Seeking Faculty to Serve on Honors Education Task Force
Sent: September 22, 2020
From: Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dear Colleagues,
Well, this has been an “interesting” start to the semester! I leave “interesting”
in quotes so that you can provide your own take on the term :) And, while, I am confident
we haven’t seen the last interesting turn of events this year, I do believe we have
to continue to think forward, to chew on new ideas, and challenge ourselves to imagine
what Transformation 2030 really means in practice.
To that end, and as part of SJSU’s continuing commitment to create transformative
educational opportunities for the future leaders of San José, Silicon Valley and beyond,
I invite faculty to join a university-wide task force to discuss honors education
on campus. This conversation is intended to attract the attention of our region’s
BIPOC communities, where we hope to engage the most diverse, creative, and curious
as well as self-directed learners in the region. The goal is also to build academic
programs that will draw on the talents of passionate students, the excellence of
our faculty, and the resources of this region to introduce a 21st century model of
interdisciplinary education.
Let me be clear, the goal of this task force is not to replace anything already going
on - we may end up moving forward with multiple pathways. But, I do believe there
is value in pushing past traditional notions of “honors” to ask: “what sorts of creative
models could SJSU develop that attract a dynamic student community to our campus to
ask questions about today’s most wicked problems as well as explore our communities’
greatest's strengths and community innovations?” In some ways, I would love to see
us develop a conversation about an (un)honors College - something that pushes past
historical conversations about honors education and toward a dialogue about how we
create radical, new learning spaces responsive to and inspired by the complex and
intersectional diversity of our local communities and our students. Maybe what we
end up with doesn’t have the word “honors” in it at all. Or we may envision “honor”
to mean ‘honoring’ our unique place situated at the crossroads of so many important
threads of community. But, we have to start somewhere.
If you are going to put your name forward, you are encouraged to think imaginatively
- even radically - about this venture. A new cross-disciplinary program founded with
no pre-set curriculum boundaries - or high GPA cutoffs, for example - could offer
self-driven student leaders the latitude to work closely with faculty and the region’s
leaders to tackle real-world problems. It provides faculty an opportunity to teach
multidisciplinary perspectives and guide motivated and ambitious students. It offers
local leaders an opening to mentor the brightest go-getters. It fulfills SJSU’s mission
to serve a central role in the future of Silicon Valley by training future scholars,
community leaders, and entrepreneurs.
I am very excited that Dr. Ruma Chopra, professor of history, and recipient of the
ACE fellowship, has agreed to chair the task force. Ruma’s experience in teaching
and scholarship, as well as her industry experience (she has worked for high-tech
startups, etc.) draw her to this dynamic venture.
Faculty interested in being considered to be part of the task force should fill out
the Google Form. Nominations are due by Friday, October 9th. I encourage faculty from any sector of campus to apply. And, don’t worry, we will
be bringing staff and student voices to this task force as well. More to come.
Sincerely,
Vin
