Journal Reflections in Student Learning: Morgan State FCS Students Share During the Pandemic

The following are journal reflections written by Morgan State University Family and Consumer Sciences-Fashion Merchandising students in 2020, during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we navigated through a semester that should have had students completing practicum credits, they instead wrote about recouping the time and identifying alternative endeavors that would still meet course objectives. <br/>Many emotions were shared through these journal entries—fear, discouragement, disappointment—but they weren't all negative emotions. Some included hope and perseverance. There was even a journal entry written on a successful costume designer (guest speaker) who challenged them to think of innovative ways to design for a post-COVID-19 apparel industry. The entries below, written during the spring semester—January 2020 thru May 2020—are in chronological order, listed by date. They were written by 13 different students.<br/> It is my hope that readers experience a level of empathy and acceptance for themselves after going through this pandemic. It has been an unprecedented year. Hopefully, you will be encouraged by the freedom of expression that is evident in the entries below.

Curriculum development in health and the built environment: creating a multidisciplinary platform to enhance knowledge and engagement

PurposeOur lived experiences are complex, dynamic and increasingly connected locally and globally through virtual realities that call for an evolution and responsiveness from the field of architecture education. To ensure future built environments are designed to nurture healing and health, this paper aims to address a critical need in architecture education to integrate knowledge of health and social-behavioral disciplines in students' course work. The authors will outline the process of preparing a new multidisciplinary course on health and the built environment (HBE) at the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA, as an effort to challenge the barriers of discipline-specific pathways to learning in the field of architecture.Design/methodology/approachThe central question is how to develop an active learning pedagogy to foster a multidisciplinary learning environment focused on the “practice” (how to) of human-design-oriented approaches to improve the capability of built and natural environments to promote health and healing. The course intentionally centered on the real-life experiences of students to ground their new understanding of health and well-being fields. The course proposal went through an extensive peer-review process of reviewers from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other departments at Morgan State University to ensure a balance between health- and architecture-specific curricula with a transdisciplinary approach to understanding complex health issues.FindingsThis paper shows the effectiveness of tools and techniques applied in the course to challenge architectural students to integrate various health and behavior perspectives in their designs and to apply health and healing principals to their current and future design projects.Originality/valueWhile there are courses in American universities that offer a traditional introduction to health concerns related to the built environment, there is limited focus on the perspective of the design field approach to improve health and healing outcomes.

Bike Station Suitability on University Campus Using Origin–Destination Matrix—A Morgan State University Case Study

In contemporary times, bike sharing programs are gaining importance as an influential transportation mode in both urban and rural areas. They are also used as a vital transportation mode on university campuses which serve as a healthy and environmentally-friendly transportation system. However, having an appropriate location for a bike station is important, so as to maximize the benefits of the service. This study used an origin–destination (O-D) matrix to identify appropriate bike station locations at the Morgan State University campus. The O-D matrix analysis identifies three locations Cumming Hall/University Health Center, Rawling Hall, and Center for Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies as the most appropriate locations to start a pilot, which will serve most of the campus (students, faculty, staff) and connect them to the maximum number of facilities at Morgan State University. The O-D matrix takes into account the occupancy or population of individual buildings based on enrollment over the past four years, the distance to the center of the campus where maximum facilities including the graduate and undergraduate offices are located, and the frequency of the university shuttle connecting most of the buildings. This methodology can be replicated and used on other university campuses and will help further bike sharing programs.

A Partnership Model to Improve Retention, Increase Degree Completion, and Reduce Achievement Gaps

Funded by Lumina Foundation, the HBCU Student Success Project is a collaboration among three HBCUs – Dillard University, Howard University, and Morgan State University to implement empirically based retention strategies to increase first- and second-year retention and degree completion rates and to reduce degree attainment gaps between targeted groups on their campuses. This chapter chronicles the processes used by Lumina and the participating institutions to develop and implement a project that would result in the identification of evidence-based strategies and a model for creating and sustaining effective student success partnerships among postsecondary institutions, particularly HBCUs.

Universal Method, Local Design: The JUST CITY Studio at Morgan State University

In May 2017, the AIA honored Paul R. Williams with a Gold Medal. At the ceremony, his granddaughter advocated for an architectural education that is more just throughout ethnicity and genders, a call that was stated fourteen years earlier by Melvin Mitchell when he noted that “black America is entering the twenty-first century with a shortage of […] black […] architects.” Unfortunately, Mitchell’s question of “what those […] missing black architects must do toward the furtherance of the cultural and socio-economic agenda of today’s Black America” has still to be fully answered. Though African Americans made up 13 percent of the total U.S. population, only 2 percent of licensed architects in the U.S. are African American. In 2007, African-American women made up a scant two-tenths of a percent of licensed architects in the U.S., for just 196 practitioners. It is important that “[black] schools … be at the forefront of establishing the theoretical as well as practical rapprochement between black architects and the Black America they were spawned from […]” The time to assess of the educational development in black schools has arrived. In Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, education is a form of empowerment that liberates minorities from a standardized system of knowledge. The educator has to tailor the teaching experience through a deep understanding of the students. With this approach the educator can learn about the context the students live in, helping them visualize individual problems, advocating for their awareness and willingness to take a professional, creative and social stand. This approach is founded on the idea that real education implies a not hierarchical, horizontal relationship between the teacher and students, one that does not pour knowledge from teacher to students. As Freire says, “the teacher is no longer the one who teaches, but one who is taught in dialogue with students […]. They become responsible for a process in which [everyone] grow.” Developing Freire’s argument, we propose a relationship teacher – students that is circulation of knowledge between the teacher and the students, but also fellow students and communities. Education is carried on globally to prepare the learners to a reality that goes beyond their immediate surrounding. Following Freire’s pedagogical principles, schools of architecture need to focus on a different approach to education, one that leads to their enfranchisement. Education should reconnect these individuals to the environment they live in while, at the same time, give them the opportunity to move beyond the expected path of architectural education. The paper presents three sections, each with a theoretical description that frames the pedagogical approach and the critical analysis of the studio. The conclusion lays down the final outcomes and the further development of the research.