Interest in minicourse program renewed

At the end of Spring Break, Vassar students may have the option to participate in a new activity with a familiar format. The Vassar Student Association (VSA) and the Campus Activities Office are considering a trial program of student-led courses following the model of mini-courses.

In the past, minicourses were a non-credit extracurricular activity offered each spring. Students could register for mini-courses through the Campus Activities office and attend class once a week for four to six weeks, learning anything from sushi-making to poker strategy. The mini-courses could be taught by students, faculty or staff, with or without a fee. However, mini-courses were discontinued for the 2009-2010 academic year, after former Assistant Director of Campus Activities Megan Habermann, who had supervised the program, resigned and her position was left unfilled. Another factor leading to the discontinuation of mini-courses was the controversy surrounding the "Language of Ladies" mini-course in the spring of 2009, which was cancelled after concerns about gender and ethnic stereotypes in the mini-course's subject matter were raised. According to Director of Campus Activities Teresa Quinn, in light of these considerations, "It became apparent that we couldn't really do the proper kind of assessment as to whether a course was viable. It became administratively almost impossible to do." In addition, mini-courses had already seen a decline in student participation, and no concerns were raised when mini-courses were unavailable in the spring of 2010.

However, the absence of minicourses did not go unnoticed. John Wojcik '11, who proposed that student-led courses be established, first considered the possibility of such a program at an October town hall meeting at the Town Houses, where he and others recognized a void in campus programming. "There's the parties, there's the [organizations], [but] there's nothing more mentally stimulating on the weekends," said Wojcik. Using the mini-courses as a model, Wojcik hopes to help create a program for student-led courses, where "the focus is more on the student-teaching-student aspect."

Wojcik sees student led courses, especially those with more of an instructional focus, as a means to develop teaching skills; he cites interest from prospective instructors of cooking, knitting and beer tasting as examples of this potential. "We have plenty of good academics [at Vassar]," said Wojcik. "[Student-led courses] are for the stuff in-between. You could start your night off with an hour class that you have a vested interest in, where there's no homework. You just have to show up and learn something that you're passionate about."

The VSA Academics Committee and Executive Board are in ongoing discussions on the prospect of supporting a trial of the student-led courses, which Wojcik hopes will consist of between two and five courses running for between four and six weeks after Spring Break next semester.

Should student-led courses begin this spring, Campus Activities would have a less active role in overseeing the program, limiting its role to the scheduling of space for course meetings, a difficult task in and of itself. In the past, said Quinn, "We would go into this crazy schedule. It was a lot of work for my staff to try to find appropriate rooms, and it was really challenging to get [mini-courses] a consistent space." Whereas the Campus Activities office had once been responsible for considering applications for instructors and courses and running registration for mini-courses, the VSA would take on thse responsibilities for student-led courses. Wojcik foresees a more rigorous application process than the mini-course program had employed in the past, saying, "Applications will be set up to make sure we're getting students who are really passionate about teaching…The trick is to balance someone who's good at teaching and a subject students are interested in learning." The focus on skill-based courses could also prevent course instructors from proposing courses with offensive or controversial material.

Quinn's concern, however, is whether student-led courses will encounter the same lack of interest from students that mini-courses did. In the program's final years, "interest was waning, we didn't have as many instructors, people weren't signing up as much… and sometimes people would sign up and then not go," said Quinn. She suggests, "What the VSA really needs to do is an assessment of how many people are really interested."

Wojcik believes that there will be significant interest and participation from the student body, saying, "We're a quirky bunch of kids. We like learning."