We all like to complain about our classes. There are too many readings, the professor is unpleasant or has high expectations, the material is boring or too complicated. I think we all know deep down that most of the time we do this it’s not because the class is actually that dismal or draconian, but because we just need to complain as a way to cope with things being what they are.

Not me.

I have rage in my heart against the CTI system that Jewell has put in place, and I have an absolutely clear and unbiased view of the way things work. Thus, everything I say about CTIs here today is not just a “rant,” no mere expression of personal frustration, but the pure, unadulterated truth, and I expect things to change around here.

Disclaimer: I’m not talking about 100-level CTIs. Gen-ed courses are a pretty normal college requirement, and I think 100-level CTIs do a great job of giving people the background they need to think critically in their other classes. My beef is with the requirement of three different 200-level courses in three different disciplines. I haven’t experienced a CTI Capstone yet, so I can’t directly speak to them, but if you have, feel free to leave a comment about your experience and whether my frustrations apply there as well.

First of all, why is William Jewell College on a different system than the rest of the known universe in terms of CTIs? I have so many friends, and I’m sure you know these people too, who have either tried to transfer out of Jewell or into Jewell and realized that they are an entire semester or even year behind because CTI credits don’t count towards your degree anywhere but here. People who want to receive an education partially from Jewell and partially elsewhere are directly harmed by our current CTI system and have difficulty graduating on time, which I believe is something we should be trying harder to avoid.

Second, 200-level CTI requirements can be overly burdensome and sometimes, frankly, ridiculous for those of us in more intense or unusual degree programs. For example, I’m a double major, and one of those is music – I’m always at the 18-credit limit and really should be doing more. To go over that limit is to pay more, which I can’t really afford, and CTI 200-level courses are 4 credits each, keeping me from completing other courses related to my major on my preferred schedule since that space in my course schedule is already taken up. Not to mention the time, textbook price, and mental commitment each CTI saps from me. Perhaps some people have extra time and credit space in their schedules and want to take a class outside their major. Awesome. Do it. Personally, I don’t want to, and I especially don’t want to pay to, and I especially don’t want to be paying to do so at the cost of courses that I actually want and need to take. It’s an unnecessary burden on a very special and cool person (me).

Some people have told me that CTIs might be inconvenient, but they’re good for me and teach me critical thinking, so I should suck it up and stop being a little b**** about it. I will not. First of all, I think we’ve all experienced CTIs that certainly didn’t take any critical thought or inquiry, CTIs from which we learned only that the world is cruel and sometimes you have to get up at 8 AM for a class that teaches you a whole lot of nothing, where you don’t know anyone,you are hungry and sleepy for two hours and that’s just how it works, buddy. (Just imagine how complain-y I’ll be as an old person.) But also, aren’t all the courses at Jewell supposed to be teaching us critical thinking? Isn’t that what the multiple 100-level CTIs we took were all about? Why do I have to take a religion course (meh) or a political science course (disgusting and revolting) on top of my other courses in which I learn to think critically or else I can’t graduate? A liberal arts college should not try to mold people into its own image, but instead should remember that to a large extent, it is still a service that we, the students, select and pay for. If we lived in a utopia and had a good system to track CTI credits as well as unlimited time and resources to spend on education, the CTI system would be more likely to produce well-rounded citizens, but because of the issues outlined above, that’s simply not what’s happening. Therefore, the control of our higher education, to the largest extent possible, should be in our own hands, the hands of the consumer, not in the hands of the people who profit from my choices – or lack thereof. This is how services work; if you went to a Subway to build your own sandwich and they also made you pay for an extra drink and side that you didn’t want, it doesn’t matter how delicious and nutritious that extra side and drink are – you would feel cheated out of your money and suspicious that Subway is becoming authoritarian.

In summary, given that Jewell’s 200-level CTIs do not transfer credit either to or from other schools and that for many of us, CTIs limit opportunities within our actual fields of study by taking up time, energy, and credit space, my opinion is that they should not be a graduation requirement. I’m all for allowing people to take CTIs as electives, but for some of us, extra work just isn’t an option if we are to stay on track and really hinders our ability to get our majors completed. Since colleges and universities under capitalism are a service that the students consume, we should be in charge of our own educations and what goes into them as much as possible; CTIs are an extra expense on our receipt that we never added to the cart. I’m thankful that some CTI restrictions are lessening, such as the new addition that the three 200-level CTIs we take do not all have to be outside of our majors, but the current system is not useful for us and feels, to me, obsolete and authoritarian. Sometimes, you just need to vent to a good friend or perhaps the entirety of the Hilltop Monitor’s reader community, and then you realize that it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Not me. I am enraged and furious, and will probably die early due to a heart condition associated with high levels of chronic anger and stress. 200-level CTIs are dangerous, Cardinals. Be careful out there.

On April 6, William Jewell College adopted a new pass/fail policy for the rest of the semester during a special faculty meeting. Faculty and Student Senate leaders debated together to come to this decision.

