@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Educational Studies (EDST), Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Dumaresq, Cheryl E."@en ; dcterms:issued "2009-01-15T23:11:11Z"@en, "1995"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """Arts One is an interdisciplinary, first year program in the Faculty of Arts at The University of British Columbia which combines English, History, and Philosophy into one course worth 60% of a full-time program. Since its inception in 1967, over 5000 students have participated in Arts One; however, no formal evaluation from the student perspective has been undertaken. The objective of this study was to investigate Arts One's impact on students academically, socially, and with respect to their careers. The study was divided into two parts. First, a mail questionnaire was sent to 500 individuals who participated in Arts One between 1967 and 1988. Of the two hundred respondents, the majority recalled Arts One positively, with 90% indicating that they would recommend the program. A number of questions emerged from the questionnaires which were investigated in the second part of the study, personal interviews with 21 former Arts One participants. Together, the questionnaires and personal interviews revealed that Arts One has been a success from the perspectives of the study participants. Many had chosen Arts One for its small-sized classes, and most identified the seminars and tutorials as the highlights of the program. In particular, many credited Arts One with having taught them how to think, write, and be open to different perspectives. Participants also recalled the benefits of being part of an intense learning community and the friendships formed as a result. Some found the transition into second year difficult, particularly because of the larger, lecture-style classes. However, the strongest theme to emerge was the impact of the Arts One seminar professor on the experience of his/her students. To a large extent, the success of Arts One seems rooted more firmly in the faculty members involved in the program than in the curriculum itself. In most cases, participants spoke highly of their Arts One seminar professors, and many considered them to have been their mentors. However, some individuals felt that their seminar professors were unsuited to teaching in Arts One and negatively affected their experience. The study concludes with five recommendations, as well as some suggestions for further research."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/3693?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "13208654 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "'It opened up a huge world of ideas, of writing, and taught me how to think\" The University of British Columbia's Arts One Program as Evaluated by its Students By Cheryl E. Dumaresq B .A., The University of British Columbia, 1989 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN P A R T I A L F U L F I L L M E N T OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE D E G R E E OF M A S T E R OF ARTS in THE F A C U L T Y OF G R A D U A T E STUDIES (Department of Educational Studies) We accept this thesis as cortfoirning to^he required standard THE U N I V E R S I T Y OF BRITISH C O L U M B I A May 1995 - © Cheryl E. Dumaresq, 1995 -In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Priurnf^naJ 4H,sJ,,*/ The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada -6 (2/88) ABSTRACT Arts One is an interdisciplinary, first year program in the Faculty of Arts at The University of British Columbia which combines English, History, and Philosophy into one course worth 60% of a full-time program. Since its inception in 1967, over 5000 students have participated in Arts One; however, no formal evaluation from the student perspective has been undertaken. The objective of this study was to investigate Arts One's impact on students academically, socially, and with respect to their careers. The study was divided into two parts. First, a mail questionnaire was sent to 500 individuals who participated in Arts One between 1967 and 1988. Of the two hundred respondents, the majority recalled Arts One positively, with 90% indicating that they would recommend the program. A number of questions emerged from the questionnaires which were investigated in the second part of the study, personal interviews with 21 former Arts One participants. Together, the questionnaires and personal interviews revealed that Arts One has been a success from the perspectives of the study participants. Many had chosen Arts One for its small-sized classes, and most identified the seminars and tutorials as the highlights of the program. In particular, many credited Arts One with having taught them how to think, write, and be open to different perspectives. Participants also recalled the benefits of being part of an intense learning community and the friendships formed as a result. Some found the transition into second year difficult, particularly because of the larger, lecture-style classes. However, the strongest theme to emerge was the impact of the Arts One seminar professor on the experience of his/her students. To a large extent, the success of Arts One seems rooted more firmly in the faculty members involved in the program than in the curriculum itself. In most cases, participants spoke highly of their Arts One seminar professors, and many considered them to have been their mentors. However, some individuals felt that their seminar professors were unsuited to teaching in Arts One and negatively affected their experience. The study concludes with five recommendations, as well as some suggestions for further research. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iv List of Tables vii List of Interview Transcriptions ix Chapter One: Introduction 1 A. Purpose '. 5 B. Rationale 6 Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature 9 A. Assessment of Arts One 9 B. Related Studies 15 C. The Learning Community 23 D. The Curriculum 26 Chapter Three: Methodology 31 A. Mail Questionnaire 31 B. Personal Interviews 32 C. Limitations of Study 33 Chapter Four: Mail Questionnaire 35 A. Questionnaire Sample 35 B. Background Characteristics of Students 36 1. Secondary School 36 2. Graduating Average from Secondary School 37 3. Direct/Indirect Entry from Secondary School 38 C. Reasons/Precipitating Factors for Choosing Arts One 38 1. How Respondents Heard About Arts One 38 2. Reasons for Choosing Arts One 39 D. Participants' Evaluation of Arts One 40 1. Rating of Various Components of Arts One 40 2. Views on Components of University Experience 40 3. Comparison of Aspects of a Learning Experience 42 4. Most Important Feature of Arts One 43 5. Recommendation of Arts One 43 E. Impact of Arts One on its Graduates 44 1. Direct/Indirect Entry into Second Year 44 2. Comparison of Subsequent University Experience with Arts One 44 3. Educational Attainment 46 iv 4. Current Occupation 46 5. Impact of Arts One on Career Choice 47 6. Maintained Contact with Arts One 47 Chapter Five: Personal Interviews 49 A. Interview Sample 50 B. Precipitating Factors in Participants' Choice of Arts One 50 C. Preparation for the Arts One Experience 52 D. Specific Aspects of Arts One that Contributed to Participants' Experiences.. 54 1. Arts One Building 54 2. Reading List 55 3. Lectures, Seminars, and Tutorials 56 a. Lectures 57 b. Seminars 58 c. Tutorials 61 E. The Impact of Other Students on the Arts One Experience 62 F. The Impact of Professors on the Arts One Experience 65 G. Experience Following Arts One 69 H . Historical Disparities in the Arts One Experience 72 I. Major Impact of Arts One on Participants 75 Chapter Six: Conclusion and Recommendations 77 Bibliography 85 Appendix 1 89 Appendix 2 97 Appendix 3 99 Appendix 4 100 Appendix 5 101 Appendix 6 102 Appendix 7 103 Appendix 8 104 Appendix 9 106 Appendix 10 107 Appendix 11 108 Appendix 12 109 Appendix 13 110 Appendix 14 I l l Appendix 15 112 Appendix 16 113 Appendix 17 114 Appendix 18 115 Appendix 19 117 Appendix 20 119 Appendix 21 120 Appendix 22 121 Appendix 23 122 Appendix 24 123 LIST OF TABLES Respondents' Secondary Schools and Years of Participation in Arts One (Appendix 3) 99 Greatest Contributing Secondary Schools (Appendix 4) 100 Respondents' Entering Academic Averages from Secondary School (Appendix 5) 101 Direct/Indirect Entry from Secondary School to Arts One (Appendix 6) 102 Activity in Time Period Between Secondary School and Arts One (Appendix 6) 102 How Respondents Heard About Arts One (Appendix 7) 103 Respondents' Reasons for Choosing Arts One (Appendix 8) 104 Respondents' Ratings of Components of the Arts One Program (Appendix 9) 106 Respondents' Ratings of Components of a University Experience (Appendix 10) 107 Respondents' Rankings of Aspects of a Learning Experience (Appendix 11) 108 Respondents' Views on the Most Important Features of Arts One (Appendix 12) 109 Respondents' Recommendation of Arts One (Appendix 13) 110 Respondents' Recommendation of Arts One by Year of Participation (Appendix 13) 110 Direct/Indirect Entry from First Year into Second Year (Appendix 15) 112 Activity Between First Year and Second Year (Appendix 15) 112 Respondents' Evaluations of Their University Experience Following Arts One (Appendix 16) 113 Respondents' Evaluations of their University Education After Arts One According to Degree/Diploma Completed (Appendix 17) 114 Degrees/Diplomas/Certificates Completed by Respondents (Appendix 18) 115 Respondents' Occupations (Appendix 19) 117 Respondents' General Career Areas (Appendix 20) 119 Respondents' Views on Whether Their Current Occupation Influenced by Participation in Arts One (Appendix 21) 120 The Views of Respondents Working in the Fields of Education, Law, and Business on Whether Their Occupation Influenced by Participation in Arts One (Appendix 21) 120 Participants' Present Contact with Former Arts One Students (Appendix 22) 121 Participants' Present Contact with the Arts One Program (Appendix 22) 121 Personal Interview Sample (Appendix 23) 122 viii LIST OF PERSONAL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTIONS Beth 124 Blair 131 Caroline 138 Daniel 143 David 148 Geoff 156 Ian 161 Janis 167 Jordan 175 Keith 182 Krista 190 Liam 196 Lydia 204 Mary 211 Michael 216 Neil 222 Rosemary 230 Ryan 238 Sean 246 Tami 254 Valerie ; 260 ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION In September 1967, the Faculty of Arts at The University of British Columbia embarked upon an experiment called Arts One. The idea originated with Dr. Kaspar Naegele, then Dean of the Faculty of Arts, who spent the summer of 1964 with a committee of four other faculty members examining the Arts undergraduate curriculum which, in their opinions, was not meeting the needs of the faculty's diverse student population. The committee's report, titled Discipline and Discovery, recommended that all first year Arts students take a program of general studies tied together by broad themes (Eliot, Naegele, Prang, Steinberg & Tiger, 1965). Classes would consist of both large lectures by experienced professors and smaller discussion groups. The second year would introduce students to several disciplines, and the final two years would entail more focused work in a major discipline. While the committee's recommendations for years two through four were widely accepted, the concept of a general first year program was considered too drastic a curricular change and the proposal rejected. However, it was not long before the concept was taken up once again, this time by Dr. Ian Ross of the English Department, and in 1967 the Faculty agreed to pilot an alternative, interdisciplinary first year program to a limited number of students. So began Arts One. Although the inception of Arts One was considered nothing short of revolutionary by some members of the U.B.C. community, the concept behind the program was not a new one. In fact, Arts One was modeled after two other experimental interdisciplinary programs: Alexander Meiklejohn's Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin in the 1920's and 1930's (Meiklejohn, 1932), and Joseph Tussman's Experimental College Program at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1960's (Tussman, 1969). Both the Tussman and Meiklejohn programs attempted to build learning communities characterized by students and professors working together in small groups and an integrated and thematically structured curriculum. The influence of these programs was so profound that Tussman was asked to serve as an advisor to the Arts One planners, visiting U.B.C. on two occasions (Batt, 1973). Like the experimental programs which preceded it, Arts One was interdisciplinary in nature, combining first year English, History, and Philosophy into one course worth 60% of a student's first year coursework. A primary objective of Arts One was to create a learning environment built upon open dialogue and feedback. The curriculum was based upon the reading of classical texts which were linked together by central themes to form the context for class discussion: It was believed that demonstrating the value of connected study of literary and philosophical texts together with appreciation of historical settings, for example, in pursuing some such theme as conflict between human freedom and institutional authority, would arouse intellectual ardour in students, and move them to commit-ment to the study of an academic discipline at the next stage of their university life (Report of the Dean's Committee, 1990, p. 5). Class size was limited (120 students in 1967), and the group further broken down for smaller seminars and tutorial sessions to discuss readings and assignments. While the responsibility for the large, once-weekly lecture was mutually shared by as many as 15 professors, each student had a single professor with whom he/she met in the smaller study groups. The decision to pilot Arts One created much controversy within the Faculty of Arts. In fact, a letter from Dr. D. M . Healy, Dean of Arts, was included with the application 2 packages sent out by Dr. Ross. Dean Healy's letter stated, \"The opinions that [Dr. Ross] has expressed are disputed; they are shared by many of his colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and are deplored, even denounced by others\" (Batt, 1973, p. 3). Despite a lack of unanimous support, Arts One survived its pilot year and was deemed a success. Now, 28 years later, Arts One is still offered to approximately 200 first year Arts students each year. Unlike most first year Arts courses at The University of British Columbia in which disciplines are studied in isolation, Arts One continues to combine first year English, Philosophy, and History in an interdisciplinary fashion into one course worth 18 credits of a typical first year, 30-credit courseload. The program's reading list incorporates both classical and modern works, exploring them from all three disciplinary perspectives. In total, Arts One involves six hours of class meetings per week, in contrast to nine hours if first year English, Philosophy, and History classes are taken separately. In addition to Arts One, most students take an additional 12 credits of elective courses (two courses each semester). Therefore, while most first year Arts students take five separate classes and have approximately 15 hours of classes per week, Arts One students take three different classes that entail 12 class hours per week. Each year, the Arts One program is divided into two separate groups consisting of a maximum of 100 students and five faculty members. Each group has a separate theme, such as Power and Freedom or The Human Condition, which shapes the reading list and discussions for that particular group. The entire group of 100 students and five faculty 3 meets once each week for a two-hour lecture which is given by either one of the group professors or a guest lecturer chosen by the faculty. The lecture focuses on the particular text being studied at that time, and while attempts are made to involve students in discussions during these larger meetings, the lectures are not as conducive to interaction as smaller meetings. However, in addition to the weekly lectures, students meet for 1 1/2 hours, twice-weekly, in smaller groups of 15-20 students to discuss and debate issues related to their texts and the week's lecture. Students select their seminar professor when registering for Arts One and will have the same professor for the duration of the program. Although all faculty members in a particular theme group work together to develop the lectures and thematic approaches to be taken, the seminar professor plays the central role in the teaching and evaluation of students in his/her seminar group. In addition to the seminar meetings, the group is further broken down into tutorial groups which meet once-weekly for one hour. The tutorial groupings remain the same throughout the academic year and consist of three or four students from the seminar group and the seminar professor. During the tutorial sessions, students focus on critiquing one another's essays with the assistance of their professor. Students give photocopies of their essays to their fellow tutorial-group students and the professor, and are expected to come prepared to discuss and critique each other's essays. Throughout the year, students are required to write 12 essays which incorporate specific texts and the group theme. These essays are graded by the student's seminar professor; of 4 the 12 essays, the top 10 count towards a student's final grade. In some cases, if a student disagrees with a mark given to one of his/her essays, there is the opportunity to have the essay read and graded by another faculty member in the theme group. In addition to the essays, students write a final examination in April which requires them to integrate the works read throughout the year and the ideas explored in the lectures and seminar meetings. Together, the essays and final examination are used to determine a student's final grade in the program. (A) Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how Arts One, an alternative, interdisciplinary, first year Arts program at The University of British Columbia, is perceived by its student participants. By obtaining the feedback of students from the program's first 21 years, the study attempts to obtain a more complete picture of the overall impact Arts One has had, and continues to have, on its students, both educationally and with respect to their lives beyond university. The intent of this study is to provide a description of student reactions to their Arts One experience, not to measure the specific academic skills they obtained as a result or to determine how they compare to students who went through the traditional, first year Arts curriculum. Based on a review of the related literature, the investigator made the following assumptions before proceeding with the study: (1) the small-sized seminar groups, the existence of an Arts One building, and close faculty contact create a learning community that is conducive to a positive academic experience; (2) the Arts One curriculum, which combines a weekly team-taught lecture with regular seminar meetings, along with an interesting reading list and challenging course requirements, results in a positive learning experience for students; and (3) students who complete Arts One develop strong analytical and reasoning skills which predispose them to academic success in the rest of their university education. The intent of this study was to explore these assumptions. (B) Rationale Throughout its 28-year history, the merits of Arts One, or lack thereof, have been much-discussed. The program has had difficulties recruiting faculty members to administer and teach, particularly from its primary discipline areas. In 1990, a Report of the Dean's Committee pointed out that the English Department, with faculty obligations to other programs such as Comparative Literature and Women's Studies, was able to commit only two faculty members per year to Arts One. Both the History and Philosophy Departments were described as having been reduced in size by 25% and 30% respectively over the previous decade and, as a result, contributing less faculty (Report of the Dean's Committee, 1990). In addition, some faculty have described Arts One as having a more demanding teaching load than other undergraduate programs, and they have been unwilling to take that time away from their personal research, critical to job security and promotion. Furthermore, until recently, Arts One had no formal budget and was supported by soft funds from the Faculty of Arts. As faculty salaries have increased, other aspects of the program have had to be cut back; for example, the money allocated to supplies and expenses did not increase between 1979 and 1990 (Report of the Dean's Committee, 1990). Despite these and other difficulties, reviews of Arts One have recommended the continuation of the program as an enhanced learning experience for students. At the same time, gaps exist in the body of information upon which these recommendations have been made. Since the program's inception, a number of formal reviews of Arts One have taken place, most in the early stages of the program, and one master's thesis (Batt, 1973). In most cases, enrollment statistics, degree of faculty interest, program costs, and the 6 academic grades of select groups of Arts One students have been the primary performance indicators taken into account by these reviewers. Only in rare cases have students' views been incorporated into these program evaluations, and only on an ad-hoc basis. To date no attempt has been made to evaluate Arts One from the perspective of its students. With many other post secondary institutions implementing similar interdisciplinary programs, such as U.B.C.'s Science One Program, the University of Victoria-Malaspina University-College's Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, and McMaster University's Theme Schools, it seems timely that an investigation of Arts One from the perspective of its student participants be undertaken. By seeking the perceptions of past Arts One students, this study will help to reveal the program's strengths and weaknesses and give future evaluation committees a more complete base of information from which to work. Moreover, these committees will be better equipped to consider whether Arts One is meeting the needs of its students, or whether curricular changes need to be made in order to provide an intellectually-challenging and worthwhile first year program. Furthermore, by including students from the first 21 years of the program's 28-year history, this study attempts to obtain a more complete sense of the impact Arts One has had on its students, both educationally, socially, and with respect to their lives beyond university. Perhaps most importantly, the information obtained will augment the body of literature which exists on the undergraduate student experience. At present, many of the studies which look at the undergraduate student experience follow empirical models, considering performance indicators such as attrition rates and academic results. In contrast, this study explores the subjective dimension of the Arts One experience by seeking the perceptions and opinions of former students through written and oral dialogue, without trying to force these revelations into rigid, quantifiable data. According to Davis and Mehaffy (1979), this approach is biased in two respects: 7 One, memoirists themselves are subjective. They do not remember everything. They remember selectively for a host of personal reasons. Too, passage of time dims the accuracy of memory. They also edit their memory...The subjectivity of the memoirists appears to be very complex and must be acknowledged...Two, the interviewer is a party to the creation of the oral history document. The extent of his prepa-ration and his skill in interviewing are only two obvious elements relating to his own subjectivity, to his own bias (p. 43). While the subjective perceptions of past Arts One students are inherently biased, this does not preclude the worth of obtaining this information. As long as the bias is recognized and attempts made by the investigator to report accurately, then these recollections will prove complementary to the other types of evaluations of the student experience, particularly in Arts One. According to Davis and Mehaffy (1979), \"Oral history...captures and preserves accounts otherwise not available... Its anecdotes breathe life into the silent record of past events, highlights individual relationships, and creates the personal fabric for the understanding of a specific life in its times\" (p. 41). The write-up for this study has been structured in the following manner. In Chapter Two, a review of the related literature provides a context for the study. In particular, attention is given to the reviews which have already been conducted on the Arts One program, other relevant studies, the concept and features of a learning community, and a closer focus on curriculum as it relates to Arts One. Chapter Three describes the methodologies chosen for this investigation, the rationale for choosing these particular methods, and the limitations of the study. In Chapter Four, the results of the mail questionnaires are summarized and discussed, followed in Chapter Five by a description of the unanswered questions which emerged from the mail questionnaires and a summary and discussion of the personal interviews. Finally, Chapter Six concludes the study and offers some recommendations to faculty and administrators involved in Arts One, as well as some suggestions for future research on the program. 8 CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In reviewing the existing literature related to Arts One, many different angles could have been explored. However, the approach chosen was intended to achieve the following aims: (1) to provide a historical overview of the assessments which have already been conducted on Arts One, both formally and informally; (2) to describe other student outcome studies of similar, alternative programs, and of the undergraduate student experience in general; (3) to describe the characteristics of a \"learning community\" and the purported benefits to students; and (4) to explore the concept of \"curriculum\" as it relates to the undergraduate student experience, the goals of students in obtaining a university education, and the benefits to students of general education approaches. (A) Assessment of Arts One Since its inception in September 1967, Arts One has been the focus of much critical attention. Considered a curricular innovation within the British Columbia post-secondary system, Arts One has been discussed in Dean's reports, a master's thesis, newspaper reports, at academic conferences, and at its own 25th anniversary celebration. However, very little has been done to explore the subjective experiences of the approximate 5,000 individuals who have gone through the program. This gap is disturbing when one considers the four \"cardinal purposes\" of the first year program proposed to the Faculty of Arts in Discipline and Discovery, the document which formed the basis for the program: First, the proposed program must remedy the defects that we have observed by providing the students with an integrated and engaging experience of knowledge... Second, the program must typify the spirit of general education and 9 avoid all pressure towards premature specialization and commitment, for both of which the majority of students are ill prepared. Nor should they be placed in the position where either is required of them. Even those who think that they already know what they want to study in depth are in need of a perspective wider than is possible to develop in the high schools so that they may confirm or reject their decision on the basis of this broader experience of the whole field of knowledge. Third, the proposed program...should provide the student with an understanding of knowledge and learning and their divisions sufficient to enable him to make an informed choice of subjects to be studied in the second year. This is not to say that as a result of a new program every student will find the task of committing himself to the study of a number of disciplines an easy one. For many it will be a difficult moment, but at least every student will possess a basis more rational than that gained at the high school for arriving at this crucial decision. Finally, since the proposed program should be of the highest value to all students, whether they continue at the university and secure a degree, or whether they leave at the end of the first year—we must remember that academic failure is not the only reason why students do not return--, it must be complete and meaningful in itself, not something that will become significant only after higher study (Eliot, Naegele, Prang, Steinberg & Tiger, 1965, pp. 16-17). While the \"cardinal purposes\" of this new program were student-focused, whether the program has provided students with an interesting and engaging learning environment, a \"wider perspective\" and \"understanding of knowledge and learning\" for making academic and career choices, and been \"of the highest value\" to students has not been formally studied. To date, a number of reviews of Arts One have taken place, most in the early stages of the program. These reviews include the 1969 Curriculum Committee Report, the 1969 Academic Planning Committee Report (Clark Report), the 1969 Arts One Faculty Report, the 1990 Report of the Dean's Committee on Arts One, and one Master's thesis (Batt, 1973). In most cases, enrollment statistics, degree of faculty interest, and academic 10 success of select groups of Arts One students have been the primary variables taken into account by these reviewers, although some attempts have been made to obtain student feedback. In 1969, three institutional reports were released which evaluated the success of Arts One it its pilot year. A Curriculum Committee Report compared the academic standing of the 1967-68 Arts One class with that of other first year Arts students and found that they received four times more first class grades. As well, 69% of the Arts One students passed all their courses, compared to an Arts Faculty average of 46%. In their six units of electives outside of Arts One, the 1967-68 class had two times the number of first class grades as other Arts students. When the committee examined whether the Arts One students were predisposed to greater academic success as incoming students, it found that the Arts One students scored six percent higher than other incoming Arts students on the university test battery and were considered to be more involved in \"literary, musical, political, and religious activities than other students\" (Persky, 1969). While both the Curriculum Committee Report and the Clark Report used student academic performance as the basis of their respective evaluations, the Clark Report also included the results of an open-ended questionnaire given to the students. The questionnaire found that 94% of the students would take Arts One again. In a second survey, the Clark Committee found that 66% of the students did not want to carry on into Arts Two because of university academic requirements and their own personal career objectives.1 The Clark Report questionnaire was also used to explore how students 'Arts Two was offered in 1968-69 and 1970-71 as an alternative, second year Arts program. According to the 1990 Report of the Dean's Committee, it was not offered in 1969-70, although a Ubyssey newspaper report makes reference to a 1969-70 Arts Two class. Twenty students participated in the program in 1968, and 67 in 1970. 11 evaluated their learning. While regular first year Arts students identified the instructor's classroom delivery, organization and preparation as most important to their learning, the 1967-68 Arts One students considered the teacher-student relationship and the program structure most important (Persky, 1969). As well, the Clark Report identified the cost of Arts One as a major issue. Dean John Young reported that the nine-unit program cost $336.00 per student in teaching salaries in comparison to the approximately $130.00 per student in teaching salaries for nine units of other first year Arts courses. Despite this apparent problem, the Clark Report recommended the continuation of Arts One: We believe that in 1967-68 Arts I was most successful in arousing enthusiasm among many students for discussing ideas, in stimulating their sense of trusting each other to the point of talking and writing freely, in encouraging them to think for themselves and creatively about human problems... A large measure of success was achieved in creating a sense of community (Persky, 1969). In her 1972 Report on the Arts I Programme, Sharon Batt of the University of Alberta explored the history of the program, provided an overview of the 1969 Clark Report and Curriculum Committee Report, and discussed some faculty perceptions on why Arts One was beginning to experience the problems of declining enrollment and faculty interest. In particular, between 1968 and 1972 the number of students in Arts One had fallen from 360 to 207. While faculty members could come up with no clear reason for this decline, the Curriculum Committee Report suggested that it could be a \"shift in student values away from the liberal arts and towards professionally oriented courses;\" the difficulty students were having fulfilling pre-requisite requirements for some Arts programs such as Geography, Fine Arts, and Psychology; and poor communication with high school 12 students and counsellors, many of whom had either not heard of Arts One or had a negative view of the program (Batt, 1973, p. 6). In her appraisal of the program, Batt identified several aspects of Arts One which she perceived to be evidence of its success: it provided faculty the freedom to devise their own curriculum and use effective teaching methods; students and instructors felt \"that their participation in the programme was an important experience for them;\" and the program, with its small discussion groups and tutorials, its own building, and many informal gatherings, succeeded in reducing alienation among students (Batt, 1973, pp. 8,11). In addition to declining student enrollment and lack of faculty interest, Batt also described some of the concerns which had been relayed to her by students and faculty. Specifically, the program was sometimes criticized as lacking intellectual rigor, although the faculty reported that \"intellectual growth occurs noticeably during the year.\" A number of faculty were disappointed with the motivation levels and academic abilities of their students as evidenced in two of their comments reported by Batt: \"about half of them did a paper or so during the term, but even these were very minimal,\" and \"I found that I expected much more in the way of intellectual excitement and activity than I actually got\" (Batt, 1973, p. 9). However, in Batt's opinion, the small classes made non-productive students more obvious to the instructors, enabling them to react to the situation. It is worth noting that Batt's information sources included six interviews conducted at U.B.C. in January 1973, only two of which were with former Arts One students (Batt, 1973). In 1990, a Dean's Committee Report recommended that Arts One \"be recognized as offering an excellent pedagogical and intellectual introduction to university studies\" and receive increased funding from the Faculty of Arts (p. 1). While the committee acknowledged that information on the academic success of students after Arts One, and the influence the program has had on their academic choices, is important to a complete evaluation, theirs did not include this information. Because U.B.C.'s student records are difficult to access, and the on-line records contain data for only the previous four years, the committee restricted its inquiry to summary Arts One grades and their investigation of the subsequent impact of Arts One to the success of a select number of Arts One participants who pursued honours programs in the Faculty. The only direct student feedback obtained was through a meeting with the 1990 Arts One class. Most of the committee's conclusions on the student experience in Arts One were based on the perceptions of faculty who had taught in the program, and who described the students \"as exceptionally lively and committed to their studies\" and \"consistently superior students\" (p. 8).'\"' While student feedback on Arts One has only intermittently found its way into academic reports and program reviews, there have been some glimpses into the student experience in newspaper articles and personal statements given at academic conferences and meetings. An Arts One student in 1968, Point Grey M L A Tom Perry, in an article for the Vancouver Courier, commented that the \"ideas he wrestled with that year—such as what constitutes appropriate punishment, environmentally-sustainable sewage treatment, and reality (Plato)—continue to influence him\" (Appelbe, 1989). At a celebration of Arts One's 25th anniversary, former student Nadja Durbach reflected on her Arts One experience: I learned many things from Arts One, both academically and personally, things that have helped to shape me into the person I am today. Arts One encouraged me to think for myself and 14 \\ to build on the ideas of fellow students, but more significantly it taught me that my ideas were important. Not only did it encourage me to speak out, but it demanded that I voice my opinions, and in return... really listen to the views of others. It was extremely exciting for me to be told that my opinions were valued, and that not only could I learn from my professor, but also from the other students, and that, just maybe, they too could learn from me. This instilled in me a sense of confidence, and self-worth which once planted has taken root (Nadja Durbach, personal statement, October 1992). In a newspaper article written after the anniversary celebration, writer and former Arts One student, Douglas Todd, highlighted some individuals' reflections on the program. Stan Persky, who was involved with Arts One in its early years, commented. Arts One helps people to see the big picture. It helps you realize the world is not that great, but that you can put it in perspective and survive. You not only learn to be a critical thinker, but you appreciate your community and culture and learn how to make decisions as part of it (Todd, 1992, p. D13). Paul Burns, a U.B.C. faculty member who taught in Arts One for 12 years, commented that \"he constantly hears how easy it is for colleagues to pick the Arts One students out of upper-level classes because they ask the questions with the broadest implications\" (Todd, 1992, p. D13). (B) Related Studies Arts One was modeled after two other experimental interdisciplinary programs which were structured as learning communities: Alexander Meiklejohn's Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin, and Joseph Tussman's Experimental College Program at the University of California, Berkeley. While formal studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of Tussman's program on its participants, both immediate and long-term, no 15 formal evaluation has been undertaken of Meiklejohn's experiment. For this we rely on the commentaries of persons associated with Meiklejohn and his program. In 1927, Alexander Meiklejohn began his Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin. This two-year program was designed to provide an alternative to the regular Arts curriculum. In their first year, students were exposed to Greek philosophy, politics, literature, and social organization, and in their second year, these same categories were used as a basis for studying the United States. The program consisted of one lecture per week which all students in the Experimental College attended, and the remainder of the week was spent in discussion groups and tutorials. After completing these two years, students moved back into regular third and fourth year courses (Taylor, 1987). Although the Experimental College lasted only five years, with the faculty voting Meiklejohn and the program out, its impact on the student participants was profound. According to Harold Taylor, a colleague of Meiklejohn's: There was no doubt about the intellectual vitality of the Experimental College or about the impact on the students of their involvement with Meiklejohn and his program. The effect lasted through the whole of their lives...There was a purity of motive in Meiklejohn's effort to get his students and the wider public involved in critical thought and enlightened action. Few educators inspired stronger feelings of loyalty, not merely to himself as teacher and friend, but to the principles by which he lived and the commitment he made to the life of the mind (Taylor, 1987, p. 181). Joseph Tussman was inspired by Meiklejohn to create his own Experimental College at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. Tussman's program was modeled after Meiklejohn's in both curriculum and structure. The program was'based on a study of classics; the small, informal tutorials were supplemented with larger, formal lectures; 16 students and teachers worked closely with one another; and the overriding objective was to provide students with both an educational and personal experience (Tussman, 1969). Coinciding with the beginning of Tussman's Experimental College program, Suczek (1972) and Alfert began a study to investigate the developmental changes that students underwent in their first two years, and how that might differ between students in Tussman's program and those in the regular lower division program at the University of California, Berkeley. Using personality scales and personal interviews, Suczek and Alfert found no significant differences in personality development. They did notice, however, that students in the Experimental College developed a more accepting outlook of other people and that the program tended to attract students with more complex personality developments. Through their interviews with all of the students in Tussman's program, Suczek and Alfert reported that the program gave students an exciting view of the world and provided them with a real sense of group identity where experiences were shared and integrated. More recently, a study has been completed of the long term effects of Tussman's Experimental College Program on its participants. Katherine Trow (1992) used questionnaires and in-depth interviews with 40 program participants to investigate: (1) whether former participants can remember some twenty years later enough of their experiences to tell us how the program worked and what their reactions to it were; (2) whether there were any lasting effects of the program, and if so, what they were; and (3) what lessons could be learned from this experiment about the improvement of undergraduate education. Trow's findings include, but are not limited to, the following: Students who applied to the program were more confident and academically-prepared than the other entering first year students. They were more likely to have gone to private 17 school, to have had a minimum A- average in high school, and mothers who had graduated from college or graduate school (p. 11). In comparing participants' and non-participants' levels of satisfaction with their lower (years 1 and 2) and upper division (years 3 and 4) experiences at Berkeley, Trow found that half of the participants in Tussman's program were very satisfied with their lower division experience in comparison with 21% of those students who had applied to Tussman's program and were not admitted. In contrast, only 22% of the Experimental College participants were very satisfied with their upper division program at Berkeley, whereas 42% of the students who did not participate in Tussman's program were very satisfied with their upper division program (p. 12). With respect to faculty impact, 38% of the program participants had professors in the lower division to whom they could turn \"for advice on personal matters,\" in comparison with 21% of the non-participants. Fifty-three percent of the program participants said that there were professors at the university interested in their academic progress, in comparison to 38% of the non-participants (p. 12). Trow found that 86% of the program participants agree \"that undergraduate education would be improved if there were less emphasis on specialized training and more on broad liberal education,\" in comparison to 67% of the non-participants. This finding was particularly interesting in view of the fact that both groups had applied to Tussman's program initially, so one might assume that they were equally interested in liberal education at that time. However, participation in the program seemed to influence the individuals' attitudes apart from their initial views (p. 12). Overall, thirty-seven of the 40 program participants interviewed said that they would repeat the program again if they had the chance (p. 13). Through the course of her interviews, Trow found that participants' views on the major effects of Tussman's program on their lives clustered around three primary themes: (1) the educational structure of the program, (2) the educational content and curriculum of the program, and (3) gains of a more personal nature that transcend the educational design. Following are some of her findings as they relate to these primary themes: (1) Educational Structure: Participants felt that having lectures, seminars, and tutorials instead of ordinary classes, and the fact that the curriculum was not divided by academic disciplines, contributed to the program's success. Some of the participants found that the major impact of Tussman's program was that it taught them how to think critically, how to speak, how to write, and how to integrate these skills. Some felt that the program taught them to think independently, and others cited the \"community of scholars\" created among the faculty and students (pp. 13-14). (2) Educational Content: Many respondents felt that the major impact of Tussman's program was that the values it raised for consideration led them to form their own values. Others found \"the recurrence of'great ideas' through time and the sense of tradition throughout the course of history\" which they were given in the first year had a major impact. Other were most affected by the \"concepts of citizenship and community nurtured in the program\" (p. 14). (3) Personal Gains: For some, the most important effect of Tussman's program had been \"the sense of belonging it gave them.\" Others described the self-confidence they developed, and many felt better prepared for their undergraduate years beyond the program. While a significant number of participants felt that they lost their academic self-confidence upon entering the program by being with so many other capable students, some felt that going through that process was easier in Tussman's program. Because they identified with this group of students intellectually and socially, \"no matter how they judged themselves academically, [the group protected] them from an otherwise potentially devastating experience, allowing them to survive the reassessment with their egos intact.\" Furthermore, some students felt that the program gave them the motivation to stay in university instead of dropping out (p. 15). Of note is Trow's evaluation of the study method and its findings: This study of the long range impact of the Experimental College Program on its former participants was both feasible and meaning-ful. An analysis of the transcriptions of forty interviews produced insights into the meaning of the Program for its participants, the major impact it had, its gains and benefits, what changes they would make to improve it, the value of its many components—faculty, lectures, small seminars, readings, papers, tutorials, its establishment of a community of scholars, of teachers and students. Respondents attested to the motivation for learning and further education, and the training for independent thinking that the Program provided them. They learned how to think, how to write, how to speak, and especially how to integrate these skills in the Program. It helped them become aware of the issues of values and ethics, and to value society's institutions. It provided them with a sense of belonging and protection as entering freshmen, and gave them a confidence in themselves that contributed to a feeling of success that in turn influenced the rest of their university careers (pp. 23-24). It is worth comparing the seemingly positive experiences of the Experimental College Program participants with those of students on a broader level. In a 1989 American study, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program conducted a follow-up with the entering first year class of 1985, exploring student satisfaction in five general areas: (1) relationship with faculty, (2) curriculum and instruction, (3) student life, (4) individual support services, and (5) facilities. In the area of curriculum and instruction, 83.8% of the 20 students were satisfied with the courses in their major, but only 52.8% were satisfied with the relevance of the course work to their daily lives, and only 55.7% with the opportunity to take interdisciplinary courses; 74% were satisfied with the overall quality of instruction. In terms of their relationships with faculty, more than 77.3% were satisfied with the opportunities to discuss course work and assignments out of class with their professors, but only 62.7% were satisfied with the amount of contact they had with faculty and administrators (Wingard, Trevino, Dey, Korn, 1991). Based on this study and his own research, Alexander Astin (1993) concludes that student satisfaction with the college [university] experience \"proves to be much less dependent on entering characteristics than other outcomes and more susceptible to influence from the college environment\" (p. 277). He also stresses the importance of faculty in student retention and success, stating that \"student-faculty interaction has a stronger relationship to student satisfaction with the college experience than any other involvement variable or, indeed, any other student or institutional characteristic\" (p. 223). In Astin's later research, he adds that the environmental variable with the greatest negative effect on student satisfaction in their undergraduate experience is lack of a student community. Clearly, significant faculty contact and a sense of community were both characteristic of the Meiklejohn and Tussman programs. Another study conducted in 1991 focused on the quality of the academic experience for undergraduate Arts and Science students at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The investigators found that, on average, 84% of the students attended university to further their chances of finding challenging, high paying, or interesting work upon graduation. The second most important reason for attending university was to get a good, general education (81%), and third, to develop the ability to think for themselves (58%). Forty-one percent cited learning purely for its own sake as a reason for attending university, and 21 36% of the students saw their university experience as contributing to their independent thinking (Gomme, Hall, Murphy, 1993, pp. 24-25). As with the Cooperative Institutional Research Program study, these investigators found that, overall, the students studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland were not completely satisfied with the amount of contact they had with their professors. When questioned on the number of times they spoke with their professors for more than five minutes to discuss a course-related problem, to review an assignment or exam, or to get academic advice, an average of 70% reported that this did not happen at all, or occurred only one or two times per semester. In addition, the majority of students never spoke to professors outside of class about personal problems (94%) or campus issues (88%). Almost half of the students reported no contact with their professors to discuss intellectual matters (49%). Overall, between 50% and 60% of the students were dissatisfied with the amount of contact they had with professors, and approximately one third were dissatisfied with the quality of their contact with professors (Gomme, Hall, Murphy, 1993). More recently, a study on the undergraduate experience at eight Canadian universities (Walker, 1994) found that the factor most often rated as very important to students was \"increased emphasis on teaching excellence\" (86.6%). However, only 61.8% agreed that that \"some of [their] professors have taken a personal interest in [their] academic progress;\" 61.8% agreed that \"some professors have had a major positive influence on [their] academic career; 66.8% agreed that \"[their] professors generally look out for student interests;\" 63.8% agreed that they were treated \"as individuals, not just numbers;\" and just 23.7% of the U.B.C. participants were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the \"concern shown by the University for [them] as an individual.\" Moreover, only 62.8% felt like they were \"part of the University community.\" 22 (C) The Learning Community In a study of student attrition in Canadian universities for Stuart Smith's (1991) Commission of Inquiry on Canadian University Education, Sid Gilbert, a Sociology professor at the University of Guelph, found that approximately 20% of the entering undergraduates drop out and do not complete their degrees, and that most attrition occurs before the second year of study. Attrition rates differ widely from university to university, and included among those factors which reduce student attrition are an increased commitment to students and better classroom teaching. In Gilbert's opinion, universities could do more to prevent attrition: \"Excellent instruction in first year courses by personal, dynamic, caring and competent teachers would increase learning and reduce drop-out rates\" (Tausig, 1991, p. 48). Although andragogical principles suggest that \"learners should be active participants rather than passive listeners or viewers, and instructors should encourage student-student interaction\" (Lam, 1985, p. 42), most researchers agree that the primary emphasis in university classrooms is characteristically given to the body of knowledge owned by the professor—the subject—rather than to the'learner. Daniel Pratt describes this as an Engineering Conception of Teaching, where the most important relationship is between the teacher and the content, and the success of the teaching is measured by the students' mastery of that content. This conception of teaching does not consider students as dynamic and variant elements in the process, but rather assumes that teachers can teach in one manner appropriate for all learners (Pratt, 1992). In addition to the Meiklejohn and Tussman experimental undergraduate programs already described, other programs have been developed in colleges and universities throughout North America which reject the Engineering Conception of Teaching in favour of a more student-centred approach. Included among these is the Rochdale program in Toronto, 23 which began in 1967 and grew out of the cooperative student housing movement (Lee, 1968); the theme program at the University of California, Santa Cruz; the Evergreen State College program (Hanisch, 1983); the Great Books Program at Brock University; the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies Program at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo; and McMaster University's Theme Schools. While they may differ in style and structure, the single unifying thread among these programs is their attempts to create learning communities for their students. Each of these programs is characterized by its recognition of the student as an active participant in his or her own learning process, with classes designed to elicit discussion, debate, and critical thinking. Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, and Smith (1990) have investigated the experiences of students who have taken part in educational programs structured as learning communities. Based on their research, students perceive the most valuable aspects of their educational experience to include the following: 1. Friendship and a sense of belonging 2. Learning collaboratively 3. Intellectual energy and confidence 4. Appreciation of other students' perspectives 5. Discovering texts 6. The building of intellectual connections 7. Embracing complexity 8. New perspectives on their own learning process (pp. 67-72). However, in addition to these positive experiences, the researchers also found that some students had difficulties in learning communities. In particular, some complained that their workloads were too heavy, and others had difficulty dealing with the differences of opinion and conflict which arose in the classroom. Furthermore, some students felt anxious about having to disclose their personal beliefs and points-of-view, and others 24 came from cultural backgrounds which predisposed them to feel uncomfortable if they could not defer to the instructor (pp. 72-73). The fact that some students felt anxious about discussing their personal viewpoints is not surprising. In his studies on the changes which occur in traditional, 17 to 24-year old students during their time at university, Chickering has found that students go through changes in their self-awareness, attitudes, and skills which, in turn, affect their learning styles within the classroom (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). According to Magolda's (1992) Epistemological Reflection Model, there are four types of \"knowing\" which characterize student development. Seventy percent of first year students fall into the \"absolute knowing\" domain wherein knowledge is considered absolute, the professor the provider of this knowledge, and learning the process of memorizing facts. Because students at this stage feel most comfortable in a highly-structured setting, participating in a challenging discussion where students challenge one another's viewpoints can be stressful for some rather than a learning experience. As students mature cognitively and socially, most progress to a stage of learning where their peers play a key role in enhancing their learning experience. While student development theory suggests that most first year students may not yet be ready for the high-level interaction needed for an effective learning community, Chickering emphasizes that student development is significantly influenced by the learning environment. Activities which provide new information and encourage students to reflect on their own perspectives have the potential to promote student development in a meaningful way (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). 