No Bard by the Bay
Cal State Monterey Bay stresses a "multicultural, global and multilingual" curriculum

By Carl Irving
FORT ORD (MONTEREY COUNTY) - Administrators and faculty members at California State University, Monterey Bay, have bypassed traditional academic programs to create a curriculum which they believe will prepare students for an increasingly multi-racial, internationally involved, high-tech California.

Now halfway through its second academic year, this campus pays far less attention than most to a review of the 220-year history of the United States, and the early settlers' white, male-dominated, European cultural heritage.

Instead of traditional humanities and social sciences, coursework concentrates on what the campus academic plan calls a "multicultural, global and multilingual" perspective. Emphasis, according to the plan, is on "those from which traditionally underrepresented populations evolve."

"All campuses have some focus on multi-culturalism, but the vision of this university is one of primary focus on the given demographics of California,'' said Harold M. Murai, an educational psychologist who helps direct the collaborative education and professional studies center.

Instead of traditional academic departments, Cal State Monterey Bay has four interdisciplinary centers-Murai's and three others: arts, human communication and creative technologies; social and behavioral sciences; and science, technology and information resources. Classrooms, books, electronics and work-study projects have been mixed in unique ways that President Peter Smith said will take four to five years to evolve into effective, ongoing programs.

Smith, former education dean at George Washington University and a Vermont congressman before that, has developed "proseminar" studies to introduce students to the novel programs, and has approved 15 graduation requirements that he says will measure student achievement better than grades or course units.

Degrees will not be granted, according to Smith, unless students have mastered arts communication, community participation, culture, English communications, equity, ethics, history, information, language, literature, mathematics communication, media, science, technology and "vibrant." This last requirement is defined as "understanding of the interrelationship between intellectual, psychological, spiritual, aesthetic and physical health as it applies to one's own life."

All students must spend at least four hours a week on semester-long community projects. These have included working with children of Mexican American farm workers in the nearby Salinas Valley and helping children from low-income, single-parent families with homework and counseling.

Computers are required for everything from writing papers to staying in touch with faculty members, who, individually and collectively, custom design majors agreeable to the students. Enthusiastic students interviewed for this article said that they spend more than half their scheduled time doing community service or other projects outside the classroom.

Confidence abounds that the campus has able and willing faculty moving along an innovative path. "We have a stunning blend of scholarly talent,'' said Jusina Makau, the ebullient dean of the arts, human communication and creative technologies center, who taught at Ohio State for 16 years before coming here. "Many people (faculty members) who would ordinarily go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT find their way here because we're so outstanding in education," she said.

The setting is appropriate for a pioneering campus. It lies at the very heart of Fort Ord, which was one of the army's largest training bases before the end of the Cold War. Rows of abandoned wooden barracks and other buildings, some with large, fading regimental logos, surround the compact heart of the campus, which is housed in refurbished military structures that have been freshly painted in bright, cheerful colors.

Makau and her colleagues find this foggy, windy setting near the Pacific to be a haven from the stultifying, traditional academic groves. But those seeking radically new directions in higher education in America almost invariably must defend themselves against criticism, and this campus is no exception.

Even before questions were raised about the curriculum, the campus was controversial. Critics said the population in the three-county area around Fort Ord was not large enough to support a Cal State campus and that new campuses should be located near urban centers, where growing clusters of moderate- to low-income families are concentrated. They pointed to the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, which sought to prevent the haphazard siting of new campuses.

"I wasn't here when those decisions (about the campus) were made," Smith said. "My own view is that in an elected and representative democracy, when the Legislature, the governor, the major boards involved-both the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) and the Cal State Trustees-all agreed that something is in the best interests of the state, that is a de facto sort of staying with the master plan. It would be almost Soviet style to interpret the plan as having a larger reality than the decision-makers appointed to make policy."

In any case, the opportunity proved to be irresistible-taking over, without charge, 1,350 acres on a 28,000-acre base, as well as hundreds of units of former Army housing. To date, the federal government has contributed $49 million to convert former military buildings into a college campus.