The spring 2020 grade policy allows students to choose to take Critical Thought and Inquiry (CTI) courses and electives for pass/fail credit. Students are usually able to take only elective courses for pass/fail credit. Students taking language classes taken for CTI credit can opt to take the courses as pass/fail.

Normally, students could only take one pass/fail per semester, but this restriction has been removed. Students usually have to limit their total number of pass/fail credits to 20 credits, but courses taken pass/fail this semester will not count towards these 20 credits. First-years can take classes pass/fail in the spring 2020 semester – normally they are not allowed to take pass/fail classes.

The minimum number of graded credits to be considered for the Dean’s List has been reduced from 14 to 12 credits for the spring 2020 semester.

Several aspects of the grade policy remained the same. The minimum passing grade for CTI and elective classes is a D-, which was kept the same. Once a student chooses to take a class pass/fail, the professor will not know but will submit a final grade as usual, and then the registrar will look at this grade and put either a “pass” or “fail” into the student’s record.

Dr. Gary Armstrong, professor of political science, was one of the faculty members involved in the decision-making process. 

“In the grip of a public health emergency and economic emergency, Jewell faculty came to believe that students were facing extraordinary stress or could be facing extraordinary stress in very unusual circumstances,” said Armstrong in an explanation of why the policy was changed.

Armstrong stressed that the faculty realized some students may be in complicated situations away from school. This pass/fail option allows students to relieve stress during this time and lets students prioritize academic efforts so students could focus more on classes for their major and less on electives and/or CTI classes, if they so choose.

Hannah Keeney, 2019-2020 Student Senate president and senior psychological science and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry major, commented on the Student Senate perspective.

“Regarding the pass/fail proposal and later policy for the Spring ’20 semester, I supported it through and through. I believe the intention was to relieve some stress by allowing students to opt for pass/fail in their elective courses,” said Keeney.

Another important topic discussed was that, obviously, students and faculty did not know that half of this semester would be online when they signed up for classes. Therefore, this pass/fail policy does not extend to summer classes – as students know whether their classes will be online or not when they sign up for them.

Many alternative plans were discussed and faculty looked at what different schools were doing – including mandatory pass/fail in all classes, pass/fail in any class the student chose and pass/fail only in core and elective classes. Armstrong relayed that, at first, many faculty members were in favor of mandatory pass/fail in core curriculum classes.

Armstrong expressed that some programs were concerned about pass/fail for major classes. The accounting faculty were concerned because some states don’t allow pass/fail classes to count for the number of required credits needed to take the Certified Public Accountant exam. Although many states are altering these requirements during this unprecedented time, he said it is hard to know what to tell students. The nursing program also was concerned about moving to pass/fail for all classes.

Because of these concerns, the faculty were able to come to a consensus that allowing students to choose pass/fail on CTI and elective classes only was the best option.

Regarding feedback after the policy went into effect April 6, 23 students had elected to take a class pass/fail as of April 28. Armstrong expressed that that number was much lower than the faculty expected, but the deadline to declare pass/fail was not until May 1. He wondered if the low number indicated that students were in a much better place than faculty had anticipated.

Students have reacted differently to the pass/fail policy change – some express desire for the chance to have more options about pass/fail in major and minor courses and some prefer sticking with graded courses.

“I’m motivated by A’s, so I’d do the bare minimum in a pass/fail class,” said Charlene Noble, sophomore psychological science and elementary education major.

“I would have considered pass/fail if it could be applied to my major or minor, but since it didn’t, I chose not to take any classes pass/fail,” said Jenna Hultgren, sophomore English major.

“Scheduling is the last thing I think of before I go to bed and the first thing I think of when I wake up,” said Riley Adelmund, sophomore biology major.

Jewell gives students an entire day to compose their schedules, but many advisors prefer when students come in with a “mock” schedule in mind.

“My life may not be together, but my schedule is, and it’s color coded,” said Adelmund.

Level two CTIs are placed into four categories: Power and Justice, Science Technology and Human Experience, Culture and Traditions and Sacred and Secular.

When a student’s major corresponds to one of these particular fields, he or she is not required to take a course in that category.

Here is a preview of some of these classes, their descriptions and what students on the Hill thought of them.

Power and Justice

The classes offered this spring for Power and Justice are “World War II and The Holocaust,” “Medicine, Money and Morals,” “School and Society,” Slavery and Abolition” and “Philosophy of Power, Sex and Gender.”

“World War II and The Holocaust” is taught by Dr. Howell and meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 AM. The course catalog describes the class as an examination of the ethical and practical problems involved fighting even a ‘just’ war. All aspects of the greatest conflict in human history from the rise of Hitler in Germany to the Holocaust to the controversial use of the atomic bomb to end the war will be examined.

“In Dr. Howell’s class, you don’t study World War II from an American perspective, which is unique to my past classes about the war,” said Jackson Ritchie, sophomore vocal performance major. “The class is lecture based. There are regular readings and essays for the course. I’d recommend this course to anyone who is good at note taking and has an interest in learning more about the topic.”