25 (D) The Curriculum The issue of relevance in post secondary curricula is not a new one, dating back to the medieval universities of the 13th century where there was deep concern that the lucrative subjects of law and medicine would \"obliterate the study of letters altogether\" (Cobban, 1975, p. 18). In fact, Cobban (1975) points out that the medieval studia generalia were largely vocational schools in which students were encouraged to absorb a specific area of learning as quickly as possible, often in a superficial manner, in preparation for a professional career in medicine, law, or theology. However, beginning in the late 19th century, Cardinal Newman began writing his discourses on \"education for education's sake,\" fighting against a growing industrial society and the accompanying utilitarian forces he felt were corrupting university education. He described \"useful knowledge... [as] trash\" (Kerr, 1963, p. 2) and believed that a university education had only two objectives: (1) to offer an intellectual enlargement of the mind, and (2) to form character by cultivating the mind (Barnett, 1990). He vehemently opposed the views of men such as John Locke who believed that the goal of higher education was to provide students with the skills for a future profession or trade. According to Barnett (1990), prior to World War II the humanities dominated university education and \"the student was conceived as being actively...involved in a process larger than himself (p. 105). Following the War, as science and technology became dominant forces in society, the cultural experience of learning changed, \"[moving] from a concern with the intrinsic character of the student's experience to an interest in what the student knew and could do at the end of the course\" (p. 106). As a result, social sciences and humanities programs within universities came under increased scrutiny and there was a renewed focus on providing an education which led directly to jobs. 26 In 1992, a Canadian National Graduate Survey found that 1990 bachelor's degree graduates considered \"general self-improvement\" the most important reason for pursuing higher education. At the same time, the survey revealed students' awareness of an ever-competitive job market, with 87% considering \"in-depth knowledge of a field of study, improved chances of a good income, and acquisition of job skills\" either very important or somewhat important (Clark, 1994, p. 12). In their investigation of undergraduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Gomme, Hall, and Murphy (1993) found that 84% of the students in Arts and Science were in university to improve their chances of finding challenging, high paying, or interesting work after graduation (p. 24). And yet, Canadian university graduates in the humanities and social sciences experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment. According to a 1991 OECD Report, in 1984 and 1988 there was a 12-13% unemployment rate for humanities and social sciences graduates two years after graduation. This rate was 50% higher than the national average at that time of 7-8% (p. 7). Furthermore, 43% of the 1986 humanities and social sciences graduates were, two years later, in jobs for which they were overqualified, and 17% were in jobs for which they did not need their degree (p. 15). Statistical data such as this has left the humanities and social sciences open to attack, with many describing them as irrelevant disciplines which do not lead to employment for their graduates or research which is of importance to our national well-being. At an international colloquium held at Laval University, an interesting analysis of the unemployment difficulty facing humanities and social sciences graduates was presented: A university education in these disciplines can be remarkably narrow, not living up to the claims of breadth and generality that are sometimes made for it; the pattern of \"Liberal Arts\" educa-tion so common in the United States, in which students are made to get some acquaintance with a broad variety of disciplines from 27 the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, is not very well developed in Canada (OECD, 1991, p. 3). A similar view is expressed by Stuart Smith (1991) in his Commission of Inquiry on Canadian University Education. While knowledge is organized by discipline, it is seldom applied that way in the solution of practical problems. Such solutions tend to require perspectives that draw on more than one discipline and often require teams of individuals with different kinds of expertise. In preparing people for the solution of practical problems, therefore, universities face the conundrum of how to provide a broad education with an appreciation of interdisciplinary approaches when the material to be presented is organized and taught within disciplinary boundaries (p. 69). Despite the unattractive employment statistics, Gary Bauslaugh (1992), in a discussion paper for British Columbia's then Ministry of Advanced Education, Training, and Technology, points out that over 50% of the undergraduate students in both B.C. and Canada are studying in the humanities, social sciences, or general arts and science programs and are not preparing for graduate school or specific occupations. In order to be responsive to both the current job market and students' curricular interests, he recommends a balance between a strict, discipline-based education and one of a more general nature. For him, the solution lies in \"general education\": General education is a comprehensive, self-consciously developed and maintained program that develops in individual students the attitude of inquiry; the skills of problem solving; the individual and community values associated with a democratic society; and the knowledge needed to apply these attitudes, skills, and values so that the students may maintain the learning process over a lifetime and function as self-fulfilled individuals and as full participants in a society committed to change through democratic processes (Miller, 1988, p. 21). 28 Bauslaugh (1992) describes three different ways that colleges and universities can institute general education programs: (1) with individual courses; (2) through their distribution requirements; and (3) with a coordinated curriculum. According to him, The University of British Columbia's Arts One program is an example of an individual course which subscribes to the principles of general education. In his view, these types of programs are successful because they incorporate the following elements: (1) they make general education objectives equally or more important than disciplinary objectives; (2) the main focus is to achieve certain pedagogical objectives, such as students' critical thinking and writing skills; (3) these programs are intellectually challenging; and (4) such programs, though integrating disciplines, do not sacrifice the \"expected requirements of the discipline\" (eg., they require some \"substantive\" reading) (pp. 24-25). In his keynote address at the 25th anniversary celebration of Arts One, Bob Rowan explained that one of the benefits of the Arts One curriculum is its recognition of the individual as an agent who must try to make the best decisions possible as part of a \"larger cultural enterprise.\" In today's modern, research-intensive university where knowledge is actively pursued, more attention is given to the individual as a scientist, critic, or observer, than as an agent \"deliberating\" his or her action. The benefit of a curriculum centered on the great texts, such as Plato's dialogue Crito, is that it \"illuminates the conception of citizen in a democratic society\" (Rowan, 1992, p. 11). A former teacher in Arts One, Rowan expresses his regard for the program and sums up the lasting impact he considers it to have on its students: Since liberal education is truly on the endangered species list, Arts One has the rare-to-point-of-extinction opportunity to take students away from the drowning pool for a little while, away from the clamorous urgencies, to provide time, place, direction, comrades and encouragement to study and reflect at another level. It has a 29 precious opportunity to try to disengage students briefly from their natural tendency to think that the world and its problems began with them, to try to take them away from the contemporary frontier, to try to show them that our race has always been wrestling with troubles, public and private, and that these don't change much over time; the game is the same, only the players change. A program like Arts One offers us all, students and faculty alike, a brief occasion to try to transcend our urgent passions and narrow prejudices, and there-by raise concern and understanding to a \"higher plane of regard\", to borrow a phrase from Robert Frost (Rowan, 1992, p. 9). Clearly, Rowan would argue that having an opportunity to use classical texts as the basis for reflection helps students to develop attitudes of inquiry and problem solving skills. In Bauslaugh's (1992) opinion, these abilities are essential to a sound educational experience and the development of educated citizens who can contribute to society in a meaningful way. By cultivating these types of skills, Arts One seems to support the \"general self-improvement\" that Canada's university students seek through their academic programs (Clark, 1994). 30 CHAPTER THREE M E T H O D O L O G Y Two instruments were used in order to obtain the feedback of past Arts One participants: (1) a mail questionnaire sent to 500 individuals who had participated in Arts One, and (2) personal interviews with 21 past participants. (A) Mail Questionnaire In November 1993, a five-page mail questionnaire was sent, along with a covering letter and self-addressed, stamped, return envelope, to 500 former Arts One students (Appendix 1). Their names were chosen from a list of 1509 individuals who had participated in Arts One between 1967 and 1988. This list represented 34% of the total 4451 individuals who participated in Arts One during this 21-year period. Because the list was obtained from U.B.C. 's Alumni Association, it did not include Arts One participants whose current addresses were not in the Association's records. Consequently, those former Arts One students who had not completed a U.B.C. degree were not part of this list. Also, since most U.B.C. undergraduate degrees take four years to complete, and because the participants' addresses were obtained in early 1993, only individuals who took part in Arts One prior to 1989 could be included. The sample chosen from this subset list was stratified by time period and gender, with 50 female and 50 male participants surveyed from each four-year period beginning in 1967. The intent of stratifying the sample population by time period was to obtain feedback representing much of the program's history, specifically from 1967 to 1988, in order to reveal any historical differences in perception of the program. Gender equitability was built into the methodology to reflect the relatively equal participation of males and females 31 in Arts One historically and to ensure equal representation in the information obtained. While research suggests that men and women learn in different ways, the intent of this study was not to investigate gender differences in this educational experience. In order to ensure a random selection, the name/address labels were divided into 10 separate boxes, separated according to gender and the specific \"four year\" time period in which they participated in Arts One as determined by reviewing class lists. Fifty labels were then selected out of each box. The questionnaire consisted of 20 open and closed-ended questions, with an opportunity for respondents to add additional comments. In order to allow for possible future comparisons of results, some of the questions were modeled after a similar study completed by Catherine Trow (1992) of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley. (B) Personal Interviews When filling out the mail questionnaires, participants were asked to provide their names and telephone numbers if they were willing to participate in a personal interview. Of the 200 respondents, 126 gave this information. The decision was made to interview 10% of the questionnaire respondents whose names were then randomly selected from a box. In a few cases, individuals were unavailable for interviews and new names had to be chosen. Because attention was given to gender equity among interviewees, one extra interview had to be conducted with a female. In July and August 1994, the 21 personal interviews were conducted (Appendix 2). Nineteen took place by telephone with the assistance of an adapter to tape the interviews. Al l participants were informed in advance that the 32 conversations would be taped, giving them the opportunity to decline to participate if they wished. Two interviews were conducted in-person for the convenience of the participants. Once all the interviews had been completed, transcriptions were typed up, word-for-word, from the tapes (Appendix 24). Both the participants and faculty members they named were given pseudonyms on the transcriptions, and the taped copies of the interviews erased. Because the interviewees' names and telephone numbers had been detached from the questionnaires to ensure the anonymity of their questionnaire responses, the investigator was unaware of other specific information related to them. As a result, though an effort was made to interview a similar number of males and females, representation in other areas, such as the years in which the individuals had participated in Arts One, could not be controlled. (C) Limitations of Study Interpretation of the results must be qualified by the study's inherent limitations: (1) For some of the respondents, 27 years had passed since their participation in Arts One, and the accuracy with which they recalled the program may be questionable. However, Trow's recent study of participants in Tussman's Experimental College Program at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1965 and 1969 found that most respondents did have a clear recollection of how they felt about their experience, if not the details of the program (Trow, 1992). (2) Since respondents' addresses were obtained from U.B.C. Alumni 33 Association records, the sample population surveyed was limited to U.B.C. graduates. Therefore, Arts One participants who did not obtain U.B.C. degrees could not be included in the study. In this respect, the study is biased in that the views of individuals who dropped-out of university, perhaps because of a poor Arts One experience, were not included. (3) Because there was no comparison group of non-Arts One participants included in the mail questionnaire or personal interviews, the information obtained cannot be used to make conclusions about differences between the Arts One student experience and that of other undergraduate students. 34 CHAPTER 4 MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES: Summary and Discussion of Results (A) Questionnaire Sample Of the 500 mail questionnaires sent out, 200 completed questionnaires were returned. A further 38 were returned by Canada Post because the persons to whom they were mailed had moved. Overall, the questionnaire had a 43% return rate. The sample obtained was representative of the total Arts One population with respect to both gender (45% males, 55% females) and time period (Appendix 3). While the sample is limited by the absence of those individuals who did not obtain U.B.C. degrees, and the results cannot be said to represent their Arts One experience, the questionnaire feedback was not intended to be used for a detailed statistical analysis. Rather, the intent was to reveal trends, common views, and interesting results which could then be explored further through personal interviews. In this respect, the objective was met. In addition, while no mail questionnaire can hope to obtain the same level of detail as one-to-one conversation, 114 respondents did add comments to their surveys, giving the investigator valuable insights into the Arts One experience. The questionnaire was designed to solicit information in four general areas: (1) background characteristics of students; (2) reasons/precipitating factors students chose Arts One over other first year university programs; (3) participants' evaluations of Arts One; and (4) the impact Arts One has had on its graduates. Following is a discussion of the results obtained from the surveys in these four areas. 35 (B) Background Characteristics of Students (1) Secondary School (Appendix 3,4) Based on the results obtained, it is clear that no particular region or secondary school can claim ownership for providing students who enter Arts One. The 200 respondents graduated from 88 different secondary schools, 49 located within the Lower Mainland (consisting of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, Dewdney-Alouette, Fraser-Chemainus, and Central Fraser Valley), 26 outside the Lower Mainland but within B.C., and 12 outside B.C. One student graduated from a General Education Diploma (GED) program (Appendix 3). Eighteen secondary schools accounted for 51% of the Arts One participants, while the remaining 49% came from 71 different secondary schools. As might be expected, the 18 greatest contributing schools are all located in the Lower Mainland: nine in Vancouver, five in North/West Vancouver, one in Burnaby, one in Delta, one in Richmond, and one in Coquitlam (Appendix 4). Of interest is the predominance of the North Shore schools over those of areas such as Richmond or East Vancouver which have traditionally sent more students to U.B.C. Carson Graham and Handsworth, in particular, have contributed large numbers of students to the Arts One program. Also of interest is the inclusion of two, relatively small \"alternative\" schools among the greatest contributors (13 students). Though its curriculum is not formally described as \"alternative,\" University Hill Secondary attracts students from throughout Vancouver, many of whom are attracted to its small size, more informal teacher-student relationships, and relaxed atmosphere, characteristics often used to describe Arts One. Many of the students are sons/daughters of U.B.C. faculty members and are, therefore, more familiar with university programs. Not surprisingly, two respondents who graduated from University Hill Secondary stated that they heard about Arts One from their parents. Five respondents graduated from Prince of Wales Mini School, an alternative school for students wanting to take more control of their education (many of whom have previously dropped out of the school system). In the case of both schools, respondents stated that they were attracted to Arts One because it seemed similar to their high schools, and therefore a more comfortable transition to university. In contrast to the Trow (1992) study, which found that students in the Experimental College Program were somewhat more likely to have gone to private school, only 16 Arts One respondents had graduated from private schools, and no private school was included among the 18 greatest contributors (Appendix 4). This may be a reflection of the fact that many graduates of B.C.'s private schools have, in the past, chosen to. attend universities outside the province, particularly in Ontario. (2) Graduating Average from Secondary School (Appendix 5) Since the inception of Arts One, a minimum of at least a 60% average (and since 1969, 65%) on certain courses has been the requirement for admission to U . B . C , a threshold which the majority of respondents well exceeded. Of the respondents, 9% had entering averages of 66-72%, 40% had entering averages of 73-79%, and 48% had entering averages of 80-100%. A gender variation can be noted in the entering averages, with a significantly greater number of male respondents having averages between 66-72% than females (15% total male respondents; 4% total female respondents), and a significantly greater percentage of females having entering averages of 80-100% than males (36% total male respondents; 57% total female respondents). 37 (3) Direct/Indirect Entry from Secondary School (Appendix 6) The majority of respondents did enter university directly from secondary school. Of the 14% who took \"time out,\" most worked or travelled for one year. Only one respondent entered Arts One as a \"mature\" student. Since most mature students who enter the Faculty of Arts study part-time, it is not surprising that the time-demanding Arts One program might be avoided. (C) Reasons/Precipitating Factors for Choosing Arts One (1) How Respondents Heard About Arts One (Appendix 7) When asked how they heard about Arts One, 55% of the respondents cited information they had read about the program. This answer is not surprising since an information brochure on Arts One has been included with the standard registration package sent to all incoming first year students since the program's inception. Consequently, even if a student had actually first heard about Arts One in another manner, the brochure would likely have provided additional details and be considered a source of information. Respondents also heard about Arts One from U.B.C. professors/advisors/liaison officers (18%), personal friends (17%), former Arts One participants (16%), and secondary school teachers (12%). Parents also played a role in providing respondents with information (8%), though some respondents claimed that their parents tried to discourage them from registering in the program. An examination of the years in which respondents from particular schools participated in Arts One reveals \"clusters\" of two-to-three years among years without any participants from that school (Appendix 3). For example, of the nine respondents who graduated from Sir Winston Churchill Secondary in Vancouver, four took Arts One in the years 1967, 1968, and 1969; and two more respondents in 1973 and 1974. A cluster can also be noted with Handsworth Secondary, where a graduate went onto Arts One in each of 1978, 1979, 38 and 1980. In fact, when the clusters for Sir Winston Churchill, Handsworth, and 11 other schools are compared to responses on how students heard about Arts One, it becomes evident that there may have been periods of years in which certain teachers or former students from a particular secondary school, who were supportive of Arts One, influenced the decisions of graduating students. For example, both respondents who graduated from Little Flower Academy heard about the program from a secondary school teacher, as did two of the three respondents from Delta Secondary. Four of the five clustered respondents from Prince of Wales Mini School heard about the program from former Arts One participants. (2) Reasons for Choosing Arts One (Appendix 8) Respondents gave a variety of reasons for having chosen Arts One over a traditional first year program (Appendix 8). This question was purposely left open-ended to not influence respondents' answers, and 51 different reasons were given, some of which seem similar. For example, one might infer that curriculum and interdisciplinary/integrated are the same; however, it may not be the interdisciplinary aspect of the curriculum to which respondents were referring. The most cited reason for respondents having chosen Arts One was it sounded interesting (11.0%). What components of the program seemed interesting is not clear since the question did not ask for clarification. Other popular reasons for choosing the program were a recommendation (9.0%), its interdisciplinary/integrated nature (9.0%), small classes (9.0%), the reading list (5.5%), and the fact that respondents felt that Arts One would be easier than other first year programs (5.5%). If small classes (9.0%) were combined with small groups (3.5%), the characteristic of size would account for 12.5% of the responses, making it the most popular reason respondents chose Arts One. Only 3.0% of the respondents could not recall their reason for having chosen Arts One. 39 (D) Participants' Evaluation of Arts One (1) Rating of Various Components of Arts One (Appendix 9) While the exact words may change, it is not uncommon to hear Arts One graduates described as a \"fortunate group of students who experienced the transforming power of great authors and inspired teachers\" (Todd, 1992). This view is reflected in the survey results, with many respondents choosing the works read and the faculty who taught the program as the highlights. Participants were asked to rate eight aspects of their Arts One experience as either excellent, good, satisfactory, or poor (Appendix 9). The reading list received the greatest number of excellent ratings (57%), followed by instruction from professor (47%), and feedback from professor on assignments (41%). Feedback from professor during class discussion received the greatest percentage of poor rankings (8%), although this percentage is not excessive when compared to the number of respondents who rated this item as excellent (35%) or good (35%). (2) Views on Components of University Experience (Appendix 10) To provide a basis for evaluating their ratings of the elements of Arts One, respondents were asked to recall the importance they placed on certain \"goals\" as incoming first year students (Appendix 10). For some, those ratings were based on feelings from 25 years past, and it was anticipated that a number might state that they could not recall. To the contrary, virtually every respondent answered this question. Obtaining a bachelor's degree was the item most described as very important (66%), followed closely by obtaining a well-rounded education (64%). Most highly ranked as not important were following peer group (67%) and getting involved in extracurricular activities (60%). 40 When asked to rate the importance of these same elements based on their current feelings, many respondents displayed an apparent and significant change in perspective. The largest shift occurred with the element mastering a specific field, where 30% more respondents presently rank it as very important than they did when reflecting on their views as incoming students. This shift is interesting in view of the fact that proponents of interdisciplinary programs often argue that today's workforce needs individuals with a broad education. According to Bill Coleman, academic assistant to the provost at McMaster University, \"When undergraduates leave university, they move into occupations that don't fit disciplinary slots.\" Therefore, a broad-based education, as characterized by McMaster's Theme Schools and other interdisciplinary programs, is ideal (Vale, 1993). This view is shared by Dr. Bob Rowan, who taught in the Arts One Program from 1968 through 1971. During his keynote address at the celebration of Arts One's 25th Anniversary, Dr. Rowan was asked to comment on the value of Arts One as undergraduates become more vocational in their search for career-specific skills. His response was quick and to-the-point: students need to be told what they should learn (Rowan, 1992). It is important to note that despite the increased value some respondents may now ascribe to mastering a specific field, which most would agree does not occur within Arts One, the overwhelming majority would still recommend the program to others. Perhaps this reflects a view on the part of some respondents that this mastery can take place in the later years of the undergraduate degree when students enter majors or honours programs. In addition, significant increased importance was also ascribed to the elements getting involved in extracurricular activities and learning to get along with people. The only item to be ascribed decreased importance from respondents' current perspective was satisfying parental expectations, with 22% more respondents now describing it as not important. 41 (3) Comparison of Aspects of a Learning Experience (Appendix 11) Perhaps the most difficult question for respondents asked them to rank, in order of importance, seven characteristics of a learning experience (Appendix 11). Because the question did not state that '1' was the most important and '7' the least, some respondents noted beside the question that they had made this assumption (correctly); however, 15% of the respondents did not answer the question, perhaps because the instructions were unclear. Furthermore, some respondents commented that a learning experience cannot be separated into individual components to be ranked against each other. Despite the lack of clarity given, instruction from professor was overwhelmingly ranked the most important aspect of a learning experience (32% respondents). The influence of their professors on respondents' overall Arts.One experience is profound, perhaps because of the amount of time and the close contact they have together. Many of the students who would not recommend Arts One to others described their professors as poor teachers (for some examples, see Appendix 14). Interestingly, the majority rated feedback from professor during class discussion of low importance (25% respondents ranked this item #6). Also of interest is the fact that feedback from other students received the lowest ranking (43% ranked it #7). This seems to contradict Gabelnick's research on learning communities, which found that \"learning collaboratively\" was perceived by students to be the second most valuable aspect of their educational experience (Gabelnick, 1990, pp. 67-72). There were mixed views on the items group discussion and reading list. Some participants rated these items as most important among the seven items, some the least important, and most respondents placed them somewhere in between in their ranked scale. 42 (4) Most Important Feature of Arts One (Appendix 12) In an open-ended question, respondents were asked what they felt was the single-most important feature of their Arts One experience. Forty-nine different features were highlighted, though some are of a similar nature. Small size (11.5% respondents), interdisciplinary/integrated (10%), exploration of ideas (7%), and reading list (6%) were the most-cited features. (5) Recommendation of Arts One (Appendix 13,14) The question that perhaps best evaluated respondents' Arts One experience was whether or not they would recommend the program. An overwhelming 90% responded affirmatively (Appendix 13). When the occurrence of no responses are traced throughout the 25-year history of Arts One, it appears that the majority of negative responses come from respondents who took part in the program in 1973, 1974, and 1975. A review of the written comments of these particular respondents suggests that a common criticism was the program's lack of formality and structure (Appendix 14). According to Paul Burns, who has been actively involved in Arts One since the late-1970's, 1973 to 1975 were challenging years within the program, reflecting some of the social struggles taking place within North American universities, and society at large, at that time. Many of the faculty members who participated in Arts One during that time period were themselves rebelling against the concept of a formal learning structure (Burns, personal communication, April 27, 1994). Based on the respondents' feedback, some of these faculty seem to have been using Arts One to further their own pedagogical experiments (as described, to some extent, in the student commentaries). At the same time, some respondents pointed to this apparent lack of structure and formality as the aspect of Arts One they most enjoyed. Another respondent complained that the \"readings were too narrowly focused,\" surprising when one considers that the stated aim of most interdisciplinary programs is to broaden a student's perspective. Interestingly, the focus of criticism from those respondents in other 43 years who would not recommend the program is often related to a poor relationship with the seminar professor rather than criticism of the program structure. (E) Impact of Arts One on its Graduates (1) Direct Entry into Second Year (Appendix 15) After their year in Arts One, 91% of the respondents continued directly into second year. The majority of those who did not either worked (26%) or travelled (16%). While one might expect that some students who took time off after first year did so because they had a poor Arts One experience, only one of these respondents stated that he would not recommend the program. It is important to remember that only individuals who returned to complete a U.B.C. degree were included in the survey; those who left U.B.C. altogether, perhaps because of an unsatisfactory Arts One experience, were not included. (2) Comparison of Subsequent University Experience with Arts One (Appendix 16,17) When asked to compare their subsequent university experience with their Arts One experience, the majority chose not as good as Arts One (41%) (Appendix 16). Trow's / * / (1992) study also found that only 22% of the graduates of the Experimental College Program at Berkeley were \"very satisfied\" with their upper division (3rd and 4th year) program, compared to 42% of the students surveyed who did not participate in the Experimental Program. The transition from the small, discussion-based learning environment of Arts One to larger lectures in regular undergraduate programs may be difficult and disappointing for many students, as evidenced in the following comments of two respondents: I did not like my 2nd year arts in the general program and in fact dropped out of university for a year. I came back to finish a degree in Classical Studies—that department chosen in part because of its small size and accessible professors. 44 I found adjusting to larger classes difficult. However, another respondent commented that \"Arts One prepared [him] for the regular classroom.\" Clearly, whether the small Arts One structure is a benefit or hindrance to success in subsequent undergraduate studies is dependent on the individual. In fact, when better (23%) and equal (28%) are combined, it is apparent that most respondents were not dissatisfied with their undergraduate experience following Arts One. A cross-comparison of respondents' academic degrees with their university experience after Arts One presents some interesting trends (Appendix 19). Of the respondents who completed Bachelor of Arts degrees, most found their subsequent university experience not as good as Arts One (46%). In all but one case, respondents who transferred to another faculty to complete their first degree rated their subsequent university experience as either better or equal to Arts One. For example, the majority who completed a Bachelor of Commerce or Business Administration degree rated their university experience after Arts One as better (55%), as did the two students who went into Nursing and Applied Science. Perhaps some of the Commerce students were primarily interested in satisfying their pre-Commerce academic requirements when they entered Arts One, and their main considerations remained pursuing a business program, with which they were ultimately more satisfied. Likewise, the students who moved into programs such as Nursing, Applied Science, and Science may have been more academically inclined towards the sciences than the humanities. The exception seems to lie with students who completed a Bachelor of Law as their first degree. Of the four students who evaluated their subsequent experience, two rated it as not as good. The small numbers make it difficult to make broad inferences; however, an examination of the 27 students who completed an L L B as a second degree gives clear indication that the majority found their university experience after Arts One not as good (74%). A review of these respondents' written comments indicates that most were equally dissatisfied with their Arts degree experience beyond Arts One and their law school experience, which one respondent described as \"unstimulating.\" Of the students who went on to complete diplomas or degrees in Education, evaluations of university beyond Arts One were mixed, with 28% rating it better, 31% equal, 31% not as good, and 9% terrible. These differences are interesting and worthy of further examination. (3) Educational Attainment (Appendix 18) Because the respondents' addresses were obtained from U.B.C. Alumni records, all had graduated with at least one U.B.C. degree, the overwhelming majority with a Bachelor of Arts degree (74%). The second and third most common first degrees were a Bachelor of Education or Education Diploma (7.5%) and a Bachelor of Commerce or Business Administration (6.5%). Thirty-one percent of the respondents went on to complete a second degree/diploma/ certificate, the majority a Bachelor of Law degree (13.5%). Twenty-four percent of the respondents completed a Master's Degree, the majority in Arts (9%) and Library Science (4%). Only 2% of the respondents have gone on to complete a PhD. With respect to education beyond the Bachelor's level, it is worth noting that 12.5% of the respondents are currently students, 3% in Master's programs and 2.5% in PhD programs. (4) Current Occupation (Appendix 19,20) As part of the survey, respondents were asked to state their current occupation (Appendix 19). Eighty different occupations were identified, the majority in the fields of Education (20%), Law (18%), and Business (14%) (Note: respondents who are presently studying in these particular fields were included in the total for that career area) (Appendix 20). 46 (5) Impact of Arts One on Career Choices (Appendix 21) One newspaper columnist asserts that \"[a] partial list of Arts One alumni puts some flesh to the claim that an authentic general-arts education produces the kind of flexible self-starters employers seek\" (Todd, 1992, p. D13). Though his comment may be influenced by the fact that he, himself, is an Arts One graduate, and while some may argue that Arts One graduates are no more inclined to be self-starters than other university graduates, one cannot dispute the fact that Arts One seems to have a profound influence on the occupational choices of its participants. When participants were asked if Arts One has influenced their present occupation, responses were split, with 52% answering yes and 48% no. In comparing the three most-popular career areas, the following differences are noticed: e d u c a t o r s are split in their estimation of the influence Arts One has had on their present occupation (50% .yes, 50% no); the majority of lawyers feel Arts One has influenced their occupation (64% yes, 36% no); and the majority of business people felt the program has not influenced their occupation (39% yes, 61% no). These responses appear to be linked to respondents' evaluation of their university experience beyond Arts One. Most of the respondents who completed law degrees found their academic experience beyond Arts One not as good, whereas most Commerce graduates (though not all respondents in business careers graduated with Commerce degrees) found their subsequent academic experience better. Respondents who graduated with Education degrees had mixed views. (6) Maintained Contact with Arts One (Appendix 22) When questioned on their present level of contact with the program, 75% of the respondents indicated that they do not keep in touch with fellow Arts One participants, and 85% do not keep informed about developments in the program. Although the questionnaire did not ask respondents to elaborate on their answers to these questions, one might assume that the passage of time has had a significant impact of the maintenance of friendships, in particular, from Arts One. And while \"friendship and a sense of belonging\" is considered to be a key element of a successful learning community (Gablelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, & Smith, 1990, p. 67), one cannot assume that respondents' answers to these two questions reflect either the nature of the friendships they had while in Arts One, or the connection they felt to the program itself. 48 CHAPTER FIVE P E R S O N A L I N T E R V I E W S : Summary and Discussion of Results Despite the wealth of information obtained from the questionnaire responses, a number of important questions were left unanswered: Did students' secondary school experiences prepare them for Arts One? What aspects of the program made it seem interesting, and why? What role did the other students in the class play in participants' learning experiences? What role did the seminar professor play in students' academic development? Did students feel that they developed skills in Arts One which predisposed them to nature academic success? The personal interviews (Appendix 24) were conducted in order to answer these questions, as well as to obtain more detailed, anecdotal information on the Arts One experience from the student perspective, detail which is impossible to obtain from a five-page mail questionnaire. The interview questions were developed with these objectives in mind and, as with the mail questionnaire, to mirror some of Trow's (1992) interview questions for the possibility of future comparative analysis (Appendix 2). Eight general themes emerged from the interviews which are described in the following discussion, and the participants' own words are drawn upon substantially in order to elucidate these themes. 49 (A) Interview Sample The interview sample consisted of 12 males and nine females. Their participation in Arts One spans the years 1967-1987, although not every year is represented in the sample. Seventeen of the interviewees graduated from secondary schools in the Greater Vancouver area, two from schools outside the Lower Mainland, and two from outside Canada (Appendix 23). Three took time out after graduating from secondary school: one to upgrade his secondary school courses (one year), one to work (one year), and one to raise a family (approximately 20 years). (B) Precipitating Factors in Participants' Choice of Arts One Consistent with the questionnaire responses, in which 55% of the respondents indicated that they had heard about Arts One through information they read about the program, seven of the interviewees indicated that they found out about Arts One, at least in part, through information they had read. Others found out about the program in a variety of different ways, including recommendations by secondary school teachers and counsellors, Arts One students, contacts with Arts One professors (either when an Arts One professor visited a student's secondary school, or when a student met with an Arts One faculty member at U . B . C ) , and a recommendation by staff in a U.B.C. student services department. The nature of the initial contact sometimes took surprising forms. For two participants, the primary contact was an Arts One professor who, in one case, married the participant's sister, and in the other gave the masses at her parish. 50 Interviewees' reasons for choosing Arts One varied considerably. One rationale which emerged in the questionnaires was that Arts One would be \"easier\" than other first year programs. Likewise, in four of the personal interviews, individuals stated that they chose Arts One because they perceived that it would be \"easier\" than taking a regular first year Arts program. What is clarified through the interviews is that for these particular students, \"easier\" was directly related to the number of courses being taken (three instead of five); it seems that no consideration was given to the possibility that the 18-credit Arts One program may involve an equivalent amount of work as three, separate, six-credit courses: David ('85): The first reason was that it was nine credits for the amount of work of two courses, or something like that. At least it seemed that way. It seemed like an incredibly good deal. Blair ('72): I thought that if I had to do five separate courses it would be a heavy load, so I figured that it would be an easy way through first year. For one participant, \"easier\" was important because of another time commitment: Valerie ('87): And the workload, too. Taking only three courses made it easier because I was working as well. Others were drawn to the smaller size of the program and the belief that they would receive more personalized attention from professors who recognized the importance of teaching: Liam ('87): I knew that it would be small classes and it would be teachers who taught, not professors who would rather not. Sean ('85): It was a smaller program, it seemed like there was the potential for more personal attention, generally a more friendly way to do the credits. The reading list and the idea of an integrated program were other rationale for participants' choice of Arts One. For the majority of individuals interviewed who had 51 participated in Arts One in its early years, the opportunity to be involved in something different and experimental was the main appeal. For example, Lydia ('68) had taken part in an experimental program in grade 12 at Burnaby South Secondary and wanted to continue with something similar at university. For one individual who took Arts One in its pilot year, the program was an opportunity to leave behind her conservative secondary school persona and experience something new: Rosemary ('67): Probably because it was just so different. I was a very straight-laced Kerrisdale girl, Oakridge girl, and I was always doing the right thing. I was the valedictorian, and it was something different. (C) Preparation for the Arts One Experience Through the course of the interviews, it became clear that participants had dramatically different views on their preparedness for Arts One. Although approximately half of the participants described themselves as having been prepared for the Arts One experience, and half not prepared, the ways in which they evaluated their levels of preparedness were based on a variety of factors, including secondary school learning environment, academic success in secondary school, skills obtained through secondary school, family educational background, and emotional and intellectual development. In many cases, individuals felt that secondary schooling had left them unprepared for university and/or Arts One whether they had done well academically or not: Caroline ('72): I was on the honour roll, so I guess I though I had done quite well. When I look back I don't think I was prepared for university. Liam ('87): I had no study skills, and in any of the schools I went to I hadn't really been taught how to think, read or write. And I think that had a lot to do with my learning disability and not being able to write clearly. 52 Others commented that they felt prepared academically, but not in other ways: Rosemary ('67): The only regret I have is that I was not as aware or as knowledgeable going into Arts One as I should have been. I was so incredibly naive, emotionally and intellectually. One participant, in particular, felt that being the first person in her family to attend university left her unprepared: Valerie ('87): I probably did [feel prepared] until I'd been there a week, and then I realized that I was not prepared for this, but then I was determined to finish. Because I didn't go directly into university from high school—I took a year off to work because I didn't want to have to work as much when I was in school because I was nervous that my grades would be totally affected, because my parents didn't go, my brothers and sisters didn't go, and you have no idea, really, of what it's like. Although there was no unanimity in interviewees' evaluations of their preparedness for Arts One, they were consistent in their response to the idea of eliminating Arts One in favour of a similar program in third or fourth year, a suggestion which was raised by some questionnaire respondents who felt that first year students were not prepared for an Arts One-type program. Only two of the interviewees thought this was an interesting idea, while the rest asserted that Arts One was better suited as a first year program, and many individuals, in various points of their interviews, referred to Arts One as having come at exactly the right time for them: Mary ('81): Maybe only a few of us reached our potential in it. On the other hand, we were introduced to a lot of wonderful books and ideas that probably influenced, or at least for me really influenced, what I did later. So I think it came at exactly the right time for me. 53 (D) Specific Aspects of Arts One that Contributed to Participants' Experiences While the questionnaires revealed respondents' ratings of specific features of Arts One, the interviews enabled the investigator to explore in depth the reasons participants felt positively and negatively about particular features, and the skills they developed as a result. (1) Arts One Building Although six individuals interviewed were quite critical of the Arts One building, describing it as \"horrid,\" \"really cramped,\" \"a dump,\" \"a hole,\" \"really hot,\" and \"dilapidated,\" the majority recalled its negative features endearingly. Some remembered it as being their \"friendly dump\" (Lydia, '68), a safe haven within a very large university campus: Janis ('87): I found it nice and cozy...I liked going to that one place that was like a club, rather than going to separate classrooms and brushing shoulders with millions of people. I think I would have been quite scared if I'd had to do that in first year. Caroline ('72): That was like home. For many, the Arts One building was more than just a place to go to attend classes; rather, it played an important role in their social development and sense of belonging as first year students. One individual's words, in particular, sum of these feelings: David ('85): It was run down and rather dirty and ramshackled, but it had its appeal. It was our building, and it was loved affectionately. The place was like a clubhouse. It's like Spanky and the Gang...Our Gang. We felt a belonging. The building became part of the whole atmosphere. It was run down, for sure, badly organized. It had a lot of problems, in winter it was freezing cold, but it was the nucleus of the group. It's where we went. And the thing is we could hang out there even outside of classroom time, and in fact a lot of us did. We used to go over there and chat and talk and smoke and stuff. That was in the days when they 54 allowed you to smoke inside. And they had a little coffee machine. Or you'd go down to Ponderosa Cafe and grab a coffee and a doughnut and walk back. There was a lot of fraternal and sororial feelings in that building. It was a superb place. (2) Reading List For most of the people interviewed, the literature they read in their Arts One year has had a lasting impact. Only three made any negative comments about the reading list. Many, including individuals who participated in Arts One almost three decades ago, could recall the titles of books they read, as well as those they were unable to get through, and how they felt about particular works. Some spoke of continuing to \"read and re-read\" their Arts One books, and others described the works as having \"opened up a whole lot of doors\" (Neil, '73). One recurring sentiment was the grounding these works provided participants for a common discourse during Arts One and preparation for their subsequent academic studies: Krista ('84): I loved the readings. I find that of all the stuff that I read in my whole undergrad at university, I think that the books that I read there formed such a good...grounding in the general humanities, things like the Odyssey and the Iliad and Aristotle's Poetics. While not all the books were fully read or understood by all, one individual stated that a student's ability to handle high-level reading was not important-the works were \"something to absorb.\" As he also pointed out, \"there were no Coles Notes for anything we read, which was great\" (Neil, '74). Critics of the readings referred to the books' \"weightiness\" and their inability to get through some of them or to understand them enough to participate in class discussions. 55 One person in the 1967 class recalled that she had difficulty identifying with many of the readings, very few of which were discussed in class. One participant, in particular, felt the readings lacked integration: Keith ('77): It was so eclectic that from hindsight I can see what they were trying to do, and if I had been a third or fourth year student doing this I would have gotten so much more out of it... At the time, the reading list was so scattered as they tried to cover areas of philosophy and history, such that I found it difficult to find a unifying thread through the whole program. When asked if she would make any changes to the Arts One program as she experienced it, one individual referred to the lack of minority representation on the reading list: Tami ('80): You always have to be constantly critically assessing the reading list. Nowadays there would probably be more female representation on the reading list, and maybe writers of colour or different gender. (3) Lectures, Seminars, and Tutorials Although the mail questionnaire had asked participants to rank various features of Arts One, it was through the personal interviews that the investigator was able to explore individuals' views on the three main learning vehicles: the lectures, seminars, and tutorials. Based on their comments, participants fell into four categories: (1) those who had equally positive recollections of the lectures, seminars, and tutorials; (2) those who preferred the lectures over the seminars and tutorials; (3) those who preferred the seminars and tutorials over the lectures; and (4) those who disliked the lectures, seminars and tutorials. In almost every category, positive and negative views were directly linked to personal satisfaction with the individual's Arts One seminar professor. If the participant had been happy with his/her professor, then the lectures were less enjoyable than the smaller seminar and tutorial meetings. Conversely, if the participant had been unhappy 5 6 with her/his seminar professor, then in most cases the lectures appear to have been a positive feature of the program for that person. Only one individual spoke negatively of the lecture, seminar, and tutorial sessions, feelings which seem to have arisen from, in his view, the combination of a poor seminar professor, a lack to structure in the Arts One curriculum, and his young age. (a) Lectures: In reflecting on the Arts One lectures, participants often referred to the interesting guest lecturers who were brought in, individuals such as David Suzuki and Stan Persky: Neil ('73): They [the lectures] were excellent. We'd sit in a big circle and usually had guest lecturers. In fact, Arthur Erickson was one of the guest speakers. It was one of my highlights. Our group instructor, Dr. Yates, had us down to his [Arthur Erickson's] office a couple months later with his scale model and plans for Robson Court just as it was about to break ground. It was really quite amazing. Two of the interviewees spoke positively of the length of the lecture, the two hours giving \"the professor a lot of time to present the material they had and then [leaving] some time open for questions\" (Ryan '87). Another individual liked the lectures most because all the seminar professors were present: Liam ('87): Most importantly of all, the professor was lecturing not only to the college of Arts One, but to his peers. And the fact that he was doing that suggested to all of us that he knew that he couldn't just sort of whip something off. It felt more like a community of learners and colleagues because you knew that he was going to be lecturing to his academic equals, so he or she had to be ready to say something. For the majority of the interviewees, however, their enjoyment of the lecture really varied according to the topic and lecturer: David ('85): Some of them were really fascinating, and others were the most tedious hour and a half before lunch you can imagine So it really depended on who was giving the lecture. I think we got to know, by the end of the first term 57 anyway, if this was going to be a good lecture because \" X \" was giving it, and those who were not so good you just placed yourself at the back of the room with a crossword. And there were several that were pretty tedious, I can tell you that. Another participant's lecture experiences were sometimes negatively affected by the setting: Jordan ('82): They varied from good—very interesting and stimulating—to some that were hard to stay awake through, and I think it probably had something to do with the facility too...Especially when it was hot, it was hard to stay awake. I don't remember the lectures as being the high point or highlight of the academic program. It was much more the class discussions. (b) Seminars: The importance of the seminar meetings to the Arts One experience was overwhelmingly voiced in the interviews. Ten individuals either explicitly stated or strongly suggested that they preferred the seminars to the lectures, and 10 evaluated them equally. Only one person stated that he preferred the lectures to the seminar meetings. When asked to comment on their experience in the seminars, many individuals' memories were inexorably linked to their feelings about their seminar professor. Because the seminar meetings comprised the majority of the Arts One program, the relationship between student and seminar professor clearly proved to be critical, in many interviewees' experiences, to their success in Arts One: Geoff ('85): My seminars were, for the most part, really good because I had an excellent professor. I know of other people who had really lousy seminar profs and, as a result, had terrible experiences. Sean ('85): The disadvantage [of the seminars]...was that you are at the mercy of the quality of your individual seminar leader and in my case I was of the opinion that he was not suited to teach that particular material as well as other seminar teachers in Arts One. 58 Small class size was one of the positive features participants recalled about the seminars. For one individual, the small setting enabled her to transcend her shyness and work with others in an interactive manner: Lydia ('68): I think I found it easier to establish relationships and work effectively in a seminar setting, both with the professor and other students, whatever shyness I had on the outside. I was never one of those people to put my hand up in the group of 120, and I still don't, but I was certainly quite prepared to volunteer in a group of 20 and to get things going and to feel very comfortable in that setting. Many individuals commented on the critical thinking skills they developed from their Arts One experience. For some, these skills were refined in the seminars through challenging interchanges with other students: Blair ('72): There was a lot [of discussion in the seminar meetings], and there were some people in there with very strong opinions. That was good because it butted up against mine. And whether I would always comment or not, it certainly would have me thinking and challenging those thoughts. It was a time period when a lot of strong opinions were given about a lot of things. For Jordan ('82), the benefit of the seminars was the development of ideas that arose from \"[taking] these books and [tearing] them apart in ways that you would never do in a lecture.\" At the same time, he recalled certain seminar members dominating the discussion and others who \"were too shy to participate.