Prerequisite: Experience in War

[Posteritatis]

Came across an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed today:

Rick Hayek had seen the world, led troops in combat and spent a decade enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While deployed in Iraq for two tours of duty, he never had a chance to think about what it all meant. Thoughts about civilians’ daily lives, past wars, theories of peace and conflict were so far from his reality that they never stayed in his mind long.

That all changed when he enrolled at Ohio State University last fall as part of the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Program and took “Representations of the Experience of War,” a comparative studies class that used literature, art and film from multiple time periods and regions of the world. “I started to understand parts of the spectrum of war,” he said, “not just our standpoint as members of the military fighting in the war.”

Enrollment in the class was open to students of all backgrounds and, Hayek said, that sometimes hindered the discussions that he and other students with combat experience wanted to have. “It would’ve just been easier, we could’ve been a little freer, if everyone in the class had some kind of military experience.”

Beginning in January, during Ohio State’s winter quarter, only students who are veterans, active duty, guard and reserves will be able to take a specific section of that course – capped at 45 students -- with the goal of fostering “an environment where active duty students and veterans could engage with material on war without having to deal with any possible stigmas about having students in the class who weren’t veterans,” said Susan Hanson, a lecturer in comparative studies and associate in the Center for Folklore Studies who taught Hayek’s class.

It wouldn't fit in the four-para excerpt rule, but the school's offering two sections of the course; the other one is open to any student but, from what I can tell, otherwise identical. (Being a fly on the wall for both would be interesting.)

It's a pretty interesting idea, especially with OSU's high veteran enrolment, and I can understand why they'd want that sort of environment if they're going to study the subject. I had a class - not on war - that turned into a trainwreck because about a third of the students went in knowing the material and the other two thirds were in without even the desire to get it, and would have liked a better enrolment policy there, to be sure. In this particular case, though, I'm not nearly familiar enough with Ohio State's student culture to know what's up beyond what's mentioned in the article, though.

Anyway, just thought it was worth a read (and just about anything from IHE is); what do you guys think?

[Posteritatis]

1. Shameless kick (nt)