Duke has embraced interdisciplinary classes as a way for
both students and faculty to address important topics that cut across
departments. The professors who head departments or university institutes,
however, have to juggle other concerns, no matter how supportive they are of
forming new partnerships.
When Scott Huettel and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong sought to
establish their joint course, for instance, they first had to obtain approval from
the heads of their departments and institutes, along with official "release" from some of their other teaching obligations in neuroscience,
philosophy, psychology and ethics.
The result was good for them and their students, but it came
at the expense of some potential challenges for their colleagues:
* Interdisciplinary
classes can raise department expenses. A faculty member who teaches an interdisciplinary
course may become unavailable to teach a regular department class. If it's just one faculty member, the department
can usually cover the gap. But if multiple
interdisciplinary classes are taught, on top of departures for fellowships,
sabbaticals, grants or campus administrative duties, the department may lack
the faculty it needs to cover core disciplinary courses. It may need to cancel classes or hire
adjunct or visiting faculty.
* Interdisciplinary
classes can present graduation challenges for majors. Huettel and
Sinnott-Armstrong limited both the number of psychology and philosophy majors
in their class. This provided a nice mix of students for the class, but it
meant fewer students could enroll in the class as a way to fulfill the course
requirements for a psychology (or philosophy) major.
* Interdisciplinary
classes may be new and exciting but they may not fit the department curriculum.
Each department has a strategic vision that identifies the skills its majors
should have when they graduate.
When Huettel and Sinnott-Armstrong sat down with their chairs, one of
the questions they were asked was how their class fulfilled the various departmental
plans.
* Interdisciplinary
classes pose challenges for tracking and balancing student enrollment. A department has to monitor the number
of students taught by its faculty, both individually and collectively. When a
faculty member teaches an interdisciplinary class, there is no standard policy
for how those enrollments get counted for faculty and departmental measures.
All of these issues can add up to headaches for a department
chair, even one inclined to support interdisciplinary classes.
"Philosophy is one of the most interdisciplinary
departments at the university.
Many of our faculty have secondary appointments," said Alex
Rosenberg, chair and Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy. "When Walter presented the class
idea to us, it was music to our ears.
The problem is we only have one Walter and hundreds of similar demands.
"We will find ways to make these courses happen so that
we can offer them to our students.
Our first obligation is high-quality classes with low class size so we
can best teach our students to analyze big issues and argue them as good
philosophers. To do that we've
acquired a large number of half-time faculty and part-time appointments shared
with Kenan [Institute for Ethics], political science, cognitive science and
other units. There's cost to that.
"The difficulty or ease of the decision ultimately
depends on the quality of instructors and the value they can add. We recognized Walter is well equipped for
this class. Because of him and
because we saw how important advances in neuroscience are for our field, it
wasn't a difficult decision. If someone asked us to cut off half our arm for
something that wasn't for value, we wouldn't do it, but in this department
there is a consensus on what's important."
Collegiality counts, Sinnott-Armstrong added. "To make
this work, you have to have faith in your colleagues," he said. "They'll be reasonable and you'll
be reasonable. You'll give your
100 percent so they get 50 percent and everything will be OK."