Aaron Antrim’s blog

“It [education] requires breaking free of old pedagogical assumptions, of the straitjacket of discipline-centric curriculum, and even of confinement in classrooms and school buildings. Ecological education means changing (a) the substance and process of education contained in curriculum , (b) how educational institutions work, (c) the architecture within which education occurs, and most important, (d) the purposes of learning” (33).

I found some news articles that suggest Orr’s criticisms may have further relevance to us here at HSU. At least in the case of the the HSU director of facilities’ thoughts on the future of the marine sciences laboratory facilities. He favors the creation of one larger marine sciences lab rather than two smaller labs. While this may be more impressive to some prospective students, it neglects to consider the importance of the setting of the classroom, the environment outside the classroom, which ideally should be brought into the classroom. His operating philosophy indicates a view, the same one criticized by Wendell Berry, that learning is placeless, that academic environments are more self-contained than connected with their environments.

Here’s an excerpt from the April 21st issue of the Northcoast Journal (thank you Northcoast Journal, for the community service you perform by keeping your archives online, unlike the Times-Standard and some other local publications):

“Our preferred option is based on a two-lab concept that calls for construction of a satellite marine laboratory (HSU Bay and Estuarine Studies Center) at a biologically acceptable location on Humboldt Bay, while maintaining the existing TML,” the statement reads. “Existing space would be reallocated at TML and a modest on site expansion, if needed, could accommodate future increased demands at TML itself. We estimate that this preferred option would satisfy all marine science needs at HSU for at least 25-30 years.”

Hankin referred to the plan as “adding to the arsenal” of the marine studies department.

But Bob Schulz, director of physical affairs for HSU, doesn’t fancy the idea, seeing the venture as adding to the university’s maintenance costs. From a marketing standpoint Schulz thinks bigger will be better — one large site that fuses the marine lab with the Natural History Museum would be more attractive to incoming faculty, students and tourists, he said. Scattering the marine facilities between Trinidad and Eureka would not look as impressive as one larger complex would.

“Imagine you’re 17 or 18 years old and you come here to look into the marine biology program and you have to drive to two different facilities that are [25] miles away from each other,” Schulz said. “That is not going to have as much of an impact as one larger site.”

Hankin doesn’t agree with Schulz’s logic. Access to diverse habitats is part of what makes HSU’s marine programs unique, he says.

(Read full article “Out with the Tide” complete with pictures.)

aaron :: Oct.13.2005 :: Inscape / Landscape class ::