Illustration by Louise Leong

Humanities majors cannot save the world from environmental disaster, but neither can scientists.

Alone, no sector of learning has knowledge or resources to develop the kinds of creative and comprehensive solutions needed to solve the world’s ecological problems.

We appreciate that UC Santa Cruz has some interdisciplinary courses and programs. We hope that this is not the end of progress, but rather the beginning of providing more programs that will give students the well-rounded edge needed to fully understand and make a difference in green-related issues.

A recent study at the  Harvard School of Public Health found that rising summer temperature variabilities could result in more than 10,000 added deaths per year, with a disproportionate amount of those deaths being among African Americans and the elderly.

This is a perfect example of a problem that requires knowledge from both scientific and humanistic disciplines —  environmental science, anthropology, sociology, history, and public health — in order to understand and solve such a problem.

Cultivating interdisciplinary programs geared towards teaching real-world environmental problem-solving skills would benefit not only society, but also the planet we live on. Some UCSC faculty members have been discussing this issue and are looking to create solutions.

In an interview with City on a Hill Press conducted last fall, Susan Gillman, a UCSC literature professor on the Academic Senate, said that the senate is talking about how to best develop and maintain interdepartmental programs on campus. They want to develop these programs across emphases and in the larger context of past and present programs such as American studies and environmental studies.

“Lots of people don’t even realize the interdisciplinary [aspect] of science and engineering,”Gillman said.

One such major Gillman referred to was environmental studies, a great example of a successful interdisciplinary program. The major combines science courses with those in anthropology and other disciplines. Even within the art major there is collaboration with the sciences in courses like “Public Art II,” which teams up artists with biological studies majors to create projects about the watershed and redwood forests on UCSC’s greenhouses.

But although these classes are offered to some, they are inaccessible to the student body at large. Enrollment is often limited to those in the major, and many programs, like environmental studies, don’t offer a minor.

We are fortunate at UCSC to be a university in a forest. To ensure generations to come can enjoy this same privilege, we need to start learning to look at ecological problems in a new way; we need to be looking from all angles.

Illustration by Christine Hipp

The National Association of Scholars (NAS), a non-profit organization which looks to foster intellectual freedom, recently released a report entitled  “Crisis of Competence” which details how “left wing” politics have infiltrated the UC classroom. While these are interesting issues to highlight, NAS makes no claims that their vision of the “corrupted UC classroom” being exposed more to their own ideology will be any less political than what they outline.

The report details how the UC “misuses state funds”, prizes “political action over critical analysis”, and “has a lack of openness” for its taxpayers and students. NAS insists that our classes only feature one-sided ideology and indoctrination. This is coming from a group with an “avowed mission to combat ‘liberal bias’ and ‘anti-capitalist aspirations of the left,’” according to the Colorado Springs Independent.

While it’s true that UCSC is a liberal institution, with many humanities classes focused on left wing political causes and professors who may sympathize with these movements, that does not mean dissenting opinions are ignored. The NAS report looks to radically restructure classes in the UC system to fit their own agenda. Even UCSC’s own Politics 72, a course on the war on terrorism, receives criticism for its “extreme ideological prejudgement.”

The NAS report overlooks how politics can be a useful tool in learning. Seeking active political action from the students on behalf of the professor can teach the student about field work. It’s not all one-sided political ideology either — professors propel their students to analyze presented data in any fashion they prefer. There is hardly a group of students who are not allowed to engage academically because their idea is too controversial at UC Santa Cruz.

Professors should have political opinions on their subjects. One hopes these professors would gain perspective on the issue they research, and present their opinion as a matter of their own personal belief for discussion in class. Teaching the controversy surrounding their opinion and acknowledging the other side of the debate can inspire students to learn more about the subject. Our best humanities professors not only inspire a call to action but a call to criticism.

The NAS report believes any criticism generated in political action is not the same as criticism a professor may have. For the NAS, if one’s criticism is not written in some fancy journal, then it is inherently of lesser value.