\" Clearly, not all seminar groupings consisted of students who were able to anchor their \"diverse points of view\" with what one person described as \"mutual respect (Neil, '73). In one case, an interviewee recalled her discomfort at the way another student was constantly attacked by other students: Valerie ('87): I never liked [the discussion] much. I was in the class with one of the guys who flunked out. I don't know if he flunked out, but he left after Christmas. So I felt that in those sessions I didn't say much because everyone else was jumping on what he had said and wrote. It was awful. I felt so sorry for him. He came from a really small town, and there was eight people who graduated with 59 him and he was the only one that went to university...I'm sure that's not a reason to write bad papers, but still, there's a lot more factors. I remember thinking that everything everyone else was saying was pretty accurate and their criticisms fair, but I still didn't say much. I remember sometimes feeling like it was getting out of hand—okay, he gets the point, and he already knows his writing is weak, so what's the point? Another participant felt his seminar professor negatively affected the discussion: Daniel ('77): It wasn't always good discussion. Sometimes the professor started expounding on his own and lost the class, and sometimes it got quite off topic or above the students' heads. These less-than-positive memories of group discussion are not surprising in view of student development theory. Magolda (1992) contends that new students often feel most comfortable in a highly-structured learning environment where they look to the professor for providing knowledge. At this developmental stage, other students contribute little to the active learning process, and it takes time for students to feel comfortable enough to begin to contribute their own thoughts and ideas to a high-level discussion. While Chickering suggests that certain learning situations and activities, such as seminars discussion groups, will encourage students to begin learning from one another in an interactive fashion (Chickering & Reisser, 1993), and it may be true that many students who choose Arts One are already at this developmental stage, some students may take longer to achieve this type of learning competence. This explanation is echoed by one participant: Caroline ('72): Because people are coming right out of high school and I have no recollection of reading that kind of material in high school... [and] to be immersed in the material and then to discuss it was, I think, too much to ask of to begin with. When asked about the nature of the discussion which took place in his seminar meetings, another participant offered the following comment: 60 Ryan ('87): I think [the discussion] might be more student-faculty, simply because first year is first year and, especially in residence, it's first time for a lot of people, and free access to the opposite sex and alcohol at the same time. It's part of the first year learning process of who you are... I think it takes a very focused person in first year to be always critically thinking and debating ideas with people. (c) Tutorials: If participants often described the Arts One seminars as key to improving their critical reasoning skills, it was the tutorials which were most-acclaimed as having developed their writing skills. In fact, all but one of the individuals interviewed agreed that Arts One helped improve their writing, and most referenced their tutorial sessions as central to this improvement. For many, it was the feedback from others on their essays which had the strongest impact: Liam ('87): You'd sit there with two, in our case three, students and you read your paper out and you got feedback every other week. And that's where I learned how to write an essay, and there's no doubt about it that I learned more in that year about how to write an essay than I did in the other three. Beth ('85): It made my writing clearer and not so clogged with garbage. It made me write clearly and say as much as I could using as little words as possible. That was basically a result of the tutorials. Janis ('87): I enjoyed that because you don't often get to read other people's work , and you don't often get the opportunity to share your own work. In English 100 I would have written a paper and had it read by the professor, and then it would have gone in the drawer. But in this case, it was read to others, and I got feedback from other students. However, the tutorials were not always a positive experience for all participants. Some recalled having found the tutorials \"intimidating\" (Tami, '80), especially if the student was already struggling in the program: 61 Keith ('77): I found it rather ego-shattering. I thought I was a pretty good high school student...[and] it really shot me down...I was getting C s and D's and failing. So every time I'd go in there with a sense of dread about what would happen next. So that feeling pervaded my entire year, especially those tutorials. Not surprisingly, some students, when asked to comment on their tutorials, immediately focused on the quality of their professor. In a situation where the student must work so closely with his/her professor and only a few other students, one might expect that the nature of that particular student-professor relationship would have a profound impact on the educational experience. For example, one woman based her evaluation of the tutorials solely on her satisfaction with her professor: Valerie ('87): They were okay. I wasn't too crazy about him, but then I think that was just more personal than anything. He just didn't seem very enthusiastic, but I think that's just the way he is. In addition, the structure of the tutorial component of Arts One seems to have varied over time. The three individuals interviewed from the 1967 and 1968 classes did not recall any tutorial sessions as part of Arts One. For those who did have tutorial sessions, the number of students in them differed. Neil ('73) remembered having one-on-one meetings with his seminar professor each week; however, most individuals described tutorials with three to four other students and the professor. (E) The Impact of Other Students on the Arts One Experience When asked to comment on their relationship with the other students in the program, nine individuals reflected on what the other students brought to the program and the overall learning experience. Conversely, 11 made their evaluation on a social basis, specifically 62 whether or not they formed friendships with the other Arts One participants. In both cases, the overwhelming majority had positive recollections. For those who recalled the other students as having a positive impact on the learning environment, reference was often made to the intellectual nature of their interactions and the sense of community which developed among them: Liam ('87): There was a certain portion of students who would be sitting in the coffee room discussing the texts...and we would spend a lot of time together outside of class discussing things. It was good. There was such a sense of collegiality amongst the students that we were in an intellectual exercise and in a community together discovering things. Sean ('85): That's probably the best part of all. The fact that you can get together with these people and discuss the material at hand, Socrates or whatever it happened to be for that week, in almost a sort of coffee shop setting, was beautiful, a beautiful change from high school where...there wasn't that much room for finding out what the material meant to your fellow students, whereas in Arts One, boy, you realize that there were 5, 6, 15 people in your seminar alone who not only had a good understanding of the material at hand, but a totally different one from you, and who would tell you about it, and that was great, such a nice change from high school. And in fact it was an experience that I didn't really see much after Arts One. I didn't really have that interactivity after Arts One. However, two individuals recalled the negative effect some students had on the learning environment, either by dominating the discussion or not saying anything at all. When asked if he thought that the students who \"just sat there like couch potatoes\" might have felt intimidated, one man came to the following conclusion: Liam ('87): No, I don't think they were intimidated so much as they really didn't know what type of program they were getting into...I think they just really weren't interested in the intellectual process. I think the people who didn't say much really didn't have much to say. 63 On the other hand, another person had different ideas on why some students might not have gotten involved in the discussion: Jordan ('82): If you have a person in your class who is very vocal who dominates discussion and has a real rapport going with the prof where the discussion goes back and forth between them, then it can be very intimidating. Apart from the learning experience, it is clear that the Arts One environment has the ability to foster strong and lasting friendships. In fact, a number of individuals spoke of meeting their best friends in Arts One: David ('85): I made three of my best friends in Arts One who are still my best friends. It's one of those programs where once you break into the cliques, you cement friendships for life there. It's because you're with these people so much time in the week, and we tended to go out for lunch with each other after class, and you had your own building and you felt like you were part of something. While most of the persons interviewed from the earlier Arts One classes have not maintained strong friendships with other Arts One participants, one described reconnecting with fellow students many years later: Lydia ('68): A couple of them I lost touch with but then reconnected with...One of them is married to a friend of mine, and years later another one of them... resurfaced as the best friend of some old friends of mine... It's a really small world. Despite the power a small educational setting can have on formulating friendships, it is also true that not all students \"fit\" within the social group. For them, the experience can be a lonely one: Keith ('77): It was not too bad. I knew them by name, but I never developed any friendships with any of them. My brother was in Forestry, and I tended to go down there and have lunch with him...I didn't live on campus. I lived on the North Shore and commuted back and forth with my brother. So I didn't develop the sort of relationships that I think the Arts One program hopes that its students will. 64 (F) The Impact of Professors on the Arts One Experience If a single theme emerged from the 21 interviews conducted, it was the power of the seminar professor to influence a student's entire Arts One experience, both positively and negatively, and ultimately his/her satisfaction with first year university in general. In virtually every interview conducted, extremely positive or negative memories of the program were linked inextricably to the seminar professor. While this is not surprising in view of the fact that 32% of the questionnaire respondents had identified instruction from professor as the most important aspect of a learning experience, the interviews gave glimpses into the intensity of that relationship and its impact on the student's overall experience in Arts One. Many articulated the importance of this relationship: Ryan ('87): One thing that is really crucial about the Arts One program is the professors you get to lead the seminars. They totally make or break the Arts One experience. Geoff ('85): The only cautionary thing I'd say about it is that they really have to work hard...to keep the best faculty they can 'cause without the right faculty, no matter how well set up the program is, it's not going to be good. If you don't have good people it's not going to be good. Despite the clear intent to create a \"team-taught\" program, in only a few interviews did individuals comment on the positive impact of a team of faculty, and this was in reference to the lectures where all faculty were present: Neil ('73): We had very often team teaching done. I'm thinking particularly of Murray Holden and Gordon Yates going at it with us on a number of occasions. Fabulous. Instead, many interviewees commented on not having had much opportunity to get to know faculty members other than their seminar professor: David ('85): You got to know those who were particularly good at making Nietsche, say, interesting to a wide audience. I didn't get to see much of them on more of a personal level because if you weren't in their seminar you only saw them on the podium and they gave their lecture and went off again. In fact, some even commented that team-teaching might be a more preferable approach: Ian ('67): I don't know why it couldn't be more of a revolving thing in some ways, where it was kind of like team teaching instead of just one teacher. In general, participants' recollections of their relationship with their seminar professor fell into three categories: (1) the individual had a positive experience with his/her seminar professor; (2) the individual had a negative experience with his/her seminar professor, but it did not destroy the overall positive impact of the program for him/her; and (3) the individual had a negative experience with his/her seminar professor that did adversely affect the overall Arts One experience. The majority of persons interviewed had strong, positive memories of their seminar professor. For those professors who were recalled with the most fondness, it was apparent that the participants felt that they had really cared about them as individuals. One person who began university in her late 30's after having had children and worked as housecleaner recalled having had no self-confidence when she entered Arts One. However, through the nurturing of a caring seminar professor, she proved herself academically and is now a PhD student in English Literature with the goal of teaching in Arts One someday. For her, this particular professor served as a mentor. Not surprisingly, his name came up repeatedly in other interviews and questionnaire comments as having been significant to students' success in first year: 66 Janis ('87): Dr. Walker took a tremendous interest. He was incredibly encouraging and also seemed to understand my particular problems as a mature student who was an ex-cleaning lady...He couldn't have been any better, because he cared about us as individuals. He saw us all in our own situations. That's a great thing in a massive university, to be seen as an individual. I wouldn't do anything differently than he did. The significance of the faculty-mentor to a student's well being, which came up repeatedly in the interviews, was also articulated in the following memory: David ('85): I lucked out with this Rock'n Rich who was a fabulous man, very intelligent, extremely funny, humorous...he just clicked with an 18-year old kid. Everyone just got on so well with him...I think the relationship that we had with the professor was built up over time, and it became a very close relationship outside of academics. I mean we felt like we could talk to this man about problems at home or whatever. And that's very very rare, that you can sit down with a professor over coffee and chat and feel completely comfortable. As well, some participants really appreciated having been treated like adults despite the fact they were first year students: Mary ('81): I got to know Professor Molyard really well, and even after the program was finished...we'd get together once in awhile for tea, and before lectures we'd chat. So I had a really great relationship with him. We'd talk about all sorts of stuff. He was great because he treated us like we were adults and didn't make assumptions about how mature we were. He took it for granted that we were intelligent. I found talking to him quite challenging and unlike any sort of discourse I had had with a teacher to that point. Actually, even as I went on in university, he was probably the biggest impact on me as far as teachers went at U.B.C. Still others linked the professor's appeal to his/her academic strength: Liam ('87): My professor was David Wilson, who I think is God's gift to Arts One. He's brilliant. He was the best prof in the whole program, I think...He's a history of ideas professor and already has two out of the three areas down cold, and he's very much a verbal-style seminar teacher. David's great. He's the quintessential Art One prof. 67 However, not all students were so fortunate and had a variety of criticisms of their seminar professors. While one person rationalized that bad teaching is simply a part of the university experience, another contended that there was still value in the Arts One experience itself despite a negative faculty experience. Sean ('85): You are at the mercy of the quality of your individual seminar leader, and in my case I was of the opinion that he was not suited to teach that particular material as well as other seminar teachers in Arts One...I would have agreed at the time that it had a negative impact on Arts One, but I think that the spirit of the program survives the incompetency of the individual professor. Unfortunately, not all students were able to rescue their Arts One experience from what they considered an uncaring or otherwise poor seminar professor. One individual, in particular, recalled a miserable first year experience which he attributed to his own immaturity and a seminar professor who was insensitive to his academic difficulties: Keith ('77): I guess again I mention Ray Hickling, who as an individual is very nice but is somewhat rough around the edges as a professor and a teacher...He's not into political correctness and he won't pull any punches. He'll tell you what he thinks straight out. And so, for a student of a fairly immature and wide-eyed, increasingly insecure and self-doubting student that I became through that first year, he in particular didn't help me much because he just reinforced my disbelief in myself. I didn't have much contact with any others on a personal level. This same individual recalled the following situation where the professor clearly did not provide the support the student needed at that time: Keith ('77): I remember one [tutorial] where afterwards...I confided with him about my insecurity with the whole year and how it was going, and I remember he surprisingly counselled me as to whether I really should be at university or not; whether I was cut-out to handle it, asking me whether I read much as a student, and maybe I didn't like to read much, and I'd always like to read. That really was difficult, so from then to the end of the year I was in dread as to whether I'd even pass or not. 68 These types of student-faculty interactions can and do occur in any learning environment, not just Arts One. However, the small size of the seminars and tutorials, the close interactions a student has with his/her professor, and the fact that Arts One makes up the majority of a student's first year course load can cause the seminar professor to have an intense effect on a student's entire first year experience. Clearly, if their relationship is not a positive one, and if Arts One professors are unaware of how vulnerable many first year students feel, then there is the potential for a disastrous experience for the student. It is worth noting that only two persons remembered having a female seminar professor, although others did recall having sought out a female Arts One faculty member for advice. One person, in particular, noted that many of the lectures \"were given by the male profs\" (Beth, '85), her observation highlighting the importance of having a gender-representative Arts One faculty. (G) Experience Following Arts One When asked how the rest of their undergraduate degree program compared with Arts One, only one person described it as being much better. Instead, almost every interviewee was either disappointed with his/her university experience following Arts One or, conversely, felt that Arts One assisted them in this transition. As some individuals pointed out, all students go through a transition process when they enter university. However, many of the interviewees experienced a more difficult transition into second year than into first year. Some recalled a sense of loss at having to leave their friends from Arts One behind: Sean ('85): I wised they'd had Arts Two in my day. It was a shock in some respects, but I think the most devastating thing of all was the loss of companionship of all these people that you'd gone through the year with and had gotten to know. And at the end of the first year that all sort of broke up and you all went your separate ways into Science or Arts or whatever. And at that point the impersonal nature of the university closes in. It was less of a shock, I think, than it would be if we had gone straight into university without having gone through Arts One. Ryan ('87): The biggest thing was the loss of a sense of community and being in a program with a bunch of your peers. Once you got out of Arts One we really all went our own ways. Tami ('80): I missed the camaraderie. I missed the intimacy of the Arts One program. Other participants described feeling lost and unsafe: Beth ('85): The only thing was after Arts One, where did you go? That was the thing I found really difficult...I just wish there was more continuity with it because it sort of ended and that was it. Krista ('84): I found it very disjointed to be going to so many different classes with different people. I didn't feel like I had a safe enclave anymore. Another difficulty which impacted on the transition to second year for some was their dissatisfaction with the quality of the educational experience which followed Arts One: Lydia ('68): [Arts One] was far superior to second year, and it was far superior to anything any of my friends were getting in first year. I mean these stupid lectures with 250 kids in a class, it's a joke. There's no interaction, and I think much less rigor. So I think Arts One was more work, but I'd never bitch it was too much work. It felt comfortable to me. Liam ('87): The biggest shock was to go from a classroom setting where I was able to discuss and reflect, to a situation for the vast majority of my classes where I was spoon-fed for 10 months so that I could throw up all that I was spoon-fed for three hours on an exam. And that was very sad. 70 Such negative recollections were less prevalent among those interviewees who, after first year, had gone into smaller pre-honours and honours programs which included seminar-style classes. Moreover, some individuals reported that Arts One had smoothed their transition to university, helping them to adjust to university in a smaller setting and giving them the skills and \"support networks\" (Jordan, '82) to succeed in the years which followed: David ('85): Arts One gives you the opportunity to break into a large environment by going through a smaller one first. It was a very good process to let you in lightly. Janis ('87): I think Arts One was the foundation stone. I never looked back. I felt like I had been recognized as having something to give. I felt that people wanted to help me to get there. While Arts One clearly assisted some individuals in their transition, the interviews also revealed the inability of the program to overcome difficulties for all students. For two interviewees, the end result was their respective decisions to leave university after first year. Caroline ('72) entered university with no sense of academic direction, choosing Arts One because it \"seemed to be a survey of a number of different options in courses.\" In her case, the program brought her no closer to knowing what academic path to choose, so she decided to leave university at the end of first year and did not return for a number of years. For Keith ('77), the Arts One experience was anything but positive: Keith ('77): I felt so bad that I took the first term off from September of my second year...I was fairly disillusioned, to the point that I wasn't sure that I was going to go back to U . B . C , or even at all. Fortunately, Keith returned to U .B.C. \"in January with a renewed sense of determination\" and found the rest of his undergraduate degree \"100% better.\" Clearly, despite the 71 overwhelmingly positive testimonials, Arts One cannot be \"all things to all people\" as evidenced by Keith's experience. (H) Historical Disparities in the Arts One Experience One of the most interesting trends which emerged from the questionnaire responses was the fact that the majority of individuals who indicated that they would not recommend Arts One to others had participated in the program in the early 1970's. Their written comments revealed a general dissatisfaction with the program's lack of formality and structure; however, the interviews provided an opportunity to look more closely at the nature of Arts One in its earlier years to see if and how this differed from later years. And while the interviews, in themselves, do not allow for broad conclusions about the Arts One educational experience of the late 1960's and early 1970's, they do describe a social milieu which was very different from that of the 1980's and 1990's, one which might have been troubling for some students. The interviews revealed that Arts One was structured somewhat differently in its initial years. Apparently tutorial sessions were not part of the Arts One curriculum in the 1967 and 1968 classes. As well, four of the six participants interviewed from the 1960's and early 1970's classes were quick to refer to guest lecturers and the excitement this brought to the program for them. Interviewees from later years mentioned guest lecturers less frequently and tended to be less satisfied with the lectures. Also, although the Arts One program has been housed in the same building since 1967, Neil ('73) spoke of having his 7 2 seminar sessions \"in the huts and we each had our own hut and it was like your own house.\" One individual also spoke of having participated in Arts Two, a program which was offered in 1968 and 1970: Ian ('67): I had such a good time in Arts One that I was part of a group that formed Arts Two. So we invented our own program, our own curriculum, in the second year...It was more student organized and student led...we came up with our own core curriculum and our own reading list. It was really good. Apart from structural differences, the early years of Arts One were unique in other respects. One memory which pervaded the six interviews with individuals who participated in Arts One in the years 1967-1973 was the sense of newness and excitement within the program. Interestingly, two of the three interviewees from the early 1970's were surprised to learn that Arts One had begun at least five years before they took the program: Neil ('73): This was a pretty new thing back then, I believe. I don't know how far back Arts One went, but it had the feeling it was still in its infancy when I was there. [Interviewer mentions that program began in 1967] You're kidding. Wow. It just felt so new and fresh. Blair ('72): It was a program in its growing pains, and I think that that may have even been the first year. [Investigator mentions that program began in 1967] ...I'm surprised it started in '67. When I went into it, maybe they had just changed over to a whole new set of faculty or something, because they all talked like it was brand new. Apart from this sense of newness, there were other social factors which seem to have influenced Arts One in its earlier years: Blair ('72): '72, there was a lot happening politically then, and a lot happening in music, and experimentation in drugs was... pretty popular stuff to do, and if you weren't doing drugs something was wrong. If you weren't doing them all the time that was fine, but you should have at least sampled, and that was almost the way it 73 was in the university, that you weren't experiencing life enough if you hadn't sampled some form of drug. And the program had those themes and flavours in it. And that was also the time when professors and students were probably really friendly with one another, and probably...you might argue that some boundaries were crossed in relationships...where you'd go out and party with your teachers. That was part of the times. One woman from the first Arts One class described what it was like coming from a conservative Oakridge-Kerrisdale family and being part of Arts One: Rosemary ('67): I remember Dean Roberts came to talk to us one day, and that was my first introduction to homosexuality. And one of the questions was \"What will you sleep with? What won't you sleep with?\" And he said that he'd sleep with anybody or anything...But remember, this was just the very beginning of the whole women's movement, the whole birth control pill, coming out, the beginnings of the gay movement...It was absolutely new and different... And I would watch this. It was like a camera that was unfolding in front of me, this epic, and all these fascinating friends of mine getting involved in things that were, to me, that I wouldn't get involved in because there were other concerns in my life at that time. None of the six interviewees from these early years found the social atmosphere disruptive to their educational experience. In fact, some found these social phenomena an education in themselves, one which \"added an almost glamour to the experience\" (Lydia, '68). However, all were cognizant of the fact that this environment may have been troubling for some students: Neil ('73): A lot of us at that time came from a highly-structured high school environment that would have left us entirely unprepared for the experience of Arts One as it was then. And I can see how a lot of people would have had a problem. Ian ('67): There are an awful lot of uptight people who go to university and they get into something like that in first year, and it probably takes the top of their head off. Clearly, much has changed in two decades, and the social environmental factors which clearly influenced Arts One in its initial years are not the same today. However, some 74 interviewees from later Arts One classes recalled feeling part of a history ingrained in the Arts One building itself: Tami ('80): It [the Arts One building] was sort of like a hangover from the '60' s; you know we were all too young to have really been part of the hippie movement in the 70's, but we though we were baby hippies in the 80's. (I) Major Impact of Arts One on Participants When asked to reflect on the major impact of Arts One on their lives, individuals had a variety of responses, and it became very clear that the Arts One experience has unique manifestations for each individual. However, certain themes did emerge repeatedly, particularly the role of Arts One in teaching individuals how to think: Neil ('73): Because it allowed me to take that first step to independent thought and subjective thought. It gave me the tools to be able to think. Just being given those tools by people who allow you to think, and give you the rope to hang yourself with, let you stumble, and let you enjoy your successes at the same time without being part of a group, so to speak. We were a group, and at the same time we were individuals apart of that group, each with their own talents. Others spoke of being \"opened up\" by Arts One and exposed to many new and different ideas: Rosemary ('67): It just opened me up. It was the beginning. It put the chink in the armor. Krista ('84): It was a wonderful first year. For me I found every year after that a little disappointing, but it was the naivete going in of it; it was a wide-eyed experience. It was everything I expected university to be, a lot more romantic, a sort of Brideshead Revisited and Educating Rita kind of private tutorials and discussion groups and all that stuff, and a really good learning environment for me. Part of that was that everyone was really new to it. It was a wonder year kind of thing...I think it was a really great gift. I kind of think of it as a time where I got to really indulge my curiosity and open my mind. 75 For others, Arts One fuelled the curiosity to learn, taught them that there is always more than one viewpoint, and instilled a desire to learn. Some left Arts One with a clearer sense of academic direction and more self-confidence, while others carried away some very special and, ultimately, lasting friendships. Whatever the major impact Arts One may have been for each individual, it proved to be \"exactly what I needed\" for many of them in both unique and shared ways. 7 6 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Based on this study, it is clear that Arts One has been providing a high-quality educational experience for first year students since its inception in 1967. The vividness with which questionnaire respondents and interviewees recalled detailed information about their year in Arts One, for some over 28 years past, and the feelings associated with those events is testimony, in itself, to the powerful nature of that experience. Although the socio-political environment of the late 1960's and early 1970's may have influenced the program in ways that were disturbing for some students, Arts One seems to have consistently stuck to its original objective to provide a broad and integrated learning experience based upon primary classical texts in a comfortable atmosphere conducive to the exchange of ideas. Ninety percent of the individuals who responded to the mail questionnaires indicated that they would recommend the program to others, and 20 of the 21 individuals interviewed spoke of specific ways in which Arts One has had a positive impact on their lives. The study results validate the three assumptions made prior to conducting the research: (a) The small-sized seminar groups, the existence of an Arts One building, and close faculty contact create a learning community that is conducive to a positive academic experience: The relatively small size of the seminar and tutorial sessions proved to the be the most common reason that participants chose Arts One over other traditional first year programs, and the most popular feature of the program as identified in the questionnaire 77 responses. As well, the overwhelming majority of interviewees remembered enjoying the seminars and tutorials more than the larger weekly lectures, as well as gaining more academically from these smaller sessions. They described feeling a part of a small community within the larger university, \"hanging out\" with the other Arts One students outside of class, and, in some cases, a real sense of loss when they had to leave that peer group behind at the end of first year. As the physical structure in which this \"community\" came together, the Arts One building was also recalled with much fondness by many, although, as one person put it, \"we practically could have been in tents with mud floors and would have still been able to appreciate the material\" (Sean, '85). Clearly, it is the educational experience which went on within the Arts One building, an interchange of thoughts and ideas which is difficult to mirror in large lecture settings, and the strong relationships which formed among students and faculty which had the greatest impact on the individuals involved in this study. Furthermore, almost every person interviewed had vivid memories of his/her seminar professor. Although all the Arts One faculty participated in giving weekly lectures, most participants did not recall spending much time or interacting with professors other than their seminar professor. If one theme can be said to have emerged most clearly from the personal interviews, it is the overwhelming impact that Arts One professors have on the experiences of students in their seminar groups. The majority of persons interviewed defined their Arts One experience, in large part, by their satisfaction with their seminar professor. Most recalled seminar professors who were caring, energetic, and 78 knowledgeable individuals who seemed committed to the academic growth and success of their students. Unfortunately, there were also some interviewees who were highly critical of their seminar professors and described instances where these individuals seemed to be unaware of just how vulnerable first year students can be. The fact that a student is not satisfied with his/her professor is not, in itself, cause for surprise—it is a reality that can occur in any university classroom. However, because Arts One makes up 60% of a student's first year course load, in contrast to other traditional first year academic programs in which full-time students take five separate classes, usually each with a different professor, the nature of that Arts One experience does have a profound impact on a student's success in first year. (b) The Arts One curriculum, which combines a weekly team-taught lecture with regular seminar meetings, along with an interesting reading list and challenging course requirements, results in a positive learning experience for students: Participants clearly valued the interdisciplinary nature of Arts One where issues were explored from a variety of perspectives. In addition, more questionnaire respondents rated the reading list as excellent (57%) than any other feature of Arts One, and the personal interviews confirmed its importance, with many naming specific works they had read and commenting that they continue to re-read their Arts One texts. However, while some interviewees spoke positively about the types of knowledge they obtained through Arts One, most focused more specifically on the skills they developed as a result (eg., critical reasoning skills, writing skills). 79 The interviews also revealed the benefits of other aspects of the Arts One curriculum. Although some reflected positively on the topics presented in lectures, especially those of interesting guest lecturers, most identified the seminar and tutorial sessions as having had stronger impacts on their academic growth. In particular, interviewees spoke of the seminar discussions as having opened up their minds to a wide range of ideas and perspectives, and the consequent development of their critical thinking skills. The tutorials, on the other hand, were often cited as the vehicle which helped refine their writing skills through the process of having the professor and other students read and critique their essays. The exception occurred if the individual had had a poor experience with his/her seminar professor, in which case the lectures were typically viewed equally or preferred to the seminars and tutorials. (c) Students who complete Arts One develop strong analytical and reasoning skills which predispose them to academic success in the rest of their university education: Virtually every person interviewed considered Arts One central to developing their critical reasoning skills and writing abilities. Even those students who were strong academically before they entered Arts One, particularly with respect to writing, recalled learning to present and defend their ideas in a much clearer fashion. Participants also repeatedly credited Arts One with teaching them \"to think\" and to be open to diverse points-of-view, skills which they clearly valued and felt benefited them throughout their academic careers. 80 In view of the experiences and suggestions of the individuals who participated in this study, the following recommendations are made to faculty and administrators involved in Arts One at various levels: (1) The University of British Columbia should continue to support Arts One as a program which fosters high-quality learning and creates a real sense of community for its participants. Appropriate resources should be made available to ensure that it can continue to attract faculty and maintain a quality facility (especially in view of the age and condition of the current Arts One building). Arts One should be held up as a high-quality program within the Faculty of Arts to be emulated by other faculties, departments, and educational institutions, not a marginalized program which has difficulty attracting faculty or which exists in a sub-standard facility. (2) All senior faculty administrators, as well as faculty members who teach first year students, should be invited to sit-in on an Arts One seminar discussion to observe the type of teaching and learning which occurs therein. In universities where most first year classes consist of large lectures, faculty can become complacent and forget that there may be better ways to \"teach\" students. Arts One is proof of this fact. (3) Ensure that faculty for the Arts One program are chosen carefully for their ability to integrate knowledge in an interdisciplinary manner, to present the information in a stimulating fashion, to encourage students to participate in high-level discussion, and to help develop their critical thinking and writing skills. Based on this study, it is clear that teaching in Arts One is a very time-intensive commitment, both within and outside of the program. The seminar professor, in essence, becomes a mentor to as many as 25 students, a relationship which may take away from other endeavors such as research and writing. If Arts One is to continue to attract faculty, then these individuals must be adequately compensated and rewarded for their involvement. (4) Some of the study participants felt that the views and perspectives being presented in Arts One were primarily those of males. Because the professors clearly become mentors to many of the students in their seminar groups, it is important to have more females and other minorities represented among the Arts One faculty. In doing so, the views and perspectives being presented in Arts One will be enlarged and, therefore, more inclusive. (5) Develop measures to ensure that students are better able to select seminar professors with whom they are comfortable. At present, students simply register in a particular seminar group, and most have no prior knowledge of the professor's teaching style beforehand. Some suggestions proposed by the individuals interviewed include: (a) inviting Arts One registrants to a panel presentation in which all the professors conduct mini-lectures on a particular topic, after which students can select their top three choices for a seminar professor; in the event that too many students select a particular professor, students' entering academic averages can be used to rank them; (b) during the first week of classes, allowing students to transfer into another seminar group if space is available; and (c) encouraging students considering Arts One to meet with faculty members in advance, enabling them to find out more about the program to ensure they are suited to Arts One and to become more familiar with the faculty members. 82 Recommendations for Further Research: (a) While this study revealed many of the strengths of the Arts One program, it is impossible to conclude that these benefits are unique to Arts One and not also occurring in traditional first year Arts programs. To this end, it would be useful to conduct a study comparing a group of students in the Arts One program with an equal-sized group in a traditional, first year Arts program. It would be important to find out the students' expectations prior to entering first year, their views at different points during first year, and their reflections on the impact of that first year at later stages of their academic careers. In addition, formal testing could be conducted to determine the differences in academic attainment and skills obtained by the Arts One students in comparison to students in a traditional first year Arts program. For example, it would be worthwhile to test the improvement in writing and critical thinking skills attained by Arts One students in comparison to other first year Arts students. (b) To determine whether the experiences of Arts One students are similar to those of students in similar, non-traditional programs, the results of this study should be compared to similar student outcome studies. For example, it would be interesting to compare these results with those of Katherine Trow's (1992) study of the long term effects on students who participated in Joseph Tussman's Experimental College Program in the 1960's. (c) In September 1993, The University of British Columbia's Faculty of Science launched Science One, a program modeled after Arts One. Interdisciplinary in nature, Science One 83 combines first year Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics into one course worth 21 of a student's 30-credit program. Now in its second year, it would be useful to obtain the feedback of Science One participants to find out if they are experiencing the same benefits and challenges that Arts One participants described. This study would be particularly useful to determine the potential for developing similar alternative, interdisciplinary first year programs in any educational or curricular setting. (d) Since the Arts One faculty are critical to the success of their students, it would be beneficial to conduct a similar study evaluating the success of Arts One from the faculty perspective. Issues to be explored might include whether faculty members felt prepared to enter into mentor-type relationships with many of their students; did they feel that their students were academically prepared to handle the material and discuss it in a meaningful way during seminar and tutorial sessions; what attracted them to teach in Arts One; and whether or not they were pleased with this decision. While there is much more to be learned about the Arts One program and the potential benefits of creating similar programs in other faculties and educational settings, this particular study has shed some light on the merits and challenges of Arts One from the student perspective. By adding the personal experiences of Arts One participants to the other program reviews which have been done, the body of knowledge upon which future decision on Arts One may be based will be much more complete and, arguably, more accurate. 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY Appelbe, A. (1989). Arts One: intensely intellectual. The Vancouver Courier. August 30. Astin, A.W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Astin, A.W. (1977). Four critical years. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Barnett, R. (1990). The idea of higher education. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Batt, S. (1973). Report on the Arts I programme at The University of British Columbia. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. Bauslaugh, G. (1992). Undergraduate education in British Columbia: Choices for the future. Victoria: Ministry of Advanced Education, Training and Technology. Chickering, A.W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and identity (2nd ed). San Francisco: JosseyBass. Clark, W. (1994). Attitudes of bachelor's graduates towards their programs. Education Quarterly Review. 1(2), 10-32. Cobban, A.B. (1975). The medieval universities: Their development and organization. London: Methuen and Company. Davis, O.L., & Mehaffy, G.L. (1979). An elusive quarry: On the trail of curriculum history. In C. Kridel (Ed.), Curriculum History: Conference Presentations from the Society for the Study of Curriculum History (pp. 40-47). Lanham: University Press of America. Eliot, C.W.J., Naegele, K., Prang, M . , Steinberg, W., & Tiger, L. (1965V Discipline and discovery: A proposal to the Faculty of Arts of The University of British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia. Gabelnick, F., MacGregor, J., Matthews, R.S., and Smith, B.L. (1990). Learning communities: Creating connections among students, faculty, and disciplines. R.E. Young (Ed.). New Directions for Teaching and Learning (41). San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Gomme, I.M., Hall, M P . , & Murphy, T.J. (1993). In the shadow of the tower: The view of the undergraduate experience. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education. xxin(3), 18-35. 85 Hanisch, T.E. (1983). Interdisciplinarity in higher education. Bucharest: European Centre for Higher Education. Kerr, C. (1963). The uses of the university. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Lam, J.Y.L. (1985). Exploring the principles of andragogy: Some comparisons of university and community college learning experiences. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education. xv(l), 39-52. Lee, D. (1968). Getting to Rochdale: The university game. H. Adelman and D. Lee (Eds). Toronto: Anansi. Magolda, M B . (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Meiklejohn, A. (1932). The experimental college. New York: Harper and Row. Miller, G.E. (1988). The meaning of general education: The emergence of a curriculum paradigm. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1991). The case of the humanities and social sciences in Canada (Document for general distribution). Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Persky, S. (1969). Reports endorse Arts I success. The Ubyssey. February 11. Pond, S. (1993). Making Choices. University Affairs. 34(5), 14. Pratt, D.D. (1992). Conceptions of teaching. Adult Education Quarterly. 42(4), 203-220. Report of the dean's committee to review the Arts I program (1990). Vancouver: The University of British Columbia. Rowan, R.J. (1992). Remarks on the 25th anniversary of Arts One. Paper presented at the Arts One 25th Anniversary Celebration, Vancouver, The University of British Columbia. Smith, S.L. (1991). Commission of inquiry on Canadian university education. Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Suczek. R.F. (1972). The best laid plans. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Tausig, C. (1991). Why are we losing so many? University Affairs. 33(8), 48. 86 Taylor, H . (1987). Meiklejohn and Dewey in the 1950's. In C. Kridel (Ed.), Curriculum History: Conference Presentations from the Society for the Study of Curriculum History (pp. 178-192). Lanham: University Press of America. Todd, D. (1992). Enquiring minds want to know. Vancouver Sun. October 10. Trow, K. (1992). A study of the long term effects of an experimental program of freshman-sophomore studies at Berkeley in the 60's (Unpublished report). Tussman, J. (1969). Experiment at Berkeley. London: Oxford University Press. Vale, N . (1993). Changing the way students learn. University Affairs, 34(5), 12-13. Walker, J.L. (1994). Undergraduate experience at eight Canadian universities. University of Manitoba (Unpublished Report). Wingard, T.L., Trevino, J.G., Dey, E X . , & Korn, W.S. (1991). The American college student, 1989: National norms for 1985 and 1987 freshmen. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, University of California. 87 APPENDICES 88 Appendix 1 Cover Letter & Mail Questionnaire / The University of British Columbia Department of Administrative, Adult, and Higher Education 2125 Main Mall Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4 December 27, 1993 Dear Arts One Alumnus, As you may know, U.B.C.'s Arts One Program celebrated its 25th Anniversary last year. It seems timely, then, that a formal evaluation of the Program from the student perspective be undertaken. To this end, I am presently carrying out a research project on The Impact of Arts One from the Perspective of its Student Participants. By soliciting feedback from Arts One participants throughout the past 25 years, I hope to obtain a broader understanding of the Program's strengths and weaknesses. This research will form the basis for my Master of Arts (Higher Education) thesis and, once completed, will provide another perspective from which to evaluate Arts One. In the past, most evaluative research on Arts One has been devoid of feedback from participants and has focussed on the views of faculty on the perceived merits of the curriculum. I hypothesize that: (1) The small-sized seminar groups, the existence of an Arts One Building, and close faculty contact create a learning community that is conductive to a positive academic experience; (2) The Arts One curriculum, which combines a weekly team-taught lecture with regular seminar meetings, along with an interesting reading list and challenging course requirements, results in a positive learning experience for students; and (3) Students who complete Arts One develop strong analytical and reasoning skills which predispose them to academic success in the rest of their university education. In order to test these hypotheses, I am asking 500 Arts One alumni to fill out a confidential mail questionnaire. Your name and address have been obtained from U.B.C.'s Alumni Association. This questionnaire should take no more than 30 minutes to complete, and my receipt of the completed questionnaire will serve as your assumed consent. In addition, I plan to personally interview 40 alumni for approximately one hour each to gain a more in-depth understanding of the Arts One experience. I have enclosed a copy of the questionnaire and hope that you will fill it out and return it to me in the enclosed self-addressed, stamped envelope by January 20,1994. No names will be reported in the thesis report, and all data will be assimilated. However, simply discard the questionnaire if you would prefer not to participate. If you are willing to take part in 90 a personal interview with me, please write your name and telephone number in the allotted space at the end of the questionnaire. This personal information will be separated from the questionnaire. Thank you, in advance, for your assistance with this research project, and I look forward to possibly meeting with you individually. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (604) 822-2799, or my advisor, Dr. John Dennison, at (604) 822-5252. Sincerely, Cheryl Dumaresq MA Candidate (Higher Education) Committee Members: Dr. Paul Burns, Religious Studies Dr. John Dennison, Administrative, Adult, and Higher Education Dr. Hans Schutze, Administrative, Adult, and Higher Education 91 ARTS O N E STUDY QUESTIONNAIRE (1) What year did you participate in Arts One? (2) Gender: • Male • Female (3) Current Age: (circle one) 20-25 30-35 ' 40-45 25-30 35-40 50+ (4) Name and location of secondary school from which you graduated: (5) What was your graduating average in secondary school? (circle one) A (80-100%) C+(65-72%) Did not graduate B (73-79%) C (50-65%) (6) (a) Did you enter U.B.C. directly from secondary school? • Yes • No (b) If answer to 6a is No, what did you do during the interim period? (7) What university degree(s) have you completed, and where? 92 Please answer questions 8 and 9 by placing the appropriate number beside each item: 1. Very Important 2. Fairly Important 3. Not Important (8) When you entered U.B.C, how important were the following things to you? Obtaining a bachelor's degree Mastering a specific field Obtaining a well-rounded general education Meeting people Getting involved in extracurricular activities Formulating the values and goals of your life Learning to get along with people Satisfying parental expectations Satisfying your curiosity Following your peer group Other: (9) Now, looking back at your university experience, how important would you consider these things to be? Obtaining a bachelor's degree Mastering a specific field Obtaining a well-rounded general education Meeting people Getting involved in extracurricular activities Formulating the values and goals of your life Learning to get along with people Satisfying parental expectations Satisfying your curiosity Other: (10) Please rank (1-7) the following aspects of a learning experience in order of importance to you: Instruction from professor Group discussion Reading list Assignments Feedback from professor on assignments Feedback from professor during class discussion Feedback from other students during class discussion Other: 93 i (11) (a) Did you continue directly into 2nd year after Arts One? • Yes • No (b) If the answer to 11a is No, what did you do during the interim period? (12) (a) What is your current occupation? (b) Has your current occupation been influenced, in any way, by your participation in Arts One? • Yes • No If Yes, how? (13) How did you hear about Arts One? (check appropriate responses) {3 From secondary school teachers O From friends G From parents D From former Arts One participants G From U.B.C. professors/advisors/liaison officers O Information you read about Arts One D Other (please explain) (14) Why did you choose Arts One over a traditional first-year program? (15) Have you kept in regular contact with anyone you met in Arts One? (check one) • Yes • No 94 (16) Have you kept informed about developments in Arts One since you finished? (check one) • Yes No Please answer question 17 by placing the appropriate number beside each item: 1. Excellent 2. Good 3. Satisfactory 4. Poor (17) How would you rate the following aspects of your Arts One experience? Instruction from your professor Contribution of the team of professors Group discussion Reading list Assignments Feedback from professor on assignments Feedback from professor during class discussion Feedback from other students during class discussion Other: (18) In comparison with your year in Arts One, how would you describe the rest of your university experience? Better than Arts One Equal to Arts One Not as good as Arts One ' Terrible in comparison to Arts One WHY? Would you recommend Arts One to others? • Yes • No In your opinion, what is the single most important feature of Arts One? (19) (20) 95 (21) Additional Comments (if any): As part of the research being undertaken, I will be interviewing 40 past participants of the Arts One Program. If you are willing to be interviewed, please write your name and telephone number below: (Name) (Telephone) Thank you for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. Cheryl Dumaresq, M A Candidate (Higher Education) Committee Members: Dr. Paul Burns Religious Studies Dr. John Dennison Administrative, Adult, and Higher Education Dr. Hans Schutze Administrative, Adult, and Higher Education Please return in enclosed self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Cheryl Dumaresq 206-111 W. 10th Ave. Vancouver, B.C., V5Y 1R7 96 Appendix 2 Personal Interview Questions 1. What year did you take Arts One? 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? 4. Do you remember the theme? 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures b. Seminars c. Tutorials d. Readings e. Essays f. Your relationship with faculty g. Your relationship with other student participants h. Arts One building 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? 10. What did you major in? 11. How did you compare yourself with other majors/honours students who did not take Arts One? 12. How do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? Your critical reasoning skills? Your ability to argue effectively? 97 13. [If took Arts One in the early 1970's]: There was a great deal of political activity on campus during the early 1970's. Did this have an effect on your Arts One experience? If so, how? 14. What have you done since graduation? 15. What work do you do now? 16. Has your work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? How? 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? 18. Would you do it again? 19. Would you change it in any way? 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? 