Council Calls for Visual Arts Credit at SEAS

With the help of a new Engineering Student Council resolution, the curriculum of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences may be broadened to allow a bigger role for visual arts classes.

Last Monday, the ESC passed a resolution, authored by Jie Qi, SEAS ’10, Margaret Wang, SEAS ’10, and other council members, asking administrators to allow SEAS students to take visual arts classes for non-technical credit.

For engineering students, class credits are divided into two categories: technical and non-technical. Classes that count toward technical credit generally require a quantitative approach, while language and history are categorized as non-technical. Currently, SEAS students can enroll in certain courses that fall under neither heading, such as visual arts, but receive no credit.

Such a move, its proponents say, is important for an engineering school so closely tied to a larger university. “Columbia was very adamant about the fact that we can take liberal arts courses and other courses we’re interested in, and it would be a more liberal education than other engineering schools,” Wang said. “Not being able to take a major course in a field I’m interested in is kind of not staying true to that philosophy.”

Wang, a civil engineer, said she feels the classes for which she is lobbying are also important in daily SEAS life. “Design gives us a new outlook on how to approach problems and how to approach design-based issues so that we’re not constructing the same looking bridge over and over again,” she said. “Visual arts is all about composition, space. If we can use those ideas, it can apply to a lot of different things.”

In the past, Prish Dunstan, SEAS ’09 and ESC vice president of policy, said, courses were not automatically labelled technical or non-technical, so there was no earlier period of opposition to the characterization of visual arts classes. The idea simply had not been addressed.

The resolution lists peer institutions, such as Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University, that allow engineering students to take visual and performing arts courses for non-technical credit.

Last week, ESC distributed an online edition and paper copy of the petition asking for the support of SEAS students, with the intention of presenting it as evidence of student interest. According to Dunstan, more than 10 percent of SEAS students have shown their support.

Qi and Wang first approached 2010 class council vice president Lili Gu, SEAS ’10, separately in November, each hoping to address the issue. Gu then brought the matter to the council’s attention.

Although the initiative is still in its early stages, Dunstan and Sam Wilner, SEAS ’09 and ESC Academic Affairs representative, have met with Morton Friedman, vice dean of SEAS, to discuss the resolution. Friedman declined to comment officially because he had not yet received the formal petition, but Dunstan claims he expressed approval of the students’ approach. Gerald Navratil, dean of SEAS, has also expressed support for the students involved.

Currently, Dunstan and Wilner are arranging a meeting with the Center for Student Advising. After that, the proposal and petition may be passed on to the Committee of Non-Technical Electives, which was assembled in the past to handle similar issues. The proposal will then return to Friedman and the Committee on Instruction.

ivy.chen@columbiaspectator.com