“School and Society” is taught by Dr. Gardner and meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:30 PM. The course catalog describes the class as examining the development of American schooling within the context of social history.

“The class is very discussion based. We would read a certain text and would have guided discussion led by Dr. Gardner,” said Savannah Drew, senior accounting and business administration major. “I’d recommend this class to anyone who enjoys the history of a specific topic, public policy and learns best by discussion.”

Culture and Traditions

The classes offered this spring for Culture and Traditions are “Cultural Values and Visual Art,” “La Doulce France,” “Film Worlds,” “United States Pluralism,” “Performance Studies,” “Wagner: Lord of the Rings” and “Intercultural Communication.”

“United States Pluralism” is taught by Dr. Rangel Tuesday at 6:30 PM. The course catalog describes the class as providing an examination of racial, ethnic, gender and other types of diversity in American society with the aim of increasing understanding of American pluralism and culture.

The class looks at different mediums to analyze these topics, such as autobiography, literature and film.

“You discuss many modern day issues that regard these inequalities,” said Gavin Kiger, junior political science and international relations major.

A mixture of lecture and discussion centers the class, and further learning comes from both papers and oral presentations to evaluate these topics.

“I’d recommend the class to anyone who wants to become more aware of the problems in our society today,” said Kiger.

“Film Worlds” is taught by visiting professor Dr. Jani Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:45. The course catalog describes the class as using films as texts in order to explore the social,historical and cultural contexts the films depict.

While spring 2016 is the first time Dr. Jani will be teaching a CTI at Jewell, Sarah Crosley, senior English and classics major and current student of Dr. Jani commented on the professor’s teaching format.

“She mixes lecture and discussion pretty well. Normally English classes at Jewell are primarily discussion based so it is interesting that her classes feature more lectures than usual,” said Crosley, “Dr. Jani definitely emphasizes classroom participation so if you’re looking for a class where you can sit back and be silent, this is not for you.”

Sacred and Secular

The classes offered this spring for Sacred and Secular are “Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” “Reading the Bible: Then and Now,” “Religion in the Modern Age,” “Magic, Science and Religion” and “Songs, Symbols and Services of Christian Worship.”

“Judaism, Christianity and Islam” is taught by Dr. Horne Tuesday and Thursday at 8:45 AM. The course catalog describes the course as offering a comparative overview of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in their comparative histories, varying theological and ethical centers and scriptures.

There are required readings, and three essays for each religion. However, if a student receives a 95% or above on an essay, he or she is not required to complete the remaining essays.

“The course offers a comparative overview of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in their comparative histories, varying theological and ethical centers and scriptures,” said Cole Allee, sophomore religion major. “I would recommend this class to anyone who studies or wishes to study something that involves any one of these three religions, because that subject is almost guaranteed to involve one or both of the other two.”

“Reading the Bible: Then and Now” is taught by Dr. Chance Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3:00 PM. The course catalog describes the class as exploring the reading of the Bible in the context of the history of Christianity. After surveying various ways of reading the Bible throughout Christian history, special attention is given to modern and postmodern modes of biblical interpretation.

“There are required readings and graded Moodle posts for every class,” said Brianna Steiert, sophomore Oxbridge Molecular Biology major.

Steiret recommends this course to second semester first-years or sophomores.

“The material was engaging, I learned a lot.” said Steiret, “It’d be beneficial if the student enjoys reading.”

Science Technology and Human Experience

The classes offered this spring for Science Technology and Human Experience are “Ethnobotany,” “Sustainability,” “Energy and Society” and “Astrobiology.”

“Ethnobotany” is taught by Dr. Shafer Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:30 PM with a lab on Thursday at 10:45 AM. The course catalog describes the class as studying the interactions between humans and plants, focusing on how plants are used every day by humans for food, medicine, recreation, housing, clothing, etc. This class explores the cultural, religious and historical importance of plants to humans as well as focusing on the study of plant biology.

“The class is more lecture-based. We had a few group projects where we had discussion time, but it was a lot of lecture note-taking, with small discussions throughout,” said Caroline Wells, senior non-profit leadership, Spanish and religion major. “The class had an interesting nonfiction book called “The Botany of Desire,” which focuses on a few specific plants and how they impact our lives today. I loved that book, the author told a lot of neat stories.”

“Astrobiology” is taught by Dr. Sheer Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:30 with a lab Thursday at 7:45. The course catalog describes the class as studying the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe. It uses interdisciplinary science at the intersection of biology, geology and astronomy to discover where and under what conditions life arises and exists in the universe.

“There was a little bit of both classroom discussion and lecture. There were a few in-class worksheets, and a few papers, but the workload is very manageable and interesting,” said Delaney Granger, senior psychology major. “We got to use the telescope, and many of the other labs were very interesting. Even if you’re not familiar with the content, Dr. Sheer would make it fun.”

Registration for the spring 2016 semester begins with seniors registering Nov. 3 at 10 PM and ends with first-years registering Nov. 11 at 10 PM.