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Show Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 Page 3 StatesmanCampus News Prof says USU culture affects teaching By KASEY VAN DYKE staff writer It was a difficult transition, Doris McGonagill said in her Friday lecture, to teach at USU because of the challenges working with the dominant culture. McGonagill, an assistant professor of German, is in her second year at USU and in that time has made a strong impression on Ann Austin, professor and director of the Center for Women and Gender. During her work as vice provost in the 2009-10 school year, Austin was asked to take the new faculty, which included McGonagill, out to lunch. During the lunch, Austin said she was impressed with McGonagill. "I saw what a careful thinker she is and how fair she tries to be with everybody," she said. Later, Austin said the provost wanted to use a panel of three professors to speak to this year's new faculty about the challenges and highlights of the students at USU. Austin recommended McGonagill, who intended to focus on how the dominant culture at USU affects teaching the students, in both good and bad ways. Though the provost had some initial reservations about the subject matter, Austin said he "raved" about McGonagill for some time afterward. "She saw what a strength the student culture has," Austin said. "She is a great example of a wonderful academic." After the positive reviews of her work on the panel, McGonagill was asked to give her own lecture about her experience teaching at USU and how she feels culture affects teaching, specifically language teaching. In her lecture, McGonagill focused on three main points of difficulty: the make-up of the classroom, the students' other responsibilities, and the religious background shared by a majority of the students. Though she was concerned and a mindfulness." about the boundary between upholdFrom the beginning of the semesing religious freedom and being an ter, McGonagill said she tries to make effective teacher, she said she found sure the classroom is a safe place "to the students were "so bring one's personal sincere in their wish to "I think the most beliefs." Along those learn." important thing lines, she discouraged "Our classes might teachers from shying is to give stumake them engage in away from intellectual dents the right uncomfortable matediscourse, but to be rial," she said. "I think aware of which tools tools for critical that's important for the analysis." of interpretation and cultural experience and materials the students the literacy, but I also are already familiar Doris McGonagill, with. McGonagill think it's important to show respect for the assistant professor of shared an experience spirituality of the stuwhere a class was disGerman cussing Jane Austen's dents." — McGonagill said in her experience, it is possible to discuss nearly anything, but some materials, approaches and treatments of topics need to be modified. "I think the most important thing is to give students the right tools for critical analysis," she said. "What I have tried to bring is a respectfulness "Pride and Prejudice" and she later realized the students were arguing points based on an LDS interpretation, not the classic text she was assuming. "It is my responsibility to be aware of that," she said. McGonagill strongly recommended teachers utilize the tools available in DORIS MCGONAGILL, a USU assistant professor of German, said in a speech that the make-up of the classroom, students' responsibilities and religious background affect how students learn. KASEY VAN DYKE photo Blackboard. She said it becomes a discussion tool and encourages teamwork, "almost tricking them into working on the material." Since one of the main challenges are the familial and religious obligations outside of schoolwork, she said Blackboard has been instrumental in extending contact time with the students while giving them a way to study with their peers in a more timely manner and without using valuable classroom time. She said she has also learned to be "explicit" about her expectations and have a firmly structured syllabus. "I believe the result was a new enthusiasm," she said. "I think it eliminated fears that I might have ominous and obscure expectations of them." McGonagill said making the classroom a safe place for ideas and beliefs helps the students learn. "Students are best in and learn best in an environment that is supportive," she said, "where they don't have to worry about losing face if they make a mistake." Part of that supportive environment, she said, is creating a platform where students can discuss new ideas and possibly change their thoughts in some areas. "I believe to have experienced how the discussions in the classroom can have a profound impact on their beliefs," McGonagill said. It has let me question some of my own assumptions and beliefs." Above all, McGonagill encouraged both teachers and students in attendance to come into the classroom with open minds. "We have to try to put aside our biases," she said. "These moments were the most rewarding and most stimulating. It transcended the study of a language and a culture." I continuedfrom page 1 Welfare is a touchy subject for a lot of people, Moore said, and many people think undocumented workers can get welfare but he said that is just not the case. "Welfare benefits are not available to illegal immigrants. They may be available to their children because they were born here and are legal citizens, but they are not available to just anyone," Moore said. The final misunderstanding Moore talks about is the way people think the immigration "problem" can be solved. "People will say, well we can just round everyone up