Saint Ben's and Saint John's: "Why Should We Travel Together?"
by Dr. Stonley J. Idze,da
Art Saint John's University and the College of Saini Benedict going 5Omewhert' together? y~. Where are we going? Thill's not entirely clear; but, like a pair of pilgrims continuing along a new road, the two of us are going for· w,lrd with a sense of adventure, trepidation and hope.
The road we are traveling together has a number of sign posts: "Cooperation," "Coordination," "Co-Institutional;' "Co-Education." If you don't like the sound or flavor of one of those words, , hoose a couple of the others, just so long as you keep the prefix meaning "with" or " together."
Why should we travel together? Ten yurs of educational collaboution ~tween the two colleges has b« n motivated by a number o( opportunities and net'ds which vary with the times. Yet, one reason for our union of efforts remJins constant : we want to provide a richer, more diverse curriculum; we wish the setting for learning to ht-more varioo, and the learning e .. perience to bt' more fruitful. We want a wider range of facilities and resources and more numerous faculty ilvailable for each person in each college. In brief, the continued stress of our consortium has been the welfare, the growth, the development, or, if you wish, the deeper ooucation of each student in the separate colleges. If we succeoo in that, we have earnoo no small triumph.
Today's college ooucation is more demilnding than the past, but it sends graduates out into more demanding times. Therefore, if we offer the combined facultie'S and facilities of St. Ben's and 51. John's to every student in both schools, we can assume that the whole set of course offerings will at least be more richly patterned and widely ranging, and that the additional faculty bring wider CI(perience and different tr.:lining to the te.lching of students from both schools.
So, several years ago, we (01"1 eluded that we should have 31"1 Identical .Icademlc calendn (without it, how do you easily t'THoll students 01"1 the other campus?). As we joint'd in a common cillendu, we started a calendar neither school had followed eulier, th! 4-1-4 plan, where the young moln or WOrNn takes 4 courses in th! fall, onf in January and 4 in the spring.
The enrollment of men olnd women on the "other" campus each semester has grown. The buses between the two colleges arc packed. Last spring 800 students were ! nrolled in courses on the two campuses. The student response is good and the faculty seem convincoo that the uchange is good for the student.
Even While it is self evident tholt the students' educationoll opportunities are enhanced and made more vital owing to the cooperation between SJU and cse, we must grlnt that even the best int~nHnno>d r~r