21. Do you have anything you want to add? 98 Appendix 3 [Submitted as a Separate Sheet] Appendix 4 Greatest Contributing Secondary Schools Secondary School Location # Respondents % Respondents Carson Graham North Vancouver 9 4.50 . Sir Winston Churchill Vancouver 9 4.50 University Hill Vancouver 8 4.00 Eric Hamber Vancouver 7 3.50 Prince of Wales Vancouver 7 3.50 Handsworth North Vancouver 6 3.00 Magee Vancouver 6 3.00 Burnaby South Burnaby 5 2.50 Hillside West Vancouver 5 2.50 Lord Byng Vancouver 5 2.50 Prince of Wales Mini School Vancouver 5 2.5.0 Point Grey Vancouver 5 2.50 Sentinel West Vancouver 5 2.50 Argyle North Vancouver 4 2.00 Centennial Coquitlam 4 2.00 Kitsilano Vancouver 4 2.00 Richmond Richmond 4 2.00 South Delta Delta (Tsawwassen) 4 2.00 Remaining 71 Schools 98 49.00 Total | 200 100.00 100 Appendix 5 Respondents' Entering Academic Averages from Secondary School Entering Percentage # % #Male % Male # Female % Female Average from Respondents Respondents Respondents Respondents Respondents Respondents Secondary School 50-65 , 0 0 0 0 0 0 66-72 18 9 14 15 4 4 73-79 80 40 41 45 39 36 80-100 96 48 33 36 62 57 No Response 6 3 2 2 4 4 Total 200 100 90 99 109 100 101 Appendix 6 Direct/Indirect Entry from Secondary School to Arts One Direct Entry? U Respondents % Respondents Yes 170 85 No 28 14 No Response 2 1 Total 200 100 Activity in Time Period Between Secondary School and Arts One Interim # % Activity Respondents Respondents work 13 46 travel 9 32 Rotary Exchange 1 4 volunteer 1 4 college 1 4 study abroad 1 4 bible school 1 4 parenting 1 4 Total 28 100 Appendix 7 How Respondents Heard About Arts One Heard About U Arts Om Fmtn... Respondents Respondents Information Read 109 55 UBC Professors/Advisors/Liaison Officers 36 18 Friends 34 17 Former Arts One Participants 32 16 Secondary School Teachers 23 12 Parents 16 8 Appendix 8 Respondents' Reasons for Choosing Arts One Reasons for Choosing Arts One # Respondents % Respondents sounded interesting 22 11.0 recommendation 18 9.0 interdisciplinary/integrated 18 9.0 small classes 18 9.0 reading list 11 5.5 easier 11 5.5 alternative program 9 4.5 less structure 8 4.0 similar to high school 8 4.0 small groups 7 3.5 diversity 6 3.0 can't recall 6 3.0 good transition 5 2.5 new and different 3 1.5 no response 3 1.5 unique 3 1.5 three-in-one 3 1.5 broad approach 3 1.5 adventure 2 1.0 seemed intimate 2 1.0 suited my strengths 2 1.0 elitist 2 1.0 course description 2 1.0. appealing 1 0.5 best choice 1 0.5 compactness 1 0.5 personal contact with professors 1 0.5 curriculum 1 0.5 discourse 1 0.5 enriched 1 0.5 environment 1 0.5 free time 1 0.5 freedom offered 1 0.5 friends in program 1 0.5 history component 1 0.5 in-depth study 1 0.5 intensive 1 0.5 more focussed 1 0.5 more meaningful 1 0.5 suited personal interests 1 0.5 could avoid English 100 1 0.5 preparation 1 •0.5 rigorous 1 0.5 self-direction 1 0.5 seminars 1 0.5 soundedfun 1 0.5 structure 1 0.5 students 1 0.5 undecided 1 0.5 variety 1 0.5 writing 1 0.5 Total 200 100.0 ON '•3 c cu Q. Q> < E O 4) S O u -< cu e o a E o U VI •** e Terrible Compared to Arts One (#) Agricultural Sciences 0 1 0 0 Applied Science 1 0 . 0 0 Arts 31 42 67 5 Commerce/Business Admin. 6 1 5 0 Education 4 4 4 0 Fine Arts 1 0 1 0 Fine Arts (diploma) 0 1 0 0 Law 1 1 2 0 Nursing 1 0 0 0 Social Work 0 1 1 0 Science 0 2 0 0 Second Degree/Diploma Completed Better than Arts One (#) Equal to Arts One <#) Not as Good as Arts One (#) Terrible Compared to Arts One (#} Architecture 0 0 2 1 CGA 0 2 0 0 Education (diploma) 5 6 6 3 ESL (ctf.) 0 0 1 0 Forestry 0 1 0 0 Journalism (ctf.) 0 1 1 0 Law 5 5 21 0 Medicine 0 0 1 0 Physical Therapy 0 0 1 0 Science 0 1 0 0 Social Work 0 1 0 0 Special Ed. (dip.) 0 0 1 0 Theatre (ctf.) 0 1 0 0 Graduate Degree? Better than Arts One (#) Equal to Arts One (#) Not as Good as Arts One (#> Terrible Compared to Arts One (#) MA 1 7 9 1 PhD 1 2 0 1 114 Appendix 18 Degrees/Diplomas/Certificates Completed by Respondents Degree/Diploma Institution # #1 Respondents Respondents Arts unspecified 1 0.50 Antioch 1 0.50 Carleton 1 0.50 UBC 148 74.00 WWU 1 0.50 Applied Science UBC 1 0.50 Agricultural Sciences UBC 1 0.50 Business Admin. SFU 1 0.50 Commerce UBC 12 6.00 Education UBC 14 7.00 Fine Arts UBC 3 1.50 Nursing UBC 1 0.50 Social Work UBC 2 1.00 Science UBC 3 1.50 Law UBC 7 3.50 PDP SFU 1 0.50 Fine Arts Dip. Emily Carr 1 0.50 Blank 1 0.50 Total 200 100.00 Dcgm'/Diplorau Institutivn # % Total #2 Respondents Respondents B. Architecture UBC 3 1.50 B. Education UBC 7 3.50 B.Landscape Arch. UBC 1 0.50 B. Social Work . UBC 1 0.50 B. Science McMaster 1 0.50 B.Forestry UBC 1 0.50 B.Physical Therapy UBC 1 0.50 Law Dalhousie 1 0.50 Queens 1 0.50 Toronto 1 0.50 UBC 22 11.00 UVic 2 1.00 Ctf. Journalism VCC 2 1.00 Ctf. Theatre VCC 1 0.50 Ctf. ESL SFU 1 0.50 Dip. Education SFU 1 0.50 Diploma Capilano 1 0.50 Dip. Education McGill 1 0.50 Dip. Education UBC 1 0.50 Dip. Special Ed. UBC 1 0.50 PDP SFU 4 2.00 UBC 6 3.00 UVic 1 0.50 Total 62 31.00 Master'* Institution # % Total Degree Respondents Respondents Arts Colorado 1 0.50 Gonzaga 1 0.50 Ottawa 1 0.50 Regina 1 0.50 SFU 1 0.50 Toronto 1 0.50 UBC 12 6.00 AC Queen's 1 0.50 Applied Science UBC 1 0.50 Business Admin. SFU 1 0.50 UBC 1 0.50 York 1 0.50 CS Regent College 1 0.50 Education Harvard 1 0.50 SFU 1 0.50 UBC 1.50 UVic 1 0.50 Fine Arts UBC 1.50 Hospital Admin. Ottawa 1 0.50 Library Science McGill 1 0.50 Toronto 1.50 UBC 2.00 Speech Pathology UBC 1 0.50 Social Work Toronto 1 0.50 UBC 2 1.00 Science UBC 2 1.00 Total 1 48 | 24.00 Doctorate Institution # % Total Degree Respondents Respondents Creative Writing UBC 1 0.50 PhD Chicago 1 0.50 SFU 1 0.50 Toronto 1 0.50 Total 4 2.00 Appendix 19 Respondents' Occupations Current Occupation # % Respondents Respondents accountant 1 0.50 actor 1 0.50 administrative asst. 1 0.50 advertising rep. 1 0.50 architect 1.50 archivist 1 0.50 artifact conservationist 1 0.50 artist 1.50 banker 1 0.50 bookseller 1 0.50 buyer analyst 1 0.50 car salesperson 1 0.50 chartered accountant 1 0.50 civil servant 1.00 clerk 1 0.50 college instructor 1.00 commercial fisherman/poet 1 0.50 compensation analyst 1 0.50 consultant * 1 0.50 counsellor 2.00 currency trader 1 0.50 dental sales agent 1 0.50 doctor 1 0.50 education coordinator 1 0.50 employee relations 1 0.50 entrepeneur 3.50 finance assistant 1 0.50 fisheries planner 1 0.50 fleet manager 1 0.50 geologist 1 0.50 historian 1 0.50 homemaker 2.50 insurance underwriter 1 0.50 journalist 1.00 landscape design consultant 1 0.50 law clerk 1 0.50 lawyer 28 14.00 librarian 2.00 library assistant 1 0.50 management consultant 1 0.50 marketing manager 2 1.00 medical anthropologist 1 0.50 music producer 1 0.50 musician 1.00 nurse 1 0.50 personnel manager 1 0.50 physiotherapist 1 0.50 playwright 1 0.50 police dispatcher 1 0.50 principal 1 0.50 project manager 1 0.50 psychologist 1.00 psychotherapist 1 0.50 radio producer 1 0.50 realtor 1.50 receptionist 1 0.50 research consultant 1 0.50 researcher 1 0.50 retired 1 0.50 sales representative 2.50 shipping coordinator 1 0.50 social worker 1 0.50 special ed. consultant 1 0.50 speech pathologist 2 1.00 student 4 2.00 student: architecture 1 0.50 student: education 2 1.00 student: law 7 3.50 student: Master's 6 3.00 student: PhD 5 2.50 teacher 29 14.50 teacher/librarian 2 1.00 therapist 1 0.50 traffic operator 1 0.50 travel agent 2 1.00 university professor 2 1.00 vice-president finance 1 0.50 waiter 1 0.50 writer 8 4.00 youth outreach worker 1 0.50 no response 3 1.50 Total 200 100.00 Appendix 20 Respondents' General Career Areas Career Area # Respondents % Respondents Education 40 20 Law 36 18 Business 28 14 Health Care/Therapy 15 7.5 Student 15 7.5 Sales 13 6.5 The Arts 10 5 Writing 10 5 Library 5 2.5 Architecture/Design 5 2.5 Homemaker 5 2.5 Clerical/Support 4 2 Social Sciences 4 2 Science 3 1.5 Civil Service 2 1 Hospitality 1 0.5 Retired 1 0.5 No Response 3 1.5 Total 200 100 Appendix 21 Respondents' Views on Whether Their Current Occupations Are Influenced by Participation in Arts One Current Occupation # % Influenced by Arts One? Respondents Respondents Yes 104 52 No 96 48 Total 200 100 The Views of Respondents Working in the Fields of Education, Law and Business on Whether Their Occupations Are Influenced by Participation in Arts One Occupation Occupation Influenced by Arts One? Yes No # Respondents % Respondents # Respondents % Respondents Education 20 50 20 50 Law 23 64 13 36 Business 11 39 17 61 120 Appendix 22 Participants' Contact with Former Arts One Students Kept In Contact with Fellow Arts One Students? » Respondents % Respondents Yes 50 25 No 150 75 Total 200 100 Participants' Contact with Arts One Program Kept Informed About Developments in Arts One? U Respondents % Respondents Yes 30 15 No 170 85 Total 200 100 Appendix 23 Personal Interview Sample Year Gender Secondary School Male Female Local Outside B.C. 1967 1 1 2 1968 1 1 1969 1970 1971 1972 1 1 2 1973 1 1 1974 1975 1976 1977 2 1 1 1978 1979 1980 1 1 2 1981 1 1 1982 1 1 1983 1984 1 1 1985 3 1 3 1 1986 1987 2 2 2 2 1988 Total 12 9 17 | 4 Appendix 24 Personal Interview Transcriptions Note: All the individuals interviewed, and the faculty members and guest lecturers to whom they refer, have been given pseudonyms to protect their anonymity. With the exception of a few instances where the actual names ofpublic figures are stated as recalled by the interviewees, any similarities to actual persons are purely coincidental. 123 Beth 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"That was my first year university. I think that was 1985-86, yeah that was it.\" 2. Which high school did you graduate from? \"Sutherland in North Vancouver.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"It was because it seemed like it was a smaller group setting, and the courses seemed really interesting. I was going to take History, Philosophy and English anyways, and it just seemed like a really neat way to take it. And I had gone out and met one or two of the profs. I think they had an open house or something, and I had gone to the building and I thought 'oh it's so cute,' and everything seemed really nice. That's why.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Yeah, I was.\" 5. Do you remember the theme? \"It was Group B, 'Individual and Society', and my prof was Elizabeth Garrett. She was an English prof, and she was excellent. She was the only woman that was doing it at that time, and that's what I wanted...I wanted to be with a female prof, I thought it would be really interesting.\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"They were really good. I enjoyed them. They were pretty good. A lot of them were given by the male profs. They were interesting. It was Monday morning, first thing, so it was a time for all of us to get together, so they were fun. But in terms of academically, I was 18 so I can't really remember a lot of what was in them. But it was super fun; I enjoyed it.\" [Didyou have any guest lecturers?] \"We had a few guest lecturers, but I remember they were mostly done by the male profs—an Education prof Taylor, and then there was a Political Science prof ..they basically did a lot of the lectures.\" 124 b. Seminars \"I really liked them. The seminars were excellent because we had a really neat group of people in our class and we all got to know each other and started hanging out. And real individuals, really different people, so it was always fun to go because everyone always was talking and communicating. It was really neat. You really got to know the people really well.\" c. Tutorials \"I think in terms of my writing, that's what really helped because that's where we really got the one-on-one work, and we critiqued other people's essays. I found it really valuable in terms of writing skills and what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. So those, in terms of writing skills, were the most valuable, and then the seminars in terms of content.\" [Did the other students in your seminar group get involved in the discussion?] \"Oh yeah. Everyone did. It was great.\" [Was there anyone who seemed intimidated by the discussion?] \"There was one guy in our group who...there were all these different personalities, and some were more quiet than others, but I would think generally everyone really got involved and participated. One time I remember when we read Emile, we all had this big discussion about how we would teach if we were teachers, and how we would structure a classroom. And it was really neat because everyone got involved and the conversation lasted all afternoon. Most people seemed to get involved that I remember.\" d Readings \"Good. There were a few that I wasn't able to read, like The Brothers Karamazov, I remember skimming through that because of the time of year and I just didn't have time. There was a lot of reading, but I thought it was really representative of history and philosophy and everything.\" [Did you feel prepared for that level of reading after grade 12?] \"I was myself, but I liked that. I think you should be thrown in like that. The first thing we did was The Odyssey, and that was so neat because that's a major piece of western history and civilization and just to be able to read that was really neat—it was a neat way to start. And then I think we did Plato's Republic, and that was awesome. That was really good because every single year after that~I was in Political Science—we did Plato's Republic or they always referred to it, so it was really neat that in first year we were able to get into it.\" e. Papers \"They were fine. I found them very reasonable. We'd make a photocopy of the essay for everyone in our tutorial group, and then they'd critique it—everyone 125 would go through it and then say 'I liked this part, but I didn't like this part and how could you improve upon it and how can you improve upon your writing style, and so forth.' So it was really good.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"Elizabeth Garrett was excellent. The only thing was after Arts One, where did you go? That was the thing I found really difficult. I still remember that I had profs from Arts One after that in Education and Political Science. I found the profs were very good, I just wish there was more continuity with it because it sort of ended and that was it.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Yes. Two of my best friends I met there and we keep in touch with some of the other people. There's three of us who are really close.\" h. Arts One Building \"I liked it. It was just this old little shack behind the Education Building. I hope they're not tearing it down. It was old...it was kind of like a university... it was this old building.\" 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"The essay requirements, maybe I was looking at them through an 18-year old's eyes. I remember it being a bit rigorous, but you're at university and you're supposed to expect that. I think I felt afterwards that we had got nine units and it was the most interesting way to get them.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I went to a public high school and I really hated it because I don't think it ever really met my needs. And I always knew that I wanted to go to university, but I was kind of hesitant, but Arts One really fit the kind of learning that I was in tune for and needed at that point. I really think that if I had been shoved into the regular first year and had to take Psychology and be in these huge lecture halls, I really think that I would not have enjoyed university as much- It was exactly what I needed. I needed that small environment and that encouragement.\" [Wereyou an academically strong student in high school?] \"Yeah, I was strong in certain areas. I wasn't strong in math and I didn't like science, but it wasn't because I couldn't do it. It was because I didn't want to. I was that kind of student where I liked doing what I wanted to do, and the other stuff bored me so I wasn't going to do it. That's why Arts One was good for me, because I was more into history and civilization and courses like that.\" [Did you feel ready for university, aside from 126 your academic preparation?] \"Yeah, I did because I had always known that I was going to go to university and I'd always wanted to go and I'd always read on my own. I thought high school was really juvenile and stupid and I didn't like it. It wasn't really my type of learning environment. There wasn't enough variety in the programming.\" [Did you commute to U. B. C. ?] \"When I graduated, my parents retired and moved over to False Creek. So I drove and took the bus and did a whole pile of things, but it wasn't that far.\" 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yes. I knew where I wanted to go, and I knew that I wanted to do more writing. At the end I had picked a major, and from Arts One I decided to go McGill. I did my second year at U.B.C, then I transferred to McGill for my third year, but it didn't work out there due to living arrangements, and I had already declared my major at U.B.C. so it was really confusing. So I moved back and decided to finish my degree at U.B.C. Arts One made me want to go study somewhere else in a different academic environment.\" 10. What did you major in? \"I majored in Political Science.\" 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"It was really hard. Second year was really difficult because I initially wanted to do International Relations and that's what I started to do. But I didn't like the international politics; I was more into political theory, and I think that was basically due to Arts One and what we had studied in it. I also found second year really really difficult because you no longer had this core group to hang out with and I found it a tough transition. That's when I decided that I wanted to go to Montreal and study. It was never the same. Every year after that was such a let-down. My fourth year was absolutely horrible. I didn't like it because I majored in Political Science, but I didn't really want to. It was something I thought I had to do. I didn't like the Political Science Department at U.B.C., and I think there's a lot of arrogant profs in there. I felt it was very male dominated, and I just did not get a good feeling from the profs I met.\" 127 12. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"In terms of political theory, I did feel like I had a really good basis of understanding. It wasn't really in Political Science that I felt stronger, but when I went into Education I felt far beyond most of the students in terms of understanding theory and history and civilization, who we are and why we're here today. I took a course, Philosophy of Education, and there were all these students sitting there and they had no idea of what the prof was talking about, and they were so upset and they couldn't handle any of it. And to me it was easy because he was referring to Plato, and I felt far beyond a lot of my peers at that point.\" 13. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"It made my writing clearer and not so clogged with garbage. It made me write clearly and say as much as I could using as little words as possible. That was basically a result of the tutorials.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Quite a lot, just because of the way we'd go through and analyze works. It was never set up that you do 'a, b, c, and d.' You'd just sort of get into that mode. You'd talk about a book and you'd criticize it.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"It definitely helped because you had to. I was in quite a rambunctious group where everyone talked a lot, and in your tutorials you defended yourself. It was really helpful.\" 15. What have you done since graduation? \"I did my B A in Political Science. Then I went straight into Education and did my BEd for two years in Elementary Education. I've taught for three years at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, and I've just started my Masters in Education, in Special Education.\" 16. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"I think so. Initially when I went into university I wanted to be a teacher, but I also wanted to study something else besides Education so that's why I didn't go into Education right away and chose Political Science. Looking back, teaching is such an interesting field, but when I went into Education I think some people thought I was a bit of a snob because the Year 2000 was coming out right then and 128 I was totally against it. I'm the type of teacher who believes in pushing the kids, that you have to have really high standards and expect that from them. I'm not into basket-weaving with the kinds, but prefer to teach them interesting things to feed their mind. So in a way, I think Arts One did have an impact on that, just because of the content of the material, the way we learned—the seminar format, the fact that it wasn't 'this is a, b, c, and d, and do it,' you decide what you're going to write about and you're given a lot of choices, and the whole academic attitude has influenced the way I teach and the type of teaching I do.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, none. I wish it could have lasted.\" 18. Would you do it again? \"Oh definitely. And If I had kids and it was still around, I'd really suggest that they doit.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"I don't know if I'd change anything, but I would wish that there be some continuity. I wish it wasn't just one year, and that it could continue on. I don't know how that would be possible organizationally. The things we were doing in first year university was the stuff others were doing in fourth year university when they had their seminar classes, and I just wish there had been more continuity in the second year.\" [Comment on questionnaires from some respondents who felt Arts One too expensive to be funded with taxpayers money for a program that is humanities based and non-vocational] \"I disagree because university is not a training ground. There's not a thing when you go to university that says 'you will be trained to be this or that.' And I think universities are there for you to learn, and they should not prepare you for a job. It's not a technical school. If you want technical training, then great, you can go to B.C.IT., and I would encourage you to go there. I don't agree with that at all. I don't think the purpose of the university is to train people, I think it is there to learn, and there are professional programs like Medicine and Engineering and Education and Law, and those will give you the skills to maybe get a career in that area. I think if we start letting go of the concept of the university as a learning environment and have it for skill training, then I think we're losing the idea of what an educated person and citizen is.\" 129 [Comments from some questionnaire respondents that it would be better to have an Arts Three or Arts Four rather than Arts One because students not ready for Arts One in first year.] \"I liked Arts One. My dad was the one who suggested the program to me; he felt it might be more interesting because it's set up on the English system of university where you do a lot reading, have time on your own, then go to your tutorial sessions. I really liked that. I mean I wasn't completely ready for it, and I look back and think at 18 we were so young and stupid. But at the same time, I liked that. You're at university now and here you are, you're in this little community and you're going to be doing this. I really liked that approach. I'm not sure if I would have done it if it had've been later on. But I think in first year they should have more interdisciplinary programs like that.\" [Comments on some questionnaires regarding the impact of a poor seminar professor] \"No one in our section seemed to have problems with the prof. Elizabeth was a very nice, sweet woman. I think there were one or two other profs who were fairly difficult, and that could be a problem, but I can understand how it could be difficult if there was a personality conflict, because you spend so much time there. Maybe instead of having students report to just one prof, mix it up more. Team teaching might be good.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"I think the whole concept of how we learn and what we were learning and the whole environment, how it was done, was so unique. It's always been in the back of my mind. We were not herded into a classroom with 300 students reading from a Psychology textbook. It was very personal. It is labour-intensive, and it is expensive, but I think it really set the groundwork in terms of learning for me, and in terms of education. I don't know if I really would have enjoyed university as much if I hadn't been there, having Arts One as a first year experience. I think it really did affect my whole view of how people learn and how people are educated, and the environment to do it in.\" 130 Blair 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1972.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I thought that if I had to do five separate courses it would be a heavy load, so I figured that it would be an easy way through the first year.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"Alpha in North Burnaby. I never learned about the program through Alpha.\" [How did you find out about the Arts One program?] \"I was looking through the selection guide and I saw it listed. And I saw that it covered nine of the 15 units that I needed at the time, and I thought 'yup, that sounds good.'\" 3. Do you remember if you got into your first-choice theme group? \"Yeah, I did.\" 4. Do you remember what the theme was? \"I'd only know if you told me some choices.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"Usually they were interesting and stimulating. It depended on which subject area we were doing that week.\" b. Seminars \"The seminars were a bit better because there was more discussion with other students.\" 131 c. Tutorials \"I would say that that would be mostly where I got a chance to learn about things that I didn't understand, and also it was an opportunity to socialize more.\" d. Readings \"Some of them were pretty darn boring; others I was thinking there must be profound meaning in these somewhere, and I just can't get it. So in that sense, these kind of books opened up my mind to a whole new world of things that really you don't get a chance to read in high school. And it also set me up for realizing what was to come in the following years, and in that sense it was a good preparation.\" e. Papers \"Well, I'd say that I probably began to learn how to write essays in that, and in high school I really didn't know how.\" [Did you find the essay requirements rigorous?] \"No, nothing about it was demanding. There was a lot to read, but that's not too taxing. Occasionally I felt bogged down if an essay had to be done during the time that I had exams in other courses, but that happens every year. That's not necessarily due to the load from Arts One. I think my friends who were taking other courses were sweating more bullets than I was.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"Oh, that was great. It was a fun year. They were very friendly and had lots of time for us. I remember what my seminar prof looked like. He was really good, and what amazed me about that was that he was an electrical engineer, and that blew me away that he would even want to do something like this. So he had a real scientific mind, and he was applying that to the kinds of things that we were doing. That was pretty incredible for me.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"The small group from the tutorial I was in, we all hung around a lot, and the other ones I got to know better after we went on a trip to Strathcona Park. Before that it was harder to get to know them.\" h. Arts One Building \"Is it still in the same building? Well, it seemed kind of cramped for all of the students that were there. I can't remember how many were in our group, but it was a lot, and for the big meetings it was pretty cramped.\" 132 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"Nothing about the program, I don't have much negative to say in that sense to go back and say 'geez, it was missing this.' I guess what I would say is that, looking back on it, I would have done a couple things differently. I probably would have socialized a bit more, and made more of an effort to socialize outside of the tutorial group. And I think what the program basically did was really set the course for what it would be like for the rest of my university career.\" [Asked to comment on the number ofpeople from the 1972-73 class who, in their questionnaire responses, state that they would not recommend the program.] \"I find those negative comments kind of amazing, because basically every year at university people do what is the sign of the times. I don't know if that's that negative. 72, there was a lot happening politically then, and a lot happening in music, and experimentation in drugs was probably, I guess if it started in the mid-60's, by the time it hit the early 70's it was pretty popular stuff to do, and if you weren't doing drugs something was wrong. If you weren't doing them all the time that was fine, but you should have at least sampled, and that was almost the way it was in the university, that you weren't experiencing life enough if you hadn't sampled some form of drug. And the program had those themes and flavours in it, and that was also the time when professors and students were probably really friendly with one another, and probably, in a sense, at least nowadays you might argue that some boundaries were crossed in relationships. I didn't, but again, too, that probably was the same thing in high school, at least at Alpha where the same kind of thing was happening where you'd go out and party with your teachers. That was part of the times.\" // comment on the number of respondents who came out of that year who would not recommend the program.] \"It was a program in its growing pains, and I think that that may have even been the first year.\" // tell him that the program began in 1967.] \"I had a feeling because of that; I'm surprised it started in '67. When I went into it, maybe they had just changed over to a whole new set of faculty or something, because they all talked like it was brand new. Maybe it was just so brand new for them, and they were going through their growing pains on how to teach it. That might have made it difficult. In a sense, I found that course a haven to go to in comparison to the other courses that I was in.\" 133 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was psychologically prepared for university. I think what determines that is whether you're in a peer group that's going, and I was. I was in a peer group with a half-dozen guys who were all going to university. From grades 10-12 we were all gearing up for university.\" [Did you think you were academically preparedfor university?] \"I think Arts One did most of that preparation. For instance, my ability to write an essay was really sub-par, it just wasn't there. The kind of stuff I wrote in grade 12 compared to what I finished with at the end of Arts One was just totally different.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? (Partially answered in question #7) 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"The other two courses I had for first year, one was Biology 101 and I was in a theatre with 200-300 other kids. Asking questions was just about out of the question. It was lecture format, you could barely see the professors. They were down in this little pit with huge overheads and stuff, and they would talk with a microphone, do their thing, and then walk out. You'd sit in those lecture halls and I didn't know a soul. That part of my week when I was going to those courses, I didn't talk to anybody, so there was socialization in Arts One.\" 10. What did you major in? \"Well, I started off majoring in Psychology, and then I applied to the School of Social Work and got in there. And now I'm finished with my Masters.\" 11. How did you compare yourself to the other Psychology students who had not taken Arts One? \"In a way, in that first year you see a difference, because some of the students are slugging it out with five courses, and I felt like I had three. So I felt pretty good; I felt like I was one step up.\" [Do you actually think you had less work than if you had taken five distinct courses?] \"Oh yeah. I think it's the same amount of work, but it's divided differently. Because of that, you feel less load. I'm not writing five exams, and studying for five things all at once. And I'm not writing five papers all at once. It was always in blocks of three.\" 134 12. You mentioned that Arts One helped you with your writing. How do you think being in Arts One helped you with your critical reasoning skills? \"Yeah it did. And that was with some of the books, and the types of questions that would be asked of us about the books.\" [Your ability to argue effectively?] \"Yeah, I'd say that I wasn't very good at that either until I went into Arts One. I don't know if I got that much better. I suppose I have.\" [Was there a lot of discussion in your seminar group?] \"Yeah, there was a lot, and there were some people in there with very strong opinions. That was good because it butted up against mine. And whether I would always comment or not, it certainly would have me thinking and challenging those thoughts. It was a time period when a lot of strong opinions were given about a lot of things.\" [By faculty members?] \"Oh yeah. But they provided their strong opinions in open ways. They wouldn't say that their way was right, but if they had a side to tell, they would really present it well.\" [Didyou perceive that some students in your seminar group were offended by those strong opinions?] \"Well if there were some that couldn't [handle those opinions], it didn't come from the small group I was with. That was a pretty good group.\" 13. What have you done since graduation? \"I did my Bachelors in Social Work, worked for two years, went back and finished my Masters, and I've been working in Psychiatry ever since in different ways. Right now I'm working in Adolescent Psychiatry; I have a private practice.\" 14. Do you think what your choice of profession has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"No, my career choice wasn't influenced by that. I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn't know what it was called. I had a feeling it was Psychology in the beginning, that's why I started majoring in Psychology. And then when I finished my third year there I realized that I was going to graduate with 300 or 400 other B A's, and I would have no job, I accidentally found out about the School of Social Work.\" 15. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"If I had to go back and take first year university, I'd take Arts One again.\" 16. Would you do it again [Answered in question #16] 135 17. Would you change it in any way? \"I think I would still want the professors to be challenging, because I think that's the first introduction to ways of critical reasoning and thinking. They wouldn't let you off the hook, and I think that kind of thing should continue.\" [Comment on questionnaires suggesting that a liberal arts humanities program like Arts One should not be funded because students need to have programs that are more vocational. ] \"Sure, because it's a first year course, and I don't think that anyone can argue that first year will get you a job anywhere. If you're going into a four-year program, first year is generalized. It's no different than English 100 or Philosophy. None of those courses are going to get you a job anywhere. You're still flipping burgers or whatever. I don't think that argument holds any water. If you want to go into some kind of vocation, you don't go to university. You go to a trade school.\" [Suggestion that we replace Arts One with an Arts Three and Four because students aren't ready for an Arts One-type program in their first year.] \"I think for me having it in the first year was the perfect place for it. If I could have taken it again in third or fourth year, I probably would have.\" [Why was it perfect in first year?] \"I think if I had to take English 100, and History and Philosophy all separately, it would have been too much, and my friends who took English 100 barely scraped through. It was such a culture shock from high school, but Arts One had a way~I think I got nurtured along. It was a pretty forgiving course. If I had've been writing my essays in English 100,1 think I would have been killed for my grammar, and as a result I might have failed the course or barely made it through. I just wasn't taught that well at Alpha. In Arts One, that would be made notice of where my grammar was poor, but I'd still be able to score marks for my thinking. That's where it was forgiving.\" [Comment on questionnaires regarding the impact of a poor seminar professor.] \"The interesting thing, though, is that you could end up in any one course with someone that you don't like. One thing that you learn from that is that you have to find a way to get along and make it through. Now I know Arts One covers more weight because it's three courses, but I guess if there was an ability to switch grouping from one professor to another at some point if things weren't working out and you had given it a good shot, maybe half-way through or something. I don't think it would be a good idea to switch professors if you'd be allowed to do it more than once. I think just once because I think students need to learn how to get along, and they're going to face that kind of thing all the way along anyways. Rather than avoiding reality, they might as well get into it and deal with it. 136 18. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Yeah, it's had an impact because I remember it better than any of the other courses. I think the closest I got to the flavour of Arts One was when I got into the School of Social Work because it was another small kind of thing, and you'd move around all these courses with the same students. What did I get? Well, a broader life perspective anyway, and although it developed the initial stage of more critical thinking, I'd say also an acceptance of others' opinions—that there's more than one way to look at things. Black and white thinking is pretty common as a teenager in high school— you think it's one way or another—but in that course I learned that there is more than one way to look at things.\" 137 Caroline 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"72-73.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I think a friend might have been doing it. I certainly remember not knowing what I wanted to do and I actually only did that year the first time I went to university, so I think it was probably was a combination of talking to a friend about doing it and also because it seemed to be a survey of a number of different options in courses.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"David Thompson.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"I don't remember.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"No.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"I remember getting together as a big group, but not so much being lectured. I guess I just don't think of it as a lecture. Also the room we were in wasn't desks and chairs, it was pillows and blocks and couches, so what I recollect is people spread about and with the four or five profs that were there, no particular one was leading it. It was more of a discussion than a lecture.\" b. Seminars \"There were five or six of us with the prof. What I remember is partially my being 18. What I remember is one guy who was a little bit older, I guess he might have been in his early 20's, and I remember him being engaged in quite lengthy discussions with the prof, Deborah Purah. And she and he would engage in discussions quite a lot. I remember reading the books but not being so much into 138 philosophical discussions, still being into interacting with the other people in the group more than what we were talking about.\" c. Tutorials (Didn't remember) d. Readings \"Some of them were pretty weighty. I guess I remember the fiction more than the non-fiction, and again sort of reading them but not really digesting them, and not being able to get into the discussions very much.\" e. Papers \"I have no recollection of them at all.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I had gone to school with Deborah's son, and her husband was a teacher of mine. I was at what was called a free school called The New School from grade three to grade seven, and I guess that also probably led me to Arts One. It was a school started by U.B.C. profs for their kids, and my parents weren't professors, but they had heard about the school. It was an alternate school, and Warren Purah, Deborah's son, was at it, and I guess that may also be part of what led me to Arts One. The school started in 1962.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"That was good. There were some interesting individuals. I can remember that we made a video of some sort; one of the guys did something to a Beach Boys song. I sang and played the guitar, and there were a number of other people like that in the group. I guess that was another thing that I remember about it—what I hear a lot of students say about first year university is that they feel like they're out there in this sea of people and they never get to know people, but because we spent nine hours a week together, we did really get to know each other. And we did go away on some trips together.\" h. Arts One Building \"That was like home.\" 139 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"I guess only that I don't think, and I went back to university a number of years later and I firmly believe that people are not ready for university at 18. There was a whole lot of meat to the Arts One program that I just didn't get and wasn't ready for, and I talked about this guy who was a few years older who was able to wrestle with some of that stuff. I don't know what other people at 18's experience was.\" [A number of negative responses on questionnaires from individuals who took the program in 1972-73. Can you think of anything that was going on in that particular year that may have led to these views of Arts One?] \"There was probably a left-wing, socialistic slant to some of the individuals who were teaching in the program, but then my family was as well so I'm not one to judge what people were reacting to. I don't know. There was one prof who I believe was sleeping with some of the girls, and that may have led to some of the negative comments.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was on the honour roll, so I guess I thought I had done quite well. When I look back I don't think I was prepared for university, but at the time I probably thought it was just more school.\" 8. Did you participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yeah, since then I think I'm a far better writer now than I was then. I certainly had no preparation; I can remember writing essays and really it was like pulling teeth and being very painful, and to struggle to write. And I'm sure I had that experience with Arts One as with the rest of my schooling.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I left after first year because, as was the case when I went in, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So when I finished that year, I didn't know what to do next. So I worked for four or five years, then I went back and did an Education degree. Now I never did end up teaching, but I thought that's what I wanted to do. I think the difference between the experience was due more to my age and experience in the work force, and they were very different programs.\" 140 10. What did you major in? (Answered in #9, Education) 11. How did you compare yourself with other Education students who did not take Arts One? \"Again I think it had more to do with age.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? (Already mentioned that Arts One helped her writing) [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"I don't know if it, in particular, made a big difference.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"To some degree. I certainly remember the discussions.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"In Education I did an alternate program in my third year where they take 18 students and we were in a school right from September until March, so we got a real experience of what it was going to be about, and I realized that it was not for me. I like to see change happen, and I like to have a problem and resolve it, and that's not what teaching, I came to see, was about. So I finished the degree, and I don't regret that, and happened to get into a personnel department as a clerk after graduation just to make some money, and ended up enjoying that. And that's what I do for a living, I'm a Human Resources Compensation Analyst at the GVRD.\" 15. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"I don't think so.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No.\" 17. Would you do it again? \"I think so, although I'd probably tell myself to take a couple years off first.\" 141 18. Would you changed in any way? \"Is it the same program now in the same building? [Yes] When I think about the discussions and the reading material, it seems like it was quite heavy right from the beginning, and I think maybe it needs to be...because people are coming right out of high school and I have no recollection of reading that kind of material in high school, and I don't know if that has changed, but to be immersed in the material and then to discuss it was, I think, too much to ask of to begin With.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"I think probably the years that I spent at the alternate school started the process of wanting to try different ways of doing things, and Arts One was just another step along that process.\" [Issue ofpoor seminar professor negatively affecting a student's first year experience.] \"Is that students making better choices, or in fact administration making better choices about who they allow to be profs? I think students, all of them, need to have good strong profs. It seems to me there were some not very well liked profs, and the students as they got to know different profs wanted to move into other groups.\" [Comment on some questionnaires that U.B.C. shouldn't be funding programs like Arts One when they need to be funding programs to help students be career-ready.] \"I guess I'd say it's worthwhile and important that people have applicable skills to what they want to do, that you're trained for something you can apply, but equally I don't think you should be so focused on only that thing. It's done me a great service to have that degree that's not a human resources degree, and yet I think I learned lots of different skills in those four years. I think it's really important to have at least one year in your courses that aren't about what you're focusing on, and do give you critical thinking and problem solving skills.\" 142 Daniel 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"That would be in 77-78.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I guess because it was an experimental type of program, and because I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do in university I thought I'd give it a chance.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"I went to Churchill.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"No, I don't remember.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"No I don't.\" [Do you remember what it was about?] \"Gee, if you gave me some themes maybe I could tell you.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"The large group lectures were very interesting and very good. They were quite stimulating actually.\" b. Seminars \"They were not as positive as they could have been. I found the prof expected more than the people were aware of; he expected too much without enough background information.\" [What did you think of the professor you had?] \"He liked to put people on the spot, and at that time I didn't like that.\" 143 c. Tutorials \"The tutorials were stressful but valuable, because you're put on the spot to defend your article or essay, which for a first year university student that was something new for me. And I found that somewhat difficult because sometimes you'd have to talk for the whole tutorial on your paper.\" a\\ Readings \"Actually, the reading list was excellent. I still have most of the novels and articles and still read them and re-read them to this day.\" e. Papers \"They were okay. They weren't overly-demanding.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I didn't get to know the other professors that well, except there was this retreat that we had, and I don't know if they still do that, but we went away for the weekend and I got to know the other profs a lot better through that informal setting.\" [Do you think there were other seminar leaders who you would have preferred?] \"Yes \" g. Your relationship with other participants \"It was a fairly close-knit group, I think. I got to know quite a few of them quite well.\" [Would you meet them outside of class?] \"Yes, definitely.\" [Have you kept in touch with any of them?] \"At this point, no. I kept in touch with them throughout my years in university, but no, not after university.\" h. Arts One Building \"Dilapidated, I don't know. It was kind of isolated, which probably wasn't such a bad thing because it was quite a different program, but it could have been a bit more modern.\" 6. Looking back from your current perspective, have your views on any of these components changed? \"For one, the stress of writing the papers and trying to draw things out, I recognize them as valuable things now but at the time I didn't like that. I also wish I'd concentrated a little harder and applied myself more; I probably would have gotten a lot more out of not only the readings but probably out of the seminars as well.\" 144 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I thought I would have no problem going into university.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yeah. Definitely. I realized that I needed more structure and self-discipline, because I really didn't do that that much during the first year.\" [So you felt that there was a lack of structure in Arts One that wasn't good for you?J \"No, I don't mean that. It's just that after a year of much less structure, and I think this is indicative of anyone going into their first year of university, that you realize that there's a lot less structure and if you don't work really hard you won't get very good marks.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"Well, the next year I joined a frat so my marks got even worse, but then after that I sort of got in focus in my third and fourth years and picked up my marks. And then I went back for a year of teacher training and my marks were fine.\" [Did you find that your second year classes were much larger?] \"Oh much larger. They were much more informal with less personal attention, but at the same time it was a little bit easier to fade into the background.\" 10. What did you major in? \"Psychology.\" //. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"No, I felt like I was an average student and that I fit in with the other Psychology students.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Yes, it did. It motivated me to try out for the Creative Writing course in second year, and I took it. I decided not to further it in third year, but it gave me the 145 incentive to try it out, which looking back was probably the most valuable thing about it.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Somewhat, it improved somewhat.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"Yes, that helped a lot with that.\" [Was there a lot of discussion in your seminars?] \"Yeah, in the seminars there was a lot of discussion. It wasn't always good discussion. Sometimes the professor started expounding on his own and lost the class, and sometimes it got quite off topic or above the students' heads, but it was very valuable overall.\" 13. What have you done since graduation? \"After I got my B A I traveled for a year in the States, and then I went and took my teacher training here in Education at U . B . C , and then I went and traveled for another year in Europe, and I got back and there were still no teaching jobs so I went and taught in Japan for a year, and I came back from there and there were still no teaching jobs in the Lower Mainland. So I went and taught in Saskatchewan for three years, and then I came back. And for the last seven years I've been teaching in Maple Ridge at an elementary school.\" 14. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"Actually no. I didn't make that decision to go into Education until my second or third year, and that was largely due to my fraternity. I ended up being in charge of the social committee and we started doing Big Brothers, taking in those kids who hadn't been selected for Big Brothers, and it was this working with kids that made me realize that I enjoyed it and it was something I wanted to do.\" 15. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No.\" 16. Would you do it again? \"Yes.\" 146 17. Would you change it in any way? \"I wasn't happy with my professor.\" [Can you think of a way that students could have a better sense of who they are selecting as their seminar leader?] \"One way would be to allow students to switch, or to have one professor for the first half of the year and then switch for the second half. Or maybe have two professors with a larger seminar so that you're able to get two different viewpoints. I guess I found that the professor we had, his opinion coloured everything that we discussed in class, and I had a hard time at that time going beyond that.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"The diverse and varied reading materials, and the ideas that I was exposed to while I was in the Arts One program, have proven valuable, maybe not directly on my life, but valuable in reading or looking back or thinking about the things we studied in Arts One. And I still, to this day, think those are good contributions to my overall education.\" 147 David 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"It must have been \"85-86.\" 2. Which high school did you attend? \"Shawnigan Lake School.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"The first reason was that it was nine credits for the amount of work of two courses, or something like that. At least it seemed that way. It seemed like an incredibly good deal, but afterwards it sounded like there was a certain amount of exclusiveness about it. It was a niftily crafted course. I liked the sound of it.\" [How did you first year about the program?] \"I must have read about it because I don't recall anyone telling me about it.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group ? \"I think I was.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"Some of them were really fascinating, and others were the most tedious hour and a half before lunch you can imagine. So it really depended on who was giving the lecture. I think we got to know, but the end of the first term anyway, if this was going to be a good lecture because \"X\" was giving it, and for those who were not so good you just placed yourself at the back of the room with a crossword. And there were several that were pretty tedious, I can tell you that.\" b. Seminars \"I loved all the seminars. They were great. My professor was \"Rock'n Rich,\" that's what we called him. I was trying to remember his name, Richard Marritt? I think he was an English professor.\" 148 c. Tutorials \"They were good. We split off into smaller groups, I think of three or four students, and we read each other our essays. It was a very useful exercise because we had come from high school thinking 'gosh, we're really good and intelligent and smart,' and they ripped us to shreds, but they did it constructively. The professors quietly let us know that we were definitely not as great as we thought we were.\" d Readings \"It was a good mixed bag of stuff: Greek philosophy, drama, Nietsche, Hume, Rousseau, all sorts of interesting items in there; a lot of the works you had heard about in high school but were definitely not going to read unless somebody had made you do so.\" e. Papers \"I liked the format. We wrote one or two essays a week, and they were short essays, three or four pages, rather than one big essay at the end of the term. And I think because of that we had a chance to improve our performance, attack things more critically, analyze things in more detail and more effectively. So I think that was a good system. It was more of a tutorial system like the English tutorial system at university where you handed in an essay each week. It's definitely the way to go. To have one essay at the end of term only, if you have a bad day or you're not interested in the topic, that's it—your whole term is buggered.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"You got to know those who were particularly good at making Nietsche, say, interesting to a wide audience. I didn't get to see much of them on more of a personal level because if you weren't in their seminar you only saw them on the podium and they gave their lecture and went off again. So it's hard to say, really, on that.\" [Do you remember going on a retreat for faculty and students?] \"They did, but I don't remember going on it, which was foolish because I'd come out of a fairly closed boarding school and I didn't know anyone. I found that there were a lot of students from schools who knew one another, say five or six from Churchill, another 10 from Burnaby, and they all cliqued together and I was outside of that clique. And I think if I had gone on that retreat it may have been easier to have fostered friendships earlier.\" 149 g. Your relationship with the other participants? \"I made three of my best friends in Arts One who are still my best friends. It's one of those programs where once you break into the cliques, you cement friendships for life there. It's because you're with these people so much time in the week, and we tended to go out for lunch with each other after class, and you had your own building, and you felt like you were part of something. It was almost like a college atmosphere, and I think that was terribly important for first year. When I talked to my first year students a couple years ago when I was teaching, they'd say it's so big, it's so vast, and it scares them. Arts One gives you the opportunity to break into a large environment by going through a smaller one first. That's terribly important, especially the outside-of-the-class activities and things that were done amongst the students, and the parties and things. It was a very good process to let you in lightly.\" h. Arts One Building \"It was run down and rather dirty and ramshackled, but it had its appeal. It was our building, and it was loved affectionately. The place was like a clubhouse. It's like Spanky and the Gang, what is that? Our Gang. We felt a belonging. The building became part of the whole atmosphere. It was run down, for sure, badly organized. It had a lot of problems, in winter it was freezing cold, but it was the nucleus of the group. It's where we went. And the thing is we could hang out there even outside of classroom time, and in fact a lot of us did. We used to go over there and chat and talk and smoke and stuff. That was in the days when they allowed you to smoke inside. And they had a little coffee machine. Or you'd go down to Ponderosa Cafe and grab a coffee and a doughnut and walk back. There was a lot of fraternal and sororial feelings in that building. It was a superb place.\" 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"If anything, I've grown much stronger in thinking that that is the way to go to curb the vast impersonal nature of U.B.C. If the first year programs were all built that way, and there was a sort of collegial unit to which these students could feel they belonged, I think that would be a positive thing in university life. Maybe it's going back to the old idea of colleges rather than departments or faculties. Certainly I think that the essays once per week are crucial. There's less pressure on you because it's only a four page performance piece, so if you don't do well on it, no big deal because it's not going to destroy your grade. I think that it allows you to develop skills outside of just English skills—argument and debating skills, critical analysis skills—that sort of thing that a large essay once per term just doesn't do, because of course once people get a large essay they go straight off to the library and research it and get somebody else's ideas. The splitting up into small groups where three or four students and a professor could talk openly to 150 each other without being attacked was good. There was never any aggressive 'you're a loser, you can't write.' It was always constructive, critical opinion.