By the year 2015, according to Richard E. Hendrickson, vice president for administration, Cal State Monterey Bay hopes to have room for 12,500 students, with enough apartment and dormitory space for 4,000 of them. Early plans called for enrollment to reach 25,000 by early in the next century, but a water shortage has cut that number in half.

The first students arrived in September 1995, only four years after the decision to close the base, and less than a year after Governor Pete Wilson signed legislation authorizing state support for the campus.

"The conversion of Fort Ord to a university campus may not reflect all the features of the Oklahoma land rush, but few could insist that the decisions were shaped by an authentic list of educational priorities,'' higher education consultant William Chance points out in a forthcoming paper to be published by the California Higher Education Policy Center, which also publishes CrossTalk.

And why not? ask Smith and sympathizers. "It was a bird in hand,'' noted Alexander Astin of UCLA, a prominent commentator on public higher education in America. "It would have been dumb not to accept the land and its accompanying subsidies."

Smith said the Cal State system, in effect, obtained a $900 million campus for $150 to $200 million in construction costs, to serve tens of thousands of students. "Is that a good investment for California, with Tidal Wave II coming?" he asked, rhetorically.

Hendrickson said the conversion of Fort Ord has become a national model for other regions despairing about what to do with huge deserted military bases. It all became possible because of considerable influence wielded by former Monterey Peninsula Congressman and House Budget Committee Chairman Leon Panetta, who subsequently became White House chief of staff.

Panetta had many allies in the region who passionately desired to make up for the loss of an estimated $700 million in annual revenues generated by some 35,000 soldiers and civilians, before the site decayed into a deserted wasteland, or worse.

About 1,250 students currently are enrolled at the campus, twice last year's total. Because enrollment is small, and will be for several years, operating costs are high, as they are at other small Cal State campuses like Bakersfield, Humboldt and Stanislaus. Cost per full-time student was $12,316 at Monterey Bay last year, while it was only $5,837 at the 21,500-student San Diego State campus.

Smith said one expectation already has been reversed: Instead of two commuters to every student in residence, it is the other way around.

So far, federal funds have paid for 90 percent of the cost of converting from a military base to a college campus. Plans call for 41 campus buildings, including a splendid former non-commissioned officers club with sweeping views of Monterey Bay, to include an elegant ballroom for festivities and ceremonies, a student union, dining and other social space, plus a number of shops. Other structures will be refurbished to provide a spacious theater and a concert hall.

Students already make use of numerous tennis courts and grassy fields, including a soccer or football stadium. Federal funding also helped to pay for landscaping that thrives despite fog and wind, and helps anchor the mounds of sand and dust that reddened the eyes of generations of Army recruits undergoing basic training.

Students who choose this campus enjoy the coastal setting, even though large areas, including miles of nearby beach, remain out of bounds pending cleanup of toxic wastes, shells and ammunition left from decades of military practice.

Freshmen tend to come from affluent coastal areas, nearly half of them from Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Irvine and Huntington Beach, according to Alethea de Soto, campus director of outreach programs.

President Smith said it is too early to assess student quality. Ultimately, he said, that will be measured by "their capacities for achievements" at graduation time, compared to when they had first enrolled, not by testing for intelligence, or by adding up grades or courses. Jobs, travel and experience in the community will be decisive, because "there's no doubt in my mind that active learning is better than passive learning unless you are studying to be a scholar," he said.

Transfer students come mostly from the four nearest community colleges. Beatrice Gonzales-Ramirez, a 34-year-old senior from Hollister, in San Benito County, is one of these. Like others interviewed here, she is enthusiastic about her studies in human communications, which she says require extensive reading about non-Europeans who immigrated to the United States.

"This allowed me a perspective I'd never heard or seen before," noted Gonzales-Ramirez, who, though a fifth-generation American, said she had been limited, before coming to the campus, to a "Mexican American" perspective. She has been inspired to pursue a master's degree and become a teacher, to help "broaden the definition of an American." Still, she volunteered, "I would have liked to read some Shakespeare."

