Some ideas for the future direction of Indyclasses… think about if there’s anything you’re interested in taking on!
Indyclass Tasks
Organizational:
Write a callout for classes in the winter semester (for students, associations, groups on and off campus)
Set up a bulletin board in the arts lounge
Get articles in the Daily and the Tribune early enough for people to form classes
Compile a list of potential topics for future classes
Compile a list of groups that may be interested in starting classes
Compile a list of independent study classes in each program (or other ways!)
Help people find empty classrooms
Get associations to organize collective class evaluations including indyclass promo
Create a step-by-step guide and templates based on the prison class
Opening up experimentation discussions…
Political:
Talk to Daviken about where to implement this in the faculty structure and who to talk to
Get a list of associations from AUS
Find someone from each program to meet with their association executive (GAs!)
Get associations to build support in their department
Build awareness and support through the AUS (associations, council, GA)
Get support at SSMU (meet with Nadya again…)
Demands for AUS:
Incorporate ongoing support for indyclasses into their structure (create a position)
Find or create a schedule for empty classrooms
Work with the faculty to get their support
Demands for Faculty of Arts:
Allow us to take more than one independent study course
Make it acceptable for profs to support us
Publicize it through the course calender and on the website
Continue to allow it to be managed and regulated by the AUS (students)
Beyond:
Moving outside of arts
Moving outside of McGill
Moving student control into other classes
Publication of papers\discussion from classes
Online sign-up system
Requirements for the expansion of indyclasses:
Publicity of the idea, spaces, ideas, frameworks for signing up, templates for organizing and syllabus, professors, approval of departments for more than one independent study credit.
Tell people that it is possible, create a step-by-step guide on how to do it, create a place for people to submit class topic ideas and for other people to sign up, create syllabus templates, create an index of independent study courses for each program.
Create a list of on and off campus groups that might be interested in creating classes. Contact these groups and explain to them the ways in which a class could be useful, how it can be done, and what we can do to help.
Put a bulletin board up in the arts lounge of proposed class topics and sign-up sheets.
Topics: militarization, accessible research, financial crisis, privatization of resources…
Have GAs in arts and in departments as a way of publicizing the idea of indyclasses, and getting people to think of topics for classes that would be of interest in their discipline. Get program student associations to organize collective class evaluations, and at each one explain to them that they could create their own class…
Think of how the same concept could be made relevant outside of the university…
Things that McGill could provide:
more than one independent study per student,
space,
publicity and legitimacy and in the course calendar and on the website,
more willingness from profs,
more likelihood of persistence,
less ambiguity of syllabus criteria…
minerva for sign up,
profs\departments involved in topic selection and preparation…
less likelihood of backlash
The importance of:
doing classes not for credit,
finding, creating and claiming spaces,
self-defined legitimacy and communication,
questioning the necessity of profs,
creating affinity with profs,
expanding scope of classes outside of arts and McGill,
openness to all people and approaches,
more flexibility with method experimentation,
more likelihood of challenging topics,
creating an online sign up system,
preparation to defend,
publishing the papers that result from the classes!
Student Movement Indyclass 
October 14, 2008 at 2:53 pm |
[…] Cleve wrote up an amazing list of tasks and future possibilities for Indyclass, which is posted here. Anything you’re interested in taking on? Cleve will start by listing up the AUS student […]