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was particularly academically arrogant. I had done superbly in comparison to the rest of the school in government examinations, and I thought 'gee, this is going to be a breeze going into university.' And I got into university and suddenly I just dropped straight off again.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? \"I realized very quickly my limitations, artd I think also, like I said, you took things into perspective. You realized that you weren't such a genius that you thought you were. And it was not done in a nasty forcible way as it's done in some first year classes today where the professor says, 'well, frankly, you stink,' and that's all the criticism a student gets. It was done in a positive way. It was carefully and concernedly and caringly done.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I wished they'd had Arts Two in my day. It was a shock in some respects, but I think the most devastating thing of all was the loss of companionship of all these people that you'd gone through the year with and had gotten to know. And at the end of the first year that all sort of broke up and you all went your separate ways into Science or Arts or whatever. And at that point the impersonal nature of the university closes in. It was less of a shock, I think, than it would be if we had gone straight into university without having gone through Arts One. But one of the biggest complaints I have about the university, both as a student and an instructor, is that it breaks knowledge up into little field units. You have your cavalry, and your artillery, and your foot soldiers, and everything is broken up into faculties and departments. And I think that's an extremely negative way of going about learning. You can't departmentalize learning or knowledge in that way unless you want a very fractured education, which is what I got in my undergraduate years. I was turned off science, and no one ever turned me back onto science, and I thought that was particularly unfortunate.\" 1 ft What did you major in ? \"I majored in English.\" 151 11. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"I went through the honours program, so again there was that consciousness of being different from most people. But within the honours program, there again was that fraternity that I was trying to explain to you. You felt a part of something in a vaster unit. It's almost like the bond that brings together a minority group. You feel that bond, and it's easier to get through than if you were just one of the sheep. I don't think I was conscious of who had and had not gone through Arts One at that time. You felt obviously some sort of elation when you met someone else who had gone through Arts One, but I don't think there was ever any exploitation of that.\" [You mentioned that you made some very close friends in Arts One. What did they major in?] \"One majored I Classics, two majored in Science, and I think another one majored in English with me.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I think I learned to look at things more critically and analytically. My writing skills, as such, were fairly good when I graduated from high school. They were certainly better than average. What I was saying needed a lot of work. How I said it was not a problem. In other words, the linguistic side was fine. It was the content that I had to work on. And Arts One definitely helped me on that. I wish I had have been able to take more of Arts One because I could have used a great deal more help than I got.\" [Didyou get that help in the English Honours program?] \"No, I felt that the honours program was a part of something too large. The Department of English at U.B.C. is just too big, and even the special programs have this impersonal feeling. I mean, I never got to know my honours professors as well as I got to know Richard Marritt. It was something that I regretted.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] (Answered) [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"I'm sure it has affected my teaching more than I'm aware, and in a positive way. I think I learned to listen in Arts One, which is a really important skill that's not 152 taught in other areas of the university, certainly not in the Department of English, and one that is underrated because, obviously, if you can't listen you can't learn.\" 13. What have you done since graduation? \"I went for a year and did diddly squat. I guess like everyone else at that time, I was under the impression that you got yourself a BA or a BSc, and some lovely employer would come flashing your door down offering you thousands of dollars to work for them. Well it didn't happen, and so I ended up working at a pasta joint. And then I went back for an MA at U.B.C, and then at the end of the MA I enrolled in the PhD program at U.B.C. and up to February of this year I was still in that program.\" [What was your MA in?] English. So now I'm unemployed and unemployable. So I'm muddling along starting a book company at the moment. I'm actually thinking of going back to university to study Library Science. It's a professional degree, and I love working around books—I either teach them or I read them or I study them or I sell them.\" 14. Has your choice of career been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"I would say that the reason I took my first degree in English was because of Arts One.\" 15. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"None whatsoever.\" 16. Would you do it again? \"Oh, you bet. It was a fabulous year.\" / 7. Would you change it in any way? \"Yeah, Fd get more involved in clubs and the outside university life. I would probably even go so far as moving into residence in the first year. I think I was very much on the peripheral. I came from a school outside of the Lower Mainland, I didn't know anyone, and I tended to be quite reserved and shy. If I was to do it again, I would definitely go into a situation where I was forced to participate in clubs and get more out of the university than just an academic bit of paper.\" 153 [Comment on some questionnaires re: Arts One should be replaced with an Arts Three or Four.] \"But we have that already. That's precisely what the honours programs do. I see nothing wrong with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts simply because the bachelor of anything now is academically useless. You can't do anything with it, even in Science it's virtually useless. All it is is a precursor to your graduate work. So if you want to make it more useful, produce a generally educated liberal person. The way Arts One is set up, I think that it's very important to stress electives, and they should be stressed mores than they were. As I said, I hated sciences, and when I took my science electives, it was because I had to, and I went into the class with the attitude that I'm here to get myself a 50%, and that's wrong. So I think that a general degree could work, perhaps breaking down the barriers between faculties could be done, though I'm not sure how. The degree could be set up in a four year Arts program like Arts One, but you'd have to drop the Arts One and Arts Two bit and just have a Bachelor of Liberal Arts or whatever you want to call it. And then set the program up.\" [Comments on some questionnaires re: poor seminar proofs and the potential negative impact on first year experience. ] \"Yeah, I can understand that. Let me make a comment first. There will always be in a class of 20 students one student who does not get on well with the professor. As far as that goes, there is nothing you can do. The point highlights in my mind the qualifications of the instructors chosen to teach Arts One. I lucked out, as I said, with this Rock'n Rich who was a fabulous man, very intelligent, extremely funny, humorous...he just clicked with an 18-year old kid. Everyone just got on so well with him. And that was just luck. Equally, there was a friend of mine in another seminar who disliked his professor, and so did we because he was a boring old fart, and that has got something to do with the politics of the department, I think, and how the professors are chosen. If I remember rightly, Arts One was the icing on the cake program as far as professors are concerned, so they automatically chose from the tenured professors even if they weren't qualified. So there's not much that can be done; it's always going to be there, the politics of choice, and who gets in and who doesn't.\" [Suggestion of team-taught seminars, or switching professors each term.] \"I would disagree with that. I think the relationship that we had with the professor was built up over time and it became a very close relationship outside of academics. I mean we felt like we could talk to this man about problems at home or whatever. And that's very very rare, that you can sit down with a professor over coffee and chat and feel completely comfortable. That comes after time, and in a one-term seminar there just isn't time; people can't get to know an instructor that quickly. Changing them around is disruptive. If anything, I think the program should be de-streamed, stopping that thing where this is a 200-level course and this is a 300-level course, and try to 154 universalize the courses so students can stay with the professors that they do get on with. People will say that in that case they're going to get a biased education because the professor won't mark them down. That's rubbish. Many times Richard Marritt ripped to shreds my paper if he thought it wasn't good enough and he sent me back to do it again. So you're not sacrificing that, but you are building up with, say, a team of five or six professors from all walks of life and genders and minority groups, and whatever. So it's nice and mixed up and you're getting lots of input and whatnot coming your way if you go though the system with those people and you get to know them, and you can become friendly on more than an academic basis, like a tutor, then I think that's a very positive thing. With a one-year program, yeah, you do get the danger of hitting a bad prof. Maybe what they should do is for a month allow some flexibility. I know it's going to create an absolute nightmare for the secretary and people organizing the class list, but you'd try for a month, maybe the whole group would meet together for a month without streaming, and you'd see how the group is pairing off. Obviously there the danger is that one professor will get 200 people and the next will get five, and again maybe that's a signal that the professor who gets only five shouldn't be teaching the course. I don't think there is a solution that works. And then again, I can remember seminars where certain individuals were just naturally antagonistic and went out of their way to piss off the prof, and then disrupted us and there was no end of problems. Maybe the tag team is a good idea, but certainly not switching after the first seminar. I don't think that's a good idea at all.\" 18. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"My love of poetry~I began writing poetry during Arts One. My tolerance of Philosophy~I used to hate Philosophy and I can now read it. And one particular friendship that emerged out of Arts One has had more influence on my life than any other, and that's something that's a sideline of that, but to me it's intimately connected to Arts One. I've known this person for nine years now, and we have both influenced each other's lives in many ways. He's gone into Classics and I've gone into English, but the kind of thought pattern—we both decided that we were going to be professors as a result of this Arts One thing—is really important. And I think my love of English Literature is a result of Arts One.\" 155 Geoff 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I'm not sure if I remember....I think 85...yeah, it was 1985-86.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I went to University Hill Secondary School, and I heard about the program from other people. It sounded like it would be an easier transition to university than if I took five separate courses. I'm not sure what you know about U.Hill, but when I went it was an alternative school where things were a lot more flexible for students, and I had heard that Arts One was similar. My dad worked at U.B.C., and I had heard about a certain prof who taught in Arts One, which was one of the main reasons I went into the program...to be taught by him.\" [When you say \"easier transition,\" do you mean that it would be easier to get good marks, or that it would make getting used to university life easier?] \"The latter...that I would adjust to university easier.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"When you say theme group, do you mean the two large groups? [yes] Yes, I did get into my first choice...I don't think that was difficult to do when I went into the program.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"Yup...The Human Condition.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"Lectures are lectures...some are really good...some are really bad.\" b. Seminars \"My seminars were, for the most part, really good because I had an excellent professor. I know of other people who had really lousy seminar profs and, as a result, had terrible experiences. 156 c. Tutorials \"For the most part they were great.\" (L Readings \"They were fabulous. We read many of the great western works.\" e. Papers \"In Arts One you write a lot, one essay a week, so it's a significant part of your learning experience. Because I had an excellent seminar professor who also marked fairly, these were good. I know of other professors who didn't mark fairly, so it wasn't so great. I remember having to go to a different tutorial than I would normally and having to read the paper of one student who basically couldn't write. People were afraid to say anything because they really didn't know what to say. The student didn't get a great mark, but he passed when he probably shouldn't have.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I didn't really have a relationship with any faculty other than Dr. Dobson.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"It was fine. At first, the students in my seminar group didn't want to say much, and Dr. Dobson had to work hard to get them to get involved...which he is incredibly good at. Other than that, it was fine, nothing special.\" h. Arts One Building \"It was a building...nothing special.\" 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"I would say that all that has changed is that my positive impressions of the program have gotten stronger. I'll always maintain the belief that lectures are a terrible way to teach.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I thought that I was a fairly average student. I'd say that I had above average potential, but I had had below average education to that point. My elementary education was good, but my secondary education was very poor. Maybe that's underselling myself, but I don't think I was really special in any way.\" 157 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"I think I came out of Arts One a much stronger writer and probably felt more confident about my academic abilities...but I basically felt that I was in the same boat as all the other students...I still feel that way.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"I took Classical Studies at U.B.C. It was less personal, obviously, which I didn't like...organizationally speaking Arts One was better. The transition was okay but all of a sudden you were taking five courses. Arts One was a good deal for sure, right, but even so somehow I found taking five courses was way easier once I'd done Arts One than the three courses...like you get nine units worth three courses...I don't know if it still is...like that was a good deal...but the next year I found five courses easier; I seemed to do less work...I don't know...but then I worked hard in fourth year.\" [Didyou find the class size transition tough?] \"My average class size wasn't too bad...a small department, and I had a lot of seminar classes and they were great, six students or so...but the mainstream courses you have to get to satisfy your degree are big, and they're useless because you sit there and unless the professor is just an inspired lecturer you're not learning all that much, I call it the sponge method of education. You sit there and try and soak up as much as you can but I don't think you're learning that much. You learn when you do the readings and you do the work, but you're not learning while you're sitting there listening to someone and maybe they're even boring. So I'd say some of the classes were just as good, but they were the smaller ones generally and that was one of the great things about Arts One that many of my other university classes didn't have.\" 11. Do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? \"It improved it definitely.\" Your critical reasoning skills? \"Yeah, I'd have to say yes all around to any positive question like that you ask me I'd say it improved me, but of course I remember it set me on the path to improving my writing and it improved a hell of a lot in the four years like it was consistent in improving.\" 158 14. What have you done since graduation? \"Not much...No, let's see. I've done a number of different things. Right after school finished I worked for the summer then I went traveling for a long time. After I came back I was in debt so I got a job at the Post Office and I worked as a letter carrier. Since I wasn't interested in doing that for my whole life I started a business with my brother at the same time as working at the Post Office. We did that for two years and then 11/2 years ago we ran into problems with it. I once again felt like I was stuck at the Post Office so I took a leave—I'm still a letter carrier in the summer—and I'm studying Law at McGill.\" 16. Do you think what you've chosen to do has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"Somewhat and just kindof in a basic way...it's hard to pinpoint any specific thing that may have led me from there to here but possibly just a good background in primary reading materials and realizing the benefits of knowledge, and really that's one thing about Law, you're finding out what the rules are on the other side of the box. This kind of desire to know more in that sense contributed.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No.\" 18. Would you do it again? \"I hope not starting out as an 18-year old again, but if I was an 18-year old again or just starting university again then yes.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"Yeah, I'd try to expand it so you can do Arts 2, 3, and 4 and get a degree that way.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Because I've now done four more years of university other than that one... I've worked in the business world and had it fail through no fault of my own, and I've gained a lot of real life experience... so it's hard to say...you've got to move on. I'd just say that it basically was a great education while I did it and it was exactly what I needed and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. In fact I have recommended it this year to one of my friend's nieces. I've always had positive things to say about it. But the only cautionary thing I'd say about it is that they really have to work hard and I don't know if they have or not, obviously I don't know much about it, 159 but they have to keep the best faculty they can 'cause without the right faculty, no matter how well set up the program is, it's not going to be good. If you don't have good people it's not going to be good. 160 Ian 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1967-68.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I think I was interested in the idea of something innovative and somewhat experimental after the experience of high school.\" [How did you find out about Arts One?] \"I think I remember...it's a long time ago...but in my last year of school I had done some looking around, I had gone to a number of different universities and even had a look at the U.B.C. Engineering School. And I ended up with the thought that I should do something with an interdisciplinary approach, so I looked at the reading list [of Arts One] and thought it was pretty good.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"Kitsilano High in Vancouver.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Yeah, I think so.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"Yeah, it was kind of a large, four-topic heading, with a reading list associated with each. And it was 'Love, Death, War, and Education.' Everybody always laughed at it because the themes were so big.\" And it was either take that, or it was 'Freedom and Authority' that was the parallel tutorial, which I thought was really interesting, too. And I made a number of friends in that, and we used to talk about each other's books, and I even went to some of the other stuff.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"I thought they were really interesting. There were a number of guest lecturers that came in from time-to-time. It was more like an assembly. I think they happened on Monday mornings to get the week off, and the guys who ran the thing, it was Blair Griffiths, they would introduce someone, and people like Eric 161 Smith would show up, basically unannounced, and they would pontificate. That was great. In fact the sort of stuff Eric Smith is talking about now he hasn't changed in 25 years, or 27 years, whatever it's been. He's been saying the same thing forever. But I remember that kind of thing. I remember other experts coming in, plus we had a very good seminar leader, Professor Nigel Akalski, who did not get tenure for some strange reason in the English Department even though I thought he was one of the best teachers I ever ran into.\" b. Seminars \"Oh I thought they were really good.\" [Were they quite small?] \"Yeah, I think our group was about 15.\" c. Tutorials \"I guess that is what I'm talking about.\" // mention groups of 4-5, and ask if they had them] \"No, no. Our year was the pilot year, and we didn't have that kind of small group discussion.\" d Readings \"Yeah, I've still got the books.\" // ask if he felt prepared for that level of reading out of high school] \"Sure, I think some of it was pretty hard slogging, especially the educational stuff which I found really quite fascinating. One of our themes was Education, so we read a lot of the seminal stuff and then a lot of the new thinking of the time, such as Neil Summerhill and Alexander Meiklejohn, Education Between Two Worlds, and lots of very good material as far as alternate approaches to education.\" e. Papers \"I didn't find the essays demanding.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"Mostly it was quite good. I thought they were all trying really hard. There was a couple people that probably shouldn't have been there because their personalities were just too abrasive as I recall, and this detracted from people dealing with them. But I didn't have this experience. I was just kind of told that, but it was all part and parcel to what a university situation is really like, just different personalities and a lot of people quite full of themselves.\" g. Your relationship with other participants (Forgot to ask) 162 h. Arts One Building \"It was a great place.\" 6. Looking back from your current perspective, have your views on any of these components changed? \"No, I was quite lucky because I guess I had such a good time in Arts One that I was part of a group that formed Arts Two. So we invented our own program, our own curriculum, in the second year.\" [Tell me what that program was like How was it structured?] \"If anything, it was more student organized and student led, and we had a great professor, Blake Tomson who actually went off to Erindale College in Ontario, at York University I think, to set up a similar interdisciplinary Arts program. But he'd worked with Sean Barker and was very much into the substance of communication, and in his own very subtle way helped us along, although we came up with our own core curriculum and our own reading list. It was really quite good.\" [How many students were in Arts Two?] \"Twenty.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"Oh I guess I was always taught to be an achiever.\" 8. Did you participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"I guess in retrospect it's helped sort of focus things. I've always hated the kind of spoon-fed curriculum aspect of high school, even though I think I was reasonably successful at memorizing all that stuff. But I was really happy to get into a self-motivated mode of learning.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your years in Arts One and Arts Two? What was the transition like? \"The classes got larger, not to say that everybody went to them. I just basically took stuff I was interested in.\" 10. What did you major in? \"I majored in English, and I took a lot of Classics courses. So I basically just read a whole lot of stuff in third or fourth year.\" 163 11. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"Oh, I don't know about that. I think English lectures and seminars are basically whoever has something to say just says it. Though I think the experience I had in the Arts One program, because it emphasized the group seminar thing so much more than being kind of an individual alone in something, you were used to it anyways in terms of expressing yourself to a degree.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I don't think so. Either you have it or you don't.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Oh yeah. I think being able to read a lot of stuff always helps. You know I remember at that reunion two years ago, Professor Rowan gave a talk. And it was great to hear him. It was like a shot out of the past. And what he said was very true, that just to have the opportunity to look at a reading list that has some really good stuff in it instead of looking at a textbook is important. I took a couple of geography courses because I was interested in urban issues, and the geography stuff was just garbage comparatively speaking, because it was like everybody's nightmare of sociology, that somebody has an idea and they write an abstract, and then everyone else kind of poses their idea based on somebody's other thought. And so your sort of mode of reasoning is you start out, your assumptions are two or three different people's sets of analysis, and you take it from there. And I always thought that was always highly insubstantial, and almost meaningless. And I much preferred getting to, as a starting point, somebody's creative work, and a very substantial analysis of something. And it was great being able to tug in creative authors along with philosophy, and you had this real mixed bag to begin analyzing problems. And for me it stood me in good stead because I was always interested in being an architect, and that's what I am. That's what I have to do anyway, pull together a whole bunch of disparate information and try to solve the problem.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"Oh yeah. I think that's one of the strengths of the program.\" 13. Did you find that the political activity and social activity of the time presented itself in the program (re-comments from questionnaires)? \"No. It all depends on who you are. There are an awful lot of uptight people who go to university and they get into something like that in first year, and it probably takes the top of their head off. And so they grasp at something like thinking a 164 person has radical politics or something. For the most part the university is an incredibly conservative place and it's just a breath of fresh air to run into anybody out there that has a divergent viewpoint from the regular kind of grist.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I did a B A in English Honours, and then I went right into Architecture, and I've been working as an architect ever since. I went through seven years of university one after another. It's funny. Last year one of my buddies from that first year in Arts One that I met, he's just getting his PhD in Religious Studies. He would be a great guy to interview.\" 15. Has your choice of work been influenced by your having participated in Arts One? \"No. I thought about being an architect before that.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, none in the least.\" 17. Would you do it again? \"Sure.\" 18. Would you change it in any way? \"Oh, I don't know. Probably not. We had a couple of retreats that were lots of fun; we should have had more.\" [Can you think of a way that students could have a better sense of who they are selecting as their seminar leader?] \"I don't know if I can really empathize, because even though I had a really good tutorial leader, Nigel Akalski. I had quite a bit of contact with the other people, maybe it was because they came into the tutorial sometimes. I don't know why it couldn't be more of a revolving thing in some ways, where it was kind of like team teaching instead of just one teacher.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It made me happy with my university experience. It got me off on the right foot and got me thinking about an interdisciplinary approach to things. And I was lucky because the fellow that ran the School of Architecture, I went in to see him in the beginning of my second year just to make sure I wasn't going off track too far, and he gave me this little parable. He said that education is, if you want to call 165 it a flower, there's two different ways to do it. You either have people assemble it for you and you get used to the parts, or you create it yourself. And he said that's what he encouraged people to do in the Architecture School. So I was, I guess, validated in the approach I wanted to take.\" 166 Janis 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I began in September 1987.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"I graduated from a high school in England. It's not the same in England.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Someone recommended me. You see, I'd been a house cleaner and a fitness instructor, and I was getting tired. So I went to the Womens' Office at U.B.C. and they suggested that I apply to go to school because I wanted to get a job that I wasn't cleaning houses and toilets. And they told me about the Arts One program.\" [What was it about the program that interested you?] \"I was led by the nose. I didn't know what school would be like. I'd never been to a university. So I just went on advice, and they said that it would be a good place to get my feet wet and that it was more personal and smaller classes, that it would be less overwhelming than going into first year English, and that it would be a good way of seeing if I would be suitable for academic life.\" 3. Do you remember the theme? \"Yes. It was 'The Individual and Society.'\" 4. Was this your first choice theme? \"Yes, it was my first choice because I had booked in way earlier than anyone else, I got myself on the list.\" 5. Who was your seminar professor? \"Dr. Walker. Mark.\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: 167 a. Lectures \"I was just absolutely fascinated with everything. I would have been appalled if I had heard anyone criticize anything to do with school. I thought I was so lucky to be here, and just had no critical sense at all. Everything that happened was wonderful. I guess I'm not a very good person to question. You know, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would ever go to a university, and I kept kicking myself'cause I couldn't believe I was here. So I was totally uncritical. I wasn't looking for anything but good things, and I just lapped them up. I loved the lectures. I sat at the front and stared, eyeball to eyeball, with whoever it was.\" b. Seminars \"I enjoyed those too. That was my first experience with sharing ideas, intellectual ideas, with other people. I found them really stimulating, the different approaches and attitudes. I was the only mature person in the class.\" [How did you find that?] \"Oh it didn't bother me at all.\" c. Tutorials \"That was good. I enjoyed that because you don't often get to read other people's work, and you don't often get the opportunity to share your own work. In English 100 I would have written a paper and had it read by the professor, and then it would have gone in the drawer. But in this case, it was read to others, and I got feedback from other students.\" d. Readings \"I liked it. I didn't enjoy everything. I read everything from cover to cover, even Leviathan—1 don't know if anyone else did—because I thought that was required of me and anything else would be asking for a 'D'. So I read everything. The first thing we read was Antigone, and I really loved it, I mean I loved the moral dilemmas—I just sort of took to it like a duck to water, really.\" e Papers \"I was only doing three courses, but I had three youngish children at the time, and that was all I could manage. And my husband, also, saw this like me going to a knitting class—it wasn't supposed to take up time at home. He didn't see me as a student; this was like womens' day out. So I had to work very hard within a very short time period available for me to be a student, doing my own thing. So I found it quite heavy for me at that time, and I worried and agonized over everything. But we had a very good selection of essays, something for everybody. There was only one time that I was stuck, and that was when I was supposed to write about Plato. And I had nothing to say, except that I found him cold and passionless and 168 bland, so I wrote what I didn't like about Plato, and it worked because I could get enthused on it. So I never really had much of a problem with the essays. Any problems I had were with my naivete. I went to a lecture on how to pass the ECT, and the professor gave us a very brief battle plan—choose three things and write them in three paragraphs. And Dr. Walker gave us an essay to do in class that would be practice, so I wrote it like the ECT, and I got a 'B'. And I went to his office and cried. I was so upset—'B', I'd failed. He told me that the problem was that it was sort of plodding and superficial, but I told him that I'd done it just like the ECT, and he said that it was practice for writing an in-class essay on the hop like the ECT, but it wasn't supposed to be written like the ECT. You know how the E C T is 'What I like about Vancouver,' the beaches, mountains, and the shops—you write a paragraph on the beaches, a paragraph on the mountains, and a paragraph on the shops, then you sum up by saying again what you said in the beginning. So I did it like that, and I was so, ahhh...but one 'B' doesn't kill you, does it. But it was my naivete. I just didn't know what was expected of people.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I found them surprisingly approachable, because I thought they were dons in ivory towers, and that we were something that came up from under a rock and they wouldn't want to talk with us. So I was quite surprised at the interest that was taken. Mark Walker took a tremendous interest. He was incredibly encouraging, and also seemed to understand my particular problems as a mature student who was an ex-cleaning lady. I found Mary Walton wonderful. She was great, she really was. And they were all good, really. I had no problems with any of them.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Yeah, that was good, too. We got pally. One or two of us got pally and did some things outside of school together. They never made me feel like I was an outsider. Never.\" h. Arts One Building \"I thought it had character. It reminded me of England... the halls of learning were decrepit. Such an environment was just the right thing, you know. I liked the building. I found it nice and cozy...I get cold in some classrooms, so it didn't bother me. I liked the steam coming out of the pavement. And I liked going to that one place that was like a club, rather than going to separate classrooms and brushing shoulders with millions of people. I think I would have been quite scared if I'd had to do that in first year.\" 169 6. Before you began Arts One, how did you feel about yourself academically? \"I had no idea. When I applied, I applied because I was encouraged to apply. All I hoped for was that they wouldn't come to me after two weeks and say 'listen, this is not for you, go back to your cleaning.' I was afraid. .1 just prayed that I wouldn't make a fool of myself, and anything else would be a bonus. So I had no idea how I'd do.\" 7. Did you participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yeah, because I began to get 'As' and \"A+'s'. When the paper came back with an 'A+', I didn't own it...I didn't recognize it as mine. I couldn't equate this success with who I had been and who I was. And every paper I worried because whatever it was, I couldn't see it, so it could easily go away again. I was afraid that I'd wake up one morning and I'd be back with the bucket and mop. I didn't know what it was, so I didn't expect it to stay. I'd breathe a sigh of relief after every essay, and at the end of Arts One I wrote two extra essays to cover for the 'B' and 'A-' that I had, so I had two more 'A+'s'.\" [So did you end up with an 'A+' in Arts One?] \"No I didn't. I didn't do as well on the exam. I got 89,1 think. My average has gone up since then, since I got the hang of things and stopped worrying.\" 8. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I didn't go full-time the next year. They asked me if I wanted to go into Honours English, and I did. And then I got worried that I should just start with something safe. And I did my French requirement, and I did other stuff, but I didn't do five courses. And then they said to me that it was ridiculous to do second year stuff and they would let a person do senior work in second year. So I haven't got many first year courses or second year. So then I went full-time after that.\" [How did the rest of your degree compare with that year in Arts One?] \"I think Arts One was the foundation stone. I never looked back. I felt like I had been recognized as having something to give, I felt that people wanted to help me to get there. I went from Mark Walker to Dr. Roberts, and it was like going from one mentor to another. They both took an interest. I had many people like that all the way through, people who bent over backwards to make sure that I got what I needed.\" 170 [How did you find the class size as you progressed along?] \"I never had those big lecture rooms. I'm now teaching English 100, and I find the main lectures immense. I just have my own little discussion group on a Friday. I never had anything big like that because I was in the honours program.\" [You did English Honours?] \"Yes, and I didn't have very big classes. But, you know, I was ready for it. I didn't worry. I just made new friends. I never saw my Arts One people again, really. They all went into different things.\" 9. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"I think that when you go into English 100, they hope that you've got the basics, but they don't know if you have, whereas in Arts One they assumed that I had. So I had a lot of catching up to do on my grammar work. They were taking off marks for things that I hadn't been marked for in Arts One. I hadn't had the formal training in grammar, and the finer points of punctuation I didn't have. So I had to watch that. The first paper in the honours program, they gave us and said that they'd give us a mark and we could re-write it. And he gave me my paper back and there was more red on it than there was black, and he gave me a 'B'. And I went to him and he told me exactly what was expected, and I went off and re-wrote it and tidied it up, and it came back an 'A+'. So, from the very first paper in second year, I knew what was expected. I didn't have to make any forced tries again. So the fact that you were allowed to take it home again and change it was very useful.\" [That's an interesting tool that you may be able to use with your own students.] \"I do teach basics, and I even give mini-workshops in my office to people that don't know their punctuation and their grammar.\" [Will this be the first year you've taught?] \"This will be my third term of teaching, and my third different set of students.\" [Have you had any mature students in any of your classes?] \"No. I had a woman of about 35, but I still think of her as young because I'm 46. Young people find it nice, too, because I tell them that 'in 1987,1 was in first year like you, and now I'm in the PhD program. So never tell me that I don't know how you feel. I do.' And even though I'm a lot older than them, they find it comforting. They don't think 'well, it's easy for her because she's a grown-up, or she's middle-aged.' They realize that being a first year is being a first year, and it's nerve-wracking for everybody, even moreso, perhaps, for a middle-aged person since you feel like your wrinkles are sort of showing up. You know, you do feel sort of decrepit at times.\" 171 10. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"It gave me lots of opportunities for practice, for experience, to take some risks. Having the same professor for a whole year, I was able to take risks because I didn't have to worry about if it didn't work. So I could get confidence and become more adventurous. I wrote 12 papers in one year, so it was just great. I was able to go into second year neck-and-neck with everyone.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"They developed too. It really sharpened and honed by critical reasoning skills.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"I felt strongly about things, so I was able to defend them. I was surprised at myself. I was usually a bit of a mouse at home before that—I'd agree with people. But I felt very strongly about things, and I felt strongly about the stance I'd taken so I'd argue. But I think being middle-aged and having teenaged children, I knew not to hold the floor. And at first I had difficulty in not letting them say everything and not giving the floor to them all the time because they were young and it was their turn, because I was used to being more of a listener at home. So I had to learn that I had as much right as they did to speak out. That was difficult at first. But I got used to it, and I began to be as vociferous as they were.\" 11. What have you done since graduation? \"I graduated from the BA at Christmas time last year, and I had the Christmas holiday, then in January I went into the PhD program in English. And I had a whole term of PhD, and then last June I got my BA certificate. At first they told me that I couldn't graduate because they said I didn't have enough credits outside of English because I'd done so much senior work in second year, and too much of my work was in English, they thought. And they refused to allow me to graduate, and my father had bought his ticket and everything. And I went to the advisor and said that this was ridiculous, because I wouldn't have had a BA, and therefore I would have been out of the PhD program and I had already done a term and had an 'A+' average, ( i n t e r r u p t e d b y te lephone call} So I've been in the PhD program for 11/2 years. They made me do 36 credits of course work instead of 18 because I hadn't got a Master's. So I had to plow through a lot of course work, and I've got one more course to do~a directed reading which I'm doing in the same year that I do my comps.\" [Do you know what you'll do your thesis on?] \"A comparison between British and American Catholic writers, post-Vatican 2, and the directions they've taken since Vatican 2. [And Mark Walker is on your committee?] \"Yes, and he'd been on my committee for my graduating honours essay, and it was fun for me to have him come back at the end of my BA because he'd set me on my path.\" [So did you get to go to your graduation ceremony 111 after all?] \"Yeah. They said yeah, this is ridiculous, we're stupid. You can graduate. Of course you can graduate. But it gave me 24 hours of hell. I cried and cried and cried, because my father was coming, and I thought to myself that I knew it couldn't be. It was a dream. I knew that the bubble would be popped. I just thought that that had to happen because it had all been too magic. You know, that letter coming through the door that you can't graduate, you need six more units to graduate. It was Grant Singer who helped me. He was great. He could see. I mean it was silly, because I had so much else outside of English. I had French outside of English... I did my requirement for French, and then I went on and did more. And I had Religious Studies, and everything. It was crazy. But they were looking at their list of requirements, and they look for this, this, this, and this, and they don't look at anything else but that. And Dr. Singer said yes, this is crazy.\" 12. Have your academic choices been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"I want to be a prof. I looked at Mary Walton and said 'I want to be like that. When I grow up I want to be like Mary Walton.' She knows that. I really felt a connection with her because she's running a home and such. I feel that men who have wives and families have an advantage over single men, whereas women with families do that as well. See, when I was going to university, my husband was going to do an M B A . It was understood that he would just study and do nothing else. He'd eat and leave the table, and he'd study when he wanted to, and I would do all the housework, all the cooking, and he wouldn't have any responsibilities but studying because this M B A was so hard. Well, now I'm doing a full-time PhD and teaching, and I still do the cooking and washing and the house. That's the difference between being a woman and a man. It's crazy, but that's the way it works. I reckon that we have to be twice as smart. I don't see Mary Walton as much now, but when I became a T A she told me to come see her and she'd offer any help that she could. But you know, she gave a lecture, and I thought that's just what I want to be like when I grow up. I think she's about three years older than me.\" 13. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"None. My daughter Daniela took it too. I put her onto it. She's now going into fourth year in English and Theatre. Arts One is a family affair.\" 14. Would you do it again? \"Yup. I would. I want to teach Arts One. I want the circle to go full circle. I'd give them a guest lecture if they'd have me.\" 173 15. Would you change it in any way? \"I wouldn't do anything differently from Mark Walker. He couldn't have been any better, because he cared about us as individuals. He saw us all in our own situations. That's a great thing in a massive university, to be seen as an individual. I wouldn't do anything differently than he did. I think I would give the students more credit for being studious than some of the professors did. I didn't like the way some of them said 'If you don't want to listen, leave.', that sort of thing. I felt like I was in grade 12 when I heard that. I thought people are paying to go to school, and they're going to be there because they want to do well, and if they don't they won't be there next year anyway. I felt like some people's attitudes...they didn't need to treat people like they were still wet behind the ears. But Mark didn't do that. I wouldn't change anything else, nothing at all. The lectures are smashing, and then you went off for 10 minutes and had coffee, and then the seminars where you went into more depth and discussed, then writing on certain things. I remember that we were allowed to write on what we wanted to write, but Mary Walton made them write on certain things. I never had to write on poetry, and so I didn't. When I got into second year, I was really defensive about not understanding poetry and not wanting anything to do with it. It took me a year to overcome that. Fortunately, Dr. Roberts was very kind about it. I was very rude. I had an oral exam in second year, and I got really uppity because it was on poetry and I had a professor who was unsympathetic, and Dr. Roberts was almost off his chair in laughter 'cause I really got hot under the collar. I was defensive. I didn't think I could understand poetry. I thought that was for intellectuals.\" 16. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It was the perfect launching pad for a person that wants to go into Arts. It's a nightmare for anyone who doesn't want to write papers. I had a friend who was miserable in it, absolutely miserable there, and he dropped out in the second year because he didn't want to write papers...he was terrified and he wasn't good at papers. But someone like me who wants to go into History or Philosophy or English or one of the languages, it's the perfect launching pad. It really is. I've never looked back. You know, if I had gone into English 100, it might have been different. I might have got someone who didn't give a damn about me, didn't care. I might have had a bad experience and not come back. And who knows. I had no confidence then. That's not necessarily true...I just might have stood up and told them to fuck off. That's another thing I'm known to do. But going into Arts One was just the perfect thing.\" 174 Jordan 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1981-82...no, it was 1982-83.\" 2. Did you end up in your first choice theme group? \"I think so...I can't remember.\" 3. Was the theme important to the nature of what you were studying? \"I don't exactly know what it was, but I think it was such a broad and general theme that the books that you read, which is really what the course is based on is the books that you read could be associated with the theme in some way but it wasn't very tight...there was a lot of diversity of material.\" 4. Do you remember why you chose Arts One? \"Because I had an interest in English and in writing, and from what I heard it just sounded like a more interesting approach than first-year English which is a mandatory course and you get a lot of people in it who are just in it because they have to do it instead of it being what they choose to study.\" 5. What high school did you attend? \"University Hill Secondary.\" 6. [My comments about University Hill as being a significant feeder to Arts One] \"Well when I was at UHill it was...I don't know what it's like now...I think it's become more mainstream now...it was very much an alternative school...it wasn't very structured. It was more like a university in the sense that there wasn't someone always telling you what to do, and also because it was a smaller school, there were I think seven people in my grad class, you got to know the teachers quite well so that teachers who saw that you were good in a certain area might recommend the program to you...I think that one of the English teachers there recommended Arts One to me.\" 7. Did you have a parent who worked at U.B. C. ? \"No. My mother attended U.B.C. and graduated a couple years before I did, and my father has always been involved with the university.\" 175 8. Do you remember how you thought of yourself academically in high school before you actually began Arts One? \"I think I probably thought I was an above average student, although I perhaps had some problems with discipline. I think I certainly regarded myself as being strong in English and in the Humanities.\" 9. How did you feel after a little bit of time in Arts One? Did you still feel the same way? \"I think so. I suppose being younger than a number of people in my class in Arts One made a difference because there were a couple of people who were quite outspoken and tended to dominate the conversation and discussion, who had opinions that were more concrete.\" 10. Try to remember how you felt as a first-year Arts One student I'm going to list off a number of aspects of Arts One, and I'd like you to comment on them based on how you felt at that time. a. Lectures \"They varied from good...very interesting and stimulating, to some that were hard to stay awake through, and I think it probably had something to do with the facility too. Is Arts I still in the same building? [Yes]. Especially when it was hot, it was hard to stay awake. I don't remember the lectures as being the high point or highlight of the academic program, it was much more the class discussions.\" b. Seminars \"They were good...they were really interesting. Ideas were developed. We basically took these books and tore them apart in ways that you would never do in a lecture. For someone who hasn't gone to university before, it's very challenging.\" c. Tutorials \"The tutorials...I can't really remember the tutorials all that well. I don't remember having any problems with them or thinking they were a waste of time.\" d. Reading List \"The reading list was excellent. We read great literature that you probably wouldn't read in your day-to-day life...things like , and Walt Whitman, Greek philosophers...a tremendous range...that was really good since I ended up majoring 176 in Political Science and International Relations. Probably some of the reading in Arts One set me in that direction.\" e. Essays \"Well, with the particular professor I had, if you wrote your essays using certain themes you were more likely to get a good mark. He seemed very interested in the male/female relationship in terms of the feminist movement, the whole sexual politics. It was quite interesting because we had a couple feminists in the class; it led to some very interesting discussions, again something that is quite unique to Arts One to get into that type of thing. But I don't think that the discussions that dealt with sexuality and sexual politics were intimidating or can be construed as inappropriate. It was just new for a lot of us. It seemed if you worked into your essays the relationship between men and women, for example I did one on Samson and Delilah, you did well.\" / Faculty \"I thought...I can't say I was struck by the brilliance of any particular faculty member, I don't mean that as an insult. I suppose it had more to do with the information being presented than with the faculty members themselves. Ultimately it comes down to how you present the information, and some of the professors were better at that than the others. I only remember one professor as giving very poor lectures. My professor was very good. He was a lot of fun; he didn't talk down to you.\" g. Other Students \"I think that each group, each class, was quite unique and I thought that my class was relatively intelligent people, people like myself with an interest in being there. The group members ranged from people like me who spoke on a fairly regular basis, to an outspoken feminist, to a quiet woman who didn't speak at all that year, but who certainly followed the conversation. I thought that was quite a good range.\" h. Arts One Building \"What I remember most about it is just being really hot.\" 7. Have any of your views of these elements changed with time? \"No because I haven't had any experiences with the program since to change my views and for me it was a positive experience and I haven't heard any evidence to the contrary.\" 177 8. How did you find the transition to 2nd year? \"I don't remember having any problem with the transition. I think that if you had established a group of friends in the program and didn't know a lot of other people on campus, then you might suddenly feel lost. I grew up here and had lots of friends here. You don't have the same level of intimacy with your professors, that's for sure. One of the positive things about the program is that in first year university you develop a close relationship with your professors because it's such a small setting; there's a lot of people who come into first year who are just lost and don't make the same level of contact with their professors.\" [How did you find the academic transition] \"I had no problems. I found that the English courses I took afterwards were pretty straightforward because we did a lot of critical thinking in Arts One, and the English courses in second year probably built on English 100, and from what I heard about English 100 it was pretty superficial compared to what we did in Arts One.\" [How was the rest of your undergraduate experience?] \"I guess I eventually got bored, but it wasn't so much bored by what I was studying because by third and fourth years it started to fit together and make sense. Having been here so long I was glad to get out, but it was a positive experience.\" [Did you live off campus during your undergraduate years?] \"Yes.\" 9. How did you perceive yourself in comparison to other students in your classes who had not taken Arts One? \"I don't remember feeling that I had any advantage, but I do remember feeling very comfortable with the work.\" [Did you feel that the discussion lacked in any way?] \"I can remember taking certain courses where the discussion groups were really good, but obviously in a class with 40 students there isn't the same opportunity for discussion as in Arts One.\" 178 [One of the comments that recurred in the questionnaires received was that if you have a poor professor, it could negatively affect a student's first year. Do you have any comments on this?] \"I don't think that I had a bad professor so it's hard to say; I did have a positive experience. But I can see that if you had a bad professor or just didn't like what the program was all about it could be very difficult because three of five credits is a lot of your program.\" [Another thing that came out of the questionnaires was that the transition to 2nd year could be difficult for some students, so much so that some dropped out] \"When you think about it, when you go through high school and into university, you're going to be hit by a transition no matter what. In fact, the transition will more likely hit them in first year if they don't do Arts One than in second year if they do Arts One and probably have developed some support networks already.\" [What wouldyou say to the comment Arts One should be in thirdyear or fourth year, not first year?] \"I disagree because by 3rd and 4th year, again it depends on what sort of student you are, you are going to be in the situation where you have more to say, you have more aptitude for participation; you've formed more opinions and are better able to discuss them. I think that it's better to have the Arts One experience early, because if you have that experience early, you'll get more out of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years where it's not as structured.\" [What do you think of the idea of having an Arts Two following Arts One?] \"I think that would be really good for people who are into quite abstract humanities, somebody who wanted to do philosophy or another more abstract area...But if you want to get experience in the B A that is going to be useful in the business world, then you're probably better off doing some of the other courses, such as Political Science or International Relations. I found that 4th year was most like 1 st year, because it wasn't really until the 4th year that the discussion reached the same level as in Arts One.\" 10. How do you think Art One affected your writing skills? \"I think my writing skills were half decent when I went into the program but it certainly allowed me to improve them.\" 179 [Critical Reasoning skills?] \"Definitely it helped a lot, because you were forced to look at things in a different way and to try to find different ways of looking at things.