Horns down: Cyber campuses
The University of California System may create an entirely online campus in an attempt to confront a massive budget crisis. The online school “would have selective admissions; tuition somewhere between community college and the on-campus UC price, part-time and ‘anytime’ options and lectures by the best faculty from the entire UC system,” wrote Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the law school at the system’s Berkeley campus, in the L.A. Times. He continued, “Our online students might miss the keg parties, but they would have the same world-class faculty, UC graduate student instructors and adjunct faculty.”
Edley makes an erroneous assumption about education. He assumes that online forums, video lectures and a cyber-campus can provide a comparable education to one from the UC system’s well respected campuses. He implies that the only thing unique to a university environment is ample keg parties. Numerous experiments in online education have proven otherwise. In May, the University of Illinois cancelled plans to create a virtual campus, citing low enrollment and faculty opposition, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. UT is also currently experiencing difficulties with its own online “Telecampus,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
This comes as no surprise to students who have learned from a campus environment. There is no way to virtually experience the interactive learning and education-centric environment of a university campus through a computer. We are more that happy to check Blackboard for our grades and email in our final papers, but personal interaction with professors and classmates is central to education. Students will lose much more than keg parties at cyber campuses. The UC system must find another way to maintain its credibility.
Horns up: A Public Service Academy
Ever since President Obama took office, public service has been touted as a way of re-building a nation that desperately needs it. As more students step off the 40 Acres every year, public service seems like a redeemable calling for many. The decision of where to go next lies somewhere between the military or community service organizations. But for young Americans who aren’t military-bound, there is a new opportunity on the horizon.
The U.S. House is considering creating a U.S. Public Service Academy, a university with the stated aim of creating an environment where community service-centered individuals can find like-minded students and cultivate their public service pursuits. The school would be a civilian counterpart to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and students of the school will be able to complete bachelor of arts and bachelor of sciences degrees as they would at any other university. The Academy will offer four years of tuition-free education in exchange for five years of public service when its students graduate.
The academy was the brainchild of two Teach for America alumni who were spurred to action after the failures of public leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At a university with a number of graduates who go on to Teach for America, this initiative is that much more pressing. UT Student Government and UT President William Powers have publicly supported the creation of such a school, and we add ours to the voices urging Congress to move quickly. If we are to rebuild this country the right way, it is imperative that we recognize public service done in and out of a military uniform. We have to celebrate answering a call larger than oneself wherever it may derive and support those institutions that serve to produce the next generation of American public servants.
