RR1: Campus Compact

1) Thomas Erlich (the author) declares that we cannot afford to educate a generation of students who only have knowledge with no understanding of how to use that knowledge to help the community. What do you think about this statement? How does it relate to what you learned about Kolb’s model of experiential learning?
– I completely agree with this statement. I firmly believe that knowledge is the most important tool one can provide to others and to self to be able to advance in life. However, knowing how to apply this knowledge is vital for the continuation of growth and life success. Being able to apply what we know in a way that benefits society should be one of the basics that accompany learning. To do that, we have to be able to participate and interact within the community, learn of the community needs so that we can figure out the solutions. We are all part of a community, whether this is church, school, sports, etc. We have on our side the wonderful opportunity to live in such a democratic country that to practice the skills we are learning at UCI voluntarily is not that hard at all.

– Kolb’s model of experiental learning applies to this concept in that when we are learning at school in this class, we are in fact assimilating and converging (i.e., doing volunteer work), and when we apply this acquired knowledge (i.e., in a site learning), we are in fact participating in active experimentation

The Presidents’ Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education explains that with the increase in available higher education there is a decrease civic and community engagement. Thomas Erlich believes that an individual of this generation is intelligent but the knowledge possessed is not being put into practice to move the community as a whole forward. I personally disagree with Erlich when he says that is not possible to education the generation on how to convert knowledge into understanding. Having the knowledge and the resources to solve a problem and translating them into action takes motivation.
David Kolb has a leaning theory that he describes with a model of learning styles. Feeling, thinking, watching, and doing are the four pillars that make up the model that he says can be applied to everyone. The situation and environment can alter and individuals learning process. Universities can create the path from abstract conceptualism (logical analysis of ideas and acting on intellectual understanding of a situation) to active experimentation, the ability to get things done by influencing people and events though action. An institution for higher education is a perfect environment for converging, practical application.

1) I agree with Erlich’s states that this generation of students only have knowledge, but no understanding of how to help the community. We are currently in an age of technology and information where it is very easy to learn about anything you want. On top of that, attending college is a popular option for many young adults. However, many students do not seem to care enough to apply the knowledge they learn toward something. This relates to the Kolb’s model, where many students are used to abstract thinking and reflective observation, but little concrete experience or active experimentation.
2) Organization like the Carnegie foundation should set goals for universities through grants. The goal of the grants could be percentage of students who participate in community engagement. This would provide a good incentive for universities to push student involvement.
3) Faculty, staff, administrators, and students should both work together and separately. There are many things, such as policies or budget, that administrators should deal with and others, such as formation of groups and clubs, that should be reserved for the students. However, the various clubs and school administrators should communicate in order to further the best interests of all groups.

3) Do you think administrators, faculty, staff, and students should work together or separately in advancing the role of UCI in the community? What skills and resources do you think each of these groups brings?

When working to advance the role of UCI in the community, I think the best approach to to take is to involve the administrators, faculty, staff and students in the process. A collective effort to involve all individuals and allow everyone to partake in the process which in turn may yield the best result, as different groups will bring about a greater diversity.
The groups may differ from each other when comparing things such as their experiences, knowledge of the community, awareness of current event and interest. All of which will play an integral part in establishing and promoting civic engagement in the Irvine community.
The different groups will not only differ in the skills and resources they bring in, they will also differ in their level of commitment. The working professionals may take on the role as advisers and elect to contribute by providing monetary support, whereas the student may take on a more active approach and contribute more of their time and effort.

3) I think they definitely need to work together. Students need the direction and experience that administrators and staff can provide. Being that the staff is there year after year, they know how to get the ball rolling, which is the hardest part of the process. However, the staff would not have very high participation if they do not seek to understand student’s desires and interests. For instance, as a handy male, I feel disappointed that there are no volunteer opportunities presented to me to help repair people’s houses or some other forms of physical labor that is needed and I am skilled at. However, there is an abundance of clerical positions that would bore me to tears.

1) Thomas Erlich (the author) declares that we cannot afford to educate a generation of students who only have knowledge with no understanding of how to use that knowledge to help the community. What do you think about this statement? How does it relate to what you learned about Kolb’s model of experiential learning?

Mr. Erlich’s statement makes sense from a logical point of view; why invest in something, if there are no benefits in return? His statement was powerful to me because it made me rethink the purpose of education. I always thought that the purpose of an education was to help one succeed in the job market when the time comes, but when I look at Mr. Erlich’s statement now, education is more than just a tool for financial success. We are supposed to share it and use it to help others. I think Mr. Erlich is trying to tell us not to waste the gift of having a better education, but to harness it and use it to its full potential.

I think this relates to what I learned about Kolb’s model of experiential learning because most of the students who obtain a higher education are not required to reflect or perform hands-on tasks related to what they are learning, they just cram, take an exam, and forget about it after. According to Kolb’s model of experiential learning, one has to reflect or have a hands-on experience in order to successfully learn and appreciate what they have been taught, which ties back to Mr. Erlich’s point of how students don’t really appreciate the education they are receiving because they are not required to reflect or perform tasks related to what they are learning. They are not aware of the potential they posses.