\" [Ability to discuss ideas?] \"I'd say that it was good for me, but there were people who would have come out not having improved those skills at all, perhaps because they were too shy to participate. I remember having what I thought were intellectual discussions outside of class with people in Arts One, and I thought that was fun, and probably unique for first year students.\" [Do you think Arts One could be intimidating for certain students?] \"Yes, for those students who I've mentioned a couple times who are probably very bright but not comfortable being in a situation where they have to speak out and discuss. If you have a person in your class who is very vocal who dominates discussion and has a real repoire going with the prof where the discussion goes back and forth between them, then it can be very intimidating.\" [Did you know that discussion would be an expectation before you went into the program?] \"I knew that it was something more intimate than your standard first year classes.\" 11. What did you do after graduation? \"I left Vancouver before my graduation ceremony and went to [Berlin?] to study German for a few months. Worked for an export company for awhile. Went to Asia and traveled for almost a year. Went to journalism school (Langara) and worked for a newspaper, then moved into public relations, did some freelance work, and then was hired at U.B.C. Community Relations as Contract Editor for U.B.C. Reports.\" 12. Were your career choices influenced in any way by Arts One? \"Yes. I think that Arts One didn't create, but it fueled my curiosity and desire to understand and, to some extent, challenge things. My traveling probably was...well I always wanted to travel, but my Arts One experience probably set me on that track to realize there is so much out there, and there's so much more to what you see or hear.\" 180 13. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Well, I did a lot of writing when I was in high school, so I was already interested in that sense, but ultimately it helped me realize that there is a lot to understand.\" 14. Do you have any recommendations? \"That's tough because you tend to remember the positive things and forget the things you were unhappy about. I'm quite sure there were times that I was unhappy with aspects of Arts One, but I've forgotten them. I suppose I'd have to question how beneficial the lectures are, I know that I got much more out of the discussion groups and I can't remember taking copious notes during a lecture presentations.\" 15. Other comments? \"I thought it was a good program, it fit in with the flow of life. Going to UHill was an interesting experience, a different experience. The Arts One program, the smallness of it, was great. I know I have friends who went through the program who wouldn't say only positive things [gave me the name of a friend who had a poor experience].\" 181 Keith 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I enrolled in 1977, and it was just for that one year. I was a full-time student.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"I went to high school down south of Seattle in the States. It was Clover Park High School in Tacoma, Washington.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"When I applied for university, I applied only to U.B.C. My older brother was here and he was going into Forestry. So when I applied, I applied for the BA program, and if my memory serves me correctly, I looked through and I was told by a counselor or somebody that this program existed and that you could get credit for what was, back then, nine credits, I believe a normal full year being 15. For some reason, and I've been unable to recall, I decided that would be better for me. It wasn't a logical, well thought out reason that I would remember today. I think perhaps it was more that someone told me that the classes would be small, and it would be a more intimate setting, and my older brother who had gone through Science told me about the 300 student auditoriums. I'd say that it's most accurate to say that those factors were the most influential.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Now I don't remember there being a choice. There was just one theme group back then.\" 5. Do you remember the theme? \"No, I don't. The gentleman who headed my section, Ray Hickling, is still at U.B.C. I met him just this past year. He's in the Department of , and he taught in Arts One for only that one year. So he remembers that year very well.\" [Did he remember you?] \"No he didn't, but that's not unusual. I wasn't one of the better students. In fact, I was quite marginal. I struggled a lot in my first year, and some of the students continued on with him, meeting him on Friday's and having a beer at the Pit into their second year and third year, but I never did. In fact, my whole memory of the Arts One thing is probably more negative than most.\" 182 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"At the time, I went through the whole first year in a kind of daze. I was never really cognizant of what I was doing day-to-day or week-to-week or month-to-month. I had come straight out of high school and was only 17 or something, and it was a bigger world and I don't really remember having any sense of anything gelling or coalescing. So in those larger group meetings I was often lost as to what the larger purpose was. Everyone else seemed to know, but I was one of the few who seemed to be dazed and confused.\" b. Seminars \"The seminars were better. They were smaller, somewhere between eight and 12 people. And they were better because the issue that was talked about in the main large seminar was. I'm not sure if those preceded or followed the small meetings of the small seminars. The small ones were pretty good for helping us to understand what it was we were supposed to be covering. The problem that I could see was that we were reading many different books of many different themes. Some of them that came to mind, and one that I've looked back on, is a book on the structure of the scientific revolution by Thomas Kuhn, and it was a revolutionary book in the late '60's on understanding how things happen in the scientific world and how revolutions occur in thought in academia. With a lot of post secondary education behind me, I really appreciate it now. But at the time it made absolutely no sense to me. Another one was a book on art, and again, these were right out of my depth. We were getting credit for first year English, first year Philosophy, and first year History, and I don't know that I got a lot of English, philosophy or history in there. I don't know what we got, but it certainly wasn't any of those three, although they tried to give you those three. But I, myself, would probably have been better served in the more structured format of actually taking English 100, History 100, Philosophy 100.\" c. Tutorials \"Yes, we had those. We met upstairs in the Arts One Building outside his {Ray Hickling's} office, and there were three or four of us, and we looked at essays and talked about things.\" [Did you find that useful?] \"I found it rather ego-shattering. I thought I was a pretty good high school student. I'd been student council president and I had pretty good grades, and I rather fancied myself as sort of the big man on campus at a very large high school. And wow, it really shot me down, Ray Hickling.I know he was used to teaching third and fourth year and graduate students, but I just was shocked. I was getting C's and D's and failing. So every time I'd go in there with a sense of dread about what would happen next. So that feeling pervaded my entire year, especially those tutorials. And I 183 remember one where afterwards I talked to him and he asked me whether I...I confided with him about my insecurity with the whole year and how it was going, and I remember he surprisingly counselled me as to whether I really should be at university or not; whether I was cut-out to handle it, asking me whether I read much as a student, and maybe I didn't like to read much, and I'd always liked to read. That really was difficult, so from then to the end of the year I was in dread as to whether I'd even pass or not.\" d. Readings \"Again, it was so eclectic that, from hindsight, I can see what they were trying to do, and if I had been a third or fourth year student doing this, I would have gotten so much more out of it. Or even now to go back and to experience that as a learning experience, I would have pulled out much more. I think I internalized maybe 10% of what they were trying to throw out at us, versus now where I'd hope that I'd take in much more. At the time, the reading list was so scattered as they tried to cover areas of philosophy and history, such that I found it difficult to find a unifying thread through the whole program. Now I may have been a minority, and the program may not have been designed for me. But I was told that I was one of the types it had been designed for when I went in.\" e. Papers \"Now, to be fair, when I look back my essays stunk. And I don't think I was quite up-to-snuff. I lacked the ability to write a coherent and grammatically correct essay, so from that perspective it was true and the assessment was correct. In hindsight, I don't think that the requirements were particularly onerous or overly burdensome. But you got nine credits, so they expected you to be reading a book a week and to contribute and to write some thought-provoking and grammatically correct essays, and a first year student should be able to do that. And to be fair, I wasn't able to do it so I did experience a lot of difficulty. I was there too young, which is what I think the problem was.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I guess again I mention Ray Hickling, who as an individual is very nice but is somewhat rough around the edges as a professor and a teacher. Even now, when I met him in the cafeteria and chatted with him briefly, I noticed that he hadn't changed much. He's not into political correctness and he won't pull any punches. He'll tell you what he thinks straight out. And so, for a student of a fairly immature and wide-eyed, increasingly insecure and self-doubting student that I became through that first year, he in particular didn't help me much because he just reinforced my disbelief in myself. I didn't have much contact with any of the others on a personal level. They certainly chatted and such, but I don't think that I could remember their faces even if I passed them now.\" 184 g. Your relationship with other participants \"It was not too bad. I knew them by name, but I never developed any friendships with any of them. My brother was in Forestry, and I tended to go down there and have lunch with him. The whole experience...I wouldn't say so much my naivete derives from the Arts One program itself, but rather from it as a first year program for someone as young as me and for the situation I was in. So I didn't develop many friendships. I didn't live out on campus. I lived on the North Shore and commuted back and forth with my brother. So I didn't develop the sort of relationships that I think the Arts One program hopes that its students will.\" h. Arts One Building \"It's nice to have a small building to yourself. It did help to create a sense of identity in an otherwise ocean of undergraduate population. In Arts you don't really have your own building so people carve out little areas. So I would say that was a positive thing having that little building there.\" 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"I wouldn't say that my hindsight has made it any clearer. I understand what they were trying to do more now, and I'm not sure I agree with the program and what it's trying to do, but it does attract a certain type of student. So I understand the argument for it, although I wasn't one of those types of students.\" [What is it that they were trying to do?] \"I think they were trying to establish a more holistic approach to education, an approach that wasn't quite as segmented as I think post secondary education has become. I think that's what they were trying to do, though I may be wrong. It's my understanding of what the program was intended to be and really what they tried to do with it—to create a common theme, to under a common theme join all those different streams, although I don't remember what the theme was for our year which is pretty sad. But I'm sure I could look back. I kept a lot of material from that first year.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I thought I was a pretty good student. I had a pretty good gpa. I'm Canadian, but I did go to school down in the States, and we were on a 4.0 system and I had a 3.3 or 3.4, which is a high 'B.' Like I said, I had been high school president, and I thought I had been fairly successful in high school. I thought I was a good student, although I recognize now that my academic skills weren't...I know now that the high school academic requirements in the States are not nearly as good as they are here for grade 12, and I suffered from that. I don't blame them for that, but be that as it may, my ability to come up here right out of grade 12—1 think I was really at the lower end. My grades weren't, but my actual ability was.\" 185 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"I felt so bad that I took the first term off from September of my second year. I did pass, and I took six units of French at the same time, which I hated, to make my 15 units and satisfy the language requirement, and gradually fell further and further behind. So I just barely passed French in that first year...I think I may have got 51% which was the bare minimum to pass, and I think that was more of a give me than an earned grade. And the Arts One, I think I may have got 60% on the year, which I think was fairly generous. And so I was fairly disillusioned, to the point that I wasn't sure that I was going to go back to U . B . C , or even at all. So that summer I really mulled it over, and then my dad suggested going to Europe with my older brother and him, so we did that in late August until halfway towards the end of September, and then I started back to school in January with a renewed sense of determination.\" 10. What did you major in? \"My major was in Anthropology and Archaeology.\" 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"It was 100%) better. I slowly focused, and I found something that I was interested in. Arts One was just too diverse. I realize that my character is towards the specialized. I'm not a person who can look at things with a broad scope and have a clear view of everything. I need to understand where we're coming from, and where exactly it is that we're going. I'm more of an engineer in that way. So certainly in Archaeology I had a good sense of what it was we were doing and what was expected, and it was more science-oriented in that respect.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I think it did. If you want to ask the question 'Did Arts One impact on them?', then certainly it did. It showed me how poor they were. But if you want to ask the question 'Did Arts One point these things out or help me any better than any other first year program might have?', I'd say no. Because if I'd taken first year English, I would have gotten probably twice as much criticism, and the History and the Philosophy. I may not have even passed, actually, first year. I don't know. I must say that while Ray Hickling did point out a lot of my mistakes, he wasn't very constructive in helping me to write. I should have taken a remedial English writing course, and they're available now. I'm not sure if they were available back then, but something like that would have served me well, although I'm not sure that my ego would have stood that too well.\" 186 [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"The Arts One program, itself, I don't think contributed much to it. That came later as I matured. The program, itself, that I experienced was so broad that I think specific issues and questions are necessary to develop critical reasoning. You can't become critical of something when you're still speaking very generally. You have to be dealing with specific issues instead of broad concepts. I don't know that it, for me anyway, really helped to develop that particular skill, and I think that I would have been better served in a larger, albeit more specific course. I must say I'm ignorant about what History 100 is or was at that time, or English 100, but I suspect that you covered certain periods of history in certain geographical areas, so it was delimited spatially and temporally. And that sort of thing is what I recognize now to be my strong point. So I was a lost fish.\" 13. What have you done since graduation? \"I completed my Bachelor of Arts degree in Honours Anthropology. I tell the kids I know now that are having trouble—I tutor some Japanese kids~I tell them 'hey, I had a scholarship going into U.B.C, and I virtually flunked out, failed all of my Christmas exams, and I barely passed, which is a hard thing to admit. I say that first year is the toughest, and the second year I got a little better, and the third year I got better, and fourth year was much better. In fact, I did it over five years because of that second year only being a half year. And I applied in my third year for the honours program and finished up with it. After I finished in Anthropology and Archaeology, I went to Japan. A professor there in Archaeology, Grant Tagert, I think he's department head now...that was '82, and he knew a fellow at Tokyo University, and my girlfriend at the time and I went over there and were employed by the University Museum for a year doing some archaeological research and helping out that one particular professor. And then I'd expected to go down to Australia to ANU, Australian National University, and do my PhD in Archaeology, but I had student loans and such and ended up staying in Japan and working for a publishing company and worked teaching English at a women's college. And I stayed for six years. And I dumped my girlfriend and met my wife. Then I started my MBA in Japan. I've always had an interest in many different things. Gradually the archaeology as I did it, I began to realize that I liked the library work but I didn't like the muddy, dirty work. So I wasn't thrilled with finding little projectile points, ads, blades and such, and I just didn't like getting dirty and wet. I wanted a little bit of business background, so I started my MBA there at Temple University, which is in Philadelphia but they have a branch campus in Tokyo. While I was over there I met some friends who are Christian missionaries, I became Christian over there, and I decided that I wanted to come back to Canada and I applied to McGill University to finish my MBA there. And I was accepted. I got back to Vancouver in '88, and I was going to go, but I had prayed about it quite a bit and decided that I'd go on this missionary course. So I 187 went on that over back to Hawaii, because I figured if I was going to do any missionary work I was going to do it in a nice location. So I went to Hawaii for three or four months, and ended up back in Japan doing missionary work. Then I came back to Vancouver after six months, and applied at Regent College. Meanwhile I told McGill that I was taking a year to think about it, and then just never got back to them, and finished up my Masters degree in Theology at Regent. Then I became interested in the whole post secondary theological education, whether they're two year bible colleges up to regular universities that are trans-denominational like Trinity Western or grad schools like Regent. So I applied at U.B.C. because I didn't want to leave Vancouver. I'd gotten married, and my wife was starting at U.B.C, and she'd gone to college in Japan and done mathematics there, and she was happy here, and we'd bought a house so I didn't want to leave. So I applied to U.B.C. to Higher Ed, and they said that they wouldn't recognize the Regent and that I had to do another Masters degree. Even though it's on the campus, it's just an affiliated college, which means diddly squat. So I had to do another Masters degree there, the MEd in Higher Ed, and I've finished all the course work and I'm just doing the major paper. Last year I did the first year of the PhD seminar with Ian Smith, but I haven't really been accepted into the PhD program yet.\" 15. If you had the chance to take Arts One again, would you? \"Yes and no. If I had the opportunity to take it now for fun, certainly I would. If I could sit in now and participate, sure I would if I had the time. I'd love to. Back then, it was not the program for me. When I started I was 17 and it wasn't right for me, but who was to know.\" 16. Would you change it in any way? \"I don't know. If you're asking a student who was let down with the program, then perhaps. But if you're asking someone who understands that one person can't dictate the whole program, that I was probably an unusual case, then no—I think it served the others quite well. They all seemed to have done well and benefited positively from it. In that sort of non-selfish sense, no, I wouldn't change anything. I think it was a pretty successful program. I just think I was a round peg in a square program.\" 17. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"I could be wrong, but I would say that the impact has been, in an academic sense, negligible. But in a building sense, of course, but I think whatever program I took in first year would have pointed out the deficiencies. In that respect, it isn't an Arts One specific answer, but a general answer. Yeah, sure, first year at U.B.C. taught me that I didn't have the stuff and that I better get serious and work a lot harder at 188 it. So in that sense, in sort of a general scholastic sense versus a program-specific sense, the answer would differ.\" 189 Krista 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"It would have been September '84.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Because it had three courses that I was very interested in anyway, it fulfilled my prerequisites in Philosophy, English, and rlistory, and I was going to be taking all of those anyway. And I came from a very small high school so I figured it was a good way to stay in a smallish group in a large university.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"St. Thomas Aquinas in North Vancouver.\" [How did you hear about the program?] \"I think I was on a tour of the university or some introductory thing like that and I picked up a brochure and thought the reading list was really cool. It seemed like university to me, in a sort of Educating Rita kick I think.\" [Didyou live in residence?] \"Not until my last two years of school. At that time I was living at home.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Yes, I think I did.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"I think it was something about society...human beings and society, or something like that. It was very humanistic, I remember that.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a Lectures \"I loved them. I had Professor Davis as my principal lecturer and he was great. The large lectures weren't as good as the smaller groups sitting around the table.\" 190 b. Seminars \"A couple of the people in the group went on with me to do English Honours together, so I liked the company of a couple of people there. It was just really stimulating and fun to be able to discuss literature and things like that.\" c. Tutorials \"I didn't get as much out of the tutorials and I can't really remember why. I think it was just it used to be just discussing the papers I had written, and for whatever reason I didn't enjoy them as much as the seminars. Perhaps it was just because it was two-on-one things and we always ended up talking about the other person.\" d. Readings \"I loved the readings. I find that of all the stuff that I read in my whole undergrad at university, I think that the books that I read there formed such a good groundwork or grounding in the general humanities, things like The Odyssey and The Iliad and Aristotle's Poetics, and things like that.\" e. Papers \"I remember that I was amazed that I got an A- on my first one and I was amazed because I was at university and thought that I would be getting brutally obscene marks, so they were fine. I don't remember much about them except I always left them up until the last minute. / Your relationship with faculty \"I recall them being very warm people on the whole, very open to discussion and things, particularly Professor Davis. He was great; I went to his funeral when he passed away and he was a great guy.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"I wouldn't say that there's anyone that I keep in touch with who I actually met there. It actually happens that one of my good friends now was in Arts One at the same time as me, but we didn't know each other then, which is kind of interesting. But I have good feelings. There's no one that I didn't get on with, but I just didn't form any good friendships with anyone at that particular time in Arts One.\" 191 h. Arts One Building \"Oh I liked it, it was funky for sure. I liked the psychedelic bathroom. The building is old and dilapidated; it sort of suits the program. I think the psychedelic bathroom was one of their first assignments in the '60's.\" 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"It's like most things; you don't realize what you've got when you've got it. I'm quite nostalgic about that time and now the idea of 'poor me, I've got a week to write an essay on The Dubliners' would not be so awful. I look back on it and wish I entered into it a bit more, particularly socially, but also engaged in the topics more. But I also wasn't the same person back then so it's really a waste of an exercise, but I don't feel badly with the way I interacted with the experience, but now I could probably get more out of it.\" [Comments on questionnaire re: having an Arts One-type program in 4th year instead of first year. J \"Yeah, that's a good point, but I would disagree with that because it was necessary at first year, it was wonderful at first year. For me I found every year after that a little disappointing, but it was the naivete going in of it; it was a wide-eyed experience. It was everything I expected university to be, a lot more romantic, a sort of Brideshead Revisited and Educating Rita kind of private tutorials and discussions groups and all that stuff, and a really good learning environment for me. Part of that was that everyone was really new to it—it was a wonder year kind of thing.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I think I thought I was pretty smart, but I didn't anticipate that I'd end up doing as well as I ended up doing in Arts One.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"I had more confidence as a result.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I think on the whole it was a little disappointing after Arts One, to be honest. I found it very disjointed to be going to so many different classes with different people; I didn't feel like I had a safe enclave anymore.\" 192 [Didyou find the curriculum content disappointing?] \"No I don't think so. It was just different.\" [The actual classes?] \"My classes in English and Philosophy were small, but it's just that really logistically, you don't get the same kind of repeated exposure to people...a little bit in the honours and pre-honours program there was a little bit of coherence to that program. You ended up seeing quite a few of the same people, and quite a few of the people I knew in Arts One went into that program too. So it wasn't a drastic transition, but I think I preferred the Arts One environment.\" 10. What did you major in? \"English Honours.\" 11. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"I was very intimidated going into the English Honours program. I didn't feel that I was as smart as them, but I felt like I was better read and had a lot more perspective if I did screw up. If I only got a \"C\" that was all right because I knew there was a lot more to life. I kind of had more of a philosophical thing going and I felt that the people coming into the program who had just been in the ordinary courses were a little bit more high school in their mentality than I was.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I think it probably helped, but I think it probably helped my analytical ability more though in terms of organizing thoughts because what would happen is that I would just spew things, and I think it really helped deciding what was important and what wasn't—prioritizing my thoughts and organizing them.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"I always been a mouthy person, I think that's one of the reasons I probably enjoyed Arts One because I don't have a problem talking.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"After I graduated with a BA in English Honours, I went and did the Banff Publishing Workshop, which involved a month of books and magazines, and that's what I was going to do, I was going to go into publishing. And then I realized there was no work in Vancouver and I'd have to move to Toronto. I got a job at 193 Pacific Press in the Advertising Department with intentions to going down into editorial and doing some writing, and in the interim I applied for Law School. So I essentially took two years out and then I was accepted into Law School in 1990, and I'm just in the throes of completing all of that right now. I finished Law School in May of'93, and then I had some time off and did some research out at U.B.C. for Dr. Parker who is Director of out there, and then I went to the Court Houses and did a clerkship with Judge Braidwood. That was a wonderful experience and I've just finished that, and now I'm working in the law firm that I'm going to be articling with in September. I'm doing that for a month and then I'm going to visit family. \" 15. (Answered in previous question} 16. Has your choice ofprofessions been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"I don't think so. It's probably a reflection of what I really wanted to do, insofar as that, in retrospective, it might have had some impact. It was a good sort of firmer of what I wanted to do.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, none at all, none at all. I absolutely loved it...isn't that boring? I would recommend it to anyone.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"I'd have more women profs...I don't remember any women profs there. I don't know if it was just me, but I got the feeling that there weren't many social activities. I don't know if it was just me running into class and then running out, but I think I would have had more encouragement and more sort of informal debating things or social events, something like that. What happens, I found, is that I run into a lot of people, and a lot of people I get on with, that went to U.B.C. and did take Arts One and around the same time that I did, and I think that isn't it too bad that we didn't become friends in that program. These are clearly people that I share common interests with and things.\" [Comments on questionnaires re: impact of poor professor] \"I think that would be the case, because my experience was so great and I think he (Dr. Davis) was the first person I mentioned to you when I remembered Arts One to you, so I can easily see how being stuck with a prof who didn't really stimulate you or who you didn't really click with would be a real drag. And I don't know what the solution is because that's the strength of Arts One, being at that close proximity with a professor. It's so rare that you get 12-14 people around a table 194 so often with a prof. That's a really amazing ratio. Maybe rotate those groups and just have one prof, something like the British system where you have a tutor and you have a trial period, and if you don't get on you try to rearrange with someone who you do get on with.\" [Predominance of Arts One graduate who go into law school and become lawyers] \"I think that's so amazing. That's so interesting to me. I think if you're a student you like to read, you want to understand things, you want to understand things that other people have told you are important to understand, and that's a big factor. I find that a lot of people in law are very eager to please people; they get their approval outside. The whole job is am I good or am I bad. You're asking a judge, you're asking a client. All the time it's that external approval so I think that's got a lot to do with it. Also it gives you an opportunity to talk and discuss and to be centre stage, and God knows that's what lawyers like to do too.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Oh, I think it was a really great gift. I kind of think of it as a time where I got to really indulge my curiosity and open my mind. It was great. And it's like Oscar Wilde says, youth is wasted on the young, so maybe Arts One is too.\" 195 Liam 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1987.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"I graduated from St. Michael's University School, but I wasn't rich or smart or anything. I had a music scholarship there.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"It was recommended by a teacher. After I graduated I had taken another couple courses at a public school in Vancouver to upgrade, and my Western Civ teacher told me about the program. And I think at that point I unconsciously knew that I was pretty much a verbal-oral learner, and I took it on his recommendation for the reason that I knew that it would be small classes and it would be teachers who taught, not professors who would rather not.\" 4. Do you remember if you were in your first-choice theme group? \"Yeah I was.\" 5. Do you remember what the theme was? \"Force and Freedom, I think. My professor was David Wilson, who I think is God's gift to Arts One. He's brilliant. He was the best prof in the whole program, I think. The reason I think he is, first of all he went to university in New York and he specializes in Rousseau and Voltaire, I believe, so he's a history of ideas professor and already has two out of the three areas down cold, and he's very much of a verbal-style seminar teacher. David's great—he's the quintessential Arts One prof.\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"I liked the lectures for two reasons. One, they were once a week, so I wasn't inundated with lectures. Two, they were two hours, so you got a chance to get into the subject. Three, and most importantly of all, the professor was lecturing not only to the college of Arts One, but to his or her peers. And the fact that he was doing that suggested to all of us that he knew that he couldn't just sort of whip something off. It felt more like a community of learners and colleagues because you knew that he was going to be lecturing to his academic equals, so he or she had to be ready to say something.\" [So all the professors attended the lectures?] \"Yes they had to because they would be conducting the seminars based on the lecture of that day.\" b. Seminars \"I particularly liked mine, but I think it was a combination of David Wilson and, of the 20 people in the seminar, the maybe six people who actually said something, besides the six who said something for token, and the others who just sat there like couch potatoes. I think it's really crucial to keep it to about 15. Any more than that and you lose the group dynamic. I'm a substitute teacher now, and I know how radically the group dynamic will change with the addition of one or two people.\" [Do you think the students who sat around and didn't say anything were intimidated by the discussion?] \"No, I don't think they were intimidated so much as they really didn't know what type of program they were getting into. I can be nice and say that they weren't that kind of learner, but I think they just really weren't interested in the intellectual process. I think the people who didn't say much really didn't have much to say.\" c. Tutorials \"They were great. They were the most important part of the Arts One program because you got feedback, and feedback is the most crucial element in learning. And unfortunately in most of the undergraduate programs at U . B . C , since U.B.C. is such a huge university that really doesn't value liberal arts as much as it should anymore, you're looking at fourth year university courses with 50 people in them where you don't get feedback except once a year from a harried professor who has too many papers to mark. In Arts One you'd sit there with two, in our case three, students and you read your paper out and you got feedback every other week. And that's where I learned how to write an essay, and there's no doubt about it that I learned more in that year about how to write an essay that I did in the other three.\" d Readings \"I particularly liked my reading list because it was politically uncorrect, in the sense that it was a bunch of dead white males which are also the basic fundamentals of western civilization. I think that one can certainly seek out other books which are of equal importance, but I think sticking with at least one group being the great books of western civilization is a pretty key part of any syllabus. I think having 197 the option in a group b or group a for First Nations or Eastern books, etcetera, is important to have that as an element. But if you are going to get a grounding in one civilization first in first year university, I think one needs to study Aristotle and Plato, and one needs to be studying Freud even though he's been debunked. The point being that you have a grounding for a common discourse. If you don't have a common discourse and a base of information to work from, how can you subvert the problems of modern culture unless you are aware of them.\" e. Papers (Forgot to ask) / Your relationship with faculty \"I think it was good. Every now and again David couldn't make it and Karen Pura would jump in or Chris Tailor. And once again we lucked out because there's a certain network within that sub-group of the Arts One people who were all excellent. Our relationship was good. One of the nice things about Arts One is that there is this certain sense of collegiality amongst the students who are all deeply sincere and deeply discussed Plato with great earnestness—I look back with some fondness on it. And the teachers were quite nice to us considering that we were so darned eager.\" [Comments on some questionnaires regarding the potential negative impact of a poor seminar leader.] \"Yeah, I did have friends in other seminar groups who weren't having great experiences, and I have the feeling that there are more having miserable experiences these days because I still recommend a lot of kids to go into Arts One. As a substitute teacher and student teacher and sponsor teacher, I do my best to evangelize as many grade 12 students to go into first year Arts One, but I think it is really dependent on having a good prof. But that's in any course. Unfortunately or fortunately in Arts One, you're there for three out of the five courses. I think there are two ways that you can help people pick the right professor. One is through an informal, unofficial grapevine publication of some sort that could not in any way be condoned by the institution, obviously, because that would totally usurp anything to do with administration, and God knows the last thing they care about is education. So you'd either set some network up, some sort of informal club within Arts One that tells incoming students who the good profs are, and I think if you talked the secretary of Arts One into having that publication next to the pamphlets, that would be one way of doing it, obviously, because the only way you're going to do it is through the grapevine. The other thing, quite simply, is 198 through vetting; vetting these professors that come in through observation, through their peers, and through recommendations of students. So if a professor wants to become a professor of Arts One, which is predominantly a teaching professorship, I think it would be quite a radical suggestion that they need recommendations from some of their students to be Arts One professors. They need to get three or four letters of recommendation from former students and from other professors who have observed them teaching. And in that case, as much as I abhor The University of British Columbia's Education program, having gone through it, using some sort of a similar process that the teachers use of observation and note-taking, where it's an honor to become a member of Arts One. And maybe, in some sort of a backlash, that might give some political clout to teachers of Arts One because I know it's a political sacrifice to teach in Arts One because you lose your pecking order and tenure and all that sort of crap because you're not publishing as much.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Good. I mean there's always the 25-50-25 percent ratio where of 100 percent of a group you have 25 who are absolutely gung-ho and interested, 50% who are just kind of average, and 25% which just shouldn't be there I guess. And there was a certain portion of students who would be sitting in the coffee room discussing the texts because that's what we were paying the dollars for and we would spend a lot of time together outside of class discussing things. It was good. There was such a sense of collegiality amongst the students that we were in an intellectual exercise and in a community together discovering things. How naive we were.\" h. Arts One Building \"It was lovely. For all it dilapidation, don't change it. The seminar rooms were the right size, the lecture room was big and clunky, the steam vents made lots of noise, but it was nice.\" 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"No, I don't really think so. I think the essay requirements weren't rigorous enough, probably, but rigorousness is a function of the amount of time the teacher or professor has to spend, and I've certainly learned that from public school teaching. It's hard to be rigorous when you have 200 students every week. I think the exams themselves probably were a bit monolithic, not rigorous in a sense that I remember there were three to five essays that you had to do, and you had to include five to seven books or something in each essay, and that struck me as too much regurgitation and not enough evaluation. I think some more thought could be given to how an evaluation of Arts One should be done. After all, what is Arts 199 One? A discussion and discourse, and I think five essays, or however many there are now, is regurgitation and I think there might be another way, perhaps an oral component of the final exam, much as they do...I mean if Arts One was modeled in the Oxford-Cambridge style of education, why not have some sort of oral component to a final Arts One examination? Which again would cost more money and take more time, but I think it would be more fair.\" [Soyou actually had exams?] \"I had a final, and I think they probably had to for various political administrative reasons. But I think if they had a smaller written exam and then a more labour-intensive oral exam of some sort, like they do in the International Baccalaureate programs in the high schools with three or four teachers who ask them to discuss three or four aspects of certain texts, maybe give them an excerpt from the text 20 minutes before they go in and ask them to discuss various aspects of it, I think that would be a good thing to do.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"Oh, horrible. I was a C+, not even that, student. I had a slight learning disability, but that didn't account for my low grade. I had no study skills, and in any of the schools I went to I hadn't really been taught how to think, read or write. And I think a lot of that had to do with my learning disability and not being able to write clearly, and I learned how to do that through using word processors and things like that. After, I felt a lot better about myself academically because I knew at the end of Arts One I was able to take ideas and discuss them and reflect upon them and synthesize them.\" 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? (Answered in question #8) 10. What did you major in? \"English.\" 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"That was difficult. For me, particularly, I think there are some special circumstances for that. Even at the end of first year, I was under some illusion that I would go into Political Science and become a lawyer and save the world, and then I realized that Political Science is an oxymoron and most lawyers I knew were 200 tired. So what I should have done is taken pre-honours English, which would have had seminars. Anyone in second year could have gotten in, and I was recommended to do that by David Wilson to take either pre-honours History or English. And I should have done that and it was my mistake. The biggest shock was to go from a classroom setting where I was able to discuss and reflect, to a situation for the vast majority of my classes where I was spoon-fed for 10 months so that I could throw up all that I was spoon-fed for three hours on an exam. And that was very sad. And I had several professors that were able to overcome the handicap of dealing with 40-odd students in the classroom and still have an intellectual environment going on. But for most of the time you'd just sit and listen, and that was a very difficult adjustment. And I know for a fact that Malaspina College in Nanaimo has modeled a similar program, a liberal arts degree which is a four-year degree, very very similar to Arts One, and part of me thinks that if I had've known about that I would have gone to Malaspina College for a degree had I been young enough at that point, because then I wouldn't have had to go through that horrible shock realizing that at The University of British Columbia most classes are simple lecture format and that's not very good.\" 12. How did you compare yourself to the other English students who had not taken Arts One? \"Well, I felt I had an advantage over the regular English students, but I was always insecure and felt stupid next to the honours students. I think the honours students did have an advantage because they had seminars, and I learn in seminars. I did not learn as well in the regular classes. But yeah, the average Joe English student was doing it because they figured it was the easiest way to get a BA. Of course they weren't learning how to read, write and think, the poor bastards.\" 13. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Profoundly. Of course I make my living as a musician right now, so part of me, and working in the artistic community, feels that any undergraduate program does its best to squeeze out any creativity. So I don't write literature or fiction like I used to when I was in high school, but I think the latter three years did more to squelch that than Arts One. Arts One gave me the ability to read, write, and think, and the other three years were window dressing, I think. Arts One gave me the ability to think on the balls of my feet, and also gave me the ability to write much clearer and concisely.\" [Was that because of the tutorials?] \"Completely, utterly because of the tutorials.\" [Would David Wilson work through your essays with you?] \"Yeah, and the other two students. David was very keen on this, and I think probably other tutorials would be different because the teachers just didn't have...don't get it; they're probably not being vetted in a proper procedure. But you know, they were told very specifically, several times during the first few weeks, scribble, scratch, circle, underline, so that when you go through it again you can find good points, bad points, question this, question that, complement this. And so when you do that and you get your finest effort ripped to shreds in a positive way, you can't help but have that improve.\" [Your ability to argue effectively?] \"Totally.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I took a year off and wandered a bit. And then I did an Education degree and found that I actually loved Education, but I did it so it was a ticket. And I'm actually attempting to make my living as a freelance session musician, and I work with a couple of singers and songwriters and I do albums with them and stuff like that.\" 15. Do you think what your choice of profession has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"I think, indirectly or most directly, depending on how you look at it, Arts One began to be the expansion and development of higher thinking skills, far above what any other university course could do, I think. So I think that it gave me a chance to become a more reflective, thinking human being. I think it certainly improved all the skills we've just been discussing so that it gave me the ability to think and speak on my feet, which certainly helps you in substitute teaching, especially when you're teaching International Baccalaureate students, who are unlike your average chaos in the classroom in that they focus their chaos in a malevolent point and try to make you look like an idiot.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"Good Lord, no.\" 17. Would you do it again \"If I was 19,1 would do it again. And if I could have done four years of Arts One, I would have been far more educated than I am now. I have so many regrets from The University of British Columbia, and they're all from the latter three years, and none of them are from Arts One.\" 202 [Comments on some questionnaires that we shouldn't have an Arts One because students, at that age, aren't ready for it, but instead we should have a major-type program like Arts One in years three and four.] \"That's poppycock. Because I deal with grade 10, 11, and 12 students who do this in their International Baccalaureate programs, who come to school at 7:30 in the morning to do their courses on the theory of knowledge and who wrestle with very complex philosophy. And frankly, when it's my turn to substitute these students at 7:30 in the morning, I better do my reading or I'm in deep trouble. I think there's a certain kind of person that at any age is able to discuss these types of things, and I think they're the type of person who goes into the Arts One program. On one level, I don't think people should do any education until they hit 23, 'cause once the hormones calm down they can begin to think. But, frankly, I think that that sort of argument is completely facetious because it smacks of people wanting to save money. Everybody knows that the Arts One program is way too expensive to run from the commercial point of view.\" 18. Would you change it in any way? \"I would make it four years. And I would also make it politically advantageous and desirable for a professor to enter the program.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It has helped to make me a thinking, reflective person. It helped to develop that in me, at any rate. 203 Lydia 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1968-69.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I was doing a kind of experimental thing in gradel2, a joint English and History program in my high school, and I really enjoyed that and thought that Arts One would be a variation on this theme.\" [Which high school did you attend?] \"Burnaby South.\" [And how did you find out about the Arts One program?] \"I think through my high school, but to be honest I can't remember if it was through that or through some stuff that I got from the university. It was too long ago, it could have been either...probably from the university.\" 3. Do you remember the theme? \"Yes, 'Freedom and Authority.'\" 4. Was this your first choice? \"I don't remember being given a choice of theme. I remember that there were other groups, but I don't remember being given the choice.\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"I particularly enjoyed the guest lecturers.\" b. Seminars \"I thought they were really good too. I thought both my professors, we had one first term and another second term, were excellent.\" 204 c. Tutorials \"We didn't have tutorials. But we always had lots of opportunities for one-on-one because our professors were very accessible.\" [Do you remember who your professors were?] \"One was Mary Walton, and the guy I had for first term I don't remember. He was an English professor and was English as well. I'm not sure he was around much longer after my term in Arts One. I knew Mary's husband Ian because my boyfriend had him for a couple of courses, so that sort of reinforced the name a little more. But they were both great—I enjoyed both of them.\" (L Readings \"I thought the reading list was fabulous.\" e Papers \"I really enjoyed them. I felt I was working at least as hard as my friends in the conventional Arts courses. I didn't consider it to be less work.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I'm fairly shy, so I didn't have much of a relationship with them. I had my two contact people, and unless I have some compelling reason, I tend to sit back and not pursue other people who I don't feel I have an entitlement to pursue, not because I feel that they are holding me away but because it's not in my nature to do that.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"I had a very close relationship with the other students and, in fact, I think one of the big pluses of Arts One is that in that sea of 20,000 students, you've got 20 people that you see a lot quite apart from the other kids you come into university with from your high school. It really gives you a whole new contact group, particularly the 20, but also the 120.\" [Haveyou stayed in touch with any of them?] \"Yes, in fact a couple of them I lost touch with but then reconnected with. In fact, one of them is married to a friend of mine, and years later another one of them, interestingly enough, resurfaced as the best friend of some old friends of my husband. He's going to Nepal and, sure enough, she's married to a doctor in Katmandu and it's Janie Hirbird who I knew from Arts One. It's a really small world. So yeah, quite a few people I have kept in connection with, both from my group of 20, but also from the 120 people who you also got to know from hanging around.\" 205 h. Arts One Building \"It was great. It was sort of a dump, but it was a friendly dump.\" 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"Not at all.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"As smart.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Nope. I got a first class average in the program. And I had a first class average coming out of school. I've always done quite well at school. That doesn't mean much but you said academically~I wouldn't necessarily consider myself all that smart, but academically I've always done quite well.\" 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"My second year was fine, but I'll tell you why. I have always gone out of my way...I think I figured out fairly young...In grade 5,1 was put into a split class that was an enriched class. I was with 14 kids and we mostly worked on our own and did a lot of project work, and we were the 14 kids that did the best in the grade IQ test or whatever the hell it was. So I had had that kind of special treatment before, and in a sense did all these learning kits that became much more conventional afterwards. It was very much experimental stuff at the time, and I had found that grade 5 and 6 were easily the most successful of all my years in school. So I then was open to anything that looked remotely experimental. The notion didn't scare me, 'cause realize that this was the second year of the program, it was experimental and none of my friends were prepared to do it because it was considered too risky. Who knows whether you're going to learning anything. But I was prepared to take the chance because of that earlier experience which was also experimental. And it also allowed me to work in a smaller group kind of environment, and I like cooperative working groups and then working alone on bigger projects as opposed to kind of a more conventional type of classroom situation. And then when there was an opportunity to do it in grade 12 I did it again, if I could volunteer for something that was off the mainstream. So then what I did in second year is I took Honours English which meant I had to go up to 18 units, but again it put me into these smaller...they were then doing this 206 experimental second year thing to get people sort of suckered into Honours English for their third and fourth years. But again I got into these little classes that came with special treatment. So I was always into value for money, because really Arts One must be an expensive program to run. I view the kind of education I got there to be clearly very superior to what I got in second year. So in second year I did the honours thing which connected with a group of people and the faculty where it was sort of personal again. And then in third and fourth year I followed through with honours (which included lots of seminar groups and some directed studies classes). The taxpayers paid dearly for my undergraduate education. [How was your Arts One experience \"far superior\" to what you got in second year?] \"It was superior to second year, and it was far superior to anything any of my friends were getting in first year.\" [Why?] \"I mean these stupid lectures with 250 kids in a class, it's a joke. There's no interaction, and I think much less rigour. So I think Arts One was more work, but I'd never bitch it was too much work. It felt comfortable to me.\" 10. How did you compare yourself to the other English Honours students who had not taken Arts One? \"Yeah, I thought there were some real advantages to having taken Arts One. I think I found it easier to establish relationships and work effectively in a seminar setting, both with the professor and other students. Whatever shyness I had on the outside, I was never one of those people to put my hand up in the group of 120, and I still don't, but I was certainly quite prepared to volunteer in a group of 20 and to get things going and to feel very comfortable in that setting. I think I entered second year knowing how to think and how to write better.\" 11. How do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Yes.\" [Your critical reasoning skills ?] \"I'd say they were positively affected by the course.\" [Your ability to argue effectively?] \"Yes, we did a lot of that in Arts One which I was able to take with me into second year.\" 207 12. Based on the questionnaires receives, it seems that some students felt that the program in the late 60's and early 70's was affected by the politics and social changes of the time. Did you see the happening? \"I thought that was happening all over the campus. I wouldn't have confined it to Arts One. Try being in English in those years. I mean these tenure issues became these big political issues at that time. I'm also of the school where I'd rather someone put their political agenda on the table. I'm sorry, you're 18. I felt at 18 that if I was dealing with someone who was a Communist, and we had Communists, it was well known what the political views of our professors were, I'd rather have that on the table. It's more interesting. I'd rather know where they're coming from and have it right out front. Not that I'm big on labeling things, but I also don't think people have to hide their political views. When I think back to the time, it sort of all seemed very exciting. It didn't seem offensive to me at all. Quite the contrary, it sort of added an almost glamour to the experience, which was quite fine with me. It added a certain zing to it all.