As the Nov. 5 deadline for Group Independent Study Project proposals nears, students are busy again creating syllabi, advertising to their peers and recruiting faculty members to sponsor them.
Participation in GISPs has declined since they were implemented as part of the New Curriculum. But an information session last week sparked a standing-room-only audience. Interested students filled the Faunce Memorial Room, and some even stood in the hallway to listen.
Thirty-five GISPs have been proposed so far this semester, as compared to 20 last spring, and there is still time for students to create new ones, according to the GISP program's blog. Students must submit a syllabus listing readings and assignments, an explanation of the validity of the course and a sponsorship statement from a faculty member. Each proposal is reviewed by the College Curriculum Council.
Most GISPs are approved, according to Arthur Matuszewski '11, GISP co-coordinator and former editor-in-chief of post- magazine. One exception, he added, is proposals with preprofessional purposes or those which appear not to be academic. Faculty members work with students over the course of the semester to re-evaluate and adjust syllabi, he said.
The Curricular Resource Center has recently stepped up ways to raise awareness of the program on campus, said Roman Gonzalez '11, GISP co-coordinator.
"The big problem is that people just don't know what GISPs are," he said.
GISP leaders are trying to be more direct in their marketing and have recently implemented the slogan "Design Your Own Class." Gonzalez has used social media to spearhead advertising for the resource center, creating Facebook and Twitter pages, a blog and a way to upload syllabi for students to view, he said. Gonzalez said he also hopes to produce GISP highlight videos to inform and entertain others about the program.
"GISPs have historically had a certain coolness to them, and we want to emphasize the casual, relaxed nature of not only the (Curricular Resource Center), but of how welcome we are," he said.
Matuszewski said he worries that people view GISPs as illegitimate courses and that students opt to take one only when they seek an easy course credit.
"The big thing is changing the perception and getting it out there that GISP is a viable option within the curriculum, and it is something that really should be supported and explored," he said.
A real commitment
GISPs are not courses to be taken lightly, said Harmony Lu '12, who is currently the GISP leader of "Modern Issues in China's Environment." The level of commitment and responsibility is higher than in regular courses, she said. She plans to coordinate a GISP next semester focusing on hydrology, but she said she has some reservations.
"I don't know if I can deal with it again," she said. "It has been a lot of work and really stressful."
But Lu also said GISPs are a unique and valuable learning opportunity. She has learned not only the material but also the logistics of what it takes to design a course and narrow down a broad topic to a number of assignments, she said. Though she admits that GISPs may not fit everyone's interests, she said that the fact the option exists is beneficial to Brown students.
"I think it should probably exist in every college," she said.
Shuheng Zhang '14 said she did not know about GISPs until she recently read an announcement about them in Brown Morning Mail, but she was immediately interested in coordinating one next semester. She had always wanted to discuss the 18th-century Chinese novel, "A Dream of Red Mansions," with other students, she said.
But Zhang said she will not be pursuing this goal next semester. After speaking with her adviser, she decided to seek a broader course of study for her first year at Brown to gain a greater appreciation for the humanities before tackling such a specific project.
"You accumulate your knowledge more," she said about waiting to take the GISP. "You make yourself a better person, a more mature person."
Jillian Jetton '14 is following her well-established interest in theater. Jetton and Adam Kotin GS, who plan to lead "Performance-Based GISP" next semester, met last summer at foolsFURY Theater in San Francisco. Kotin had studied the Viewpoints and Suzuki methods, performance-based composition and training methods while an undergraduate student at Pomona College, and he got to know Jetton while training in those methods at foolsFURY.
"We found out that we were both going to be at Brown and decided that it would be great to start a group of people to sort of learn about these forms and do sort of a weekly training, weekly exploration of these," Jetton said.
The course will be mainly performance-oriented but will also include reading published research and conducting discussions and workshops. Jetton and Kotin have already started meeting with interested students, and they said they hope to build a strong community that will continue after the semester is over.
"Even if people can't be a part of the GISP officially, then they can still sort of learn from us, and we can learn from them, and there can be kind of a collaboration," Kotin said.
Why do it?
A number of GISPs in the past have had a lasting impact. Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine has supervised GISPs that were breeding grounds for businesses such as Nantucket Nectars, Clearview Software and Amie Street. Though their primary intent was academic, the ideas of students in the GISPs led to the creation of these businesses, Hazeltine said. He said he values working with students in areas outside his expertise and seeing them develop ideas to explore.
"I think Brown should do all they can to make these things easier to get to and accessible," he said.
Lauren Kay '11 has found GISPs to be an invaluable resource for students at Brown. Though she first got involved with GISPs this semester, she has since become a visible proponent of the program, organizing the recent GISP information session alongside Gonzalez.
"You end up putting so much time into it, but then you get really a lot out of it," Kay said. "And the people you connect with are the people who really share your passions, because why else would someone have gone out of their way to sign up for and participate in a GISP?"
In addition to a senior seminar, Kay said she will be enrolled next semester in three GISPs and one departmental independent study project that builds off her current GISP with Gonzalez and others, which is an academic study of love.
"I look forward to going to class," she said. "It's like hanging out with a group of friends who care about the same things you do."
