Get Herald RSSA pilot of an optional January academic program will run this winter break, representing the realization of an almost entirely student-led initiative that has been greeted with positive support from President Ruth Simmons and other administrators.
The 12-day program, called "January@Brown," which will not give academic credit, will allow students to choose from one of six or seven seminar-style courses, which will be taught by professors, adjunct professors and graduate students.
"The semester break is too long to not do anything," said Tristan Freeman '07, vice president of the Undergraduate Council of Students. But the break is "too short" for internships, jobs or other such meaningful experiences, he added.
This winter's pilot program will involve an application process, which has not yet begun, and UCS members expect about 100 students to be accepted. Students will be housed in the Graduate Center, which will be kept open along with the Sharpe Refectory and other critical buildings that Freeman said are normally open during the winter "because athletes are here."
Students will take one course for the duration of the program and will receive three hours of instruction each day. Homework will be assigned, but the program is not designed to give students an overwhelming amount of work, Freeman said.
While UCS's final decisions on the course selection have not been released, there may be courses on exercise physiology, the Internet and public policy, photography and food and culture and history, according to Karen Sibley, dean of summer and continuing studies.
The courses that are best suited to January@Brown, Freeman said, are "the kind that you wouldn't normally be able to take at Brown." The courses should be more narrowly focused than survey courses, he said.
The idea for a January term had been floating around for quite some time, but it was first seized on by UCS in spring 2005. A committee led by David Beckoff '08 looked at models of January terms at other schools and wrote an "initial justification" for the idea of a winter program, said Sara Damiano '08, Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee chair.
Most recently, Freeman led a UCS committee this past April that drafted a more in-depth proposal for what it called "The Winter Experience." The proposal provided justification for such a program and outlined a detailed plan, which included running a pilot with 100 to 200 students this winter.
Freeman said he and others have worked hard since that time to move the idea toward fruition, working with the support of Simmons and the administration.
"It was such a student-prompted thing," Sibley said. "From an administrative point of view, it's the best thing that can happen." Sibley said she has been involved with the creation of the program since the spring, when then-Dean of the College Paul Armstrong asked her and several others to get involved.
After the pilot program was approved, UCS solicited course proposals from faculty and graduate students. Freeman, who did not want to give too much away before the official announcement of the program, said only that UCS received 17 proposals in total.
The official announcement of the program, which will include enrollment fees and possibly a course listing, is scheduled for tomorrow, he said.
Classes will be complemented by frequent community events, including field trips to downtown Providence and Boston, and a speaker series that will run almost every night.
"We're trying to get some big names," Freeman said.
UCS members believe there is high interest among students in January@Brown, citing WebCT polls the council has conducted in the last two years. Last fall, 44 percent of students said they would participate in a Brown-sponsored winter program. This spring, in response to a question about a hypothetical winter program that was "for credit," 58 percent of students said they would consider participating.
"The interest has been really high," Damiano said.
Sibley agreed. "It seems like, the pulse of things, there's quite a bit of interest," she said. "I've had students e-mail me about it."
The program's costs are expected to be defrayed by enrollment fees of approximately $500, Freeman said, and by money from the president's discretionary fund. Freeman said UCS is working to provide financial aid for those students who request it.
Day-to-day operations will be supervised by Ricky Gresh, director of student activities. Gresh was not available for an interview.
None of those interviewed was willing to speculate on the future of January@Brown, though they were optimistic that the pilot would be a success.
"If the pilot program goes well, there's room in the January break for interesting intellectual opportunities," Sibley said, leaving the door open for expansion of the program in future years. She thinks the program will continue to appeal to students who want more learning time and more time with peers.
"And that could describe any Brown student, right?" she said.
Freeman was also optimistic about the future of the program. "It's something we really believe in and which we believe can benefit the student body," he said. He added that it is his personal hope to quickly see a January term without an application process that would be expanded to all undergraduates.
"I think it's going to be a really successful program and something that will be at Brown for a long time," he said. "We want this to be a permanent thing."