If we allow NAS to change how professors teach because of perceived biases, than we miss out on stimulating academic debate. Students know their professor is not always correct. In the smartphone era we are all mere clicks away from contrary knowledge.

Academic freedom in the current system is treated with too cynical an eye in the report. The report states that UC’s limit academic freedom by creating departmental mission statements and course descriptions which limit outside input. Moreover, they base much of their arguments on tangential information delivered by the professor in student evaluations. This may not be the least biased form of gaining data on professors.

Students should be trusted to not take their professor’s opinions as pure fact. Students are independent free thinkers who can and do think for themselves. The NAS report has no interest in what students have campaigned years for. Instead of supporting ethnic studies, the NAS has made it clear — their  agenda is to limit courses in feminist studies and to change what we read in core. Politics as usual.

For the UC Classroom, limiting politics is inherently political itself.

Click to expand. Illustration by Louise Leong.

UCSC welcomes two new majors, a minor and a program this quarter. Some fields of study already existed, while others are completely fresh to the campus’ academic offerings.

1. Dance Minor

UC Santa Cruz students can now declare a minor in dance. Demonstrated student interest in focused studies and the lasting stronghold of several dance clubs and annual performances at UCSC contributed to its approval. Associate professor of dance Ted Warburton said he has long felt the need for a stronger dance community on campus.

“There are dance pockets everywhere,” Warburton said. “A lot of students would come to me saying, ‘We have a body of knowledge, and we want credit for what we are doing!’”

Currently the minor consists of pre-existing courses and focuses on cross-cultural technique and theory. Warburton said he believes student response could go many different ways and is expecting to adapt the minor to suit their growing interests.

Previously, dance classes had either been taken as part of the theater major, for GE credit or for fun.

Chelsea Moreno, a fourth-year molecular biology major, said she thinks it will benefit the campus community.

“Getting involved with the dance program at UCSC has basically been based on who you know,” Moreno said. “Having a minor in dance, with structure, will make it easier for students to get involved.”

An informational meeting will be held this Friday regarding the minor.

2. Robotics Engineering; Network and Digital Technology

Robotics engineering and networking and digital technology are the newest engineering majors available at UC Santa Cruz.

A robotics and control emphasis already exists in the computer engineering major and some students may transfer to the robotics engineering major, said computer engineering professor Martine Schlag.

“There’s a lot of interest from our little corner of the world … We think we’re going to start attracting a lot more people than expected,” said computer engineering professor Gabriel Elkaim.

The creation of the major did not require any additional funding, and Elkaim said they are “leveraging” everything they have. One course was added to the division and the major has 14 pre-majors.

Second-year robotics engineering major Pavlo Manovi said electrical engineering and computer engineering, which are already majors at UCSC, are necessary to work in this industry.

“You need to have a relationship between the two and robotics engineering does that,” Manovi said.

Network and digital technology was approved on the very last day of spring quarter.

“This degree is intended for students who have an interest in the technology, but don’t aspire to be engineers,” said computer engineering chair J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves in an article on the UCSC webpage. “They won’t be building computer systems, but they will understand systems and networks and will be prepared to work in teams with engineers.”

3. Sikh and Punjabi Studies

Sikh and Punjabi studies pulls on different UC Santa Cruz divisions as economics professor Nirvikar Singh holds the humanities program’s Sarbjit Singh Aurora endowed chair.

The chair, awarded to Singh in March 2011, will sponsor the “Sikh and Punjabi Studies: Achievements and New Directions” conference in November.

Thirty-four students are participating in the new program this quarter by taking its first class, “Introduction to the Sikhs,” which Singh teaches on top of his regular load of economics classes.

“I wanted to get [the class] started for a direct impact on the students,” Singh said.

Singh called on students to help him shape the program, and some are taking their own initiative. Third-year Harbir Mahal is creating a website for the whole Sikh community at UCSC, and is enrolled in the course.

“There’s so many religions within India,” Mahal said. “It’ll be good for people to learn about [Sikhism] and hopefully it’ll clear up misconceptions and stereotypes.”

Photo by Prescott Watson.

