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Early History of IS:1969 to 1989 This page was last reviewed on August 10, 2011   


A Moment in Time ~ Integrated Studies '78

Anne Innis Dagg, IS Academic Advisor

 

Radical students at the University of Waterloo in the 1960s claimed that “critical thought was actively discouraged by the university both by its structure and the content of courses.” The students “pursued a strategy known as the 'Critical University' that was based on the premise that the university ought to be critical of the assumptions of the society as a whole and should provide the student with the tools to evaluate and criticize society and his/her role in it" (Ian Angus, 1979,1,2). It was this philosophy that gripped many of the people who would be involved over the years with Integrated Studies.


A brief for a proposed College of about 700 students was prepared in 1968 by Donald Gordon and three students; its concept would soon evolve into the Integrated Studies Program. It was designed "to foster and facilitate integrated interdisciplinary approaches to higher education, to provide alternate ways of acquiring the substance of higher education and to incorporate a high degree of shared authority and responsibility among participating students and faculty." It was said to meet the needs and preferences of a wide clientele:

. Imaginative faculty favouring alternatives to the present curriculum which could attract a minority of able and original students

. Some intelligent and promising students wanting the opportunity to determine their own studies and how they should pursue them

. Local community groups favouring students working on local problems and participating in community activities

. Government and business wanting to hire graduates with the ability to communicate with specialists and to perceive problems from a wide perspective -- integrators and synthesizers.

The committee felt that the following essential principles should be incorporated in the College:

. Flexible admissions policy. Students entering the program would not have to have graduated from high school. They would enter the program by writing a letter explaining what they wanted to study, with letters of reference, and with an interview. Students chosen would be highly motivated to work on their own using alternative educational approaches to their studies. They would include exceptional students from high school or transferring from other programs, high school "drop outs", mature people of all ages with or without formal education, and specialists anxious to broaden their capacities. They would largely be people who presently could not or would not go to university despite their ability. [These admission standards still apply, and the program still draws from a similarly varied population.]

. Multi-option and interdisciplinary curricula. The students would presumably work in broad areas of study such as social sciences, humanities, science, or mathematics, searching for information across disciplines within these areas. They would work in three such areas in their first two years, two in their third year, and one in their final year. [The program itself would never be so structured, nor would most students study broad topics]. The students would choose themselves how they each wanted to study -- through such avenues as seminars, university courses, independent reading courses with IS or other faculty, research projects, and experiments.

. Flexible grading and course requirements. A student's work would not be graded. After two years in the program, a student could ask to be considered for a Bachelor's degree. The examining board, consisting of two students and two faculty, would have to agree unanimously that the degree was merited. If a student failed the assessment, he or she could try again after a year. [This method of assessment only lasted a few years before being replaced by the Academic Board which approved thesis topics to be supervised by two faculty members.]

. Internal and shared autonomy among College community members. The College would be administered by a Board made up of faculty and students. This Board would oversee hiring of faculty and the running of the program, both academically and bureaucratically. The students would learn about administration as well as about academic work. [The students soon replaced such a Board with an Operations Council that included every member of the program].

. Association with University enterprises of a complementary nature, especially in the area of educational technology.

. Partially combined residential and curricular operations, if possible.

.The extensive use of consultative talents in the University and the community at large.

. Emphasis on experimental, laboratory, community and in-service confirmation or amplification of theoretical data.

With these criteria, the committee hoped that the College graduates would be well trained to deal with future problems in society and the environment because of their flexibility, wide vision, ability to respond rapidly to change, and fresh outlook.

This brief was reviewed by Prof. Jack Gray of the English Department who recommended that an interdisciplinary Integrated Studies Program (rather than a college) be set up largely along the lines outlined in the Gordon report. It would be overseen by "widely respected members of the university community" and be responsible "for all curricular, admissions, and degree granting decisions". It would comprise a group of teachers/ Resource Persons working closely with students to develop various learning activities initiated wherever possible by the students. Each student would have the prime responsibility for structuring his/ her academic "thing". There would be no compulsory lectures or seminars, and no faculty authority over the students' learning.

Beyond these general principles, Gray recommended that an Interfaculty Council be empowered to set up the program; it would hire Resource People from different faculties and serve as a link between the program and Senate. After some students had been admitted to the program, they and the faculty together would establish admission policy and admission decisions and decide, together with Senate, on what basis degrees would be awarded.

Gray envisioned that the faculty would comprise five or six full-time equivalent individuals to work with 60 to 75 students. They would have energy, charisma, and a variety of interests, but need not necessarily come from a traditional academic background. Those Resource people who were seconded from UW departments would be able to return to them when they wished.

Gray recommended that fewer than half of the student body be first-year students, and that senior students be free to transfer into the program from other areas of campus. "A mix of students from various backgrounds and at various levels of study should enrich learning experience." These students would have access to all courses offered at the university, and would be as free as other students to ask for advice and support from professors. All students would be informed that the university could not guarantee them a degree, nor that their work in the program could necessarily be transferrable to other programs.

Gray's report was presented at a Senate Meeting in February, 1969, where it was decided to go ahead with the new program. When it was officially announced in June 1969, The Globe and Mail called it "A FASCINATING EXPERIMENT". It was described as an unstructured program with flexible admission requirements, flexible topics and manner of study, and flexible standards for a Bachelor degree. Academic standards, structure and success were to be determined by the program itself after it began functioning the following September.

When the Integrated Studies Program was announced, members of the Radical Student Movement met to decide whether or not they should support it. If they did, they worried that the impetus for change in the rest of the campus would be muted. Some saw the program as "an attempt to defuse and buy off the radical movement by setting aside a small play-pen in which the radicals could have things their own way" (Ian Angus, 1979). However, many students were anxious to take advantage of the almost limitless possibilities of the new program, and many enrolled in it.

The 1975 review of the program was impressed with the students' independent study, but it had felt that integration in their studies remained largely "a cherished aspiration". IS addressed this concern by increasing the number of seminars and conferences within the program. It described these in a review document requested by Senate in 1978 (Report, 1978). By this time, the program had defined narrowly the Transcript Package that each student earned along with his or her BIS: it included a transcript of marks received in courses, supervising professors' letters about their work with the student in their final year of studies, a description of the student's complete studies while at UW, and a covering letter describing the program and the package. The program also reported that the evaluations of students' work each year was better documented in their Year End Reports, and that the quality of degree candidacies for their final year Degree Phase was improved. Nearly one-half of IS graduates by 1978 went on to graduate work, which is an indication of the high standard of academic work being produced in the program.

During the early 1980s, student power became a problem for the university administration, so the program was revamped in 1986. The program was again reorganized in 1989, this time so that its administration no longer included students. Not only the Academic Director, but the Academic Advisors were now professors who met with IS pre-thesis students at least five times each term to discuss their work. There are now fewer students in the program (about 30 instead of up to 100), those who apply must be at least high school graduates with good marks, and those who are admitted give their attention to their studies rather than to program politics. IS courses have been established so that students now can earn either a credit or a mark for work they have done on their own under supervision (considered equivalent to the work of a regular course, and about 100 hours of research and writing). Independent Studies continues to produce graduates who are industrious and motivated to work on their own; many continue to graduate schools.

NOTE. This summary is a condensed version of that written by Anne Innis Dagg and included in My First Year in Integrated Studies (1978-1979) and A Chronology of the History of Integrated / Independent Studies Program at the University of Waterloo.

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