HOW IT BEGAN

It was in January of 1970 that Professor David Epperson, in consultation with his Urban Affairs Center colleague John McKnight, and an ad hoc group of students began to think about an educational design which would provide for a better integration of academic work with the realities outside the walls of the university. He was persuaded that blackboards, chalk, and rows of desks might well be replaced, at least for a portion of the time, by another educational device: the City. He developed a plan which he called, “Northwestern in the City,” according to which students might leave the campus, to live and learn in the midst of the ongoing tensions of an urban environment. He envisioned that students might learn about schools by working part-time as aides in schools, that they might learn about business management by assisting a business manager, that they might learn about ecology and biology by joining with social action agencies dedicated to reducing pollution or by becoming involved with the pollution control board, that they might learn about history, art or engineering by observing the city’s buildings – their location, architecture, construction, and function. Also inherent in this plan was an emphasis on attempting to integrate disciplined inquiry and direct involvement with urban problems. It was proposed that this integration might be achieved through seminars which would take place “on site”, making use of the direct experiences of students as a point of departure for serious systematic analysis of the problems of community life.

Professor Epperson submitted this plan to Raymond W. Mack, then Director of the Center for Urban Affairs at Northwestern. Dr. Mack greeted the proposal with enthusiasm, and together they began to discuss strategies which might make the plan become a reality.

In due time, a number of events on the Northwestern Campus began to converge: Professor Mack was selected to be University Vice-President and Dean of Faculties, to be replaced as Center Director by Louis Masotti: Dr. Epperson was charged with the responsibility to chair a faculty-student planning team to develop the idea of a residential college with an urban theme; and the President of the University appointed a faculty-student committee to study the concept of residential colleges.

These events intersected early in 1972 – Dr. Mack announced that, based upon the recommendation of the Committee on Residential Colleges, the University would establish five residential colleges in the Fall of 1972. Three of the residential colleges would be general, and two would be thematic. One of the latter was to be the College of Community Studies.

The Original “Northwestern in the City” plan conceived as a short term experience, was incorporated into a far broader experience which would augment existing curricula at Northwestern and which would be devoted to the integration of field work with classroom study. Plans for the new College received strong support from the Urban Affairs Center Director Masotti who contributed significantly to its development. The support from the University Administration was augmented by the enthusiasm of 100 capable students who were admitted to study in the College of Community Studies for the 1972-1973 academic year.

A NEW LIVING-LEARNING ALTERNATIVE AT NORTHWESTERN…

The concept of the residential college, a recommendation first made in the Community of Scholars report of several years ago, is to be implemented next year through the authorization by the Vice-President and Dean of Faculties of five possible colleges.

The College of Community Studies, one of those authorized, has proceeded with planning to the point that the following report on activities is possible. The Newsletter will report on other residential colleges as they develop.

In September, the College of Community Studies, a residential unit organized around a broadly defined theme, will open on the Northwestern University campus. The College will be characterized by its dedication to the goal of integration – in the broadest sense of the term. The program is intended to integrate:

• the functions of teaching, research, and public service
• the disciplines, as they relate to the theme of community studies
• students with different academic majors and backgrounds
• action and reflection, i.e. field and classroom study
• living and learning experiences
• faculty and students in their attempts to study problems of mutual concern

It is hoped that these goals will lead to an enriched sense of how knowledge is organized in the various disciplines, and of its application to solving community problems. It is further anticipated that this increased breadth of understanding can be achieved, without jeopardizing the traditional disciplinary concentration, through the living-learning concept, i.e., the enrichment of out of class hours with informal but serious intellectual discussions.

While this may seem to be an ambitious set of goals, there are several components designed into the new College which should facilitate the achievement of these goals.