Thurgood Marshall College

Thurgood Marshall College
University UC San Diego
Motto Developing the Scholar and the Citizen
Established 1970 (Third)
Status Undergraduate, Liberal Arts
Provost Allan Havis
Deans
Interim Dean of Student Affairs
Stephanie Muldrow
Dean of Academic Advising
Clare Harrington
Director of Residential Life
eeman agrama-minert
Director of Dimensions of Culture Program
Dr. Jorge Mariscal
Assistant Director of Dimensions of Culture Program
Dr. Jeff Gagnon
Residents 3,937 [1] (15.9% of UCSD undergraduate population)
Core course Dimensions of Culture (DOC)

Coordinates: 32°52′57″N 117°14′30″W / 32.882575°N 117.241605°W / 32.882575; -117.241605

Thurgood Marshall College (TMC) is one of the six undergraduate colleges at the University of California, San Diego. The college, named after Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and lawyer for the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, emphasizes "scholarship, social responsibility and the belief that a liberal arts education must include an understanding of [one's] role in society." Marshall College's general education requirements emphasize this culture of community involvement and multiculturalism; accordingly Marshall houses the minors in Public Service and Film Studies for the campus. Significant academic programs and departments have come out of the college over many decades: Communication, Ethnic Studies, Third World Studies, African American Studies, Urban Studies & Planning, and Education Studies.

Founded as Third College in 1970 amid the student activism of the period, TMC's original aim was to help students understand their own community through a critical examination of diversity and community in the United States. Marshall College's required writing program is called Dimensions of Culture (DOC), and is a 3 quarter (1 year) sequence that explores race, identity, imagination, tradition, and the law in the United States. For the last three years in a row, the White House has honored UC San Diego and Marshall College’s Public Service minor and charter school outreach as exemplary community service institutions serving the United States.[2]

Early history

In November, 1965, the College III Preliminary Planning Committee released the first substantial report on what form UCSD's third college would take. The committee, comprising faculty members George Backus, Henry Booker, Gabriel Jackson, C.D. Keeling, and committee chair Andrew Wright, suggested that College III should focus itself on history and theory.

The Wright Committee report suggested that the college have a muse—namely Clio, the Greek muse of history. History was chosen by the committee because it mixed humanism with science—College III would be a sort of "common ground" between the science of Revelle and the humanities of Muir.

In a quiet act of rebelliousness (or perhaps it was just individuality), the committee planned that College III students would only have to take three courses per quarter to graduate in four years, as opposed to the four it took at the other UCSD colleges. Citing the three-course "full load" at UC Santa Cruz, the committee suggested that taking four courses in one quarter would "make the students ride off in all directions," and that three-in depth courses would be preferable.

The final note of the Wright Committee report described what the committee felt was needed in a College III Provost: "a paragon of intellectual vitality, scholarly accomplishment, and administrative talent... sympathetic with the aims of College III, but independent enough... to be able to shape the College in important ways." They asked that a provost be appointed as soon as possible.

By 1967, College III had found its first provost: Armin Rappaport, a history professor at U.C. Berkeley. It was appropriate that the provost of a college with Clio as its muse would be a historian, and Rappaport was that. By the time May rolled around, College III was now "Third College."

However, with the swirling political changes of the late 1960s, the college of Clio and Rappaport was never to be. Once the controversy and battles among students, faculty, and administration commenced—featuring lively figures such as Herbert Schiller, Herbert Marcuse, and Angela Davis—the future of Third College would be in a turmoil that didn't fully clear until it finally received its official name, Thurgood Marshall College, in 1993.

Student activism

Naming controversy

Student Activists from Third College

At its inception, students pushed for the new college to be named "Lumumba-Zapata College" in honor of the legendary twentieth century revolutionaries Patrice Lumumba and Emiliano Zapata. Unable to get approval for this name from UC Administration, the college was remained Third College. This name did also inspire the idea that the student body would be one-third white students, one-third black students, and one-third definable minority students. Third College took up much of the activism that the campus was lacking, and the naming controversy was a catalyst for this movement. However, UCSD failed to attract enough black students for this plan to reach fruition and the UC Regents would not allow large scale deviation from the University of California’s admission guidelines.[3]

In the early 1990s, an attempt was made to name the college after Martin Luther King, but failed when UCSD students objected to naming the college after someone who was charged with plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation. More to the point, King's family announced that they would rather see a full-fledged King College built in the South, and preferable in Atlanta.

