all four departments of the College of Arts and Communication. The faculty includes:

Michael Flanagan (Art)

Charles Grover (Theatre/Dance)

Jennifer Holmes (Communication)

Marc Kotz (Theatre/Dance)

Josh Ryan (Music)

2. Compliance with Course Guidelines

The description of the course published in the UWW Bulletin outlines an extremely broad range of topics and main ideas:

The instructors believe that they fulfill these objectives in an effective and truly interdisciplinary manner. The lack of a common syllabus allows a great deal of flexibility—individual instructors may teach to their own personal strengths and interests. Most instructors attempt to create a relatively equal balance in course material relating to each of the four arts. The works covered vary widely from instructor to instructor, and there are two alternative approaches reflected in most sections:

• a systematic approach to the four arts, spending approximately a fourth of the semester on each, and
• a historical/cultural approach, relating all of the arts to selected historical periods and cultures.

The concept of "core readings" is not as appropriate here as in other core classes, and as explained above, there is not really a core repertoire of works shared among the various sections. However, themes and issues covered by WOTA instructors are fairly consistent from section to section. Broadly stated, these include:

• Giving students personal experiences with the arts through attendance at art galleries, shows, plays, concerts, and other art-related events. (Every WOTA instructor gives some variant of the "art event review" assignment, requiring students to attend one or two events from each area.)
• Broadening students’ artistic horizons: challenging them with unfamiliar styles and modes of expression and encouraging them to challenge themselves.
• Encouraging students to see the arts as an integral part of society. As one faculty member puts it: "My principal theme is that the arts should be viewed as mainstream in education and in our society."
• Encouraging students to develop skills of observation and description, and to think critically about the arts in general and about specific works.
• Providing students with basic terms and concepts with which to discuss the arts.

• Public funding of the arts, and recent art-related controversies.
• Relating "popular" forms (e.g., TV sitcoms and commercials, print advertising, or music videos) to the broader history of Western arts.

The last GERC review of the class was in the Spring of 1998. Relatively few substantial changes have been made to the course, though a couple of problems noted at that time have been addressed in the past two years.

• Most of the faculty have adopted a new text for the class, Sporre’s Reality Through the Arts, 3rd ed. (Prentice-Hall, 1997). While the general feeling among WOTA faculty seems to be that no currently available text is completely satisfactory in its coverage of the material mandated by the course description, most faculty are generally satisfied with this book. A few faculty have retained the older texts as well, or are considering returning to the older texts. (One instructor reports that he will dispense with a published text entirely in Fall 2000, in favor of a course packet and extensive web-based material.)
• In response to a need for bookkeeping assistance, Dean Heyer has provided for student assistants to those faculty teaching multiple sections of WOTA. Though they are not "graders," assistants generally give much-needed help in alphabetizing student assignments, dealing with attendance, data entry, and similar tasks.
• In 1998, the two classrooms in use for WOTA sections, rooms CA30 and CA1003 were badly in need of improvement. Substantial capital improvements were made in both cases:
• CA30 is a lecture hall that also hosts classes for the Art and Theatre/Dance Departments. In the summer of 1999, the College made substantial capital improvements to this room, including: carpeting; remodeling and noise abatement at the back of the room; replacement of an outdated projector with two new projectors (allowing two different media to be used at once); addition of a new Windows-based computer and updating of the Macintosh machine already in the room; addition of a new, secure computer desk; and addition of a Canon document camera. CA30 is now among the finest multimedia classrooms on campus.
• CA1003 is a choral rehearsal room in the Music Department that doubles as a lecture hall for WOTA and other General Studies classes offered by the Music Departments. In the summer of 1998, the College purchased new chairs with attached desks. Over 1998-99, the College made improvements to this room as well: replacement of the outdated projector with a new one; addition of a new Windows-based computer and updating of the Macintosh machine already in the room (a newer Macintosh will be installed in Spring 2000); addition of a new, secure computer desk.

