http://www.decal.org/aboutus/program.php
Starting a Democratic Education Program
If you’re thinking about starting a DeCal-like organization at your
university, DeCal can help. We’ve compiled the following materials so
you can use them to convince your school’s administration of DeCal’s
benefits and help them understand the intricacies of the program. This
website is meant to serve as a resource to you. Hopefully by looking
through it, you can get an idea about what to and what not to do.
Secondly, we’re friendly and knowledgeable; we’re people, not machines,
and we are in this because we want to see positive change. The organization
we help with is a vehicle to help us make this change—so if you have a
question, please don’t hesitate to tell us by calling 510.642.9127 or
e-mailing decalprogram@gmail.com.
By the way, if you want to start a DeCal-like organization, believe it
or not, your university probably has provisions that would support it.
(but how would you have ever known?)
Information about starting your class in the UC system (most other
universities will be similiar):
‧The technicalities
‧10 reasons why you might want to create your own class
‧Five reasons NOT to
‧Is it a large effort?
‧How do classes work?
‧Who will be your students?
‧Has this ever been done before?
‧Will your school support it?
‧Why doesn’t a large program like this already exist?
Sample courses here at Berkeley with course descriptions
The Educational Benefits of Such a Program.
Description of the DeCal Program.
‧Introduction- Program Overview
‧History- About DeCal
‧Why is DeCal important?
‧Looking Ahread
‧Program goals
Putting it all together
‧Organizations in general
‧Your skills and gravitas
‧The nature of student organizations
Some of our materials that you might find interesting
Conclusion
‧For more information
‧Anything else?
Sorry that this table of contents is so long. It is worth your time to
read through this stuff. You can make it happen, but it will always be
challenging.
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Information about starting your class in the UC system (most other
universities will be similar)
The technicalities
The classes operate as “special studies courses” in the UC system,
98/198 * . In order to start your own special studies class, you will
need to find a professor to be the official “sponsor” for the class.
This professor will then sign the “special studies proposal form.” In
order for the professor to sign the form, you will need to first have
prepared a syllabus to demonstrate that you are serious about the class.
Once the professor has signed the proposal form, you will then take the
proposal form and your course syllabus to the Department Chair’s office.
If the Chair’s secretary has never seen this sort of a form before then
you may need to schedule an appointment, but it is very possible that you
will be able to drop off the form and syllabus packet and pick it up
several days later (hopefully) with the Chair’s signature on it. What
happens next is up to your department. You will need to get your course
scheduled which means that you get to talk to the department’s course
scheduler. You may need to be flexible with your room request.
The 98/198 courses may be for between 1-3 units. They are graded on a
PASS / NOT PASS basis. As your professor is officially in charge of the
class, you may not say that you instructed a course at your college. If
you do that, you will be lying. Instead, you may say that you
“facilitated” a course. More on why you call yourself a “facilitator”
later.
Throughout this process, you are using the fact that the course is in
essence “supervised” group study. Your professor is responsible for
the class and so they are putting in a fair amount of faith into you.
So act responsibly. Make your class a success, inspire your students,
accomplish your goals, and have your class be a positive reflection on
how cool students are.
You will need to advertise your class in order to attract students. The
“if you build it they will come” strategy will not work because your
class will not be listed in any official places. Common methods of
advertising include flyering and word of mouth.
UC students may take no more than 4 units of 97,98,197,198 courses in
any given semester without the Dean’s approval.
10 Reasons why you might want to run your own class
1. You learn about what you want to learn about in the way you want to
learn it.
2. You get others involved in learning about something which you are
passionate about.
3. It is fun!
4. You get to find out how little you know- having students is challenging!
5. Creating a learning community allows you suuport to explore a topic
with the input of other perspectives.
6. You get an excuse to invite speakers in to class!
7. You can “pay” other students with units to help with your community
service or other project.
8. Be a part of a nation-wide group of students who are actively involved
in initiating their own education and creating educational
opportunities for others.
9. Form a working relationship with a Professor of your choice and choose
your own mentor.
10. You learn how to form, develop, and lead your peers in fulfilling your
vision.
and 5 reasons NOT to do it
1. To pretend on your resume that you “taught” a class.
2. To get “easy” units, or give your friends easy units.
3. Because you lack creativity and have no ideas.
4. Because you would be overextended and would not be able to devote the
time to prepare your classes and do a quality job. (NUMBER FIVE???)