and deport them. There are at least 10 million illegal immigrants, that is a lot of people, it is not logistically possible to round up that many," Moore said. "There is no way to do it like that here." Hult also said a misconception he hears is one of the reasons why he wanted to start the panel in the first place. "I think that people believe there are only one or two solutions to this problem, but I think there are many subissues that need to be taken into account before solutions can be thought of," Hult said. Moore said 90 percent of immigrants who are deported, get deported because they are arrested for breaking the law. He said police are "cracking down" on businesses hiring those without proper identification and, as a result, businesses are becoming more strict. Since enforcement has gotten tighter, Moore said it has led to an increase in fake papers being made so undocumented workers can still get a job. However, Moore said this causes even worse problems for an immigrant if they are caught. "Having fake papers is identity theft, which is a felony, which basically makes it impossible for someone to ever get approval for citizenship, so they just continue to live off of fake papers," Moore said. Other problems people have with undocumented workers, Moore said, have occurred since Utah passed a bill saying proof of citizenship is required to get a drivers license, and by extension, insurance. Many people are driving around without any way of taking care of an accident if something happens. Lt. Brett Randall of the Logan City Police Department said it is an issue he has to face regularly. Randall is one of the few officers from the LCPD that can speak Spanish. He said he gets immersed in the Hispanic culture and does his best to treat each case strictly from the criminal aspect and not bring in the fact that someone is in the country illegally when dealing with them. Utah Sen. Lyle Hillyard, another member of the panel, said treating undocumented workers as people is very important and should be the main goal for everyone. "The people here are still people, they are human beings," Hillyard said. "If they are here illegally that needs to be addressed ... but I am more concerned about protecting everyone." Hillyard spoke highly of law enforcement and the part they play in the immigration situation. He said he is on the law's side when it comes to immigrants and that he is for "helping law enforcement make Logan a safer place." Moore summed up the main reason people feel frustrated when he said, "I think the one thing people can agree on across the political spectrum is that the (immigration policy) system is broken, it doesn't work, and we all are for getting that fixed." — megan.b@aggiemaiLusu.edu Ethics: Committee discusses new routes to test knowledge I continuedfrom page 1 the graduation requirement and the information gained through the CIL testing will still be passed on to students in some form. He said options discussed include incorporating information literacy into English 2010 classes and having incoming students take an ethics test to activate their student identification cards. "The faculty remains very concerned about the ethics stuff," Jones said. The CIL tests began in 1997 and Jones said at the time, 30-40 percent of students did not have computer skills. The university elected to create the six tests in place of a required class as other universities were doing at the time. In the 13 years since their inception, computer literacy has grown more and more common for the average student. "At what point are we teaching you something you already know how to do?" Jones said. Jones said the discussion of CIL changes have focused on revising the system to be more efficient rather than on outright abolishment. "We are likely to see at least parts of the test, just in different places," Jones said. Jones also said the declining pass rates could be a function of students not being as prepared as they think they are, or could be related to the nature of what they're being asked. "We're not saying the student body is smarter, or less smart," Jones said. "As a graduation require- ment, it wasn't working well." He also said whatever form the CILs take, the new system will be in place before the graduation requirement officially disappears in July. "Something will be replacing that test before it officially goes away," Jones said. Christie Fox, honors director at USU, also provided data to the General Education Sub-Committee. In an admittedly unscientific survey, Fox sent an email out to some 1,000 students asking whether the CILs should be kept, abolished, or revised. She received 136 responses of which 20 students said keep, 80 said abolish and 36 said revise. Even with the small sample size, Fox said the responses she received were thought out and representative. "I think our students are thoughtful," she said. On the subject of declining pass rates, Fox said she knows of students personally who failed due to being more familiar with a Mac operation system than the PC systems used in the testing center. "The commands are different," Fox said, "I think that accounts for some of it." Fox favored removing the graduation requirement, but said a form of remediation for the studentbody is beneficial. She also agreed that the ethics portion of the test is needed but added that an exam might not be the most efficient way to educate students about plagiarism. In addition to her position in the honors department, Fox teaches Campus & Community Professor accepts national award USU anthropology professor Bonnie Glass-Coffin is this year's recipient of a prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Global Citizenship Award from The Center for a