• There has been a substantial turnover in faculty. Lynn Courtenay (Art) and Michael Benson (Music) have left UWW in this period, and several new faculty have begun teaching WOTA: Chene, Colwin, Flanagan, Holmes, Kotz, and Ryan.
• At least two instructors have made course websites a significant part of their teaching.
• As a general trend, some of the more experienced WOTA faculty report that they are attempting to cover less material than they did two or three years ago—as one instructor puts it: "…ignoring many of the specific ‘you have to’s’ of the originally-proposed syllabus." They report that this approach (quality over quantity) is much more satisfying to both students and teachers.
• Policies regarding student attendance vary widely from instructor to instructor. The former administration of the College mandated that attendance be part of the grading process in WOTA, but that mandate no longer exists. In about half of the sections, attendance is not a formal part of the grade.

Changes and activities currently in process include:

• Several instructors reported that they plan to expand the web-based component of their sections: whether by creating websites, or by expanding already-existing sites.
• As a result of an initiative by Dean Heyer, the Fall 2000 WOTA sections will share a common experience. The Young Auditorium has tentatively engaged an international ballet company for a performance of Firebird. This company will be in Whitewater for a performance at the Young Auditorium, and this extra performance, designated for WOTA students, will be funded by a "lab fee" that students pay at registration. Students will be required to attend this event, and instructors will prepare students for it in class.

Several issues have been raised by the WOTA faculty:

A. Class size

Registration caps for WOTA are by far the largest for any core class on campus—since the Fall of 1996, WOTA sections have been capped at 90, and they are nearly always full. Every WOTA instructor who responded formally to our questionnaire or who was contacted informally in research for this document has expressed concern over this policy. A few written responses to this issue include:

• "Section sizes prevent having contact with individual students."
• "Class size precludes much in the way of a ‘discussion’ approach; class size precludes even getting to know many of their names unless you’re ‘Mr. Memory’—and I’m not…"
• "I tremendously enjoy teaching this class, but I am often exhausted after 50 minutes of trying to engage this many students. I think that a kind of ‘herd mentality’ takes over when you have more than 40 or 50 students in the room—most of our Freshmen are perfectly happy to sit passively and let all of the communication go one way, and I would love to change that. I have used many strategies to break things up (and I know that many of my colleagues have as well)—group discussions, class activities, brainstorming, etc.—but most of these are of limited effectiveness."

This not a problem with an easy solution. WOTA is the only core class delivered by the College of Arts and Communication, and the College is presently faced with budgetary, FTE, and space limitations that preclude simply hiring or reassigning twice as many faculty to teach the class. Unless enrollments decrease dramatically (and this does not seem likely), the other side of the equation—the number of students who need to take the class—will remain constant as well. However, WOTA is part of a distinctive General Studies program that sets UWW apart from many peer institutions, and we feel that the University should be interested in dealing with what the faculty consider to be the most serious problem with the class. A few possible strategies include:

• Additional faculty. Clearly, funds do not presently exist to make dramatic numbers of new hires. We hope that it might be possible to bring in some additional faculty, however, perhaps in Adjunct or Academic Staff positions. It might be also possible to offer incentives for faculty already in the College to teach WOTA. Finally, it is strongly suggested that new full-time positions within the College (particularly in Art, Music, and Theatre/Dance) be hired with WOTA as at least part of their load, with FTE support from outside of the departments concerned. (Three of the present WOTA faculty—Allsen, Butchart, and Ferencz—were hired in just this manner.) Even a few additional faculty members would "thin out" the population of students in individual sections.
• Changes in advising. Most UWW students are advised to take WOTA in their Freshman year, and the pressure to take it in the Fall is particularly strong, which in turn puts a great deal of pressure on the College to open as many large sections as possible. WOTA is only occasionally a prerequisite for classes taken later in various programs (e.g., Music History), and within the core curriculum, it is a prerequisite only for World of Ideas. Could students be encouraged to take WOTA in their Sophomore year? Such a widespread change in advising would clearly entail a broad consideration of other issues (e.g., what courses would students take in that first semester?). However, such a change would go a long way towards mitigating the pressure for enormous sections, and a mixture of upperclassmen with the Freshmen that now populate most WOTA sections would also create a more mature class atmosphere.
• Systemic changes. UWW is currently in the midst of a reexamination of its General Studies program. We strongly suggest that the WOTA faculty and our sincere concerns be part of that discussion. As we consider changing the way General Studies classes are delivered and required, we may find solutions.