5. We can’t think of any more reasons not to start your own class. It is
a very positive thing to do that both you and your students are likely
to enjoy and learn from.
Is it a large effort to make a class happen?
Yes, you are taking on a fairly significant amount of responsibility with
the potential reward of creating a cohesive community out of your peers of
people who are interested in the thing which you study.
Expect to put in about twice the normal amount of effort for a regular
class. The more time you can put in ahead of time, the better. It is a very
good idea to co-facilitate the class with someone who is as passionate about
the topic as you are.
You will also need to start the process several months in advance by
(1) getting the idea together, (2) writing a syllabus, and (3) getting a
Prof. to commit to the idea. It is a very good idea to be well prepared.
Also note that the role and responsibility of the professor vary based on
your individual situation and the rules of your university. Meetings can
take place as infrequently as twice per semester or as frequently as many
times in a week. Usually, according to the guidelines of common sense, it
is good to have had some relationship with the professor before asking them
to sponsor your class.
How do classes work?
You are called a facilitator because you meant to “facilitate” your
students learning. This means that you are not limited to a top-down method
of education. You are not expected to be an “expert” in the field. You
may not even know much of anything about your field and are doing this class
because you want to learn about it with a group of interested students. As
Figure 1 below demonstrates, this is a fairly big difference from normal
classes.
http://www.decal.org/aboutus/classroom.jpg
Figure 1. This is one way of trying to visualize the distinction that is
made through being a facilitator rather than an instructor. The many
advantages to this format include: getting to know your students better,
creating a cohesive community of interested students, and an emphasis on
lifelong learning. This format is more respectful to the students in the
class an emphasizes connecting them to the resources and methods that will
enable them to learn on their own or together.
You can run your class however you’d like (or however you and your
professor agree), provided that your sponsoring professor stays happy. This
means that you can assign homework. But keep in mind that your students are
not getting a letter-grade for your class. Thus you cannot force them to do
the equivalent amount of work as the 4-unit Engineering class that you took
last semester.
Because you can’t give grades, your students will need to want to be there
and will need to want to do work for your class. In many ways this is a
good thing. Keep this in mind.
In general, the most successful student-run classes are one or more of the
following elements:
1. Community service oriented
2. Discussion-based and interactive
3. Media-based
4. Based around ethnic or cultural issues
5. Topics that are changing too quickly to go through the multi-year
class acceptance process.
6. Guest-speaker based classes.
7. Project-based or research-oriented
This is not to say that the class has to be all or even one of the above to
be successful. There are many very successful classes that do not fit any
of the above criteria.
What types of students can you expect to have?
The main thing that you will probably notice is the diversity of students
in your class. Unless your class is very specialized, you will probably
find students of all ages, majors, and ethnicities. Don’t be surprised if
an 80-year old lady shows up and sits at a desk on the first day of class.
That said, the group will probably be representative of the student
population with a slight tilt towards the groups which your class would
most naturally appeal to.
Most of the students will be potentially interested in the subject of the
class (why else would they take the class?). Some of them may also be
taking your class because they need a few units to stay above the unit
minimum per semester. All of them can become very engaged and interested
in the class, and WANT to become very engaged, but it is important to
recognize that your class is NOT required for them.
The fact that you are a student will not lessen your credibility in their
eyes. If you are well prepared it will likely be the case that you
students will enjoy your class and learn more because you can relate with
one another and can communicate on each other’s level.
Has this ever been done before?
Check out DeCal at Other Campuses. Although similar programs elsewhere
are not as extensive as Berkeley’s, they are experiencing steady growth.
At Berkeley there is a very successful program with over 100 classes each
semester. Over 3000 students take these classes every semester. The
program at Berkeley has been going on for the past 25 years. During that
time there have been over 2000 classes.
Would your school support it?
Would you be able to make a potentially interesting class? Would you be
able to create fliers to advertise your class? If you can say yes to these
questions then you can make this sort of a class happen.
Why doesn’t a large program like this exist right now?
When was the last time that you took a really good look at the rules that
the administration sets for how classes must run. Probably never.
That is why it doesn’t exist right now.