Interim humanities dean William Ladusaw (top) and linguistics professor Jim McCloskey (bottom) were recently elected Fellows of the Linguistics Society of America. Ladusaw focuses on semantics, the branch of linguistics that deals with meaning, and McCloskey’s focuses is syntax, which studies the structure of language. During their teaching careers, linguistics has expanded from a small study to a large, well-known field. Photo courtesy of James McCloskey.

Studied through fields such as anthropology and computer science, used in court cases, politics and in practically every field imaginable, linguistics — or the science of language — is incorporated into almost every discipline.

When interim humanities dean William Ladusaw and linguistics professor James McCloskey sat together in their graduate-level historical linguistics class at the University of Texas more than three decades ago, they never imagined that one day they would teach at the same institution, write research papers together and receive acceptance into the Linguistics Society of America.

The LSA was founded in 1924 to advance the scientific study of human language. Its goals are to further research in linguistics and keep the broader linguistics community informed through publications, presentation and discussion. The organization has over 5,000 members, all of whom were nominated and selected to gain membership into the organization.

Ladusaw was born and brought up in Louisville, Ky., where he got his B.A. in linguistics at the University of Kentucky.

Linguistics was a much less widely studied field at this time, Ladusaw said.

“When I started, it was a rather odd thing to be a linguistics major,” he said. “Most people in high school had never heard the word,” he said.

Ladusaw recalls that the majority of people at the time thought of linguistics as grammar.

He obtained his master’s degree in computational linguistics and his doctorate in semantics at the University of Texas.

This branch of linguistics, which studies meaning in relation to structure, was a fairly novel field of study when Ladusaw was in school.

“At the time we were in graduate school, semantics was the relatively newer field in linguistics,” he said. “Traditionally [it had] been part of philosophy.”

Ladusaw said that semantics unmasks how a person understands language.

“The reality is that what you understand the meaning of something to be

is a very complicated interaction between what you know in virtue of knowing your language and what you can infer based on reasoning about the fact that somebody said that to you in that context.”

Ladusaw started teaching linguistics at UCSC in 1984 and says that the major has definitely “matured,” especially after extending the field to a graduate program in the late ’80s.

His colleague McCloskey — who came to UCSC in 1988 — focuses on syntax, which is the study of principles and rules of the structure of sentences. The relationship between syntax and semantics — structure requires meaning, and meaning requires structure — has allowed McCloskey and Ladusaw to work together.

Born in Ireland, McCloskey obtained his first degree in linguistics at University College Dublin and his doctoral degree at the University of Texas. His dissertation and career focus is on the syntax of the Irish language.

McCloskey’s teaching career began at University College Dublin in 1979 while holding visiting appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC San Diego. He spent a year as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford before becoming a professor at UCSC.

Currently, McCloskey is in Ireland for sabbatical leave and conducting research in the syntax of the Irish language. He could not be reached for comment.

His webpage outlines his career interests and the slow death of the Irish language.

“I am necessarily and sadly interested in issues of language death, language extinction and language revival,” McCloskey said on his webpage.

Both Ladusaw and McCloskey will be officially recognized as part of the LSA at the annual meeting in Pittsburgh in January 2011.

Even Georges Van Den Abbeele, Dean of Humanities, cannot predict the exact amount of money that will be cut from UCSC’s language programs. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Four major world languages are at risk — Russian, Portuguese, Hindi/Urdu and Hebrew.

Termination of entire language programs is just one among dozens of proposed options to counter budget shortfalls and structural inequalities within the Division of Humanities at UC Santa Cruz. To eliminate these languages would ultimately save $182,000 per year.

The division, which comprises 20 percent of UCSC’s students and faculty, faced a permanent funding cut of about $1.1 million in the past year and a half, and now braces for an additional loss of $1.4 to $1.6 million for this fiscal year. These cuts have been so deep that the division must resort to cutting core education.

“We took so much in cuts last year, there is nothing left to cut except instruction,” Dean of Humanities Georges Van Den Abbeele said. “At some point, you are not only cutting into the bone, you’re amputating limbs. So we need to figure out which limbs will go.”