Faculty members and administrators as well as students confirmed that Shakespeare's writings were not to be found in the Cal State Monterey Bay curriculum last fall. A visitor to the campus book shop found no literature by British or European American writers. There were works by African American, Asian American, and Latino or Mexican American writers, and collections of Native American legends.

The course covering American literature last fall was titled "American ethnic literature and cultures," and the catalogue describes it as designed "to develop students' abilities to compare and contrast world views and philosophical perspectives reflected in literature." The instructor, Qun Wang, said readings included novels by African American, Asian American and Latino authors, a "Jewish American" writer (Bernard Malamud), and poetry by Emily Dickinson, a 19th century European American poet.

When asked about the absence of British writers, since American literature had evolved from across the Atlantic, Wang responded that such material belonged in courses that dealt with foreign readings. "American culture is very different," he said. "We liberated ourselves in 1776. American people are from different cultures and should get rid of bad habits."

Two experienced academics familiar with the campus (but not affiliated with it), interviewed for this article, expressed unhappiness about the lack of European American or European authors in the reading lists. Neither was willing to be identified, observing that if they were named, jobs and relationships could be imperiled.

Both were concerned about shutting out readings and perspectives that would provide a more complete understanding of America. Without that, they pointed out, graduates can not expect to contribute to, or flourish, in a democratic, multi-cultural and technologically proficient society. Ignoring the past won't make it disappear.

One of the critics said he encountered stubborn resistance when he sought to persuade faculty members to assign readings of Greek literature and philosophy, or even early American writers. "I love ethnic writers,'' he said. "But you can't build a curriculum around Toni Morrison. You need a core structure, a library and assignments to read Herman Melville and Mark Twain and Scott Fitzgerald."

A key segment of the academic plan says that "the curriculum being developed at CSUMB is multicultural, global and multilingual...Curriculum planning takes the following direction: (a) focus on one's own sense of culture and experiences with local cultures of color; (b) learn about American cultural heritage (with emphasis on what those of a culture write and say about themselves); (c) learn about newly arriving cultures; and (d) develop a global perspective, linking U.S. cultures with the world. It is important to understand that the cultures of focus discussed here are those from which traditionally underrepresented populations evolve."

When asked for comment about the lack of reference to American cultural and historic roots, faculty members said that students already had learned about basic and traditional American government, history and literature in high school or at a community college. In any case, they said, students will be required to demonstrate they possess such knowledge before they are allowed to graduate.

Campus officials said that Cal State Monterey Bay is in close touch, through outreach programs, with local high schools, and that underprivileged local residents, such as Mexican Americans, welcome the multi-cultural approach offered on the campus.

But Edward Gould, president of the nearby public Monterey Peninsula College, said, "We are waiting for them to settle their curriculum." His campus and the three other local community colleges-in Salinas, Gilroy and Aptos-need to make sure their traditional lower-division (freshman and sophomore) classes match the exotic Monterey Bay graduation requirements.

"We respect what they're trying to do," Gould said. "It will be outstanding when all that settles down, [but] we need traditional things which have helped build up our county."

However, Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz praised the campus for "challenging fundamental assumptions about how we teach and learn." Like other Cal State campuses, he said, Monterey Bay is neither a regional nor a geographical issue but, instead, is part of "bringing education to the state."

The campus operated without an academic plan for its first year. When one finally was submitted to CPEC, it was approved within 30 days-half the time customarily allotted for such a review.

In a laudatory letter, Penny Edgert, assistant director for academic programs and policy, notified the campus of a CPEC staff consensus that "this document demonstrates a comprehensive, thorough and thoughtful approach to academic planning that reflects both the visionary nature of the campus and the realities of implementing that vision."

The campus has been slow to secure agreements for exchange of faculty, students and facilities or to share courses with several nearby centers offering higher education studies. These include the Defense Language Institute; the Naval Postgraduate School; the Monterey Institute of International Studies; the state-wide Cal State marine biology research station at Moss Landing a short distance north of the campus; and the University of California at Santa Cruz, 30 miles away. But Smith and other campus officials insist that more cooperation with all these institutions is under active discussion or will be in the near future.