The only reason that we know about this is because a really cool Professor
in the Education department at Berkeley who had been around for many years
and who had tried to get students involved in a billion different ways
understood the rules well enough to know that this was possible. He
inspired a group of students to make it happen, which they did—25 years
ago.
You do not need a large group of committed students nor a lot of faculty
support to make this sort of thing happen. It probably already exists on
paper without you or anybody else realizing it.
The idea, in reality, is very simple: A group of students band together
because they want to learn something. They find a professor to supervise
their studies. Of course one or two of the students takes the lead and
makes it successful. Of course you want to advertise the fact that this
class exists- how else would people find out about it?
Slight disclaimer: at UC Berkeley, the courses are numbered 98/198
but at other universities it may be 97/197 or 99/199 or equivalent. The
fact is that this type of class exists at the vast majority of
universities; look for “independent study” or “group study” classes.
With a little familiarity with your particular school and a few minutes of
research you should be able to find out what it is. It may not exist, but
probably does if you look closely enough or ask the right people.
In recent years, DeCal-like programs are expanding to various universities.
You can find out about them and follow their development in DeCal @ Other
Campuses.
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Sample courses here at Berkeley with course descriptions.
Sample Courses:
‧Immigration and Identity
‧Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship in the U.S. and Asia
‧Food Justice – the industry, community health and a sustainable society
‧What is Film Directing?
‧US Foreign Policy in Magazines
‧Dr. Seuss: The Life and Work
‧The Great American Novel
‧Taiwanese Langage Courses
‧South African HIV Employment Discrimination
‧Participatory Research for School Change: Public Education of, By and
for the Public
‧Making History: World War II through Film
‧CopWatch
‧Design of Small Scale, Sustainable Water Systems
‧Rap as Poetry
‧Issues, Berkeley Medical Journal
Sample Course Descriptions:
Alternate English Orthographies
Description: Dis klas wil kuver eez tre tingz: – Benjamin Franklin’s
propozl for a nu fonetik Engli? alfebet – De Deseret Alphabet, wun av
ee most interesting experiments in ee histere av ee Engli? langwij –
Shavian, ee pradukt av a ded ‘ryter’z wi? for a nu Engli? alfebet.
Spesifikle, we wil kuver ee strukcer av eez sistemz and what ea tel us
about ‘standard’ Engli? pronunsia?n.
Iran : 25 Years of Revolution
Description: An introduction to contemporary Iranian politics, this course
will examine Iran ’s political history for the last 25 years, with
reflection on the coup d’etat of Prime Minister Mossadeq, the Pahlavi
regime, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Iran-Iraq War, and more.
Special emphasis will be paid to the revolution and where it has taken Iran
until now. Documentaries, films, guest lectures, and discussions will be
integral to the decal.
Development in Afghanistan
Description: This course is designed to analyze and bring attention to the
possibilities of peace in Afghanistan through development. We will trace
the historical development of the country to today’s current crises.
Actors in both the domestic and international community have made strides
towards both political and economic development. The course will deconstruct
these actions and analyze them theoretically. The class will have lectures,
discussions, and media presentations. Grading will be based on
participation, attendance, and three assignments.
Computers and the Community
Description: This course is designed to give undergraduates an opportunity
to work with urban youth at a community center, specifically with computers,
to help bridge the gap that exists with underprivileged youth and technology.
Our goal is to expose and familiarize children with computers, not
necessarily to prepare them for work, but to allow them to learn through
different media.
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The educational benefits of such an organization.
This is written about extensively in the page DeCal Retrospective. We have
broken down the benefits to three groups of people:
1. The students enrolled in the classes.
2. The student facilitators running the classes.
3. The university and community.
We recommend that you check out this section if you are working to build a
case for why this version of education is a good idea.
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Description of the DeCal Program
You can learn on your own or you can learn with your peers. And you can
learn about anything. It is very simple.
Introduction- Program Overview
DeCal is comprised of student-initiated, student-run classes taught as
98/198 and 97/197 Special Studies courses within many departments throughout
the University. The DeCal program, formally known as the Program for
Democratic Education at Cal , has been growing ever since it was formed by
students in 1979. There are currently over 100 DeCal courses in an amazingly
diverse assortment of offerings. Over 3000 students enroll in DeCal classes
each semester. The DeCal program is one of the most far-reaching student
groups at Cal, by far the most prominent educational student group on campus.
