MSU offers students a different way of looking at the core

11/02/2001 BOZEMAN--      In coming weeks, Montana State University freshmen will have a choice to opt for involvement in a pilot program that educators say will lead to an experience in excellence and innovation in their education.

      The class offered spring semester for qualified freshmen is Ideas and Perspectives, the second building block of the Montana Learning Community (MLC), an acclaimed, innovate pilot program that is an alternative to MSU's set of core classes required for graduation. Freshmen may take the Ideas and Perspectives if they have one of three freshman seminars offered this fall: General Studies (Gens 101), the College of Letters and Science seminar (CLS 101) or a College of Business freshman seminar.

      Brooke Karath, MLC associate director, thinks qualified students should put Ideas and Perspectives on their spring schedule. Offered in three sections on the topics of "Race and Nuclear Bombs," "Nature in Our Lives" and "Human Violence," the courses are team-taught by award-winning professors from diverse disciplines.

      Karath said the spring classes are just one more example of the stimulating educational experiences in store for students who opt for the pilot program.

      Karath explains that the MLC's core program differs from the traditional core in that students who are involved in the program are exposed from the beginning to critical learning experiences, small seminars, hands-on teaching from some of the university's finest professors and, an undergraduate research experience.

      "Our motivation is to improve education, to improve the way students learn to speak, learn and write," Karath said. "We provide opportunities for freshmen to experience things that they might not be able to experience until later in their career here."

      Karath said that MLC's beginnings were rooted in feedback from students who said that there was a sense that the university's core was a barrier to their education.

      "There was also a sense of confusion why some courses fulfilled core requirements while others did not," Karath said.

      Adele Pittendrigh, Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Science, noticed that many of the students with feedback were students in her college and she began studying if MSU's core accomplished its purpose in providing a broad-based education. As part of her research on the subject, Pittendrigh was awarded a $150,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to help in her project, Reinventing the Core.

      Pittendrigh's work launched three years of spirited discussions and innovative ideas about what education at MSU should be. Last spring, students and faculty received the first pilot section of Ideas and Perspectives enthusiastically and the project was expanded. Last summer, Karath worked to recruit freshmen to enroll in the CLS seminar.

      "We targeted incoming freshmen because we wanted them to know we were doing something innovative," Karath said. The course has been a great success and Karath hopes many of those students will opt for second semester's Ideas and Perspectives, a multi-disciplinary, team-taught course.

      Students who have taken the two freshmen semesters will be launched into a research and creative experience, which Karath calls one of the more challenging and ambitious components of MLC.

      Karath said the MLC pilot will run through next year and then will be evaluated.

      Those with more questions, are urged to contact Karath at 994-4288 or visit MLC's Web site at: www.mlc.montana.edu.

Send questions or comments to Carol Schmidt: cschmidt@montana.edu. Or you can send letters to Carol Schmidt, MSU Communications Services, 416 Culbertson Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717.

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