This year, the languages program has lost 11 of its 200 classes. Italian lost two classes, 11 percent of its total. Possible cuts this year could eliminate or reduce 35 to 40 classes, about 20 percent of the program’s total.

Although UCSC is the only UC without a general education language requirement, language study is a requirement for the major programs of language studies, global economics, anthropology, Latin American and Latino studies, and health sciences. Starting next year, the literature department will implement a new language requirement as well.

How does one prepare a division that represents one-fifth of UCSC’s academics for budget cuts? What should be prioritized? Should departments emphasize breadth or depth of subjects?

In order to help answer these questions, Van Den Abbeele established an advisory task force within the division to help brainstorm solutions to the budget problem.

The majority of instruction in foreign languages and writing is offered by lecturers, not ladder-ranked faculty, which makes the program vulnerable during budget cuts. Ladder-ranked faculty cannot be laid off, but any lecturer who has worked less than six years can be let go at any time.

Some of the options laid out in the task force’s report include: integration of language curriculum with other departments or programs; moving the writing program to the colleges; and merging the administrative functions of the American studies, feminist studies and history of consciousness departments.

From now through Feb. 15, Van Den Abbeele is seeking consultation and feedback on the report from students and faculty with the goal of reaching some kind of consensus by April.

“This should not be viewed as a blueprint,” Van Den Abbeele said. “… No decisions have been made.”

Some lecturers on campus are concerned with how the proposal deals with cuts to languages.

Suggestions include reducing courses offered, eliminating languages that have little connection to existing majors, giving priority enrollment to majors, hiring graduate student instructors to teach in the program, and switching French, Portuguese and Spanish to a five-quarter sequence.

“The university does not seem to want to commit funding for the language program,” said Italian lecturer Giulia Centineo. “They’ve been shortsighted, to say the least. In Italian, we are back to the number of sections of 1989, while there are many more students and the demand for language has increased.”

French lecturer Angela Elsey is also concerned. With the help of other professors, Elsey wrote a letter she hopes students will send to administrators.

“We cannot just sit by and see our program cut and destroyed,” Elsey said.

Eric Porter, professor and chair of American studies, feels that language is essential for any well-rounded undergraduate education.

“Languages are a fundamental part of education and creating informed world citizens,” Porter said.

Porter also said it is important for students to give feedback, because these changes will have a campus-wide impact.

“Humanities is put in a difficult position by having two programs — writing and languages — which serve the entire campus,” Porter said.

Community studies field coordinator and Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin urges students to take action on issues which are important to them.

“There needs to be a fight and response to this at every level,” Rotkin said. “Students need to make demands, get organized, put pressure on the administration and involve their parents.”

Italian lecturer Centineo also encourages students to save the language programs.

“Students should demand to keep the language programs. It’s your university, you’re paying for it,” Centineo said. “Write letters, demand that priorities be instruction and not administration.”

Students can voice their opinion by submitting feedback on the dean of humanities’ website.

“The dean of humanities is open and transparent about his budget,” Rotkin said. “He just doesn’t have enough money to fund the existing writing and language programs. He’s facing a hard decision [and] he is doing his best with limited resources.”

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

Fewer classes, fewer teachers, fewer TAs. While paying the highest tuition in the history of the University of California, students are beginning to notice the dwindling resources on campus.

Throughout the UC system, cuts from the state are being implemented. Over the past two years, upwards of $50 million has been subtracted from UC Santa Cruz’s budget, according to UCSC administration .

“[The cuts] have a tremendous impact on UCSC, especially in the humanities and social sciences,” said Karen Bassi, literature department chair.

The biggest impacts Bassi noted were fewer courses, loss of TAships and lower salaries for staff and faculty.

“Last year, the literature department offered 123 courses, while this year we offer 101,” she said.

Bassi also explained that the loss of graduate student TAs who can lead sections has an effect on the quality of teaching for undergrads and graduate students. Due to the recent furloughs, staff are forced to work less and often expected to maintain the same workload. Faculty often work 80 hours a week, with a cut in pay but no cut in time.