2) What role do you think organizations like the Carnegie foundation should have in setting goals for universities across the country?

Since the Carnegie Foundation has such an influential role in society, I believe that they should convince universities to require students to perform service-learning hours as a requirement in order to graduate. They should also convince corporations and businesses to take into consideration whether or not a person is active in their own community. I think if there was more pressure from influential organizations to do well, students would respond to that pressure and act upon it.

3) Do you think administrators, faculty, staff, and students should work together or separately in advancing the role of UCI in the community? What skills and resources do you think each of these groups brings?

I believe administrators, faculty, staff, and students should work together in advancing the role of UCI in the community because in most cases, teamwork yields better results than an individual. Ideas and resources could be combined, and there would be a network of support.

Administrators, faculty, and staff should lead by example by engaging themselves within the community and teaching about the importance of bettering society. They should also lead the students to realize the full potential of their education and encourage them to use it for improving the community. Administrators, faculty, and staff may have connections to city governments, or companies that could provide students with opportunities to expand and put their education to use.

Students can help advance the role of UCI in the community by using social media. They can create and organize social movements and events by using sites such as Facebook and Youtube. They can also influence the younger generations, and lead by example too.

1) I agree with this statement. Knowledge is useless if we do not apply it in real life. Knowledge learned in vain does not benefit the community, or generally, society. Ehrlich’s statement relates to Kolb’s model of experiential learning because the four kinds of knowledge involves two of four types of action (feeling, watching, thinking, and doing). Most of the students in the class think and do, which is what Ehrlich says knowledge should be used as.

3) Yes, they should work together. Administrators, faculty and staff will likely have different opinions than students. If they work together, they can negotiate and compromise on issues facing UCI. People in different positions have different perspectives, so having everyone at UCI working together will benefit everyone. Administrators know how the school works; faculty have the most knowledge; staff are highly skilled in one thing; and students understand each other. If they all work together, resolving issues should be quick and efficient.

1) Erlich is adamant about every student being involved in the democratic process. I would hope he is, since he is writing on behalf of an organization whose mission statement revolves around that. Here’s my response to the Campus Compact’s goals:

When I was first taught about the social contract theory, I imagined it as a town being set up to provide safety to the people, and everyone having to do their part to upkeep the town. I see our government much in the same way; I feel protected, more or less, because I am a citizen of the United States; I work my part to upkeep the United States, whether that means doing brain surgery, looking for a cure for cancer, or working at the postal service. Corporate, government, and non-profit outlets allow people to upkeep the social contract we have.

Higher education schools are definitely tools used in this social contract because they allow students to become knowledgeable about a certain subject that they will later contribute to in the work force. So yes, schools are tools to get us to do our part in the society. But honestly, some students use it because they are interested in learning, not in what their place is in the complicated social contract that our 21st century world now is.
This is how I connected the reading back to our class discussion on Kolb’s learning classifications. Schools are amazing places that foster grand scale understanding of knowledge in new and integrative ways; they’re not just tools, they’re a place where life happens: where students find out more about themselves and the world on the quest for knowledge. Some students are reflective observers and abstract conceptualizers, while others are active experimenters or concrete experiencers; some like to sit back and learn, theorize, and reflect on what they enjoy; others like to get active about their studies and learn from that.

With all this going on in the higher education classrooms, we have to be careful about pushing the “contract” part of the social contract on students. As mentioned before, it’s a complicated world and students are figuring it out at different rates and with different interest levels. Reminding them that college is just a tool for them to pay back society for day to day safety/prosperity seems like it can take away from the wonderful learning experiences going on in the classroom. However, I believe it is essential to also show the student that what they are learning can help solve town, community, state, government, and/or world problems; that they can be a part of the effort to upkeep the place they live. The democratic process of the United States will only work if many are invested in its survival, so encouraging students to take what they learn and be a leader of civic responsibility is important.

I understand that this “social contract theory” stuff is very black and white as a give-and-take set up that doesn’t quite model day to day life. However, when I was reading it’s what I thought of because of the language used in the declaration: the civic responsibility language that said the world can’t be built by indifferent people and that told of the challenge of the reassertion of social stewardship. It made me think of individual people’s place in the world, which led me to my old history and philosophy class theories, which led me to rambling like all the good philosophers do.

I think we should all work collectively in order to advance the role of UCI in the community. The staff , faculty and administrators have the connections and resources to do outreach within the Orange County community that would help foster relationships. This, in turn, would be important as it would lead to more opportunities for students to engage in. General outreach to students within the university would best be carried out as a collective effort; the staff and administrators could work on advertising, within the school, the organizations and events available to students while student organizations could focus on engaging members within their clubs to get involved. A potential problem, I feel, would be access and awareness of the various community organizations in Orange County; as a freshman, I wanted to get involved in an organization near Irvine but I did not have a way to get there, and that posed a problem for me. I think if, as a university, we did a project for the community together, it would foster a sense of engagement and also strengthen UCI’s role in the community.