In 1993 UCSD's Third College finally received its official name in honor of the famous lawyer and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.[4] Before becoming the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Marshall argued the 1954 landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education. Justice Marshall was widely known and recognized for his historic contributions to American life and dedication to breaking down barriers to education, civil rights, freedom of speech, women’s rights, and the right to privacy.[5] Today Thurgood Marshall College continues to honor the legacy of its namesake by promoting a curriculum and environment that empowers students to become both scholars and citizens.

DOC controversy

In the early 1990s, Thurgood Marshall College created a core freshman writing program that provided a critical examination of identity and diversity in American culture. The intellectual program was inspired by University of Chicago and Columbia University's freshman humanities programs. The program, Dimensions of Culture (DOC), periodically generated heated debates among students, families, and alumni, based on difficult political issues.

In the spring of 2007, a new curriculum controversy arose pertaining to DOC as students at TMC began protesting against the administrators of the college. The Lumumba-Zapata Coalition (which had resurfaced with the addition of graduate students) along with other students claimed that DOC had lost some of its original messages, protesting against what they termed a "new and diluted" core writing requirement with a decreased focus on race and the ethnic significance of the individual within society. The protests, including picketing, began with the controversial non-renewal of two DOC Teaching Assistants’ contracts for the subsequent year. Others believed that the coalition was pushing an agenda of political indoctrination that conflicted with the academic goals of the Dimensions of Culture Program and the sensibility of a science oriented campus.

The protests had mixed effects. In response to the complaints in regards to the curriculum a new committee was set up to review and change the curriculum accordingly with an emphasis on hiring tenured faculty to teach DOC. Student positions with voting rights were included on the permanent committee so an equitable curriculum will be created reflecting full community input from both students and faculty. Thurgood Marshall College Student Council (TMCSC)[6] issued a report recommending that DOC have an upper division course which also sparked the public service course.[7] In August 2009, Co-Director of the DOC Program, Robert Horwitz stated, "Various criticisms were leveled at DOC in the last few years, and faculty and student investigations concluded that changes needed to be made. Those changes have been implemented and have resulted in a new DOC.” [8]

College programs

Minors

Peterson Hall, one of Marshall's lecture halls

Thurgood Marshall College has created more academic departments and programs than any other college at UCSD, including Third World Studies, Ethnic Studies, Education Studies, African American Studies Minor, and Urban Studies and Planning. TMC is now home to two UCSD Minors: the Public Service Minor and the Film Studies Minor.

The Public Service Minor encourages students to understand the history and practices of public service and to work towards the development of civic skills. Those skills and practices are essential cornerstones of participation in a democratic society regardless of one’s chosen profession. The course work for the minor emphasizes the history and emergence of the non-profit sector as a national institution distinct from the private and public spheres. The practicum aspects of the minor couples with the traditional academic work encourages students to see the connection between the deeds of charitable service and the historic worth of citizens participation in the common public franchise.[9]

The Film Studies Minor provides students an exciting opportunity to examine the many facets of American and International cinema. Students interested in exploring cinema as a multidimensional art medium will engage in the analysis of cinematic works of various forms. Study of film genres, history, theories, directors, cultural perspectives and more allow students to gain a robust understanding of cinema as a historical and contemporary means of expression. The interdisciplinary nature of the minor provides investigation of cinematic art through its connection to related fields such as Communication, Literature, Sociology and Visual Arts. Students pursuing the Film Studies Minor exhibit a wide range of interests; from those who plan graduate study in film to those who simply wish to understand better this powerful and influential medium.[10]

Morehouse/Spelman Student Exchange Program

The Morehouse/Spelman Student Exchange Program was officially launched in the fall quarter of 1989.[11] This formal exchange program with two distinguished Historically Black Colleges was developed by Thurgood Marshall College and is open to all UCSD undergraduates. Morehouse College and Spelman College are both located in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of the program is to provide a unique opportunity for students to live and study at important institutions of higher learning that are significantly different from the social and educational environment typical of California state colleges and universities. Similarly, the exchange students coming to UCSD from Morehouse and Spelman will have an opportunity to experience an exciting and very different educational environment.