For the social sciences, the two biggest impacts are reduction of faculty and decreased funding for TAs, said Kyle Eischen, assistant dean of academic planning and research for the Division of Social Sciences.

“Overall, social sciences does about 40 percent of the teaching for undergraduates and about 30 percent for the graduate students,” Eischen said.

The Division of Social Sciences — which includes the psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, politics, Latin American studies, community studies, education, legal studies, and environmental studies departments — has been hit hard by the budget crisis.

According to an administrative report published in July of 2009, the social science division is facing an approximate $1.5 million dollar cut.

“We have the most popular majors on campus, yet the cuts that were made have not been proportional to our popularity,” Eischen said.

Eischen went on to say that the reduction in funding for TAs negatively affects undergraduates and graduate students. Many graduate students support themselves by TAing.

“The quality of education for undergraduates suffers, with a less personalized education,” he said.

In particular, the psychology major — the largest major on campus, with about 1,700 enrolled students— is experiencing cuts in faculty.

According to Avril Thorne, psychology department chair, the department should have 34 full-time faculty members, but has only 25 due to the hiring freeze and the failure to replace retiring faculty. Fewer faculty means larger class sizes, which are already struggling to accommodate the increasing numbers of incoming UCSC students.

Fourth-year psychology major Olivia Leung, who works as a peer adviser in the psychology department, commented that the funding shortage has caused students to experience duress.

“The budget cuts have caused students to feel unnecessary stress and anxiety about getting into classes, as there are fewer classes available,” Leung said. “People come into the psychology department where I work as a peer adviser and stress over not getting into classes, wondering what alternatives are available for them, and how they will be able to graduate on time if they can’t take a certain class.”

Second-year psychology major Jenette Debarge is ready to take extreme measures to ensure her quality education.

“It’s to the point where I’m ready to withdraw from UCSC until I can get into a class in my major,” Debarge said. “I’m not going to give the UC my money for GEs that I don’t need.”

Even with the changing environment of the UC, psychology chair Thorne said that getting a high-quality education is still possible, if more difficult.

“I advise students to plan their courses carefully and have back-up courses to take if they can’t get into the ones they need,” Thorne said. “Also, students should be aware of the peer advising available. It is important to be nimble and flexible. You need to be a quick dancer to figure out what classes will make do for what you want to learn.”

Social sciences assistant dean Eischen agrees that despite the loss of teachers and the increasing class size, it is possible to experience a high-quality UC education with increased creativity.

“Students need to know what they want and go after it,” Eischen said. “It is still possible to get a great education here; we have fabulous faculty.”

Fourth-year Sarah Fishleder is doing just that. After returning from a study abroad program in India, Fishleder noticed that most of the classes she wanted to take in the theater arts department had been cut.

“‘Asian Drama and Dance’ and ‘Global Impacts of Dance,’ ‘Chicano Power Theater,’ ‘Black Theater USA,’ all courses I really wanted to take, are not being offered this year,” she said. “It’s indefinite; we don’t know when or if they’ll be offered again.”

Fishleder has taken things into her own hands, electing to create her own major in order to accommodate the unpredictability of the course catalogue.

Her proposed major, “Multiculturalism and the Arts Education,” is going through the approval process and is currently being reviewed for acceptance.

In addition to flexibility, Eischen said that students need to become more politically active.

“Students need to be more political, targeted specifically on making education a priority for people in California,” he said. “We all need to be more political and more active.”

Thorne agreed with Eischen by saying that the action needs to be taken on a state level.

“Parents call me complaining that their kids can’t get into any classes, and I tell them to call their legislators,” she said.

Literature chair Bassi also emphasized political action in this pressing time for UC students, and suggested finding strength in unity.

“We need to work together collaboratively, bringing different factions together for the greater common good,” Bassi said. “I advise students to talk to their professors, tell them how they feel, and find ways of letting Californians know what is at stake here. Students can go up to Sacramento, write op-eds, and make the voters of California more aware of what they are losing as a result of the budget crisis.”