By the time adjunct lecturer Maggie Lippens cut off the
debate on a recent Monday night, her political science
students had been bouncing questions and observations around
the room for more than an hour. On this night, it was a
stirring discussion of U.S. foreign policy, presented in
a less-seen historical context by professors Richard Stahler-Sholk
and Judy Kullberg, with perspective added by a student
from Jordan and three who'd served in Iraq.
Thorny questions. Intense debate. Mmmmm, mmmm, good learnin'.
 |
CLASS DEBATE: Students in Maggie Lippens'
American Government PLS 112 class discuss points
about the upcoming election Nov. 4. Photo
by Anthony Gattine |
"I think it's important for students to use their critical
thinking skills," Stahler-Sholk said. "It's great when
people disagree. The goal is not for everyone to come to
the same conclusion."
Lippens has taught this American government class, PLS
112, dozens of times. But never quite like this.
The Oct. 6 Monday night PLS 112 class is a special election-year
edition, with events like the foreign policy panel discussion
open not only to anyone at EMU, but to the public at large.
Faculty are encouraged to give extra credit; students who
attend also can claim Learning Beyond the Classroom credit.
And community members who drop in can enjoy all the benefits
of becoming better-educated voters — without worrying
about tuition or grades.
"My thought was to have each of our faculty speak
to a topic near and dear to his or her heart: their speciality
in most cases," said political science professor Elaine
Martin who, along with department head Claudia Petrescu,
worked to morph this section of PLS 112 into something
different. "It's a chance for faculty to step out of their
normal role as professors, where they have to be a little
more neutral. This is a chance to sort of go out on their
own so, in a sense, you get a more realistic sense of where
they are, politically speaking."
Rather than the same old lectures, 10 senior faculty volunteered
to present a series of panel discussions that
include "Campaigns and Elections," "The Future of American
Foreign Policy," and a Nov. 10 post-election session entitled, "What
Just Happened?," that looks at the election's implications
on the gender gap, the Supreme Court and immigration. Like
other regular class sessions, it takes place in
room 102, Mark Jefferson.
The class also includes some special election year events:
EMU's Student Democrats and Student Republicans will debate
the issues Oct. 20 in the Student Center Auditorium.
On Oct. 27, political science faculty will play the roles
of the candidates in a mock debate. And all are invited
to Frenchie's in Depot Town Nov. 4 for the political science
department's traditional election watch party. All classes
start at 7 p.m.
"I think young people, overall, are more engaged (in this
election), and I think they're engaged because of Obama," Martin
said. "I hope they will defy the past and actually vote
because we know that 18-25-year-olds have the lowest voting
turnout. I think that's something the Democrats have really
been working on, getting them registered."
Lippens said the class is getting great participation,
too. Discussion gets pretty animated, and she's had a request
for another panel on foreign policy. That came, in part,
because two panelists — Middle East expert Sabki
Hisham and international law specialist James Pfister — called
in sick for the Oct. 6 class. After class, a military member
of the class complained that the panels should be more
politcally balanced, something Martin said probably would
have been the case if Hisham
and Pfister had been there. Adding another panel, she said,
would depend on the schedules of volunteers. Nonetheless,
students said the format's been interesting. Most welcome
the different spin on a three-hour Monday night class.
Both Kullberg and Stahler-Sholk said that the striking
thing about this election is what's not being discussed.
The panels and mock debate give EMU faculty a chance to
raise questions the candidates heven't been addressing.
"As scholars, we have a responsitbility to share
the results of our research with the communty," said Kullberg. "I
can tell you our classes usually aren't like this. This
is more like what you'd see at a public roundtable. Students
don't usually get to see that."
For more information, contact Claudia Petrescu at cpetrescu@emich.edu go to http://www.emich.edu/polisci/