History- About DeCal
The DeCal Program started in 1979 under the provision of John Hurst,
Professor in the Education Department at UC Berkeley. It was one of Hurst’s
students who developed the original concept of a democratically run
educational program, run by students and for students, but Hurst played an
integral role in DeCal’s eventual creation (as well as the Peace and
Conflicts Studies Department and the College of Resource Sciences ).
Why is DeCal important?
The DeCal program is important because few, if any, other large-scale
educational programs support the idea that students may in fact be capable
of educating themselves. DeCal classes are frequently very innovative in
that they are:
‧Responsive to current events
‧Responsive to students needs
‧A large portion of the classes are community-related
‧A valuable experience for facilitators and students alike
‧A different model of education from that usually employed at major
universities
‧The underlying ideology of this model strongly supports the
development of individual responsibility, initiative taking,
leadership skills, creativity, and discovery.
Looking Ahead
DeCal is growing.
From a very minimal staff of usually two persons, or less, the DeCal
program now has nine very dedicated volunteers. A Board of Advisors
comprised of students and professors is currently being formed to guide
and oversee the program.
In addition, we are working to institute new programs such as SmallCal ,
a subgroup of DeCal involving classes with enrollment limited to eight
students or less, which emphasizes a very personal, seminar-type
environment. SmallCal is based on the tutorial system, the traditional
model of teaching which emphasizes direct interaction and personalization
between student and teacher.
This small class program is still used in some of the most prestigious
universities in the world including Oxford , Cambridge , and high level
classes at Princeton and Harvard. The idea is that small classes create
a learning environment that is more personal and which demands active
participation on the part of all students. SmallCal is therefore not
something new, but rather a return to a day when universities could
afford smaller classes.
Program Goals
DeCal offers perhaps the best and most feasible opportunity to make major
improvements in the education available to undergraduates at Berkeley.
DeCal is a cooperative learning environment, which involves a break from
traditional model of classroom education. It operates on the principles
that:
‧Education does not have to be expensive.
‧Education does not have to be impersonal.
‧Education does not have to be painful.
‧Education does not have to be passive.
‧Education does not have to be motivated over fear of a bad grade.
‧Education does not have to be taken out of the context of our world.
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Putting it all together
As an early leader of the restructuring and growth efforts and former
Director for the Program for Democratic run DeCal, I worked not just to
improve my organization but to work with the others who run classes to
improve their organizations. I approached this subject with an intense
level of observation, I’ve had the opportunity to observe many
organizations, and while each organization is unique, there are certain
characteristics and pieces of knowledge that the better ones had in
common. Much of my own experience has been in building organizations from
the ground up. Below I’ve outlined some of the major things that I have
observed over the course of my experience; if you are in the process of
building a student-run organization you will likely find it to be helpful.
Organizations in general
We’ll assume that you already have a clear idea of what you want to be
doing and some insight into where you’d like to be bringing things in the
future. Depending on your level of experience, ability, and luck, you may
have to change course numerous times; you can’t predict what will happen
in the future and how the outside world will react. So before beginning
have a clear idea of what things you are trying to change or improve and
understand that the approach you originally may have been set on taking you
there may not (with little or no fault of your own).
During much of your early work you will be making mistakes, trying out
numerous different approaches, and testing the waters. During this stage,
you’ll likely be alone, and you’ll have to be creating and considering a
whole range of factors, from the most basic accounting systems, to writings
on the organization, to running events, to recruiting and training, and to
a lot more. Getting over this initial hurdle is the most challenging aspect
of the entire thing; fortunately you can usually break this up into steps.
In order to motivate yourself to have wanted to undertake your efforts in
the first place, you may have a tendency to plan for making a BIG change in
the world. This is good, because you know what you are working for.
Unfortunately, things usually take a lot longer (2-3times on average) than
you would ever imagine. You don’t have perfect knowledge about what will
work and what won’t. The major thing is to make sure that you can be
responsive to these changes.
For this reason, and although it may go against your immediate impulses,
don’t try to build a large and complicated house of cards, just to watch
it all fall down when one thing doesn’t go as planned. Plan your
organization in steps, and realize that the later steps will not likely
happen as you imagined or be quite so simple. It is far more productive,
stable, and possible to grow with tangible successes at each level. The
internet bubble was a primary example of people building large
organizations without showing that the organizations could be viable or
that there was any demand for what they were doing. Think about this as
‘ratcheting’ up the organization. Find the stop-blocks, work towards
them, and take breaks to plan some more once you get there.
