Radicalizing the Liberal Arts: Race and Racism at Small Liberal Arts Colleges

Introduction to the "Radicalizing the Liberal Arts" minicluster.

Lemons Into Lemonade

In response to shifting demographics, financial strain, and an existential crisis about their value and place in the twenty-first century world, small liberal arts colleges are changing -- some choosing to close while others make drastic changes to curricular and programmatic offerings to demonstrate innovation and adaptation. This paper will present a case study of these tensions and responses through discussion of one college’s simultaneous commitment to Interfaith Engagement and discontinuance of the Religion Major and Minor. This reality crystalizes the tension and disconnect between the curricular and civic projects of interreligious studies and interfaith engagement. At the same time, this reality opens the door to a pragmatic solution that intentionally integrates these two in a manner that promises to provide both an effective response to a budget driven problem and a potential new paradigm for curricular and co-curricular integration and community-based learning for higher education as a whole.

Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) as a Rapid, Affordable and Effective Tool to Involve Students in Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate research (UR) is a high-impact practice (HIP) to engage undergraduate student in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), especially from underrepresented groups. UR experiences (UREs) can be integrated into the classroom, making authentic research experiences inclusive and available to all students. However, developing UR pedagogy can be challenging for faculty in resource-limited labs, such as community colleges and small liberal arts colleges. Often molecular biology research methods are expensive, time-consuming and need equipment not readily available or affordable in small schools. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most commonly used techniques in research labs and many UREs. We have investigated loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) as an inexpensive, accessible alternative to PCR for DNA amplification enabling the identification of microorganisms in the context of UREs. LAMP does not require expensive instrumentation or reagents and uses equipment commonly found in teaching labs. By performing the technique, students learn several key scientific skills that will be useful in their undergraduate or graduate STEM careers. We designed guided independent research experiences for several undergraduates that included the use of LAMP. Students successfully applied the technique to culture samples of common environmental bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus, and were in addition, able to detect both Salmonella and Enterococcus in directly sampled environmental waters. To highlight the accessibility and affordability of this URE, a simple boiling method was used for DNA preparation from environmental samples. Student response data show positive attitudes toward UR when LAMP is utilized as a research tool to tackle relevant biological questions. The feasibility of using simplified LAMP in UREs points to a potential, more expanded application to public engagement with science and broader and more inclusive interactions with the research community.

Open Science at Liberal Arts Colleges

Adopting and sustaining open science practices is accompanied by particular opportunities and challenges for faculty at small liberal arts colleges (SLACs). Their predominantly undergraduate student body, small size, limited resources, substantial teaching responsibilities, and focus on intensive faculty-student interactions make it difficult to normalize open science at SLACs. However, given the unique synergy between teaching and research at SLACs, many of these practices are well-suited for work with undergraduate psychology students. In addition, the opportunities for collaboration afforded by the open science community may be especially attractive for those doing research at SLACs. In this paper, we offer suggestions for how open science can further grow and flourish among faculty who work closely with undergraduates, both in classrooms and in labs. We also discuss how to encourage professional development and transform institutional culture around open science practices. Most importantly, this paper serves as an invitation to SLAC psychology faculty to participate in the open science community.

The Citadel of Home Rule

A vocal critic of commercialized athletics within the NCAA was small liberal arts colleges. The liberal arts athletic model, in contrast, believed that competitive athletics bred a distinctive masculinity tied to leadership and intellectual development. They decried the commercialized model that defined success by winning games and attracting a paying public, instead calling for athletics to be funded out of the regular college budget and providing opportunities for all interested male undergraduates. Their attempts to take advantage of the NCAA as a reform agency, however, frequently ran up against that organization’s “home rule” principle, which prohibited the organization from enacting any binding legislation. Additionally, the disinterest or inability of most NCAA schools to compete against the big-time programs led them to avoid or be excluded from the NCAA’s governance committees. Thus, though many liberal arts colleges belonged to the NCAA, they really played no role in it, watching with chagrin as it emerged as an organization in thrall to big-time athletics. In response, many smaller schools within the NCAA weighed the possible benefits of dividing the organization or leaving it entirely to found their own organization devoted to smaller colleges. The frustration with commercialized athletics reached their pinnacle with a series of academic, athletic, and gambling scandals in 1951.

Before March Madness

Before March Madness examines the power dynamics of mid-century college sports when their meaning in higher education was still uncertain, when their future in American culture was still undetermined, and when the ascendance, indeed the very survival, of the NCAA was not yet assured. The book identifies the institutional struggles of college athletics from the late 1930s to the late 1950s and the multiple stakeholders and varied interests contained therein, showing a complex, and often conflicting, view of both college sports and higher education. The NCAA’s insistence on defining college athletics solely within the big-time commercialized model opened itself to severe criticism from within the organization in the form of small liberal arts colleges, medium-size regional and state universities, and historically black colleges, as well as outside it with the creation of the NAIA. The organization, however, successfully used college basketball to both placate internal critics and stave off its external competitor. In doing so, the NCAA managed to create in the public’s mind a singular vision of college sports, often represented by college football, representing only the big-time commercialized model by creating a peace that was purchased through college basketball. The success of NCAA elites to co-opt, divide, and placate its insurgent critics mirrored the larger response of mid-twentieth-century political and economic elites in the face of unprecedented challenges resulting from the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, and opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Building an Evolutionary Studies Program at a Small Liberal Arts College

Since the very nature of an Evolutionary Studies program is interdisciplinary, it stands to reason that building such a program at any institution would entail the involvement of several disciplines across the curriculum. The fewer faculty members, course offerings, and resources at small liberal arts colleges can pose as obstacles in the development of such a program. However, by reaching out to the few faculty members teaching evolutionary studies, the first step of its development began. From there, both the involvement of other disciplines and a heightened student, faculty, and administrative awareness was needed. Instrumental components in building this program have included speaker events, student participation at evolutionary conferences and workshops, student involvement in research, and the development of new courses and a minor degree. This chapter discusses the successes and barriers in developing an interdisciplinary Evolutionary Studies program at a small liberal arts college.