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 Peg's
Polemic
Every
month, philosopher Peg Tittle casts off the calm, measured and qualified
style of her profession to deliver her opinionated and impassioned
column, exclusively for the TPM philosophy café...
Number
5. Visionary
Reading
about Nipissing University's Students in Free Enterprise (NUSIFE),
which is a group of students who undertake projects "intended to
increase the public's awareness of entrepreneurship and business-related
subjects," it occurs to me to wonder why such an endeavour is undertaken
only by business students.
Consider
some of the projects - and imagine:
- "Global Crusaders" educated high school students about
minimum wages and exchange rates in five different countries
- why not educate them about gender issues in five different
countries?
- "Team Builders" led team-building exercises during the weekend
program at the YMCA - my guess is that sociology students' take
on team-building would be quite different than that of business
students...
- "Junior Tycoons" were high school students presented with
a basic business plan - why not "Junior Diplomats" presented
with insights from political science, history, and psychology?
- "Budgeting for Mental Health Patients" - how about "Philosophy
for Mental Health Patients"?
- "My First Bank Account" - what happened to "My First Library
Card"?
- "Powassan LEAS", an alternative school, was another recipient
of a business plan - perhaps they would have been interested
in a curriculum plan...
- "Nipissing East Community Opportunities" received a marketing
plan - they could have used an environmental assessment plan...
- "Show Me the Money" was about financial planning guidelines
on the web - how about "Show Me the Stars", astronomy on the
web?
- "A Feasibility Study" was presented to graphic arts students
- how about an ethics audit for graphic arts students?
Such
projects, both by training students to apply their knowledge outside
academia and by increasing the visibility of business in the outside
world, probably contribute to the strangle-hold business - business
activities and business interests - has on the world; therefore,
suggesting that such endeavours be undertaken by humanities and
science students as well is more than an exercise in imagination
- it's an identification of responsibility.
This
particular infiltration of business is so developed, there are competitions
for SIFE teams. Yes, there are poetry and drama competitions too,
but poems and plays don't reach out and engage the community in
the same way; they just present to, perform for, the community (except
for those cool workplace theatre guerilla groups). Perhaps science
does a little better - I do see students out in the field with their
lab kits from time to time.
This
lack of engagement is rampant through the humanities curriculum.
We teach our English students how to appreciate and write poetry,
but not how to find a literary agent; how to appreciate and write
drama, but not how to produce a play. Philosophy students are great
at clarifying concepts and values, identifying hidden assumptions,
testing for consistency and coherence; psychology students know
all about how our minds and emotions work; sociology students know
about people in groups, small and large, in cultures and subcultures
and countercultures; history students know what hasn't worked. Along
with our gender studies and native studies students and other social
science students, humanities students (the humanities focus on humanity
- and who, what, are we talking about when all is said and done?),
and of course our science students (what is humanity but one bunch
of carbon-based organisms among many), would be great consultants
if they had any consulting skills. But we don't teach them how to
write a proposal, contract for business, and manage a project.
Until
we do these things, our humanities and science students will be
dependent on business students as go betweens, as enablers. And
since business students, by definition apparently, have profit as
their motivator, their purpose, their goal, there is bound to be,
well, a certain amount of unfulfilled potential. Business students
are not likely to set up Sociologists, Inc. or History Is Us.
OPAS
is another example of the deficiency I'm trying to expose. It's
a partnership between Ontario universities and Canadian companies,
named "The Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills" with a mandate
to "foster more effective relations between universities and companies
who hire and maintain a highly skilled workforce" and "respond to
requests and develop initiatives that promote increased use of university-based
resources including advanced skills development"; one might be forgiven,
therefore, for thinking it was pretty inclusive. This seems indicated
even by the Special Events & Programs, which includes "the Visionary
Seminar Series, Industry Sector Symposia, Internship & Reciprocal
Exchange Programs and the development of a National Network" and
by the Skills Development statement: "In knowledge industries, skills
requirements advance and change, creating new needs. OPAS responds
to these changing skills needs with solutions designed and delivered
by leading university programs across Ontario."
However,
a close look reveals that there isn't a whole lot of room for humanities
and social science; there's something for science and engineering
(an auto parts symposium is listed, as well as a biotech sector
symposium), but generally I think it's the BBA and MBA university
programs they're talking about partnering with. Their website welcome
page confirms this: "In today's knowledge-based economy, business
organizations are faced with the need to address constant changes
in operating practices, human capital requirements and technology."
It's pure business buzz ("human capital"?!). (And there you do see
the specification - "business organizations....")
Indeed,
had I visited the OPAS website first, I wouldn't have been so surprised
to discover that the keynote speaker (the only speaker) at the "Visionary
2000" seminar was the CEO of the Royal Bank (how much more focussed
on business, profit, money, can you get?). And the very fact that
his talk, nothing more than a Royal Bank promo, was billed as visionary
indicates just how much we need to correct this deficiency.
Peg's
Polemic will next be updated on April 1st 2001
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