University Business - April 2007 - (Page 21)

VIEWPOINT From the Student Up Re-imagining undergraduate education through an experiment in ‘intellectual entrepreneurship.’ By Richard A. Cherwitz N C R E A S I N G AC C O U N TA  bility in higher ed is the subject of intense national discussion. Witness the recent recommendations of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education and the controversy created in its wake. Obscured in these conversations, which frequently bog down in heated debates about who should and how best to assess the effectiveness of education, is a serious worry for college and university presidents and those in charge of curricular reform: How can students negotiate the undergraduate curriculum and choose what to study from the wide array of opportunities available? There’s a related concern about how students can better understand the connections between academic knowledge and their desired careers. Many undergraduates are uncertain about a major, often feeling intimidated by the disciplinary nomenclature of universities; hundreds of specialized possibilities often make little sense, frequently appearing to have limited connection to students’ personal interests and professional goals. How can we expect freshmen and sophomores to make thoughtful choices when they may not fully understand the items on the academic menu? Career and professional development opportunities come too late in the game, emerging at the back end of education as soon-to-be graduates seek employment. These “placement” services are not only seen as inherently separate from the academic and intellectual work students undertake within their discipline, but they I tential contribution of disciplinary expertise or how that expertise compares, contrasts, and harmonizes with other areas of inquiry—not to mention how academic knowledge might be used to help solve society’s most serious problems. AN ACADEMIC COMPASS What is needed is a space where undergrads can discover—in an entrepreneurial manner—how their interests might serve as a compass for navigating the university, as well as harnessing, integrating, and putting to work the rich knowledge produced by its wide assortment of disciplines. There is hope. Consider The University of Texas at Austin’s experiment with the Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) PreGraduate School Internship. Part of the nationally acclaimed intercollegial IE Consortium, this mentorship oﬀers upperclassmen the chance to work with veteran graduate students to determine whether they should pursue advanced education and, if so, in what discipline. This internship isn’t merely an “applied” or “work” experience where students “just do it.” Instead, it enables students to own their education, discovering how to leverage knowledge for social good—to be “citizen scholars.” Interns (mostly juniors and seniors, well over 40 percent of whom are ﬁrstgeneration college students or underRichard A. Cherwitz is professor of communication and the founder and director of the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium at The University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached through the Consortium website, at: https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie. Many graduates don’t appreciate how their expertise harmonizes with other areas. also tend to be viewed by faculty, students, and administrators as nonacademic and secondary to scholarship and study. Moreover, undergraduate pedagogy is sometimes overly didactic; students are spoonfed disciplinary knowledge without suﬃcient occasion to discern a particular ﬁeld’s unique epistemological assumptions or perspective. They are well trained to “do” a discipline but may not fully recognize what it means to approach the world from the purview of that discipline rather than in combination with another. The unfortunate consequence of these shortcomings: Many undergraduates leave school not fully having tapped their own interests and aptitudes. In addition, they graduate not totally appreciating the po- www.universitybusiness.com April 2007 | 21 https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - April 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Admissions
Independent Outlook
On The Hill
Future Shock
Spellings Lessons
Identity Mangaement
Getting A Bigger Picture
Facility Directors Speak Out
Internet Technology
Working the Web
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - April 2007