Marshall partnership schools

Then Thurgood Marshall College Provost Cecil Lytle and Sociology Professor Bud Mehan were instrumental in founding the Preuss School at UCSD, which opened in 1999 on campus despite strong opposition. The project was seen by faculty as a deviation from UC San Diego’s focus on science and medicine. However, providing the impetus for the founding of The Preuss School reflected the social justice oriented mission of Marshall College. Between 2007 and 2012 Preuss has consistently been listed among the top 50 American high schools by both Newsweek[12] and U.S. News & World Report.[13]

After Preuss was established successfully, the idea and structure of the UCSD-supported charter school model was expanded to Gompers Preparatory Academy. Based on educational theories, the successes of Preuss should be able to be recreated in a different environment, which was why Gompers was selected. Gompers was historically one of the most dangerous and low performing schools in the district, and yet has been transformed into an academically rigorous school with 100% graduation rate with the transition to the charter school model.[14]

The College maintains strong links to both charter schools by providing them with hundreds of undergraduate tutors and mentors every year from all six colleges.[15] In addition, the College’s Provost is a Preuss School Board Member.

Artist in residence

The artist-in-residence program brings to campus leading performers and visual artists from San Diego and Southern California to UC San Diego. Each artist is featured for one year and given the opportunity to develop new showcase work, which often goes on to fuller production off campus.[16] Marshall College is the first college at UCSD to commission public art on campus, and has contributed in the creation of a vibrant campus community.

Student life

Students at Marshall College have a variety of resources and organizations to ensure that they have an enjoyable and well-rounded college experience.

Dining halls

Thurgood Marshall's dining hall, Oceanview Terrace, is typically referred to as "OVT". OVT is open until 9pm on weekdays, and 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Goody's Place & Market, which has a popular burrito bar on the top floor and a small market on the bottom floor, is located between the Upper and Lower apartments, and this eatery is open until 1am on weekdays, and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. OVT is currently closed for renovations and will reopen in Fall 2016.

On-campus housing

The Uppers Apartments in Marshall

On-campus housing is available to all students, and provides an opportunity for Marshall students to become a unique part of a diverse community, meeting folks from all walks of life while building quality relationships. Marshall freshmen are housed in suite-style residential halls. Each suite typically holds 10–12 students. These buildings are designated by letters N through V, with a theme for each building. The Marshall Dorms also house an outdoor beach volleyball court, situated next to the "Marshall Hump", a small grassy hill enclosed by the residence halls.

The second year housing is split into dual-story apartments called the "Lowers" which resemble townhouses and house five students. These are designated letters A through F, and are located closer to the center of campus. The "Uppers" are double story apartments that house four students. They are designated G through M, and are located next to the Marshall Field, a large multi-use field. Students are able to select their own roommates and can choose which style of apartment they would prefer when signing up for housing.[17]

Student involvement

Marshall College is home to an eclectic mix of student-led organizations, programs to facilitate students' success, and opportunities to give back to the Marshall community.[18]

Student organizations

Student programs

Leadership Development

References

  1. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/about-us/index.html
  2. ↑ http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/president_obamas_community_service_honor_roll_commends_uc_san_diegos_commit
  3. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Brown-Eyed-Children-Sun-Movement-1965-1975/dp/0826338054/ref=la_B001IZX2JC_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363913039&sr=1-1
  4. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/_files/about-us/edited-history-of-thurgood-marshall-college.pdf
  5. ↑ http://registrar.ucsd.edu/catalog/10-11/front/TMarshal.html
  6. ↑ http://tmcsc.ucsd.edu
  7. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/doc/upper-division-doc-courses.html
  8. ↑ http://www.osti.gov/eprints/topicpages/documents/record/076/1710510.html
  9. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/programs/public-services-minor.html
  10. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/programs/film-studies-minor.html
  11. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/programs/spelman-morehouse-exchange-program.html
  12. ↑ http://www.newsweek.com/2012/05/20/america-s-best-high-schools.html
  13. ↑ http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/san-diego-unified-school-district/the-preuss-school-3216
  14. ↑ http://www.gompersprep.org/about-gpa/
  15. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/programs/partnership-schools-program.html
  16. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/programs/artist-in-residence.html
  17. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/res-life/your-home-at-marshall/index.html
  18. ↑ http://marshall.ucsd.edu/student-life/student-involvement.html
  19. ↑ http://tmcsc.ucsd.edu/

External links

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