\" 13. What have you done since graduation? \"After Arts One, I did a B A Honours in English at U.B.C. Then I took a year out and then came back and did Law School at U . B . C , which I absolutely hated and would give failing grades to as an educational experience. Talk about the exact opposite of the spectrum. If they should slash and burn anything it should be the Faculty of Law in terms of educational experience. But then I got into practice and really liked it.\" [Result of questionnaires indicating most go into Law School, and when compared to Education grads, participants who went the Law route preferred Arts One over their other university years, whereas Education grads preferred that which followed Arts One] \"That doesn't surprise me (that so many Arts One participants end up in Law). I wanted to be an English prof first. I loved the Arts. I did Law because I thought it would lead to a job, and as far as I could tell in English, I didn't want to go into the public school system. Guess why? I didn't like regimentation. And so Law appeared to give me a lot more scope, which it does, to operate independently and just a whole bunch of things. As to why, that's really interesting statistically. As to why that is I really don't know. It may well be the integrated approach, because law really touches on big social issues. I mean look at Law and Authority as a theme, for heavens sakes. If that isn't what law systems are trying to deal with, well there you go, balancing off different freedoms like in the Charter of Rights is against authority of the central state, which is quite simply the rule of law. So certainly my theme, anyone who was even remotely interested in that type of subject matter, that theme, would be a natural fit with law.\" 208 14. Do you think what your choice of Law has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"No.\" [When did you arrive at the decision to go into Law?] \"In the year out after I finished my undergraduate, although I was the sort of person who when I was 12, people would say \"Gee she's argumentative, she should be a lawyer.\" 15. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"None whatsoever.\" 16. Would you do it again? \"Absolutely. And would I recommend it to any kids entering first year at U . B . C ? You bet I would. In fact, I would say to people go to UVic or take Arts One, but don't just go to U.B.C. mainstream Arts.\" 17. Would you change it in any way? \"I don't know, but getting back to the Faculty of Law and what's wrong with it. If that's of any interest at all with the contrast. The problem with the Faculty of Law is that it does this pretend Socratic method. The real Socratic method is in Arts One. Law School does a pretend Socratic method but with 60 students. The moment you have 60 students it's unworkable. Number two, there's no rigour. You don't write any papers at all. So you don't do any critical thinking. Al l you do is regurgitate...It's 100% exams, at least it was when I went through, and the only problem solving you did was when you applied yourself to the problem on the exam, which basically came down to how fast and neatly you could write your answers because the professors didn't know you. So I'm very cynical about the law school experience. And we basically just endlessly summarized cases. And it was awful. And yet the scope in law for an Arts One kind of experience is limitless because of the nature of the issues. And I think there's no rigour because the profs are too lazy. U.B.C. Law School is a joke of an educational experience I thought. I could have read the Cannes the night before the exam not knowing any law and it wouldn't have made a darn bit of difference. The Law School should fund Arts One. That may be the only critical thinking those poor Law students are going to get.\" [Comment on questionnaires suggesting that a liberal arts humanities program like Arts One should not be funded because students need to have programs that are more career-specific] \"I'm an employment lawyer, and employers want, in some cases, people with technical skills. But as soon as they go into people in management, they want people who can think critically and who can communicate effectively. As soon as 209 you get into the management side, they don't want people churned out of BCIT with Business Management courses where they can answer yes and no and true and false to questionnaires.\" [Suggestion that we remove Arts One and have Arts Three and Arts Four instead.] \"I didn't find that to be problematic (being able to handle Arts One), but realize that you're talking to someone who was a good student.\" 18. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It made me really like university. It gave me a really positive attitude, to the point that I would have done a PhD. I loved being in the academic thing. I'm quite academic by nature, but Arts One really made me love to learn. It's an attitude to learning. It made the university experience and learning an exciting, fun, rewarding experience in and of itself not as a means to an end, but as a sheer end in itself. That's probably the main legacy.\" 210 Mary 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1981-82.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"University Hill.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Probably because it was very similar to a course they were doing at the time at U. Hill which was called Humanities, and it combined Social Studies and English. So it was quite similar in design. There was that, there was also this woman Maureen who highly recommended it—said it was really great. It seemed like a very interesting thing to do, and William Molyard was very charismatic and intelligent person. I think a combination of those things attracted me to it.\" [How did you first hear about the program?] \"A friend of my sisters had done it the year before, and she came to one of my classes with William Molyard, who was a professor then, and so I heard about it through them.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Yes I was.\" 5. Do you remember the theme? \"The Quest for Certainty,' I think. I know 'Certainty' was in the title.\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"They were great, very interesting, very very challenging.\" [In what way?] \"In every way. The ideas were a lot more advanced than anything I'd been used to in high school. There wasn't the challenge there in high school.\" [Didyou have guest lecturers?] \"Yeah, I think there were a few people. Lisa Symes, I remember, came in.\" 211 b. Seminars \"Those were wonderful. I liked them better because in the lectures it was pretty intimidating to ask questions in front of all those people. I found it easier in the seminars to become more involved.\" [Who was your seminar leader?] \"William Molyard.\" c. Tutorials \"Those were good too.\" [Didyou review each other's essays in the tutorials?] \"I can't remember.\" d Readings \"It was wonderful. I can probably name most of the books that were on the list. The first book we read was Oedipus Rex, and it's remained a favourite.\" e. Papers \"It was tough and challenging. It was a lot more writing than I was used to.\" [When you came out of U.Hill, didyou feel that you were prepared for the type of reading and writing that was required of you in Arts One?] \"No, it was a real learning year for me.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"Well, I got to know William really well, and even after the program was finished, for a few years before I moved to California, we'd get together once in a while for tea, and before lectures we'd chat. So I had a really great relationship with him. We'd talk about all sorts of stuff. He was great because he treated us like we were adults and didn't make assumptions about how mature we were. He took it for granted that we were intelligent. I found talking to him quite challenging and unlike any sort of discourse I had had with a teacher to that point. Actually, even as I went on in university, he was probably had the biggest impact on me as far as teachers went at U.B.C.\" // mention the comment on some questionnaires re: poor seminar leader can have a negative impact on student's first year.] \"There were one or two other people I knew from U.Hill who were doing the program, and one of the guys was my class. I don't remember if I knew anyone else from the other seminars. Definitely when it came to the lectures on Monday mornings, some were way better and more interesting. I imagine that it would be 212 kind of a lousy thing to do if you didn't like who you were with, especially because it's 3/5 or your program. But, then, they could have changed.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Fine. I didn't really develop any long-term friendships there.\" h. Arts One Building \"Oh, I liked it. It was neat to be off somewhere else in our own little building. And it was cozy, and probably too hot. What building isn't out there.\" 7. Looking hack over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"The essay requirements, at the time, seemed really overwhelming. And same with the books. But I didn't see it as too hard. It was more of a challenge. I didn't feel like I had any right to complain. But I think my views are really the same.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was a pretty good student.\" 9. Did you participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? \"A couple things happened that year. I wasn't really that into being in university, and I wasn't that dedicated a student, and it showed in the marks. Whereas in high school it was pretty easy to get decent marks without working too hard. My marks weren't great at all, and much lower than when I was in high school, but I saw that more as not having a great education in high school. And also knowing full well that I wasn't very dedicated to studying.\" 10. What did you major in? \"I did an Honours English degree.\" 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"Well, I took a year out after that and I traveled. So when I came back I was right into being in school...I was quite enthusiastic about the challenge.\" [Wereyour classes a lot larger in second year?] \"I had done Calculus and Physics along with the Arts One—I thought I wanted to go into Medicine—so I knew what being in a big lecture was like. And then in second year, again, I did some more Science courses and three Arts courses. And coming from U.Hill, which is such a tiny 213 intimate school, it was really hard being in the big classes, really difficult. You really felt like nobody cared whether or not you even turned up, how you did or anything. It was difficult.\" 12. How didyou compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"No, not at all. In fact, I'd say that most of them had an advantage over me because they had done a lot of English and literature and writing in high school, which I hadn't done. I was mostly a science student in high school. So that was really something to do with high school rather than Arts One.\" 13. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I think it improved it and challenged me, writing all those essays. Probably the biggest help was actually coming up with an essay question and organizing it and working through it logically.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Definitely improved it.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"Arts One was good for that. There was a lot of discussion in my seminar.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I did a BA in English Honours, and then I worked for a few years in a hospital in personnel, hiring and recruiting and that sort of stuff. And then I had a baby, then I went back to school and did an MFA in Creative Writing, which I just finished last November. So right now I'm writing. I write fiction, short stories, and I'm writing a screenplay.\" [Doyou enjoy it?] \"Oh I love it.\" 15. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"Yeah, definitely. I think it was the beginning of doing what I wanted to do rather than what I thought I should be doing or what parents expected me to do, which was Medicine. And so it was a very long process for me which eventually turned into Creative Writing. I don't even think English was it either. It was all sort of working towards Creative Writing.\" 214 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No. The only regret is that I wish I'd taken it when I was a little bit more mature, then I would have gotten a lot more out of it.\" [Comment on questionnaires regarding having Arts Three or Four instead of Arts One because students not ready for Arts One] \"I think it would be great if older students were doing it.\" [Would that be better than having Arts One?] \"I'm not sure. Maybe only a few of us reached our potential in it. On the other hand, we were introduced to a lot of wonderful books and ideas that probably influenced, or at least for me really influenced what I did later. So I think it came at exactly the right time for me.\" 17. Would you doit again? \"Oh yeah, I'd do it now if I had the time.\" 18. Would you change it in any way? \"Perhaps the reading list. It needs some more contemporary work, less philosophy, perhaps. William Molyard was a philosophy professor and we did a lot of Hobbes, Rousseau, Montaigne. I'd put in more contemporary thinkers and literature.\" [Comments in some questionnaires suggesting that U.B. C. should not fund Arts One because it's an expensive program that's not career-specific and benefits few.] \"Well, I'd say that if they really want to get a job, then they should perhaps go to vocational school. I think classrooms should be smaller rather than this massive production line that U.B.C. is. And I think one of the reasons I did the honours program in English was because it was a smaller group of people doing it, and there were seminars with 10-12 people. Then when I was doing Creative Writing, the classes were even smaller than that. It was really when I was in the Creative Writing program that I had the best instruction and the most effective learning, and one of the reasons was because of the small classes. If you don't want discussion and stuff, you can just pick up a textbook.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"I'd say that it asked a lot of questions, and it shook me out of the complacency of just going through university to get a job. And it opened up a huge world of ideas, of writing, and taught me how to think.\" 215 Michael 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1980.\" 2. Which high school did you graduate from? \"South Delta Sr. Secondary.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I was looking for a change from doing sciences, and I was going to take a year break and eventually go back into sciences themselves. So I was looking for some credits.\" [How did you find out about the Arts One program?] \"My sister took it. And, I believe it's Mark Walker, he actually married my sister out at the university, and he had taught her. So I thought, 'geez, I'll take it,' and at the end of the year I told him that Susan such-and-such says hi, and he said 'you're Susan's brother?' And I said I'm her brother. He totally flipped out. The whole year he hadn't made the association. [So you had Mark Walker as your seminar leader?] \"Yes.\" 4. Do you remember ifyou got into your first-choice theme group ? \"Probably, yes.\" 5. Do you remember what the theme was? \"No, I don't recall.\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"I found them very enjoyable. It was interesting to have a massive class and get a perspective from various people and what they thought. It opened your mind to the various processes of thoughts. I found some more interesting than others, which is natural.\" 216 b. Seminars \"I enjoyed them. They were good sessions. I believe they were 1 1/2-2 hour sessions if I recall correctly. The really got down into the core things, and sometimes you got sidetracked a little bit, but I enjoyed them. I enjoyed these more than the lectures.\" c. Tutorials \"They were pretty good. That's where they really honed down on specifics and brought out things like that and made you re-evaluate where you might have gone wrong. I enjoyed them.\" d Readings \"I found it, at times, a little heavy. But all in all, alternating every other week with writing a paper of it, it was more than adequate.\" [Didyou feel that high school prepared you for these types of books?] \"No, it was a new thing.\" e. Papers \"I found them somewhat challenging. I'm not the best writer in the world, so sometimes it really made me think to get myself going. But no, I thought they were all right. I thought the program was well put together.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I didn't get that much interaction with the other professors. But you'd know them and you could go up to them and talk about what they had lectured on, and try to expand on it if you didn't understand something, and try to understand what they were driving at, and things like that. I found them very open and approachable.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Good. Occasionally we'd get together and do things on our own. It fostered a lot of friendships.\" [Have you kept in touch with anyone?] \"No, not really. There was a person a year behind me who took Arts One, and we'd sit around and we maintained our friendship throughout these years, and we'd occasionally talk about things that went on in Arts One.\" h. Arts One Building \"Is it still there? It was fine.\" 2 1 7 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"No, not really. At the time when you go through, you probably think it's quite tough, but later you sit back, and you've been in the work force for a couple years, and you think what would you really change on the whole program itself? And you'd probably decide nothing. It's well thought out. At the time it might seem somewhat demanding, but it's there for a reason.\" [When you went into the program and you needed some credits, didyou think that by taking three courses in one it would be less work?] \"No. I anticipated to get a fair bit of work. I found it did cover the English section and it did cover the Philosophy very heavily. But the History section I felt that it kind of lacked, in respect that if you took History 100 you would have got into a lot more, and in comparison it was lacking in that area, which you could say, well, that was an easy credit to get. The introduction to the books, this was the time that it was written, the flavor at that time, and things like that that were going on in that time, that was it and then you jumped right into the philosophy section of the essay or the book or the poetry, or whatever it was that you were studying at the time. And you got a lot of philosophy and very little in the history section.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I would say I was average.\" 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yes, I felt my thought process and how I looked at things philosophically had changed dramatically.\" 10. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition tike? Didyou have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"The transition was a little different. I went directly into a science program. I got my degree in a Bachelor of Science. My electives during Arts One were Economics and Math. There was definitely a distinct difference between the lecturing styles in comparison to the other courses that were just the mainstream. The professor would teach the way he'd teach, and the work, you've got to do it. Then after that in Science it was the same way. I felt that there was a distinct difference in the teaching style.\" [How didyou find that?] \"I found it challenging. In my third and fourth years we got into...the program I was in was Physical Geography, and there were probably about 15 or 20 of us going through 218 the program together, and so we were able to maintain a tight group, but we didn't get the same style or flair that Arts One provided through the seminars.\" 11. What did you major in? [Answered in question #9, Physical Geography] 12. How did you compare yourself to the other Physical Geography students who had not taken Arts One? \"I didn't perceive myself as above anybody, but just trying to think things out a little more philosophically. I tried to put a different slant on things wherever possible, and I think this was an advantage to take a look and say, 'well that person has that type of opinion, but why do they have that type of opinion,' and try to follow their line of thought through.\" 13. How do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? \"It improved it. It forced me to improve my writing style, and it helped me a little bit in my third and fourth years where I had to write more in-depth papers.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"I would say it helped.\" [Your ability to argue effectively?] \"Definitely. It allowed you to open up and understand other peoples' perspectives, and trying to follow their thoughts and acknowledge their line of thinking, and say 'well, have you thought about this? this is where I'm coming from.' And try to open up the discussion instead of having someone say in autocratic ways 'this is my way of thinking and that's it, and saying 'we can't talk about it now; we agree to disagree.'\" 14. Did you live in residence? \"Yes I did, in Totem Park.\" 75. What have you done since graduation? \"I got my BSc in Physical Geography, and since then I worked in an electrical-mechanical engineering firm in North Vancouver. I worked with them from '82-'85 in the summers, and occasionally during the school year when I needed some money. Then I left that place in '88 and went to a high tech electrical firm doing purchasing for them, then I moved onto Canadian Airlines where I work in the 219 Purchasing Department and buy whatever and put things under contract. In '93,1 got my certification as a professional buyer.\" 16. Do you think that your choice of profession has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"No, I'd say that there's very little direct connection between Arts One and what I'm presently doing. But in a way of opening up my ideas and thinking about different angles on how to do things and different approaches in business, yeah I could say there is a connection there—trying to think things out and come up with different ideas and open to different ideas, yeah.\" [Do you still have any of your Arts One books sitting on your bookshelf?] \"You betcha. About two years ago I opened up my Jung; about a year ago I opened up Yeats, the poetry book. So yeah, I have opened them up a little bit. They're not collecting dust or rotting.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, no regrets at all.\" 18. Would you do it again \"Sure.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"I enjoyed the process, but maybe touching a little more on the history would be a little more interesting.\" [Comment on some questionnaires suggesting that a liberal arts humanities program like Arts One should not be funded because students need to have programs that are more career-specific] \"I disagree with that. The university is there to be had by all, and it should not be geared to one specific target group like Applied Sciences or the Medical School or anything like that. I feel that it should be open to all.\" [Suggestion on some questionnaires that we eliminate Arts One and have Arts Three and Arts Four instead because students aren't ready for an Arts One-type program in their first year.] \"That's a valid point that people can make. Arts One forces you to open up and start thinking quite a bit, which is what university expects you to do. If that's an 220 introductory process of what they're trying to get you into, Arts One is a good start. You get going, and then in years three and four they expect you to do that automatically. They shouldn't be getting you to think like that; you should already be thinking like that. I disagree. If they want to go into more depth and enhance Arts One or make a more advanced type of course, sure. Bring in a level two or three or four.\" [Comment on questionnaires regarding the potential negative impact of a poor seminar professor.] \"I remember a few people saying that this professor is a little more dry than some other people, but I don't know how you can make a criteria selection for professors. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the professors need to be taught some different teaching styles, and that's just a general comment based on all the professors that I had. Some were good, and some were 'how did you ever get to teach?' And that's normal.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Opening up and understanding other peoples' points of view, and thinking things out a lot more. Trying to understand it fully as opposed to taking it superficially is the impact that you get.\" 221 Neil 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1973-74.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"Sentinel Secondary in West Vancouver.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Yeah, it fit. I found out that they were very low class sizes to the instructor ratio. I read it through in the Calendar and it sounded like a more self-directed type of program, and that really appealed to me. Arts One just seemed to have something that was different, that was much more interesting.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"I believe I did.\" 6. Do you remember the theme? \"This is over 20 years ago. I know the instructor I eventually picked was Gordon Yates, and he was an architect, and I know that I specifically wanted to get into a program that perhaps would complement the goal I had at that time, which was to be an architect. In fact, I only wanted a year of university in order to get into the University of Manitoba Architecture program, and that's what I ended up doing. They needed a grade 13 and a year of university in order to qualify for the program. And I managed to get an architect as an instructor, and it fit perfectly.\" 7. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"They were excellent. We'd sit in a big circle and usually had guest lecturers. In fact, Arthur Erickson was one of the guest speakers; it was one of my highlights. Our group instructor, Gordon Yates, had us down to his office a couple months later with his scale model and plans for Robson Court just as it was about to break ground. It was really quite amazing.\" 222 b. Seminars \"They were also excellent. I have nothing but good things to say about the Arts One program, and I wouldn't generally say that about U.B.C. I had some real misgivings about the entire structure of that campus. But as far as Arts One goes, it was a goldmine—an absolute goldmine. The individual seminars were great; at that time they were in the huts and we each had our own hut and it was like your own house. It was a wonderful situation in which to exchange ideas.\" c. Tutorials \"I don't really recall having them. About once a week we had one-on-one's with the professor. It was unstructured, so the professor would review what was relevant at that time, which was marvelous. It might be a paper, it might be a book, it might be a poem, it might be an idea. It was very unstructured. It was what was important and critical at that time.\" d\\ Readings \"Great. Really opened a lot of doors. The first time I ever read Jung. First time I ever read Joyce. Fabulous, just fabulous. Opened a whole lot of doors.\" [Did you feel prepared for that level of reading when you graduated from high school?] \"Why not? It was just something to absorb. I think that had less to do with the pre-schooling and more on the individual. It just happened that this was a really good fit for me. Everything fit in place, and I could have come out of elementary school and absorbed it.\" [Comment on questionnaires regarding Arts Three or Four instead of Arts One because students not prepared for level of work and reading required] \"Oh absolutely not. Oh God no, that would have been horrible. It would have been absolutely the worst. You would have been in a class with 300 or 200 or 400, no direct input. That would have been death. I wouldn't have lasted. I think the only thing that kept me in university was Arts One and that experience of just realizing after that year and the ones I had after that just how lucky I was to have taken Arts One. And it really had a bearing on how I picked courses after that.\" e. Papers \"They were fine.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"Indirect, but really exciting. Two of the other faculty I recall were Murray Holden, the artist, and Jason Ogden, the astronomer. Thinking back through rose 223 coloured glasses, I just now appreciate the incredible quality of instructors that were given to us. Subsequent to those years, I found out just how important Murray Holden was in the scheme of things, and what a fine mind he had. It was just marvelous to be able to experience that.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Yeah it did because we came from all different walks of life, from different regions of the province. I had no close ties with any of the people I graduated with from high school, which I think in retrospect was good.\" [Result from questionnaires where most who would not recommend the program came out of the 1972-73 and 1973-74years. Any ideas as to why that was the case?] \"This was a pretty new thing back then, I believe. I don't know how far back Arts One went, but it had the feeling it was still in its infancy when I was there.\" // mention that it began in 1967.] \"You're kidding. Wow. It just felt so new and fresh.\" // relay some of the comments of students who participated in Arts One 1972-1974.] \"Probably precisely because of the unstructured environment. I did a program since then, totally unrelated to Arts One, at a glass school in the United States which is no longer offered, a graduate workshop. At this particular glass school they have set programs of 2 1/2 weeks, called sessions. During each of these particular 2 1/2 week periods, they usually have about eight programs with an instructor and an assistant. And they are on specific things, like how to blow glass, how to cast glass, how to fuse glass—things like this, so you have a clear idea of what your goals are and what you're trying to accomplish. From this set patterns, you can deviate and create. But ironically enough, the first time I ever went to this school—it felt like Arts One there—they threw open the entire school to anybody and they provided you with eight or nine instructors, and you were in one big pool and you could do and go and create whatever the hell you wanted to. And they had set lectures which you didn't have to attend, so if you didn't want to participate you didn't have to. The parallels to Arts One when I participated were very very close. And I noticed that a great many people did not respond to it well because there was no defined structure, there was no defined goal, and the means of measurement weren't static {Piltcha Glass School}.\" [How did they measure your success in Arts One? Was it based on the essays alone?] \"God no. I'd say it was more subjective than objective, but I felt that the entire exercise was more subjective than objective, which for me was wonderful. [Did you write an exam?] \"I was never in the Armories. No, I don't recall an exam ever being given. It was based entirely on papers. It's interesting, though, that what I'm relating to you is an entirely freewilling, unstructured environment, but results were expected and results were demanded, it's just that it didn't fall within the particular manner that they fell in other programs.\" [Did you feel like you 224 were going through an entirely different experience than your friends in the regular first year Arts program?] \"Oh, absolutely. It was night and day, a completely different experience. They had the classes of 200 and English 100, and of course they had their tutorials, but even those were large—up to 20 students or something like this. And you were never speaking to your prof, you were always speaking to a TA. You had set exams, set papers that had no variation. What I found interesting about Arts One was that it did have that underlying skeletal structure, you did have to produce papers by a given date, they were marked, you did have to produce ideas which I think can be very frightening as well, you were expected to think, you were expected to read, and I can see how that can be intimidating as well. There were no Coles Notes for anything we read, which was great.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I didn't fit. I didn't do that well in high school. I got through, I got the necessary gpa at that time, which was nothing compared to what you need now, but I came through with about a 68% or 70% average. Horrific. But I had absolutely no interest in the set-type programs that were offered in high school.\" [Didyou feel prepared for university?] \"Absolutely. I wanted something that would challenge me.\" 9. Didyou participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yeah, I wasn't a dummy.\" 10. What did you major in? \"I entered the Faculty of Architecture in a program called Environmental Studies at the University of Manitoba. I left U.B.C. after the one year.\" 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"The Arts One experience was very good preparation for the Architecture program at the University of Manitoba. It wasn't as small as Arts One, but certainly not as large as a general Arts program.\" 12. How didyou compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"No, we came from all different backgrounds. There were Vietnam vets in our program at that time.\" 225 13. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"It didn't hurt it.\" [Was this due to your professor and other students working through your essays with you?] \"No, it had nothing to do with that. You had the pre-preparation in high school because you did have to have English 12 at that time in order to get into an Arts program at U.B.C. So you were prepped as far as the structure of the language, but in terms of being able to think, that's an entirely different story, isn't it, and that's certainly what Arts One helped facilitate. Learning how to think.\" [In what way?] \"In a manner of not generally being able to recall what you know, but being able to find it—being given the tools.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"That was fabulous, absolutely fabulous. We did a lot of that. It was wonderful because everyone had such a diverse point of view, but there was always mutual respect.\" [Didyou ever notice students in your group that seemed intimidated by the level of discussion, or who didn't every participate in the discussion?] \"Not really. We were a pretty close group. We were pretty tight. We ended off the year with a trip to Pender Island where the prof had a cabin. One of the guys there was a diver, so we all rented wet suits in Vancouver and dragged them over on the ferry. A few of us rode bicycles and met up with the group. Yeah, it was a big memory.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I did my first year at U.B.C. and then I went to the University of Manitoba to that Architecture program. I've got two years of graphic design from, at that time, the Vancouver School of Art, and I have a BFA from U.B.C.\" [So you went back to U.B.C. ?] \"Yup. Went back to U.B.C. and finished by Bachelor of Fine Arts. I took a year of Architecture at Manitoba and decided that I wasn't going to be an architect. The problem was that I wasn't willing to face up to the fact that I had to give the fine arts world a stab. It's very risky, especially for an 18-year old. So it took time.\" 15. So now you 're working as an artist? \"Yeah, I'm a glass artist. I work with glass blowers, I do architectural sculptures in buildings, and stained glass. But it's all contemporary, it's all experimental, it's a lot of fun.\" 16. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"Absolutely. Because it allowed me to take that first step to independent thought and subjective thought. It gave me the tools to be able to think. Just being given 226 those tools by people who allow you think, and give you the rope to hang yourself with, let you stumble, and let you enjoy your successes at the same time without being part of a group, so to speak. We were a group, and at the same time we were individuals apart of that group, each with their own talents.\" [Number of respondents who went into Law School and who are now lawyers] \"Actually one of the guys in my class, a very very bright guy, rich kid too, we met about seven years ago in his father's law firm. Bizarre. I was trying to incorporate myself. I should have come from the other side of the tracks. That was the interesting thing, because you had rich, middle class, people from the interior of B.C., people from all over the place. It was a very exciting mix of various backgrounds.\" // mention that there were very few artists in the group of respondents.] \"I'm amazed. I'm absolutely amazed at that. Lawyers...I just don't see how lawyers could every enjoy Arts One. Perhaps because it's viewed as an easy credit going in. I can see how a lot of people would have taken it because on the surface it looks like an easy credit. It's like going for art; it's an easy credit, don't worry, it's not physics {laughing as he says this}.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"What do you think? Absolutely not.\" 18. Would you do it again? \"No question. Absolutely no question.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"Well, it's 1994. I guess you'd have to make some changes. We're talking different paradigms.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It got me started.\" [Comment on questionnaires from some respondents who felt Arts One too expensive to be funded with taxpayers money for a program that is humanities based and non-vocational] \"All right...gung ho. I guess I could knee jerk all night. What can you say about a comment like that? I can certainly see why some participants might say that, because I'm going to be turning 40 next year. If I was in a traditional job path right now, basically looking at...I guess your traditional Arts One student wouldn't have gone into Science or Engineering, they would have gone into Arts and 227 perhaps graduate school. I guess the lawyers could have seen it as an easy first year and a way through to get the credits. I think in that case, you're lumped in with a lot of people in the same career stream, and they're fighting for all the middle management jobs at the moment. Yeah, if I was in their shoes I'd be beating my head against a wall saying 'geez, I should have specialized.' And I think if you had approached it in that manner, which perhaps, maybe, the majority did, that could have been a significant problem for them and I can see their reaction now. There's always that need to fit, always that need to fit, and I think if you're a middle management accountant right now, you're trying damned hard to fit. And I think in that way you can look back and say we should make the other kids fit too. They're going to need the three r's, they're going to need to get back to basics, they're going to have to be trained in specific tasks in order to perform them at the level that we want them to. I think technical schools can provide that much better than universities can, and I think technical schools can do an incredible job in turning out applied studies graduates to perform tasks. And if that price sounds really ivory tower or judgmental, I'm not trying to create a hierarchy here of those who know and those who do. It's just that you look at a German model where polytechnical schools turns out both artists and trades people, and there's no value judgment, and I think that model is extremely valuable. And perhaps those people who are saying that universities should perform these types of functions aren't speaking from any type of known model, but from a subjective one, sort of an a priori one. Their gut is telling them that there should be a pool of qualified task personnel. But I've never seen that as a place of universities; it's never been the place of universities to do that. To me, the idea of the university was to allow you to think, and to allow you to exchange ideas in a free manner, and grow from that. There's a lot to be said for a serendipitous path to knowledge, and I'm firmly entrenched in that.\" [Comment on questionnaires regarding the impact of a poor seminar professor.] \"Give the student an opportunity to bail out and pick a new prof and a new group. You should have that opportunity to make a mistake and move on.\" [Comment of some people interviewed who felt team teaching and switching seminar groups might destroy the continuity of the program ] \"You had that in the weekly groupings, in fact it was more than weekly for us. We had very often team teaching done. I'm thinking particularly of Murray Holden and Gordon Yates going at it with us on a number of occasions. Fabulous. [I comment that it's interesting to get the perspective of someone who participated in Arts One in the early 1970's in view of some of the negative comments on the questionnaires from individuals who took Arts One during these early years.] \"Well, a lot of us at that time came from a highly-structured high school environment that would have left us entirely unprepared for the experience of Arts One as it was then. And I can see how a lot of people would have had a problem. 228 You just weren't prepared for that sort of thing, but if you read the course outline and really thought about it...It seemed like such an easy out, but in retrospect I think it was much more vigorous than any of the general Arts programs. Despite the exams at Armories, it was much more rigorous. There was no fudging, there was no faking who you were. It was like therapy. I have nothing but good things to say about it.\" 229 Rosemary 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I was the first of the group, 1967. I'm an original.\" 2. Which high school didyou graduate from? \"Winston Churchill.\" 3. Why didyou choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Yeah. Probably because it was just so different. I was a very straight-laced Kerrisdale girl, Oakridge girl, and I was always doing the right thing. I was the valedictorian, and it was something different. My friends were intrigued as to why I had chosen it, and I must admit that I certainly had my eyes opened in that group.\" [How didyou find out about the Arts One program?] \"I believe that there was some information from the counsellor or the school. I'm not sure. Or it might have been in a brochure. It was something like that that interested me.\" 4. Do you remember if you got into your first-choice theme group? \"Yes, I believe that I did.\" 5. Do you remember what the theme was? \"No.\" 6. At the time, how didyou feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"Fascinating. They weren't lectures, they were discussions. They were an interchange. My head professor was Richard Parsons who was known as 'The Red.' Now remember, I'm from an Oakridge-Kerrisdale background where my father worshipped at the shrine of Bill Bennett, and this was my first communist, or what I thought to be a communist. I don't know if the man was a communist or not, but his whole philosophy and approach to life was fascinating. And my whole political leanings changed dramatically after I listened to him. Well, I must admit that I don't vote like my father now, but I certainly don't vote like I did then.\" 230 [Didyou have meetings that were larger than those?] \"Yes, I remember John Butler came to talk to us one day, and that was my first introduction to homosexuality. And, one of the questions was 'what will you sleep with, what won't you sleep with?' And he said that he'd sleep with anybody or anything, I think the idea was, that had a cognitive ability. And again, 'who is this man? This is neat.' But remember, this was just the very beginning of the whole women's movement, the whole birth control pill, coming out, the beginnings of the gay movement, even though that stonewall didn't come until a few years later. It was absolutely new and different. This was when Jerry Ruben was on the campus, and here I was, standing there saying 'what is this?' And I'm a person who doesn't get on the bandwagon. What you saw then is probably what you'll see now, hopefully a little more mature and a little more sophisticated. I never went through the hippie stage and then came back to become the young conservative of the '80's and '90's. That wasn't me. And I would watch this, it was like a camera that was unfolding in front of me, this epic, and all these fascinating friends of mine getting involved in things that were, to me, that I wouldn't get involved in because there were other concerns in my life at that time. We had a terrible family problem at that time and I knew that if I got involved in the drug culture that would just be the last thing, so I stayed back. But it was fascinating.\" [Didyou have tutorial sessions with 3-4 other students and the professor?] \"I don't remember tutorials; I remember small groups with 15-20 people. Again, absolutely a shocker, because the other classes that I was in were lectures of large numbers, and I remember just sitting on the floor [in Arts One]... I'd always sit in a chair...and Richard Parsons was discussing. I also remember a chap who was an extremely religious man, I think he was a minister; I remember another chap called Simon Yakamoto who was brought in to lead the discussions. He was also a part of that Arts One, and it was he who got me so involved in Buddhism and religious studies, which I continued to pursue. So for me, it was like a giant smorgasbord. Remember this was the time that women were going to be mothers or secretaries or nurses. I know that's hard to look at in this day and age, but that's the way it was going to be, and here were people saying 'wow, there's all this kind of stuff out there' that I never knew. Because despite the fact that Churchill was considered a good school, the honors programs were essentially a streaming of enrichment kids just doing the program faster with no enrichment persay.\" b. Readings \"I thought it was very very heavy. Again, I had never read anything like that before. I'll be quite honest with you that a lot of the readings I did not do because it was just nothing that I could identify with, and, ironically, very little of those readings were discussed. Again, that's my perception.\" 231 e. Papers \"I had written essays in high schooi, certainly not like I did in university. Again, not untoward; I could do it, but I didn't type, I wrote everything out longhand which I didn't know one had to type. I had to learn a whole system of footnoting and bibliography, which we really hadn't been expected to do too much of in high school.\" f Your relationship with faculty \"What I remember was wonderful. We got to call them by their first names which was very... remember, this is the end of the very tight '60's. That was an eye-opener. To be invited for supper at Simon Yakamoto's house. That kind of thing. These people were approachable, we could talk to them, we could disagree. And maybe it's the perspective of a first year university student as well, but I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. And I've carried so much of that experience into my own teaching in my own classroom.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"I don't remember that it was good or bad. I think I was probably perceived as the ultra-conservative. I remember one of the girls that I knew because her father and my father were very good friends, and she always shocked us because she was having a heavy-duty relationship with this older fellow, and she would often discuss in open discussions in the class about using birth control and what they had done the night before and that sort of thing. 'Oh, really.' I remember that we were a group, but I don't remember seeing many of those people after class.\" h. Arts One Building \"It was dump, it was a hole. It was part of the schtik because you went to school there as opposed to Buchanan. It was old and dumpy. It was pre-war, and I remember a sort of large area where we would sit cross-legged on the floor and listen to the guest speakers as a number of groups intermingled, and then I remember that there was a smaller room where we would sit and discuss with Richard Parsons.\" 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"No, I would love Arts One, or an eclectic Arts One where you have an amalgam of arts and sciences together; this was English, anthropology, and history at the time, I believe, and I think that it's a must. I just cringe when people say to me that they're taking sciences or they're taking arts. In first and second and third year university, I would love for people to have a liberal arts education which would 232 incorporate a number of areas. Because of Arts One, I think that I was much more interested in moving into things that I never would have touched before, and I really really liked that...I remember that I got the highest marks in Arts One that I ever got in university. I got a scholarship for the next year because of Arts One.\" 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was a good student, but I was elected valedictorian only because I was the person that didn't offend anybody. There were six candidates, and I was the only one that didn't offend. And you have to remember that in the '60's there was tremendous anti-Semitism, and I was at a prominently Jewish school, and there were several Jewish kids and me that they liked, but I had enough clout that I was elected. And I found that really upsetting to be elected valedictorian on that kind of thing, and I realized that only after, looking back at the candidates, because the candidates were just incredibly superb candidates. But I was a Protestant. It was a fascinating time, but you look at it from a perspective, because at that time you were not aware of the intolerance. There were poor Irish kids from Marpole; there were the wealthy Jewish kids from Oakridge; and then there were about 2% of us Protestants who were middle class, and we sort of mingled with everyone, not knowing the tremendous animosities and hostilities amongst some of the groups.\" 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Oh, I certainly felt much stronger in terms of my own perspective. I thought I was. .you see, when you're streamed, as I was in high school, even if you're an able and capable student, you always judge yourself on the streamed class. So I was a great student, but I was not the top of the streamed class. They might have had 30-35 students in the streamed class and I'd been number 20-22, so I'm not bright, because everybody else is brighter. Also that whole attitude of bright girls not speaking out, not doing well in sciences. What did one Physics teacher say to me? If I smiled and kept my pretty little head he'd pass me in Physics. I had a History professor tell me that I shouldn't do my Masters, that I should go and find myself a husband and get on with my life.\" 10. What did you major in? \"I majored in History. We didn't really have any career training or planning in high school. My parents were depression children. I was the first of all the extended cousins who was going to university, so there was no sort of'what was I going to do?' In the back of my mind, I'd always wanted to be a doctor, and I was not very successful in high school with the physics requirement. I did quite well in chemistry. Teaching was always there, but it was always there...it wasn't really focused at that time.\" 233 11. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"Well, the difficulty for me was that all the family problems that I've been talking about came to a head, and my marks just plummeted. I went from an 80 something or other, to about a 65. I was dealing with too much at home. In third year I pulled myself back up, but my perception then was 'oh my God, I've screwed everything up. I can't pull it together again.' And I think looking back on it now, I could have wheeled and dealed and whatever I wanted to do, but by then I was in really bad emotional shape with everything that had happened at home, that it took me about five years to get it all together again. And by that time, and I never resented going into fifth year Education—it was essentially in the back of my mind what I wanted to do.\" 12. How did you compare yourself to the other students who had not taken Arts One? \"I was often teased. The idea of you hippie dippy, you liberal dadadadadada kind of thing. Why would you want to waste your time doing that crap. What's in it for you. I remember it was a tremendous hostility. A year later, and this is the ultimate irony of this whole program, I joined a sorority at a time when sororities were completely an anathema. I joined essentially because I needed that support. So many of my friends did not go to university; they went onto other areas and other fields. And a number of my friends did go to university, and a number of them did join sororities. So I just joined a sorority essentially to keep myself together at that time because the stuff that was going on at home was so bad. And yet, again, Arts One gave me that edge of approaching people in a different way. I don't think I ever got caught up in that whole game of sorority because of Arts One. It sounds sort of weird, but I'd seen too much.\" 13. How do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Well, it taught me that I had to learn to type. I became so interested, I was doing a paper on Joseph Stalin and communism, and I became so fascinated that I was reading every book and whatever, and I didn't know how to type. So I had to write this thing out longhand in the days when whiteout didn't exist, all the bibliographic material and the footnoting and everything. Richard Parsons was very good about it and he read it, but my next year's profs when I'd hand in handwritten material, forget it—it had to be typed; I won't read it. And of course computers were existing in those days in terms of the pc's, so that's one thing I had to do, I had to learn how to type essays. That was something that I hadn't really learned in high school. I don't think you can expect the high school system to teach everything, but I certainly do teach my students in senior English how to write an essay for university, and I use the APA method.\" 234 [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Being in such a shallow, narrow little world where I was, it forced me to look at things that I'd never looked at before. I started to think. But remember I came from a traditional English home where God was spelled D. A.D., and there was one flavour of ice cream, and that was Dad's favourite. So those kinds of things impacted, where instead of having my opinion questioned, I'd have someone say 'hey, that sounds really neat; why do you think that?' And I couldn't say anymore, 'well, that's what the family believes.' I had to make a decision and come up with my own reasoning, and that was very difficult.\" [Your ability to argue effectively?] \"I am an extremely emotional person, and these people would become extremely belligerent. It wasn't that they were belligerent, I realized afterwards, it was because they had opinions, and they were young and dynamic and they wanted to share them. And I had to learn that to have a dissenting opinion wasn't wrong, and that you didn't have to get all emotional in order to defend your opinion. And I found that really interesting, too.\" 14. Numbers of respondents from that time period who would not recommend Arts One. Comments? \"Because it was so incredibly different from what high school was like at that time. Here were people not spoon feeding you anymore, not making you leap for grades, but making you come up with ideas, defend your position, search for answers. We were thinking. We were having to work. For the first time in my life I just couldn't coast. I was a good student in high school, but I was a 'B' student because I did nothing.\" 15. What have you done since graduation? \"I've taught high school for 23 years. I have my Masters in Gifted Education, which I thought was a wonderful way to do it because we set up a program at West Van Secondary when I taught there called Humanities 8, and this was an integration of English and Social Studies and Fine Arts, and this was a program that had been set up in the early '70's at West Van, and I took it over, and I worked on that program until the mid-'80's. And it was essentially a mini Arts One. We took best and brightest of grade eight students, and essentially everybody applied for it, everybody got it. It was not by invitation, it was advertised and then essentially as many youngsters as were able to took it. But there were a number of youngsters who weren't particularly able who took it and did very very well. And it was so intriguing in the sense that these were 12 and 13-year olds who were asking to do this discussion sort of thing. And it's funny, having taught in this district for 23 years, so often I'll see these youngsters, now 235 married with children, and they'll say \"Oh, Mrs. Tacks, Oh I loved Arts One, I learned this, this, this, this and whatever. It was a wonderful time.' So this is what was the springboard for me going back part-time, getting my Masters at U.B.C. Now I teach senior English AP. I'm on medical leave right now, but I really enjoy it.\" 16. Do you think that your choice ofprofession has been influenced by your Arts One experience, and if so how? \"I don't think it was influenced. I think the grain was always there. I was going off to Medical School for mommy and daddy, and there were times during the '80's when the teacher bashing was so bad that I went and wrote the LSAT, and said 'no, forget this, this is nonsensical,' and went back to my love of teaching.\" 17. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"The only regret that I have is that I was not as aware or as knowledgeable going into Arts One as I should have been. I was so incredibly naive, emotionally and intellectually, that I just wish that I had had someone say to me 'here are the options.' And then, perhaps, I would have pursued some of the literature in a more mature way.\" 18. Would you do it again \"Oh yeah. Give me the chance and I'd be there like a shot.\" 19. Would you change it in any way? \"Yeah, like I said I would add a music and a fine arts component, in a sense of art appreciation. I would also impose a science component, get someone like Suzuki or Steven Hawking to talk about philosophy and life and that sort of thing from a scientific point of view. Now I went off and I explored all sorts of things after Arts One. I took a Theatre 330 course or something. My parents just went nuts. I took several years of Religious Studies. I went into Buddhism in a big way. And that set me in such stead in the sense that there were so many things I could discover afterwards because I had had the books opened for me, and then I could go off and pursue them. I regret, however, not continuing my science or math, but again, they were essentially taught by men, who justifiably weren't really teaching women the way women learned.