Beyond the overall direction and plan, the critical aspect of your
organization is the people. Unpredictable, quirky, and coming with their
own unique strengths and faults, people are the most important aspect to
your organization. Ideally they are smart, understand exactly what you are
trying to do, and have your organization as their number 1 priority.
Ideally they are easy to work with, can figure out how to solve their own
problems, and help you to chart the course of the organization into a
direction that you never thought possible. But what do you do if you don’t
have those kinds of people on board? This is your number 1 question and you
can either approach it directly or indirectly. Finding the right people is
as important or more important than fundraising for example but is easy to
overlook as it is entirely unpredictable.
Assuming you do have the people, as a leader or manager and as someone who
really is there to have the organization be as successful as possible, your
job is to serve your subordinates, not visa-versa. This means that if they
ask you for something, you deliver or ensure that someone else will deliver
it; if they don’t understand over lunch preferably, you help clarify. It is
your job to make sure that they understand the organization and its needs
well enough to feel comfortable taking the initiative.
As a leader, you may know more about what the organization needs and is
doing than they do. Recognize that you are effectively teaching them in
every encounter. Make them feel respected and welcome and they will do the
same for others. Make it clear that you fulfill your commitments, and they
will do the same.
Successfully creating a culture of mutual support and enjoyment in working
together to get things done is the most important thing that you can do in
the long run for the organization. Once you are able to create a positive
culture such that people coming in understand intuitively just from
observing others what the goals are and what is encouraged, then you are
set. You’ll be able to spend more of your energies in other areas,
delegate responsibility, and really work to develop the talent inside the
organization.
But this assumes that you already have a group of people in the
organization. Early on you won’t have that; but whatever you do try to
not being going at building this organization alone. Ideally you really
should have at least one other person who is working as hard on this
project as you are. There are reasons for this, first and foremost being
that you will be able to verbalize your thoughts and practice talking
about what you do, which is critical to successfully representing your
organization to the outside world. Other reasons include the fact that
you’ll need support from somebody else along the way; it can get lonely
starting something up and you may at times think that you are crazy.
The adage, “first find the people then move forward” is pretty much true.
Always keep in mind trying to find the best people and then work with them
to develop a cohesive direction for the organization. You can’t bring
people into a non-existent organization and say ‘build!’ but the idea is
that in order to take responsibility, they need to understand why the
organization is structured the way it is, they need to have agency in
knowing they can make necessary changes, and most importantly, they will
likely have many ideas in the direction-setting process that you never had
thought of before. a team of heads is much better than one brilliant head
in isolation.
That said, a lot of this section was on the people aspect. While from
experience this seems to be the most important, it can’t be done without
regard to all the other factors in the organization. These include keeping
track of what you are doing and staying organized. This is a learning
experience both for you and the organization as a whole. Structure it that
way.
Don’t give up. You will encounter set-backs and some will be pretty
severe. It will take you a while to understand what you are doing well
enough to be able to successfully lead others. If you don’t have this
knowledge then you are just leading based on charisma, an approach which
works in the short-term but that tends to fail once you move on. You have
to empower those you are working with.
In organizations, feedback mechanisms are everywhere. One aspect of the
organization can’t be overly neglected or else the entire thing may come
to a grinding stop. The idea is to make it all so it can run as fluidly as
possible, so that you have time to invest in building other areas. It will
also happen from time to time that no matter how hard you work you can’t
keep from losing ground. That is the reality of running an organization.
But just because it is challenging doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it.
Also, it does get easier with practice. Good luck!
Your skills and gravitas
If you are going to lead a successful organization, there are a certain
set of skills and level of understanding of the world that would probably
help to have. I’ve outlined in brief a couple of the skills that have
seemed most relevant to me. They generally can be broken down into three
categories: knowledge of the area you are trying to change, knowledge of
how to run an organization, and the people-skills necessary to making
things happen.
Because you are even in the position of taking responsibility for building
an organization, you know that there are things in the world that need to
change and that it is worth your time to try to make this change happen.