Public Anthropology at Hawaii Pacific University. Public anthropology seeks to address broad critical concerns in ways that promote understanding of what anthropologists offer, allowing the public to understand simply. "Dr. Glass-Coffin has been recognized with this award because she so effectively takes classroom knowledge and applies it to real world challenges, thereby encouraging students to be responsible global citizens," said Rob Borofsky, the center's founder and director. "By actively addressing important ethical concerns within anthropology, Dr. Glass-Coffin provides students with the thinking and writing skills needed for active citizenship." The Global Citizenship award, named to honor the 20th century's "First Lady of the World" is awarded to less than one percent of university instructors teaching introductory anthropology classes across North America. Glass-Coffin was chosen for recent work with introductory anthropology students as she guided them, along with faculty and students from 21 other universities, to discuss the responsibilities anthropologists have to the public as they investigate and report on indigenous cultures. The students debated whether or not anthropologists have an obligation to intercede on behalf of Yanomami Indians of Brazil and Venezuela who have demanded the return of blood samples collected more than 40 years ago and stored in research laboratories today. —k.vankdyke@aggiemaiLusu.edu Citizen: USU faculty adds knowledge in immigration discussion sible for taking care of immigration, Hernandez said, but, "since they aren't doing anything, states are taking matters into their own hands." Hult said education on the history of the United States and immigration is vital because it is information that many people may not know about, but is needed to fully understand the issue. "I don't think people realize how the country got to where it is today and don't understand the box we have put ourselves in," Hult said. Many misconceptions about immigration and undocumented workers were addressed. A member of the panel, attorney Marty Moore, explained four misconceptions he said he hears the most. "There is this misconception that there is a way to become a legal citizen for anyone who wants to. There are six billion people on the planet and five billion of those don't have a prayer to become a citizen," Moore said. The thought that everyone wants to come to the United States is another misconception, Moore said. He said it is not true in the majority of cases, that people come here to benefit their families economically and it is "no one's first choice." Briefs a 1000-level course. "I have cheating problems in that class every semester," Fox said. Potter said before the vote took place, committee members were invited by the CIL department to take the tests to familiarize themselves with the process. He said three members of the committee did so. "Eleven people who voted against CIL don't even know what we're doing," Potter said. The committee is made up of representatives from each of the colleges on campus as well as various other departments and a student representative. Fox said she did not take the tests herself, but was able to familiarize herself with the different test questions through a survey presented to faculty last spring. "I feel like I had a pretty good idea of what was being tested," Fox said. Potter, who was vocally in opposition to removing the graduation requirement, said some councilmembers likely took his department's stance as related to job preservation, something he denies. "My job is directly related but it transcends that," he said. "It's about the students getting the knowledge they need for college." — b.c.wood@aggiemail.usu.edu Scientist takes range management award Faced with varied and sometimes conflicting demands from diverse groups of stakeholders, today's natural resource managers often draw more on their knowledge of social sciences than of environmental sciences, said Utah State University range scientist Mark Brunson. "Natural resource managers are not spending as much of their time managing resources as they are managing the relationship between the resources and society," says Brunson, professor and head of USU's Department of Environment and Society. "The challenge is not just a matter of understanding the resources but also understanding the people who want to be able to benefit from the resources." Brunson was named 2010 Range Manager of the Year by the Utah section of the Society for Range Management at the organization's annual meeting held Nov. 4-5 in Logan. " Music department holds choir concert Utah State University's Chamber Singers, a choral ensemble in the Department of Music, is being considered for a Grammy Award for its new CD, "Show Me Thy Ways: Choral Music of Daniel E. Gawthrop." "I'm most thrilled that this nomination is bringing positive recognition to our students and the great program we have at Utah State," said Cory Evans, director of choral activities for the Caine College of the Arts' department of music. "Our finest choir of undergraduate singers performed with world-class artistry." The USU Chamber Singers' recording has been submitted and accepted for the list of Grammy nominations by the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences in three categories, including Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical. "I don't believe I have ever been better served as a composer in either live performances or recordings," Gawthrop said of the Chamber Singers. "The choral sound is absolutely first rate, lush and opulent. The choir gives the impression they are doing all of this without breaking a sweat." lCompiled from staff and media reports |