Farmhouse to classroom
Has Bethel University’s January interim strayed from its original intent?
By Beret Leone| Royal Report
It’s 2 a.m. in the frigidly dead January winter of Minnesota. A student awakes — with the dire need to use the bathroom. It may be 1981 but Bethel University students in professor Roy “Doc” Dalton’s Depression House are taking it back to the 1930s, where there isn’t running water or yep, you guessed it, electricity. The course was called Depression House, and it was appropriately named.
For the entirety of the course, students in the class spent their January interim living in a farmhouse 12 miles from Pillager, Minnesota, a two-hour drive from Bethel. The house had no running water and an old-fashioned kitchen with a woodstove. In efforts to bring the deprivation of the ’30s alive for students, professor Dalton, head chair of the history department in ’81, had students hand wash clothing, eat beans for majority of their meals and at times, spend a week without washing their hair.
The original philosophy of the January Term, or “J-term,” was to provide students with experimental opportunities to go outside their major. Interim was meant to better round students and their experiences with a liberal arts education. Classes like the Depression House did just that.
Now, J-term provides easy and fulfilling study abroad options and allows students with tight majors (such as nursing) to go abroad without putting their graduation date in jeopardy. Many students even have the opportunity to graduate early thanks to interim.
“It was the perfect amount of time to be off campus,” senior political science major Ian Engstrom said. “I love being at Bethel, so I didn’t want to miss out on hanging with friends here. But I still wanted to go abroad, so interim was the perfect amount of time.”
In the past 20 years however, Bethel has received pressure from undergraduates to offer classes that students need in order to graduate over interim. Experimental and avant-garde courses that would broaden and foster interest in other areas have been replaced with general education classes.
“People have a harder time doing things as elective — I’m going to do this for the heck of it.” -Barrett Fisher, Dean of Arts and Humanities
Like many college go-ers in today’s society, Bethel students live in a vocational culture. They come with one purpose in mind: to find a major that will lead to a job. No need or want for expansion apart from that.
“People have a harder time doing things as elective — I’m going to do this for the heck of it. I think the idea was that January was originally a place to do that. Just to take something different, fun and not necessarily worry about how it counted, just an elective,” Dean of Arts and Humanities Barrett Fisher said. “But now I think you see it being very much general-education orientated and department-requirement orientated.”
As opposed to 1981, where students were literally reliving history “for the heck of it,” current students would rather choose to take a required course for graduation over an exploratory course. Other students don’t even have the option to choose. Several departments at Bethel, such as communication and graphic design, only offer specific required courses to be taken over J-term, leaving students with no alternative.
In an online student survey of 98 BU students, 39.80 percent of students agreed that J-term fulfills its original intent of an exploratory course. Yet, only 14.58 percent are actually taking an exploratory class. Exploratory or not, Bethel requires students to take a class three out of their four interims. Jan. 6, 2016 is the last day for Bethel students to add/drop an interim course.
Professor of psychology Kathy Nevins has been teaching at Bethel since 1984. Nevins has observed the evolution of interim over the past 30 years.
“I want students to have experiences that will stretch them. Not break them, but stretch them,” Nevins said. “I think college should be transformable, not just reinforcing the status quo.”
Bethel Student Opinion Polls
Breakdown of results:
The original philosophy of J-term was for students to take exploratory classes that allow students to receive a more well rounded liberal arts education. Do you still believe that J-term fulfills its original philosophy?
Yes: 39.80 percent
No: 60.20 percent
For this coming J-Term, are you taking an exploratory elective or a Gen Ed/required course for your major?
Exploratory: 14.58 percent
Gen. Ed./Required: 85.42 percent
What are your thoughts on that 3 of the 4 interims at Bethel are required?
Enjoy the community and fun over interim: 32.65 percent
Wish it was optional so I had a longer break: 31.63 percent
Love that interim makes it easy to travel abroad: 18.37 percent
Taking courses over interim allows me to graduate early: 6.12 percent
Wish all four years were required for broom ball purposes: 4.08 percent
Indifferent toward interim: 7.14 percent
Would you prefer an optional May-term over a required J-term?
Yes: 36.73 percent
No: 63.27 percent
Other Information
Jan. 6, 2016 is the last day for Bethel students to add/drop an interim course.
Link to interim abroad opportunities: http://cas.bethel.edu/off-campus-programs/international-studies/programs/interim/
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