The more strongly you believe that change needs to be made, the more
strongly you are likely to work for this change, so before you begin
building a solution in the form of your organization, you really should
have a pretty good idea of what the problem is. You need to understand
these issues well enough to talk about them and help people to understand
why your issue is important. Since your idea for your organization is
essentially an idea for how the problem could be solved, you need to
understand it well enough as well. Understand what you are talking about
well enough to be able to talk with people who disagree with you on fair
grounds and you are doing well.
Much of the prior words of advice have been centered around people. It is
very likely that your primary area of motivation is to solve the problem
that you see in the world, this is a good thing. Never lose track and stop
learning about the factors which cause the problems that you are trying to
solve. Going into this, you won’t fully understand how to fix it.
Originally, your group of people will probably just be there to help you
better understand the nature of the problem. Slowly the dynamics will
begin to change from understanding the problem, to developing a hypothesis
for the solution, to testing your hypothesis in the form of creating your
organization.
In this mission-centered process, it is important to not detach yourself
too far from mainstream culture and people. For some this won’t be a
problem, for others who are clueless to the values of the mainstream this
will may develop to become a serious hindrance. You may face difficulties
with bringing others into the organization who don’t share the same set
of values that you do. On the one hand, you need to be able to rely on
others, if not all the time, then at least sometimes. They will help you
do things better and faster, and you will in turn also help them to reach
their potential. On the other hand, they may not entirely agree with your
vision. The two are hard to blend (it is a case of being determined in
achieving your vision vs. compromising). But sometimes compromises have
to be made. You will have to develop abilities surrounding that.
It is likely that you have chosen your area because you feel that it is
the area to which you can make the largest contribution. It is important
to keep sight, however, of the fact that things that other people are
doing are important, too. Do not treat others with less respect because
they disagree with you or don’t understand what you are doing. The
greatest leaders respect those who they are around as well as those who
they aren’t. Pretty good leaders also tend to have a lot of respect for
those around them. They also get the best people around them and these
people in turn are easiest to respect, so it is not 100% cause-and-effect,
but the lesson is to not devalue others.
You’ll need to learn how to motivate people who don’t entirely understand.
In doing this it is important to remember “pull don’t push.” In other
words, you can’t motivate people as well as they can motivate themselves.
In a mission-driven situation, it is possible sometimes to push people to
get things done for the sake of the mission when they don’t entirely want
to. Don’t be coercive. True confidence in your eyes is much stronger than
trying tricks to motivate them; it creates an example that they can follow.
Along the way, there will be those who disagree with what you are trying
to do. Get over it; if there wasn’t disagreement then you wouldn’t be
needing to make that change. These people don’t need to be on the bus.
You will slowly find more and more people who do agree. For your
organization, you want to find those who have the best balance of
agreement and ability to be effective. As far as the people who disagree
with you, their points may be valid; your approach may be off, but if you
feel that strongly about something, the overall idea is probably right.
Keep putting yourself out there, find out where you don’t understand what
they are saying, refine your ideas, and keep throwing them out there.
Things are linked together; from your isolation you will slowly grow to
find connections with what others are doing. The exciting part is when you
understand the importance of what more and more people are doing. Quality
people stand out strong once that happens. You’ll know that you are on
the right track when that happens, but no matter how successful you are,
you should always be questioning and looking for ways to improve yourself
and your organization.
Lastly, don’t be frightened from being a leader. There is nothing
disrespectful to others in standing up for what you believe in and trying
to make change. You may show them things they didn’t think possible
before. They will likely learn from your example of initiative and recognize
the importance of making a change for what they believe in.
The nature of student organizations
The student-run organization is different from standard organizations in a
few major ways. Because you can’t pay people, you will have to develop the
ability to motivate people because they believe strongly in what they are
doing. This is good, in that it is good training. This is bad, in that it
may be more difficult. There are lots of students around, however, so you
shouldn’t find too many difficulties. The three major lessons that you
need to learn follow.
The major lesson is that the organization needs to be structured for quick
turnover, and the turnover period is faster than you think. Expect that
those in the organization will only be able to stay for a maximum of two
years. This means in your structure that people at the bottom should be
constantly learning. It also means that your operations must be simplified
as much as possible so as to make sense to people with very little
experience in the organization. Practice ways of explaining how the
organization works as clearly as possible. Your goal is for people to be
able to adopt responsibility relatively quickly and to move up if they are
so interested and able. In response to the quick turnover, always or as
much as possible be doing things with people younger than you. This is not
easy to accomplish, but with regards to developing future talent the
importance of including others in your day-to-day working activities.
