HNRS 1300 Exploring the University

This course is designed to introduce incoming Honors Program students to major concepts within, about, and concerning a university. This broad overview takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the origins of the American college and select academic disciplines, its expansion and development, the problematics of structure and restructuring in an ever-changing context, and the impact of technology in traditional and evolving pedagogical practices in an increasingly diverse tapestry of students. Through readings, class discussions, class presentations, and the oral and written analysis of primary and secondary source material, this course seeks to answer the following questions: What is College For? What is a university’s mission? What is OLLU’s mission and history? What is the history of the Congregation of Divine Providence? How does a university and/or college provide equitable access? How is it democratizing knowledge? How does it provide a respectful atmosphere that is conducive to learning and if not, what are the barriers and how do we break them? What does it mean to be diverse and inclusive? What is the significance of a Liberal Arts based education? At the end of the course students will have a broad overview of the macro social and cultural, political, and economic developments with a university structure that affect individual student experiences.