\" [Suggestion that we get rid of Arts One and have Arts Three and Arts Four instead because students aren't ready for an Arts One-type program in their first year.] \"Garbage. It should be taught in grade four. This was the whole idea of the year 2000, that taking of learning and incorporating them together as a gestalt as 236 opposed to a year of English and a year of Socials and there's no connection whatsoever. That's a bunch of garbage. And that was the beauty of Arts One-there you had anthropology, English, and history, all tied in. I would have loved to have added in fine arts and music, because that was the component that was essentially missing.\" 20. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It just opened me up. It was the beginning. It put a chink in the armor. Now whether that was university that did that, I don't know because that was Arts One. But I don't think in a class of 200 in English or 300 in History that would have been done. And it certainly allowed me to be introduced to a whole bunch of ideas because there were the three disciplines, but I think it was more than just the three disciplines. We had so much religious thought.\" [Comment on some questionnaires that a liberal arts/humanities program for a select-few like Arts One should not be funded by taxpayers.] \"Oh, bull. I get so tired of this career-ready nonsense. We are not creating human beings by having them career-ready. We're creating automatons. We're creating heartless, soulless people who have no sense of themselves or their environment, let alone other people. I firmly believe in the Renaissance approach to literature and art and history. You have to look at all these things in order to see the whole. And this idea that you're going to become a pharmacist, well great, but what are you going to do after pharmacy is no longer interesting. When I was in the hospital earlier this year, I had this most delightful resident who was helping me, and she said 'One thing that I really regret, Mrs. Tacks, is that I never studied literature. I never did anything because my whole goal was to become a doctor.' And here's this young, and soon to be very talented, oncologist regretting her education. I think you can have a component of education that is involved with training, so be it. But isn't an education to bring a roundness to a person? That's my position.\" 237 Ryan 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1987-88.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"The reading list. It had a lot of great books that I'd always wanted to read and it was structured around one concept, 'The Individual and Society,' and I thought that there were so many different angles to approach that and that that it was a really rich topic, one that I was interested in myself at the time. So when I saw the reading list, I definitely wanted to be in it.\" 3. What high school didyou graduate from? \"Vancouver College.\" 4. Was there anything else about the program that appealed to you besides the reading list? \"Yeah, it's one and two, the reading list and the structure of the course. Small class size with one professor, and the structure of talking about and discussing books within a small group. It was a really small community and gave the opportunity to enter university in a comfortable setting.\" 5. Was \"The Individual and Society \" your first choice theme group? \"Yeah, I actually didn't want the other one. I remember sweating bullets until I heard that I was in.\" [Was there a waiting list, or didyou just go right in?] \"I applied very early because I had been in France and did everything as early as possible. In fact, I was so keen to get into Arts One that focused on that and forgot to hand in a residence application until way past the deadline, because I thought that once I was in 'The Individual and Society' that's all that counted.\" 6. At the time, how didyou feel about the following aspects of Arts One? a. Lectures \"Actually, I liked them, because the way they were structured they were a lot longer, they were two hours, and it gave the professor a lot of time to present the 238 material they had and then leave some time open for questions. I didn't realize it then, but that doesn't happen that often with lectures once you get out of the Arts One environment.\" [How many people were in your lectures?] \"It was however many sections of'The Individual and Society' there were. We all met there. It was probably about 50-60 people. Pretty small for a first year lecture.\" b. Seminars \"We had about 15-16 people in our seminar group. It was wonderful in that respect. One thing that is really crucial about the Arts One program is the professors you get to lead the seminars. They totally make or break the Arts One experience I think.\" [Do you remember your seminar professor?] \"I don't remember his name, but his specialty was . He wasn't really comfortable in large groups, nor was he very comfortable in smaller groups. He seemed very timid and didn't deal with confrontation all that well, or even people getting emotionally involved in debating points and things like that. I think that's totally what makes or breaks the program, the seminar leader.\" c. Tutorials \"We'd bring drafts of our essays, I think we wrote four essays a term, and read them out and discuss them with smaller groups. There were about 3-4 people in the tutorial. It was pretty good. Sometimes I wasn't sure if everyone was really mature enough to handle that kind of a situation, to really maximize that kind of environment in terms of constructive criticism and help. In retrospect, it seems like that was such an idyllic time. We probably didn't know how good we had it compared to the general first year experience.\" a\\ Readings \"Wonderful. Everything from Pascal, The Brothers K, drama, poetry, it was amazing. All kinds of different cultures, even if it was predominantly western civilization, so Romance languages, but a wide range of reading material, many different styles, and they all really brought out the theme—you can find 'The Individual and Society' in all of it.\" 239 e. Papers \"I actually did a lot of work for them. That's one of the good things about Arts One—with all that attention you really get motivated to try to produce something you can be proud of, so you put in a lot of work.\" [What was the feedback like?] \"At any level you get people who are purely tangential and just bring in 'my grandfather from the 1940's' to this about this book, so you get some comments that are really useful, and others that aren't.\" / Your Relationship with Faculty \"I found that they were really encouraging, and constantly were trying to encourage people to go towards the honours programs. I think they realized that if we were interested in the Arts One type of curriculum then the honours program was the next step once you'd left Arts One because of the smaller class sizes and a more personal relationship with the professors involved with the program. Learning from my experience here at U.B.C, I'd say that majors is not a very good way to go if you're at all interested in your field. If you're in just to get a degree or whatever and you've got lots of things on the side, then do a major. If you really care about what you're studying then definitely go honours because that's where you're going to get the people who are really interested in teaching and where you are going to get the most out of your time. So I thought that [the faculty] were really good and they were constantly bringing in other people.\" g. Your Relationship With Other Participants \"We were a really eclectic group.\" [Didyou become friends with any of them?] \"No, not really. I think it's just the diaspora...we all went separate directions.\" [You lived in residence, right?] \"Yes. And there were some people from Arts One there.\" h. Arts One Building \"I would like to say that it had character, but really it was just a dump. It was a glorified shack.\" [Is that where all of your classes were held?] \"Yes.\" 240 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"The one thing that...I don't know if there is a way to get around it, but if there was a way to have people meet prospective seminar leaders prior to choosing, because it's very much a personality thing and if the karma is right then they'll have a great class, but if you don't then you can just punch the class and get through.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities when you left high school? \"I thought I was a pretty good student, and I did really well, but the thing was that at my high school I did all the sciences because the people who taught the Arts side were really pathetic, so when I made the switch to Arts One, I was a little less sure than if I had stayed in the sciences.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"No, but going back to the thing about encouraging students to go into honours, I think that whole process and the amount of one-on-one time and the encouragement from different professors—even guest professors were keen to talk to you about going on into honours, and at that time it made you feel good about yourself. So I think I felt better, and that I belonged in the social sciences. 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? Did you have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes? \"The biggest thing was the loss of a sense of a community and being in a program with a bunch of your peers. Once you got out of Arts One we really all went our own ways. The proportion of people ended up in honours and I wasn't one of them, and I think going towards a masters you just get thrown in with a whole mess of people. There are good sides to that, but in terms of your whole education, a smaller group with a concentration of time spent with each other just makes a better learning environment.\" 10. What did you major in? \"English Lit and then International Relations—I did a double major.\" [It surprises me that you didn't do honours.] \"Yeah, but I think doing it all over again I would definitely advise someone to go honours, no matter what they were interested in, just because of the quality of education is far superior.\" 241 11. How didyou compare yourself with other students in your major program who did not take Arts One? \"I don't know if there would be any way to really notice that. People who didn't take Arts One and didn't 'get it' thought that it was a great way to scam nine credits. I'm sure some people that's what they were doing. There are always going to be people like that. And now that there is Science One, I think that they are finally clueing into the fact that there is something about the concept.\" [Were there people in your seminar group that weren't getting through, not passing?] \"There was actually one person I remember who was in a bit of trouble. I can't remember what eventually happened to her.\" [Was it your perception that they would fail students who didn't succeed in the program?] \"I can only remember this one person, and she was really quite terrified that she was going to fail out, and because of that I believed that she might also. And there was also the sense from another person that the standards were too high.\" [Didyou think they were?] \"No, I didn't think so, but I did think that this professor was somewhat of an egomaniac and not very tolerant. So while this person may not have been the most brilliant, I don't think this teacher's approach to her was one that was going to help her do her best, whatever level that might have been.\" [Didyou find that as you went onto 2-4 years that the standards were higher/lower/the same?] \"Everything up until 3rd year/4th year seemed like it was all the same. So there was a change in 3rd/4th years, and I think it's because by then there's the change that you're in the course for a reason and not just fishing around for what you like, so the profs expect more and the people, by the same token, produce more better quality work.\" 12. How do you think being in Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Because we had to write four papers a term, it seemed like we were always writing or rewriting, and I think that's really good and I think that's how a lot of first year should be spent doing, because that's what you're going to be doing if you stay in the social sciences. If you can spend less time worrying about your own writing then you can spend more time on your ideas.\" 242 /... critical reasoning skills ?] \"I think they were definitely helped. The whole process of taking any kind of work, you know poetry, drama, from any culture and trying to find linkages and commonalties—I think that was a product of the Arts One system.\" [...ability to argue effectively?] \"In class from time to time we debated, but I don't think we ever had any full-on debates where two people had to prepare a position and then argue it, but as an aside I think that's the gravest shortcoming of any first year program, the lack of emphasis on critical thinking. It didn't happen that much.\" // comment on the fact that \"interaction with other students\" poorly rated, and question whether very much discussion/debate among students occurs, or whether most of the discussion is between students and faculty members.] \"I think it might be more student-faculty, simply because first year is first year and, especially in residence, it's first time for a lot of people, and free access to the opposite sex and alcohol at the same time. It's part of the first year learning process of who you are, and maybe you're just not as interested in studies as in the social part of university life to really start debating. I think it takes a very focused person in first year to be always critically thinking and debating ideas with people, as opposed to going out and hanging out.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"More school. I got my BA, double major in English Literature and International Relations, and now I'm doing my Master's in Political Science.\" [What do you see yourself doing after the travels, etc. ?] \"That's what the travels are about, to help me refocus where I want to go, but right now it seems like the possibility of Law, a PhD, or working for a non-government organization like Amnesty or the Human Rights Watch, or something like that.\" 15. Has your choice of academic pursuits being any different as a result of having participated in Arts One? How? \"I think Arts One made me really want to go into literature, and then also into politics because the individual and society are very political ideas, that relationship, so I was attracted to that in terms of literature, and now I'm exploring it in politics.\" 243 [This came up with a couple of the surveys, that students said that Arts One didn't influence their choices, rather they were predisposed to be the types of students who would choose Arts One. That predisposition led them to make the later choices that they did Do you think this is the same for you, that you were predisposed to be an Arts One-type student?] \"Oh, without a doubt.\" [Do you think Arts One changed you in any way?] \"Arts One did encourage predispositions that were already there rather than going into the regular stream where it might not have been encouraging, but rather may have caused me to lose interest or change my focus. It just occurred to me that the people who ended up in Arts One all thought that they were kind of special. As I think back to some of the people who were there, I think a lot of them felt like they liked the separateness of Arts One, that it was different from the mainstream, that it had an idea behind it.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"I don't know. The only thing that keeps coming back is the prof, it's such a make it or break it thing. There's no reason for the seminars to be broken up as they were prior to starting classes. I don't think there was any reason for it to have been organized like that. I think what should have happened was that there be a number of spaces set aside for Arts One and once those spaces were filled those people came in, the profs made a presentation of who they were and what kind of angle they were going to be taking, each of them in turn, and then people write down their top three choices and go from there because there were people in my group who definitely didn't want to be in there, and there were people outside who definitely wanted to be with this person, I think it was Redmond who was my seminar leader. That's my biggest regret. You think about Arts One beginning in the '60's and you think of that whole era and the time of openness but challenging kind of climate, and it just wasn't there, maybe because we all didn't have profs like we imagined we'd have in Arts One. What keeps me in love with the idea of Arts One is that you can have a small group of people spend a lot of time together with a prof who's really interested and who really conveys their interests to the students and gets everybody excited about learning. So that's why I can be so excited about Arts One as an idea, and still have my own experiences be disappointing.\" / 7. Would you do it again? \"Definitely, but I'm also wiser now.\" 244 18. Would you change the program in any way? \"[The registration idea in #16]...It has two benefits. If does single out the professors. You can look at them before and after, and who presents the best image of a prof that people want to work with and their evaluations afterwards, did they live up to it. And then I think it's a good way to encourage a bit of responsibility on the part of the professors to be keen because burnout happens everywhere. There were some great profs, such as Mark Walker, but there were others who were pedantic and so self-absorbed and couldn't step out of it, but this can be true of all professors; they were so socially insecure that they had to be really critical just to keep their own sense of self-worth and identity at a high level.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"I don't know. It's such a turbulent time of your life in first year university, how you pick one thing out of that as an influence. Probably the realization of the importance of class size and the kind of person that you have leading it.\" [I get the feeling that the theme word of what you've talked about is encouragement] \"That's for sure. For all the criticisms of the person I had as a seminar leader, I still think that overall it was a very positive and nurturing kind of environment, and the people that were attracted to teaching it—not to the every last person—but people like Professor Bryant, they were wonderful.\" 245 Sean 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I guess that would be 1985.\" 2. Why didyou choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Yeah. Mostly because it offered the chance to take the English 100 credit without being in the sort of institutionalized, very large and anonymous English 100 classes that were the alternative at the time; partly because I had read a pamphlet on Arts One in my high school guidance counsellor's office; and partly because I had had an interview with one of the Arts One teachers in the summer before I entered the program. So it was a combination of the credit, the promotional material they had, and actually talking to one of the Arts One instructors. [Did that Arts One instructor come out to your high school, or didyou come out to U.B.C. to meet the instructor?] \"No, I came out to U.B.C. to meet him.\" [Anything else?] \"Certainly reasons related to the first thing I mentioned, which was that it was a smaller program, it seemed like there was the potential for more personal attention, generally a more friendly way to do the credits.\" [Which high school didyou attend?] \"Hamber.\" [Didyou live in residence?] \"No I didn't.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"I have no idea.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"Oh, it was pretty vague. It was something along the lines of man and society, which can include just about anything in the liberal arts I expect.\" 246 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a. Lectures \"I thought that the lectures were pretty reasonable. They were about what I expected, semi-scholarly dissertations on the books that we were studying at the time. I didn't actually expect to be put to sleep in a number of cases, that isn't something that's unusual in comparison with other university-level programs.\" [Do you remember approximately how many students were in the lectures?] \"The lecture was the largest event, and I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that there were about 60 people.\" b. Seminars \"And then the seminars would be much smaller, of course. Now are you talking about the classroom seminar or the individual seminar? {I explain} That probably would have been about 15 people. They were pretty good. The advantage of that, of course, is that there was room for discussion of the material at hand and some sort of interactive learning going on with respect to the material. The disadvantage, of course, was that you are at the mercy of the quality of your individual seminar leader, and in my case I was of the opinion that he was not suited to teach that particular material as well as other seminar teachers in Arts One, and he was given that evaluation, in fact, by a number of people at the end of the year.\" // explain about how some questionnaires indicated that participants felt that if you had a poor Arts One professor, it could have a negative impact on your first year.] \"I don't know. I would have agreed at the time that it had a negative impact on Arts One, but I think that the spirit of the program survives the incompetency of the individual professor.\" c. Tutorials \"I didn't mind that as much. Yes he did have his own idiosyncrasies, but somehow they didn't show up in the smallest groupings, probably because there was more room to discuss things at length on an individual basis so it wasn't that bad. The short point of it was that he was really an incredibly boring speaker in a formal setting.\" 247 d Readings \"They were interesting. I actually enjoyed some of them. I thought that there were a good range of subjects; pretty good material I'd say.\" e. Papers \"Quite straightforward. It's really hard to put myself back in my shoes at that particular time because at the time the essay requirements would have seemed...no, I remember now. The essay requirements were onerous. We were required to write an essay on the order of one every one or two weeks, and compared to what you produce in high school that is a huge amount of stuff to produce. So it felt like a huge workload at the time, but that was pretty much offset by the fact that you were getting nine credits for it I think, but that's me in retrospect again.\" [My comment about the fact that it's okay if he doesn 't remember everything.] \"But bare in mind that I'm looking back through nine years of misty amber glasses.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"I didn't have a lot of contact with the other members of the faculty because you did most of your work with the particular seminar leader that you had. I thought that they were pretty competent in general. I remember one professor had a really quite annoying speaking voice, but that was sort of evened out by the fact that he had a fairly good command of his material and the content of what he was saying was really quite interesting.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"That's probably the best part of all, the fact that you can get together with these people and discuss the material at hand, Socrates or whatever it happened to be for that week, in almost a sort of coffee shop setting was beautiful, a beautiful change from high school where, particularly in my high school, your involvement with the material was on a very traditional, desks in rows basis, and there wasn't that much room for finding out what the material meant to your fellow students. Whereas in Arts One, boy, you realize that there were five, six, 15 people in your seminar alone who not only had a good understanding of the material at hand, but a totally different one from you, and who would tell you about it, and that was great, such a nice change from high school, and in fact it was an experience that I didn't really see much after Arts One. I didn't really have that interactivity after Arts One.\" 248 [Did you find that same level of interaction with the other courses you took in first year?] \"No, not really.\" h. Arts One Building \"Compared to most buildings at U.B.C. it's kind of squalid. In terms of facilities, I remember that there were these basement meeting rooms where we usually were and, on a physical level, it wasn't much. But the fact that it was a building devoted to Arts One, and the fact that everyone in that building was studying what you were, and that you could get together with them, and you knew that if you said hi to someone in that building that they were going through the same thing you were, made all the difference. We practically could have been in tents with mud floors and we would have still been able to appreciate the material.\" 6. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"Nothing honestly stands out as something that I would change or do differently, with the exception of my obvious peeve with my seminar professor being quite bad at delivering the material. So I would ask that the people who administer Arts One screen their seminar leaders more carefully for their ability to present material in a group setting and to get along with students.\" 7. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was of two minds because, on the one hand, I had been able to do just fine in English courses or Social Studies, the precursors to liberal arts in high school, so I wasn't really expecting particular problems with the material as such. But on the other hand, I just barely got into U.B.C. in the first hand because my grade-point-average was nothing special, you know, C+ or B or something like that. So here I was, expecting to be surrounded by relative Einsteins, and it wasn't really the case.\" 8. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? / \"Well, I sort of impressed myself that I was actually able to pump out an essay every two weeks and I never would have thought that I could do that before. So yes, that did really change my view about how well I could work in a university setting.\" 249 9. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I hate to say that it was a bit of an anticlimax after that, but it was in a sense, even though I was getting closer to this particular major that I was interested in, and getting into material that I was really interested in taking, such as Urban Geography. The way that it was taught didn't quite have the personal feeling that Arts One brought to bear.\" [Didyou have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes?] \"No, not particularly, especially since the work requirements in Arts One were a little bit higher than what I ran into in my 2nd year. It wasn't really a problem of the switch-up or anything like that. Certainly the material we were dealing with got more complicated, more in-depth, not necessarily more sophisticated but certainly a lot more detailed. It's one thing to do a gloss on Socrates in a week, and it's another thing to spend four weeks on the particular research methodologies of urban geography. You need a longer attention span, for one thing, to deal with the material that you get into after Arts One.\" 10. Didyou major in Geography? \"I did.\" // comment on the views of some participants who stated, in their surveys, that Arts One should really happen in fourth year and be called Arts Four.] \"Oh no. Utter bullshit. No, it's the best thing to have happen to you in your first year. You'd be a little bit cynical and wiped out by the time you hit that thing in your fourth year and I think some of the beauty of Arts One is that it is a quite gentle transition into the university way of dealing with material. So no. I'd be all for an Arts Four in addition to Arts One, a program that dealt with the material in more depth, dealt with more difficult material, but I certainly wouldn't want to see it replacing Arts One.\" [Sean asks me if any reasons were given by those students who wanted an Arts Four instead of Arts One. I explained that some felt that they weren't mature enough to handle the discussion in their first year.] Well goodness, I wasn't either, and I think that it's true, that you'd certainly be able to bring a better perspective to bear on some of the stuff that was dealt with. I mean Nietsche, what does that stuff mean to someone who is 18-years old? It's like this nutty German who was so black and difficult to deal with. For someone coming out of high school it's difficult to relate your own experiences to what he was discussing. Or Madame Bovary's strange emotional relationships that she 250 went through. Unless you were quite advanced socially in high school, I don't think you'd have that personal experience to relate to that on. So maybe you'd be able to get deeper into the material if you dealt with it in fourth year, but at the same time I would not have wanted to have waited myself.\" 11. How did you compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"Gosh no. Other factors would have far more influence on how I view them. You know, what high school they've come from, what region of B.C. or Canada or the world they've come from. All those things have far more influence. I wouldn't have known if somebody else had come from the Arts One program for one thing.\" 12. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Improved it I would say. Certainly getting constant criticism and feedback and suggestions, even if they weren't always accurate, certainly puts you in a critical frame of mind when you're writing in the future. It does put you in better shape to write with some care and think about what it is you're dealing with a little more closely than maybe you'd be led to do if you were taking English 100.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"It may have improved it slightly, but at the same time you could go through Arts One without uttering much.\" [In your seminar groups, did most students get involved in the discussion, or were there students who didn't get involved at all?] \"There were a few students who got along invisibly almost, I mean as well as you can do in Arts One. That seems to be one of its aims, to route out those students who aren't saying anything, but from my own perspective I pretty much got into being one of several people who thought they knew what they were talking about and let their two cents fly at most seminars. It was just because there were other people I could react to and argue with about the material that I was able to start a little bit of public speaking myself. But, like I said, Arts One wouldn't instill in you a public speaking ability, but if something was there in the first place it would develop it further.\" 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I did a B A in Urban Geography, and then I did another Bachelor in Architecture, and I'm working for an architectural firm right now.\" 251 15. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"Not really. I entered the Bachelor of Arts program with the intention of going into Architecture anyway.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"Not offhand.\" 17. Would you do it again? \"Oh, in an instant.\" 18. Would you change it in any way? \"I would have signed up with a different seminar leader.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Probably sharpened up my writing skills a little bit. It also made me realize that university wasn't a dry collection of courses to be treadmilled through, but in fact that it could be an intellectual experience on a personal level. You could actually talk about the damned stuff with other people that were going through it. And I think that had I been taking English 100, which seems to be like any other university course, the focus more would have been on getting through the material and passing the course, and that would have been the interest of your classmates as well and you'd assume that attitude. Whereas with Arts One, the other people in the seminar had a real personal interest in what they were talking about, and this reflected on me and I took an interest as well. So it really comes down to making the material interesting to you on a personal basis instead of making it something that you have to absorb, assimilate, and spit out on an exam. [Can you think of some way that the Arts One program can allow high school students to have more knowledge of the different seminar leaders before they make their choice?] \"Obviously, of course, simply the result of the course... well simply, many faculties conduct reviews by the students at the end of each year, and simply publish the results of those bloody things and make them not only available, but hand them to high school students and say that this faculty member was rated highly on his ability to do this, and this faculty member was rated quite badly on his ability to do this aspect. So I'm not suggesting that we have a black list of faculty members, and it's possible that the one who taught me might improve substantially on the basis of the comments that he got, but it would have made a lot of difference if you 252 could have gone into that seminar knowing what your seminar leader's strengths and weaknesses were. [Did you do an evaluation for Arts One?] \"Sure did.\" 20. Do you have anything you want to add? \"Well, if it's anything that can be transmitted to the administration responsible for Arts One, I'd really encourage them to continue with their program even if they are experiencing other difficulties with it. I think it was the best nine credits I've ever taken, and it's probably one of the best courses, persay, that I've taken.\" 253 Tami 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"I think it was 80-81.\" 2. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"I liked the idea of academic integration. That was the overriding reason, but there were other things. I came from a very small private girls' school in Vancouver, the Convent of the Sacred Heart, which closed in 1979, my last year. I took one year off then went into Arts One—that's why I think I was in the 80-81 year.\" [How did you first hear about the program?] \"I head about it because I used to go to mass at one of the theological colleges at U . B . C , St. Mark's College, and one of the priests there at the time was Father Mark Walker, and he ended up being my seminar leader. So it was just sort of like a natural progression.\" [When you went into the program, did you specifically select Mark Walker as your seminar leader?] \"Yes I did.\" 3. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"No, I don't remember. I think I did.\" 4. Do you remember the theme? \"Varieties of Creative Progressive???\" 5. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a Lectures \"Now I think that was with the largest group. Some of them were interesting. Some of them were too broad for me, and that might have been because it was a format that I wasn't yet used to, the difference between the high school lecture format and that of university with a larger group. And you know you sort of get into the way of your own particular teachers, and they used to have guest lecturers. And I also used to find it distracting because I'd be looking at all these boys; it was just larger and there were more variables.\" 254 b. Seminars \"I found them more useful in terms of a learning tool and in making friends and in feeling comfortable. It was the difference between a cocktail party and a mob scene.\" c. Tutorials \"I found them good and bad. They were useful and at the beginning a little intimidating.\" d Readings \"I was attracted to it by its titles more than the texts because you hear these things that you \"wow\" associate with the great books of western civilization, and at the time there was not a Western Civilization 12 course in the B.C. high school curriculum. It just seemed to fill in so may gaps, and it was such a quantum leap from the kind of material we had been reading in high school.\" [Didyou find the readings difficult?] \"Only Virgil; I found Virgil a little bit challenging. But then again, I don't think it would be as challenging now. Ideas and vocabulary weren't as available to me then as they are now.\" e. Papers \"That was a challenge that I enjoyed, but it was nevertheless a challenge, especially when it was Mark Walker. It was like Mr. Scholar, I mean he's really Mr. Scholar. He's brilliant.\" [Didyou have to produce one essay per week?] \"Yeah, it was a little bit churning it out. I think we had to produce something like that, but it wasn't a 2000 word essay every week I don't think.\" / Your relationship with faculty \"It was quite good and positive, but it was a little awkward at the beginning because you know I had been in this Catholic girls boarding school and the one thing you didn't do was call priests \"Mark.\" I mean the Apostle Mark. But it was kindof neat for me, and there was a lot of other stuff going on, to learn that you can actually be friends with a person that's a priest. It delivered education in so many non-instructional ways, too.\" 255 // mention the comment on some questionnaires re: poor seminar leader can have a negative impact on student's first year.] \"I think it's a valid observation, and I also think it's equally valid that it reduces your personal accountability. I believe in student-centred learning, where it's the individual's responsibility to take charge of their own learning, and not just to say 'well I had a lousy seminar leader.' But it's certainly a valid observation because so often they can make it or break it in that crucial first year. I do remember one incident in the larger lecture format where some fellow wrote me a note saying 'This is awful. Get me Mark or get me George.' I think George Davis. And I guess that shows that if you did happen to land a really good seminar leader it contrasts with the poorer, less able ones.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"I was really impressed with what they were doing. I thought they were really courageous. I remember one fellow, Michael Stanfield. He sometimes couldn't make things on a Thursday, and I remember Mark being really upset and saying 'Well, you come to university you come to go to class.' And he said 'No, no, no, I didn't come to university to go to class, I came to university to write for The Ubyssey., And he turned out to be a local writer, and prolific, but I remember thinking 'wow, he knows what he wants, and he's got guts.' [Did you find that there were students in your seminar group who didn't speak out or seem to get into the discussion?] \"Not really. I found that everybody was quite vocal.\" h. Arts One Building \"Kind of funky. It was sort of like a hangover from the '60's; you know we were all too young to have really been part of the hippy movement in the 70's, but we thought we were baby hippies in the 80's. And it was kind of funky, and I really like old buildings anyways, so I felt really comfortable in it.\" 6. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I felt good. I did well in school.\" 7. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically ? \"I don't think I had changed. Certainly it was more of a challenge, and it's certainly humbling. Last night I was looking over some of my essays, and I remember Mark 256 used to give me a lot of \"B, B-, B+\" grades, the odd, very odd \"A\" I think, but that was a humbling thing for me when you're used to getting better marks, but now I hope those were honest marks, I hope they weren't really \"D\" or \"F\" essays. But that was a little humbling, and to realize that you're in a bigger pool of competition and the expectations were higher.\" 8. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"I think I did better in my 3rd and 4th years, but then you tend to specialize.\" [Didyou have any problems switching from Arts One to regular university classes?] \"No, but I missed the camaraderie. I missed the intimacy of the Arts One program.\" 9. What did you major in? \"I majored in French.\" 10. How didyou compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"If you found another student who had been in the Arts One program, there was sort of like a link, sort of like old home week or a reunion. But so much of French is not group oriented, it's developing your own language skills, either in language laboratories...There was some discussion for oral classes, oral practice, but you always knew that the emphasis wasn't the issues you were discussing, they were simply the vehicle for practicing subjunctive verb tenses. If you really got excited about the topic, the teacher would try to steer you back to verb conjugation or something like that.\" 11. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"I think it helped it. The ability to organize ideas and the ability to record ideas into text.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Jeepers. I don't know. No comment.\", [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"I think it helped in confidence building. In some ways, that was never a problem though, and I really feel there's a link, in the sense that having gone to an all girls 2 5 7 school, most of my teachers were female and there was not this element of feeling intimidated by men. Men can sometimes dominate conversational groups and women clam up while the men hold forth and expound. It was neat that having gone to an all girls female scholarly environment that wasn't an element, and the nuns were actually female role models of high academic achievement, and not defining themselves in terms of the men they were attached to, because they weren't attached to any. So that helped equally as well.\" [Didyou live in residence?] \"No, I lived at my parents' home.\" 12. What have you done since graduation? \"Since the bachelors in French in '85,1 went off to live in Northern Ireland because I was engaged to an Irish folksinger, and I lived in Ulster. In '85-86 I ended up working on a ship in Latin America, and I taught ESL to Latin American sailors on a ship. I lived on the ship for 1 1/2 years. And then in '88 I started my Masters in Library Science, and I finished that in 1990. And now I'm a high school librarian at School in East Van.\" [Do you ever talk about Arts One with your students?] \"Yeah, I did actually recently talk about it with one grade 12 who was graduating, but he wasn't going to take it because he thought it would be irrelevant; he was doing a BSc.\" 13. Has your choice of work been any different as a result of your having participated in Arts One? \"Yes it did, in my choice of occupation in terms of the fact that I always resisted academic overspecialization and I knew, for example, doing an undergraduate degree in French usually that leads to language education. I ended up getting an education certification for English as a Second Language, but I just couldn't see me being a language educator, and what appealed to me about librarianship is that your specialization is information management; rather than inflexible content, it's how to access it in an age of information overload.\" 14. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, not at all.\" 15. Would you do it again? \"Yeah, I would.\" 258 16. Would you change it in any way? \"No, I mean you always have to be constantly critically assessing the reading list. Nowadays there would probably be more female representation on the reading list, and maybe writers of colour or different gender. But that wasn't an emphasis however long ago it was.\" 17. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"Probably in choice of my occupation, in that whole theme of integration again.\" [Comment on questionnaire from some respondents who felt Arts One too expensive to be funded with taxpayers money for a program that is humanities based and non-vocational] \"Bullshit. To clarify, I would always defend any forum that promotes free debate and individual inquiry. It's definitely the way of the future. I mean look at the year 2000 from the Ministry. It's all student-centred learning, and students taking responsibility for their own achievement rather than having it delivered by a teacher. And obviously as a librarian I'm committed to promotion of reading and intellectual freedom and access to ideas. And I would say that is a primary function of a university and represents money well spent and a deal for the taxpayer.\" [Comment from some respondents that it would be better to have an Arts Three or Arts Four rather than Arts One] \"Well, that is certainly an interesting idea, and I think it's worth considering. I tend to associate this kind of academic activity as graduate work where you do have a more intimate relationship with your advisor and advisor group tutorials, there's a lower student/teacher ration, and some people will say that students can get that if they go onto do graduate work. But I don't know. It probably has some validity.\" [What about having a major program in something like Arts One?] \"Maybe that would be sort of like a liberal arts degree that they have at SFU. It might be worth considering, but with the economy the way it is and cost is a factor, you think should we duplicate programs that occur elsewhere?\" 259 Valerie 1. What year did you take Arts One? \"1987.\" 2. What high school did you graduate from? \"Burnaby South.\" 3. Why did you choose Arts One initially? What appealed to you about the program? \"Really because I wasn't sure where to go and what to take. No one in my family had gone to university ahead of me, so I didn't really know. So I just thought to start out generally I would take something like that. And the workload, too. Taking only three courses made it easier because I was working as well.\" [How did you first hear about the program?] \"Through a high school counsellor. When you got accepted they offered their advising. They had a lot of pamphlets and things like that, and I probably read about it in a pamphlet.\" 4. Were you in your first choice theme group? \"Oh yeah.\" 5. Do you remember the theme? \"It was 'Force and Freedom.'\" 6. At the time, how did you feel about the following aspects of Arts One: a Lectures \"It really depended on who was doing the lecture because they were doing rotating lectures. I think at times it was really good, and at times it was really boring, and that was really dependent on who was lecturing.\" [Didyou ever have guest lecturers?] \"No.\" 260 b. Seminars \"I thought they were good. I liked that they were very small, because I think my group was less that 10 people. I had the same professor all year, Don Young. I think his specialty is in the History Department.\" c. Tutorials \"They were okay. I wasn't too crazy about him, but then I think that was just more personal than anything. He just didn't seem very enthusiastic, but I think that's just the way he is. I guess I just had different ideas of what it would be like when I was coming into it.\" [Comment on questionnaires re: poor professors.] \"No, that was exactly him. But I also found in subsequent years that that was the norm. It wasn't necessarily him. At the time I remember thinking 'Oh my God.' Especially because I took Geography and we had a recent PhD graduate, and it's not fair to compare people, but he was just so much more enthusiastic about it. He was trying really hard to get his tenure, so he was right in there and very approachable.\" [Can you think of something that could be done so that you could go into the program knowing what type ofprofessor you were getting for your seminar leader?] \"Interviewing would be good. Or just having a panel discussing and inviting people who have been admitted into the program to sit in, like mini-lectures, so people can sort of get an idea of what people lecture like, and who they think they would best fit their personality.\" d Readings \"Oh, I thought it was great, because everything that I read in the first year I followed somewhere because I did and English-History double major, and it was a good foundation.\" [Didyou feel that high school prepared you for these types of readings?] \"I don't remember feeling overwhelmed by it, so I must have felt that I was prepared.\" e. Papers \"I don't really remember thinking anything about the assignments, except that you had to do them. They were always really fair. There was only one time where I got a grade that I thought was pretty low, and Don said that we'd have another professor read it and give an honest grade without seeing my grade, and if it did turn out that I was right, we'd go with that grade. He was really good that way, 261 because I just didn't agree with the grade that he'd given me. And I also thought that it was pretty nice for them [the other professors] to take time out of their work to do this, because they'd have their own assignments to do, and they changed the grade to a higher one.\" f. Your relationship with faculty \"I didn't get much of a chance to get to know the other professors, but I got to know Don quite well. Even now if I'm out on campus, he always stops and says hello, and I graduated three years ago, and he had me seven years ago.\" g. Your relationship with other participants \"Really good. Actually, I still see two people. I think there was about nine [in seminar group], and then after Christmas about three people dropped out. One was a cop, and he just couldn't take it. You know, they get in that program where the police force pays for it. Then one guy just couldn't handle it, and then one was a girl that was doing really well, but I think she ended up changing faculties. But it was really good in that respect because we were such a small group. I think we were a tag on group. They had done all the acceptances and then added another group. Because my grade-point-average going in, I wouldn't even get in right now. It was really good [the small size]. Like I said, no one I knew had gone to university, and everybody that I did know as far as friends and acquaintances from high school went to S.F.U. in Burnaby, and it was just the thing to do and I don't even know why I went to U.B.C.\" h. Arts One Building \"It sucked. It was horrid. But it was that little shack. It was awful, plus we were in this really small room which I'm sure was originally a closet or a storage something, really cold in the winters. And the big lectures used to be down in the basement, and it was really cramped.\" 7. Looking back over time, have your views on any of these components changed? \"Probably just about Don. At first I thought I was never going to get through this, he's too dry. I felt like he was the type of guy that felt like we were first year students and he should be teaching at a higher level, but I think that's just the way he is. Because he's really very friendly and chatty outside of the classroom, but he just takes on a whole different persona in the room. Now I think, no, I had much worse in the years after and he was the first one. You kind of do that, though. You're there, and you think this person is just...you're in awe, really, that you're even there, and you're in a lecture, and then...well, I think probably my expectations were too high, and now I'm a little more realistic about what should be expected from your prof.\" 262 8. What was your judgment of your academic abilities as a high school student? \"I was a totally average student. I still feel that way.\" [Didyou feel that you were preparedfor university?] \"No. I mean I probably did until I'd been there a week, and then I realized that I was not prepared for this, but then I was determined to finish. Because I didn't go directly into university from high school. I took a year off to work because I didn't want to have to work as much when I was in school because I was nervous that my grades would be totally affected—because my parents didn't go, my brothers and sisters didn't go, and you have no idea, really, of what it's like.\" 9. Did your participation in Arts One change the way you felt about yourself academically? \"Yeah, I felt a lot more confident about pursuing that field. I thought that if I could get through that number of assignments...like we had like 10 essays due, one every week. I remember having to pull a lot of late nights to get things done, and I always managed to so I couldn't have been that stressed out about it.\" 10. How did the rest of your undergraduate degree program compare with your year in Arts One? What was the transition like? \"It was harder, just because then it was more like my first year because then I was in the real class sizes, the huge lecture halls. And then having to be responsible for more courses, I found that hard. I found the large classes really tough to get used to, and I still, to this day, do not like them. I don't see the point and the value of them at all. I'm not a shy person; I'm not one to sit there and think 'I don't want to say anything,' but if you're sitting 100 yards away from the prof and he's in the middle of a thought and he can't see the look on your face that you're ready to ask a question, then that whole communication is lost.\" 11. And you double majored in English and History? \"Right.\" 12. How didyou compare yourself with other major students who did not take Arts One? \"Yeah. I felt that I was really lucky just because I ended up having a lot of re-reads instead of all new material. And I think it's true that you direct yourself to the courses that you have the basics in anyways. But I felt that I had an edge when 263 you're re-reading something and not having to scour it like you had to in the first year.\" 13. How do you think Arts One affected your ability to write? \"Oh, it made a huge difference because we had so many papers, and Don was really picky. That really made a difference in improving my writing. My grades improved after the first year, but I think that's a trend anyways for everybody, not necessarily if you've taken Arts One or not.\" [Was it helpful having other students review your essays?] \"Oh yeah, and you'd confer with anyone who was willing to read it.\" [And that was required for the tutorial?] \"We had to read our essays out loud, and the others were graded on their participation so they were really keen on asking questions and things like that.\" [Your critical reasoning skills?] \"Probably, I would think so.\" [Did people challenge your ideas?] \"Oh yeah, especially Don. He was quite tough, he was just tough, and maybe that's what it was...that I was really used to high school treatment and I wasn't used to someone questioning what I had said. But the next thing you write, you're thinking ahead to what will be asked and how you would have to defend that, so you just write it better.\" [Your ability to discuss issues openly and argue effectively?] \"Improved. We didn't do it a whole lot. I never liked it much. I was in the class with one of the guys who flunked out. I don't know if he flunked out, but he left after Christmas. So I felt that in those sessions I didn't say much because everyone else was jumping on what he had said and wrote. It was awful. I felt so sorry for him. He came from a really small town, and there was eight people who graduated with him and he was the only one that went to university. And he had totally moved down here. I'm sure that's not a reason to write bad papers, but still, there's a lot more factors. I remember thinking that everything everyone else was saying was pretty accurate [regarding his papers] and their criticisms fair, but I still didn't say much. I remember sometimes feeling like it was getting out of hand—'okay, he gets the point, and he already knows his writing is weak, so what's the point.' He was just one of those people who would need some serious help with his writing before he should have started.\" [And the professor didn't step in and stop it?] \"No. I think that he was probably thinking that by the time the year pans out it will all even out, because really it was only his writing that was the worst. His class participation and doing the work and everything, he was always up to date. I think he probably thought that he was just one of those people who would get through just for the sake of getting through.\" 264 14. What have you done since graduation? \"I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and English, then in the first year I worked, in the second year I traveled to Europe for six months and worked for six, and then this year I traveled to Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand for six months and I've been back working.\" [Do you have more trips planned?] \"Yeah, I want to do Israel, Egypt, and Africa.\" 15. Has your interest in traveling been influenced in any way by Arts One? \"No, I always intended to do it. I was going to school to be a teacher, and I planned to take a few years beforehand and travel. I know, though, that when I go places like Rome, you see something and you know that you've read about it and seen it. You have a heightened awareness, and you know more about it...like this thing was built in 707.\" [Do you still want to be a teacher?] \"No. Not now. I was a tutor for a long time when I was in first year university, and I just found it too frustrating. I've applied for jobs at B.C. Tel in their Ed Centre, but I just keep getting brickwalled because of seniority.\" [So what type of work are you doing now withB.C. Tel?] \"I'm an engineer. Can you believe it? That's just a job title, though. I'm not a professional engineer. I work in network design. It's sort of unusual, but it just sort of took me where the wind took me.\" 16. Do you have any regrets about having taken Arts One? \"No, not at all.\" 17. Would you do it again? \"Yeah, oh yeah.\" 18. Would you change it in any way? \"Just probably the seminar lectures. They were just too big, but that's just me. And plus they were like three hours long, and I just didn't see the point in that because after an hour, an hour and a half, people are just tuned right out.\" [Comment in questionnaires regarding people not being ready for Arts One-type program in their first year, and the idea of having Arts Three/Four instead J \"I like that idea. At S F U . they have the liberal studies program at the Masters level, and that sounds like the same thing, just at a higher level. I could see the value in that, because it's probably true. I think back, and Arts One really helped to ground me and I learned a lot at the time, but probably what I learned about the Odyssey in first year, and what I learned about it when I re-read it in third year, the 265 third year was probably when I understood it a lot better. I had familiarity with the stuff, but I didn't necessarily really understand it at all.\" 19. What has been the major impact of Arts One on your life? \"It made me really aware of where my strengths and weaknesses lie as far as academics are concerned. And if I pursued a higher degree now, I'd definitely stick with the English and not the History. It's one of those head versus heart things. Do you go with the thing that you're really quite capable in, or do you go with the thing that you really enjoy doing. I really enjoyed doing the History, but I didn't necessarily enjoy writing the papers. But with English that I could write anything and just sort of get the same grade.\" 266 "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; vivo:dateIssued "1995-05"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0055554"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Educational Studies"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "The University of British Columbia’s Arts One Program as evaluated by its students"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3693"@en .