A Covenant between Faculty and Undergraduates
In the 2015–2016 academic year, Bret Weinstein and I co-taught a year-long, full-time, upper-division science program at The Evergreen State College, which contained, in the middle of it, an 11 week study abroad trip to Ecuador. I have already posted about some of my philosophy of and approach to higher ed, a summary of my approach to study abroad, and also about the boat accident that nearly killed me and some of our students in Galápagos at the end of that study abroad trip. In early August, 2020, we were asked by a fellow academic if we would post one of the covenants that we produced for our programs. Covenants were required in all programs at Evergreen, between faculty and students, to establish the responsibilities that each had to the other. Most of them were flat and bureaucratic, though, seeming to prepare the students for a world and life of coggish interactions. Our covenants were always a bit different, and by the Fall of 2015, we were handing this document to our 50 students as we began our first quarter together. Here it is, in its entirety, unedited from when we handed it to our students on September 28, 2015.
Evolution and Ecology Across Latitudes: Covenant
This covenant is not an End User License Agreement (EULA). EULAs are designed to limit your rights without your notice, while leaving your behavior unchanged. They are…