I think that because organizations like the Carnegie foundation has already done so much to make universities a better environment for students, faculty, and families, they should be allowed to take part in setting goals for universities across the country. Organizations such as the Carnegie foundation already have set goals for its individual business that are ideal when it comes to goals of universities as well. In fact, the Carnegie foundation itself is a form of civic responsibility and community engagement, since it is based on the idea of donating and helping society a better place to live in. Therefore, their goals as a foundation would not be much different to the goals set for a university that wants to improve students’ education and emphasize the important of civic responsibility. These organizations should have an important role in deciding the goals of a university; if not, they should at least be able to share their own goals as an organization and act as a role model for the kind of university it wants to be.
Administrators, faculty, staff, and students all should work together in advancing the role of UCI in the community. Administrators, faculty, and staff have the experience in running a university smoothly. From all of the experience, they will know how to initiate the idea of advancing the role of UCI in society. Since the students take up the majority of the UCI population, they are able to spread the word more quickly about society engagement. There may even be an instance where one person is very active in involving UCI in civic participation and this causes a chain reaction in other students, professors, and faculty. It is fairly easy for an idea to be put into action when the university community is already involved in activities regarding to service.

To advance the role of UCI in the community, administration, faculty, staff, and students would have to work together. Each group brings a different resource and skill to the table, that another cannot. Erlich talks about how it is necessary to institutionalize public engagement and that this can only happen at the highest level, the administration. Administrators are the ones giving the seal of approval for the happenings on any college campus and they are the leaders of the campus community. Without their involvement and support, there would be no way to institutionalize public engagement at any school. The faculty play the role of researchers and educators. Without them it would be difficult to research, understand, and solve community problems that a college or university may be called on to solve. The faculty also play a role as educators to the whole community, including the students. Faculty should feel a responsibility to interact with students and have students interacting and engaging in the community, so that students are not just learning to get a grade, but learning to be a citizen. Staff are the organizers that we forget about most of the time. They would be the necessary glue to hold everything together. They work on the logistics, the planning, and organizing that faculty and administration don’t have the time to do. Then there are the students. Probably the most important group and the most undervalued. As students, we are the ones moving forward and really, we are the ones willing to get our hands dirty. If students are excluded from public engagement planning or projects, its like asking for future failures. If the students aren’t learning and experiencing the process and importance of public engagement, who would take over when administration, faculty, or staff leave? Who would become the new leaders in the community, outside of the campus? All of these groups would be necessary and would need to work together to institutionalize public engagement.

1) I agree with the opinion. American should take more responsibility in community. In order to do that, they should encourage students to use their knowledge for community.
First, the government cannot do everything. According to the reading, in old days, more people engage in community life than now. Community has taken important part in society. In addition, the government’s debt increases. Thus, American cannot expect the government will take larger part in society.
Second, it is more efficient that people help each other in community than people rely on government. Helping each other is quick and less money. If one old person want to need drive once a week to buy daily goods, it is easier for a person living near than a government staff living far to help the person. In addition, if government did, there should be restrictions, for example, only taking care of child or buying food not clothes.

After reading campus compact, please comment on one or more of these questions:

1) Thomas Erlich (the author) declares that we cannot afford to educate a generation of students who only have knowledge with no understanding of how to use that knowledge to help the community. What do you think about this statement? How does it relate to what you learned about Kolb’s model of experiential learning?

I agree with Thomas Erlich’s statement that having knowledge with no understanding of how to use it to help the community is useless. I feel as if we come to college to gain an understanding of how things work, and use it to our advantage in everyday situations. I think that the student who comes to college and not take an advantage of what they learn is just a waste of time. This relates back to Kolb’s model of experiential learning because he claims that the ideal learning process should be taken into 4 steps: converge, diverge, assimilate, and accommodate. And Erlich is stating that once you grasp on to the information, you should be able to understand why it works, how it works, and how you can apply it.

2) What role do you think organizations like the Carnegie foundation should have in setting goals for universities across the country?

The role that organizations like the Carnegie foundation should have in setting goals for universities is being the leader when it comes to the learning environment, as well as providing the source that can lead to a successful understanding in giving back to the community. By setting goals for the universities, it will create a system in which the university will strive by and hope to accomplish in the future for the students to create a better community.

3) Do you think administrators, faculty, staff, and students should work together or separately in advancing the role of UCI in the community? What skills and resources do you think each of these groups brings?

I think everyone should work together in advancing the role of UCI in the community because working together will allow us bond with one another as well as developing other skills and mindset for the community. I think the administrators have the power to provide resources such as the tools and the connections to help out the community. Faculty and staff can lead to the right direction of giving back and informing the students on the current issues among the community. And students are able to work together to create a better community, and become the future leaders.