For example, oceanographer William D. Head said ties with Moss Landing await more planning with fellow faculty members on how to do more meaningful research by mingling traditional academic disciplines. "We are trying to put it all in a systems concept, with students not only exposed to the rigors of science but also policy analysis and economics, plus writing skills," Head said.

Other faculty members echo Head's frequent use of words such as "multiple" or "collaborative" disciplines and studies when describing their programs. "We're integrating humanities,'' says Cecilia O'Leary, who teaches "Introduction to Multicultural History of the United States." O'Leary, who joined the faculty last fall after working as a national history curator at the Smithsonian Institution, said she's "teaching history according to the movies,'' backed by library research, because that is "a powerful way to reach students where they're at, and build on that."

O'Leary said her students "have to become their own historians" by going beyond professional historians' accounts to oral histories and government reports. She said the emphasis is on diversity, because "We're teaching while trying to create a new paradigm...integrating the humanities, what used to be literature, history, philosophy and ethnic studies."

The chairman of the new Academic Senate, Richard Harris, said the campus seeks to create "a seamless web of education," and contends that another five years will produce solid evidence that graduates have acquired skills leading to good jobs.

Tom Anderson, who headed the business studies unit last year, and then quit, disagrees about the job prospects, given the present training. Anderson said his efforts to establish courses focused on international trade, with the aid of faculty experts at the nearby schools, floundered for lack of support. Other faculty members, he said, were bored by that kind of pragmatic training, and refused to fund it. Anderson was denied tenure.

Anderson, an expert on marketing theory, has returned to teaching at Cal State San Marcos. He characterized the focus at the Monterey Bay campus as "Let's all hold hands and feel good about ourselves, without any reality that it's a tough world without preparation for jobs. It's eclectic and eccentric, but the real story is not Monterey Bay or 'Ship of Fools.' It's, 'Where has all the money gone and why can't my kid get a job?'"

President Smith conceded that Cal State Monterey Bay is not for everyone and that a few students have dropped out. The campus had "normal" enrollment drop-off after the first academic year, according to spokeswoman Holly White. Of the nearly 800 students enrolled last spring who had not completed their degree work, 20 to 25 percent failed to return in the fall, which White said parallels the statewide average at Cal State's 22 campuses.

Smith predicted that the campus will produce what businessmen seek: "reflective self starters, able workers who can produce as team members, able to write, speak and compute with technical proficiency...This is the oldest source of the academy-teaching of disciplines to create kinds of citizens to go out to be responsive to the needs of society. Here we say history is mixed with literature mixed with area studies, performing arts, graphic animation, theater, video. Give people knowledge in each, and across, these areas."

Students interviewed for this article supported Smith's outlook. Jeff Allums, 26, a senior from Pacific Grove, commented that "studies at traditional colleges are very boring. I'm more attuned to go to class here because I want to. Professors are very open minded. They're experimenting and we benefit."

Local Democratic Congressman Sam Farr said he has become a fan of the campus. Farr was quoted in an October 1993 CPEC report as being worried that the Monterey campus would resemble UC Santa Cruz, because "so many people in Santa Cruz do not believe that the UC campus is meaningful to their lives."

But in an interview, Farr praised Cal State Monterey Bay partly because it recruited students from poor families in the area, and partly because of its emphasis on community service: Cal State students were "all around the community, involved in projects," he said.

Problems, almost inevitable because of the short time available for starting up, have been evident at the campus: reshuffling administrators, trying to create a curriculum without the luxury of more time for pre-enrollment planning, and trying to determine how to translate campus scores so students can be accepted elsewhere for graduate studies.

Last fall, Smith hired B. Dell Felder, an experienced administrator, as vice president for academic affairs. An old friend and colleague of Cal State Chancellor Munitz, and the former senior vice chancellor at the University of Houston, Felder was described by a Cal State official as someone "pragmatic, who can both capture the spirit (of the new academic directions at Monterey) and bring it home." When asked about the curriculum, the newly arrived Felder said, "I think probably we are on the right page."

"This is a work in progress," conceded Smith. "It's like oil and water vis a vis traditional academics. The first four or five years will be uneven."