UHC Newest Addition to CU History Department

The History Department recently announced the formation of the Undergraduate History Council (UHC) in an e-mail sent to its majors and concentrators.

The UHC, a group that will consist of three undergraduates, is designed to collect student input on whatever issues they feel need to be addressed.

The e-mail, which was sent out last Friday, states that the committee's members will be determined on Monday, Oct. 23 after a week of e-mail voting by history majors and concentrators.

The Undergraduate Education Committee (UNDED) is guiding the preliminary set-up of the council, though the UHC will function independently of other administrative bodies, according to Associate Professor and UNDED Chair Anders Stephanson.

"[The history department has] felt for some time that we have not done enough to involve our undergraduates in the affairs of the department," said Alan Brinkley, department chair and the Allan Nevins Professor of History.

Added Seth Kotch, CC '01: "Any department trying to better integrate students into the supply side of education is a positive step."

In Friday's e-mail, Stephanson said that "the principle of collective representation is right and proper" and expressed optimism that the UHC could help the History Department address undergraduate concerns that may not have been formally presented to anyone within the department.

"We're trying to solidify the major by making it more rigorous and institutionalized," Stephanson said.

Voting for the UHC will occur through e-mail by all Columbia College and General Studies majors and concentrators.

According to Friday's e-mail, any student who received Friday's e-mail is eligible to run for the Council.

Stephanson stressed the independence of the UHC from UNDED and other administrative aspects of the department.

There are no plans to have faculty members directly involved with the UHC's meetings or agenda.

"We will facilitate [the UHC] in any way we can," Stephanson said, adding that facilitating did not include directly overseeing or guiding UHC members.

"We represent the department; they will represent the students," he said.

Much of the detailed administrative work of setting up a body such as the UHC has not been done, as the choice has been made to wait until the council has actually been elected.

This means that those students interested in running do not really know what specific responsibilities they may have upon election.

"First we will have elections; afterwards, we will decide how to progress," Stephanson said.

In discussing possible UHC concerns, Stephanson mentioned a booklet that UNDED published last year called History at Columbia that he said was designed to inform those already studying history as well as prospective majors about the department, requirements, faculty, courses, and advising for the major.

He hopes that the UHC will take the time to help revise it for the next edition.

Stephanson further suggested that curriculum questions may be of top priority to the council but added that it truly depended upon who was elected and how they gathered information from other majors and concentrators.

"I don't want to preempt what [the UHC] might want to do," he said. "We hope that [the UHC] will be a mutually productive committee, whether they're concerned with departmental events, curricula, or requirements."

"It will be a structured conversation with students, with input from students, for the benefit of students. It may not be a rousing success at first, but over time it will be, and so we will stick to it institutionally," he said.

And professors and students remain optimistic about the UHC.

"It'll get people thinking about the history department," said Paul Munson, CC '01. "As always, more communication between students and faculty is a good thing."

Students interested in being on the committee have until Monday, Oct. 16 to announce their candidacy for the position.