By Jordan Morris
Staff Writer
Sixty incoming freshmen participated in the broadening of Pepperdine University’s curriculum this year with their enrollment in the inaugural Social Action and Justice Colloquium, a four-course series that, like the Great Books Colloquium, provides an alternative to the Freshman Seminar and other core general education requirements.
The colloquium is geared toward students who are interested in understanding the value of service, acquiring leadership skills and enhancing their spiritual development. It focuses on issues of social justice, including human rights, wealth and poverty, the environment and the interaction of religion with culture and media’s role in shaping society, according to the course handbook. The completion of all four semesters of SAAJ satisfies the Religion 301, English 101, English 102 and Freshman Seminar requirements.
Lindsay Goldford, a student in SAAJ co-creator Dr. Cynthia Cornell Novak’s course, is one of many freshmen who value their participation in the program.
“Social Action and Justice is a class that you can use for your entire life,” Goldford said. “It teaches practical skills that are applicable not only for your own life, but with service to others and understanding differences.”
Novak echoed Goldford’s sentiments in her proposal to the Seaver College Academic Council last year.
“Over the course of two years, a cohort of students and faculty will form a community of scholar-activists working for social change,” she said.
Dr. Lee Ann Carroll, professor of English and coordinator of freshman composition, originally proposed the idea for SAAJ and said that the community aspect of the course is essential.
“With this program, students with similar interests will form a community they can belong to at the beginning of their college career,” she said. “The group will support the student’s interests, and the teacher will support those interests.”
The focus on community forced Novak and Carroll to turn away 50 prospective students to keep the class sizes small and personal.
In addition to community, Carroll said that the first semester of SAAJ will combine the basic writing concepts underlined in English 101 with the emphasis on service provided in many freshman seminars, including Dr. Jeff Banks’ Identity Growth and Development course of past years.
“There is not enough time to cover all of these concepts in one semester,” she said. “So, we are stretching it out over four courses, which is really like three courses with an internship. I think it is important to stress internship and service learning early in college, as opposed to later.”
Banks said he is fortunate to be a part of the SAAJ team and said that the service aspect “breathes life into it.”
In the Freshman Seminar course he taught previously, Banks said he focused on psychological issues of identity and service learning, whereas his focus in his SAAJ course is more on social action.
“In both classes, however, we try to create a safe haven where students can bring their problems, concerns and issues to the class community, if they so wish,” he said.
Freshman Jason Enriquez said he found fulfillment with the information he learned in Banks’ course.
“Dr. Banks has shown me that by first taking care of the needs of others, we prevent societal problems from escalating and eventually becoming our own problems,” he said.
Among the societal problems SAAJ classes have discussed this semester are homelessness and hunger, the healthcare crisis and racism.
In a joint service project including all 60 students, Banks, Novak and Carroll took their classes on an “Urban Reality Tour,” visiting several social service agencies and experiencing first-hand contact with the impoverished in Downtown Los Angeles.
“Going there was one of the most eye opening experiences … I’ve ever had,” Vanessa Kliest said.
Freshman Tarah Travis also greatly valued the experience.
“Working with the homeless … really makes a person want to help others and succeed in their own lives in general,” she said.
The colloquium also invited guest speaker Dr. Paul Giboney, a Seaver graduate who practices as a nonprofit medical doctor at Pico Union, to discuss the current problems surrounding healthcare and the numerous closings of health clinics in Los Angeles County.
Carroll said that later this semester the classes plan to study “A Lesson Before Dying,” a novel that deals with such deep-seeded issues as racism, human dignity and religious conversion.
Stephanie Palmrose of Carroll’s class said that considering all her experiences this semester, “God planned it perfectly.”
“Discovering the homelessness and poverty in inner-city Los Angeles, listening to Dr. Paul Giboney share his experiences … and reading numerous articles about social issues have given me numerous new perspectives,” she said. “I need to know more about little-discussed issues (and) problems that society … shoves away in a corner. I want to help people with my life.”
Despite the many events the three classes carry out jointly, Carroll said that all SAAJ teachers have discretion to modify their individual courses. For instance, next semester each of the courses will have specific, separate emphases, and students will rotate through the three “modules,” spending four weeks in each.
Carroll said her course will focus on at-risk youth, including a service-learning project at Camp David Gonzales.
Banks said he will focus on disability discrimination.
“I think prejudice based on disability frequently remains unrecognized,” he said. “Handicapism or ableism is the only ism to which all of us are susceptible.”
Dr. Jeri Pollock will teach the third module of the class, focusing on the environment and experiencing contact with local groups, according to Carroll. She will replace the departing Novak, who is leaving the university after many years of contribution to service learning.
Despite the positive student response, Banks said there are some who believe that SAAJ is on a “left-wing liberal mission.”
“We have students of all political persuasions in the class, and issues of social justice and ethics transcend politics,” he said.
Carroll added that she does not wish to push an agenda.
“I try to emphasize critical thinking and examine different points of view,” she said. “I encourage students to discuss different social problems important to them, while reading different perspectives from different publications.”
In defense of SAAJ, Daniel Fredrickson of Banks’ class said that his experiences in the course make it “more than a typical freshman seminar.”
“It provides a good way to learn about social issues and to then experience them first hand,” he said.
Banks expressed his view of the colloquium’s mission.
“The goal of SAAJ, in my estimation, is to provide a forum for those students who want to make a difference in the world and who seek vocation in their lives,” he said
November 07, 2002