Timeline: Forty Years of Democratic Education at Cal
1964: Free Speech Movement erupts in the Fall following the chancellor’s
and vice-chancellor’s rescinding of the Sather Gate Tradition of
political advocacy on city property adjacent to the university.
1965: The “experimental program,” founded by Philosophy Professor Joseph
Tussman. Undergraduates and faculty engage in intensive reading and
discussion of texts in an ungraded environment.
1966: Special Select Committee on Education final report issued. The SSCE was
chaired by English Professor Charles Muscatine, and a draft version of
the report suggested a “General Studies Council” be established which
could “receive and implement student proposals for ad hoc courses on
subjects of current serious interest.” The final version of the report
toned down its more controversial recommendations but did propose the
creation of the Board of Educational Development.
1966-67: Board of Educational Development (BED) established by the Academic
Senate based on Muscatine (SSCE) report recommendation. Its charge:
to “stimulate and promote experimentation and innovation in all
sectors of the Berkeley campus,” and to initiate and approve of
experimental courses “for which neither departmental or college
support is appropriate or feasible.”
1967: Center for Participation Education (CPE) founded, an ASUC-sponsored
student group whose primary activities included developing courses
and helping other students to do so. Rick Brown, a founder, had just
left San Francisco State University, where he had been involved in an
evaluation of the Experimental College there.
1967-68: In careful collaboration with BED, CPE helps establish a number of
student-initiated courses.
1968: Student-initiated class, entitled Social Analysis 139X: Dehumanization
and Regeneration of the American Social Order, guest-taught by Eldridge
Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, ignites
a controversy which eventually leads to a tightening of restrictions on
student-initiated classes.
1969: BED’s authority to authorize courses rescinded by the Academic Senate,
which recommends the creation of the Division of Experimental Courses
(DEC) whose course approval procedure would more closely follow the
existing Senate rules.
1970: No faculty named to replace the outgoing BED chair; no founding chair
named to the DEC; both entities cease functioning soon thereafter; with
no body granting course credit, CPE no longer can offer courses for
credit.
1980: Conservation and Resource Studies course, Education for Democratic
Action, offered by Education Professor John Hurst and a group of
CRS students.
1981: Chautauqua – A Center for Democratic Education, a student group,
founded; published a magazine and catalog describing several student-
initiated classes it was offering.
1985: student group named shortened to DeCal, or Democratic Education at Cal;
primary function narrowed to the facilitation of the offering of
student-initiated courses.
1985-1995: number of courses steadily grows from ten to more than forty per
semester; DeCal continues to publish a printed listing of student-
initiated courses.
1997: student-initiated course listings move to web; in the next five years
the number of courses offered jumps from fifty to more than a hundred
per semester.
2002: controversy surrounding Daily Cal article on Male sexuality course
sparks formation of Special Studies Task Force; findings ultimately
support the integrity of student-initiated courses but recommend the
strengthening of faculty and staff support of them, including the
creation of an office which would provide pedagogical training and
resources; following the issuance of the Task Force report,
Undergraduate Course Facilitator Training & Resources established at
the Student Learning Center. An analysis and assessment of the
controversy can be found in The Possibility of Abuses section in
DeCal Retrospective.
2003: Special Studies Working Group continues the work of the Task Force and
in January issues a report recommending, among other things, the
establishment of student, faculty, and department chair checklists to
describe procedures and recommendations; an informational web site;
a Course Proposal Form clarifying faculty mentorship and oversight,
and strengthened supervision, training, support, and acknowledgement
of faculty and students involved in these courses.
2003: late-summer implementation of Academic Senate’s Course Proposal Form
procedure coincides with outgoing ASUC Senate’s cut in funding to
DeCal; budget cut spurs revitalization of volunteered-based DeCal
student leadership, who formed the DeCal Board, bringing about a
dramatic expansion of DeCal support and advocacy.
2004: With the work of the DeCal Board, ASUC funding returned. Today DeCal
offers 120 classes with over 250 course facilitators and 4,000 students
enrolled in a student-initiated courses.
2005: Expansion of DeCal program to other universities begins, encouraging
and supporting student initiated courses at other UC’s as well as the
University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin and Stanford. In the Spring of 2005
, DeCal will celebrate its 25 th anniversary.
Information gathered by Polly Pagenhart.
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Sources:
Reuben, Julie A. “The Limits of Freedom: Student activists and Educational
Reform at Berkeley in the 1960s.” Printed in The Free Speech
Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s.
Robert Cohen and Reginald E. Zelnik, eds. Berkeley and
Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002.
Hurst, John. “Popular Education.” Printed in Education and Social Change,
Spring 1995, Vol. 9, No. 1.
Final Report of the Special Studies Working Group. Available at
http://education.berkeley.edu/specialstudies/-Special_Studies_Report.pdf.
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