At least two faculty members have expressed a desire for more "touch base" meetings among WOTA faculty. Meetings have generally been limited to once or twice a year, and more interaction would clearly be valuable, particularly as a chance to share problems and new approaches, and even practical details and problems in dealing with equipment. Because the faculty is pressured by class size, there is presently little organized interaction, though many of us share advice and problems informally. Regularly organized meetings might be particularly valuable for new faculty, who are all too often left to sink or swim in teaching this immensely broad class.

One instructor has strongly urged the appointment of a single WOTA administrator from within the faculty. Such an administrator could convene meetings, assist with equipment problems and training, serve as a liaison with the Young Auditorium, assist in overseeing and coordinating the collection of materials in the Arts Media Center, and assist new faculty. It may also be appropriate for such an administrator to serve as webmaster for any common WOTA website—see E. below. (Note: if such an administrative position is indeed created, it must be an acknowledged part of the administrator’s academic load.)

C. Breadth of the class

At least two instructors expressed concern with the extremely broad nature of the class, and others noted that non-Western arts in particular tend to be given short shrift under the need to "get through" even a cursory survey of Western Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Art. Perhaps, in the context of the University’s broader consideration of General Studies, it is time to reconsider the definitions and guidelines of the class.

D. Continued capital improvement to CA1003

As noted above, both WOTA classrooms have been improved enormously in the last year, but additional improvements to CA1003 are needed to bring this space up to speed with CA30: in particular, the addition of a second projector (allowing side-by-side projection of different media), and the addition of a document camera. The latter improvement will entail somewhat more investment than the same piece of equipment in CA30: since CA1003 is a multipurpose room, which sees heavy Music Department use throughout the school year and summer, a document camera must be placed in a secured cabinet. Bringing these classrooms to parity is clearly needed, both to improve the flexibility of CA1003 and because some instructors teach in both rooms. Additional needs in CA1003 include a new projection screen and new speakers, as well as a general cleaning: the room has long been used in part as a storage room, and it is strongly suggested that the College work with to the Music Department to find alternate storage locations. Unless smaller class sizes are acheived, CA 1003 may be an increasingly unsatisfactory location for the class, due in large part to poor sight lines for many of the students in the class.

E. Creation of a common WOTA website

Web-based materials are increasingly the basis for classes in Universities across the nation. A WOTA website, similar to the sites created by other UWW core classes is probably desirable at this time. With a web-based project in mind, the College invested a considerable amount of time in 1998 preparing a grant proposal to the Fund for Improvement of Post-secondary Education (FIPSE): just in time for Congress to dissolve this program. No similar initiative has emerged in the meantime. Whether funded by a grant or by the University, such a website would clearly be useful. It could serve as a secure site for enrolled students to access text, images, music, and even video images. A pilot program undertaken by the College Arts Media Center has already yeilded an impressive collection of visual images.

F. Expanded student assistance

One instructor has argued that student assistants should be offered to all WOTA instructors, rather than just those teaching multiple sections. This is fair, and could be an enormous help, particularly given the work-load that even one 90-student section entails. This would also be a relatively easy "fix," particularly in comparison to the other issues noted above. Students who already have Work Study available can be hired at relatively little cost to the College. WOTA instructors who have employed assistants have generally hired them from among the students in their department, or their former WOTA students.

G. Complimentary tickets

One instructor has raised the issue of the cost of personally attending the events we require our students to attend. Most of the faculty already make a considerable investment in class materials: CD’s, videos, slides, and other materials used in the classroom. Making complimentary tickets available to WOTA faculty on a request basis should be a fairly small matter. (Particularly given the fact that our WOTA students make up a sizable portion of the house at most ticketed Barnett Theatre and Young Auditorium events!)