Another major lesson is that students have historically been notoriously
bad managers. There are a number of reasons for this; but if you want to
work this out, then make sure that they understand the issues and
difficulties inherent in: project management, effective communication, and
ensuring accountability. Some of the problems are structural: they are
volunteers and so may not invest themselves highly enough to solve
challenging or maintenance-related problems when they arise; they tend to
just give up. The fact that the stress of their life is directly
associated with mid-term schedules and their other academic commitments
also presents serious challenges. (Again, all this is good practice for
getting things done outside of school)
Finally, for you, starting an organization while in school is a real
challenge. How will you balance school work with organizational work when
failing out of school is not that great of an option? Maybe you can get
credit for your work in your organization? If you are serious about it,
maybe you can become a part-time student? You will be learning a heck of
a lot from running your organization, but how will you structure your life
so that it can be a priority?
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Some of our materials that you might find interesting
‧Starting a DeCal: a condensed guide for future facilitators: In printable
format, it encapsulates the various parts of this website, tells a brief
account of DeCal’s background and walks through the process of starting
a DeCal, from finding a faculty sponsor to dealing with other minutiae
that facilitators should know.
‧Schwag Packet: Focusing on the techniques of facilitating, it helps
student-facilitators understand the underpinning of classroom dynamics
and suggests some techniques, affirmed by education researchers and
scholars, that can be employed to forge a close connection with students
and encourage student participation, thus eliminating “dead air,”
which is a common occurrence for many first-time facilitators. This
packet is very useful as a tool for DeCal facilitation and skills sharing.
‧Resources: This document lists the contact information of all the relevant
parties affiliated with DeCal.
‧Special Studies Course Proposal Form: This is the course proposal form
that facilitators must submit in order to start a DeCal. It requires
signatures from the faculty sponsor and department chair. Upon its
submission to the department, a second copy must be sent to the Berkeley
Division Academic Senate, Committee on Courses of Instruction, Berkeley
Division of the Academic Senate, 320 Stephens Hall, Mail Code 5842. If
the facilitator wants to advertise the course on www.decal.org, a third
copy of the form must be received by the DeCal Office at 320 Eshleman
Hall. Facilitators should keep one copy of the application for their
records. Also, in addition to this form, some departments may require
facilitators to fill out a departmental form to meet their administrative
demands.
‧Student Checklist for Student-Facilitated 98 and 198 Courses: The
administration outlines the requirements and procedures for initiating
Special Studies courses in this checklist. Facilitators can save
themselves a lot of troubles if they read this checklist thoroughly and
understand the requirements of initiating a DeCal. Also, they’d
definitely know that they cannot enroll in their own DeCals to receive
academic credits.
‧Faculty Checklist for Student-Facilitated 98 and 198 Courses: This
checklist identifies the roles and responsibilities of the sponsoring
faculty.
‧Department Chair Checklist for Student-Facilitated 98 and 198 Courses:
This checklist asks the department chairs to assess the soundness of the
DeCal proposal and the academic value of the sponsorship to the
department and University.
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Conclusion
Your point of failure will likely be in finding others to pass the
organization off to. Organizations generally follow a ‘spiral of competence’
meaning that less talented people tend to bring even less talented people
into the organization and eventually it deteriorates enough to stop
existing. Quality control in leadership is important.
In other news, don’t feel too bad if you fail; ideally from this experience,
you’ve learned enough about how to do this that you would be able to
succeed in the real world (and thus experience some serious mobility and
freedom). The ability to make mistakes, put yourself out there, and
potentially fail is a quality that largely unique to the brief college
experience. Learn your lessons the hard way now, so later you don’t have to.
That said, you should be working damned hard to succeed and continue past
your period of involvement. You will know you have been successful when you
are able to pass on the organization to a highly motivated, and competent team.
Throughout the process of bringing people into the organization, it is
imperative to stress the importance of getting people on board because they
are interested in what you are doing rather than for other reasons. You
aren’t just in it to make people feel good about themselves and have fun;
you are in it to make something happen. The idea is that the people in the
organization see it as an excellent learning experience, not just an
recreational extracurricular activity.
The people you want to work with are those who deliver, not those who talk.
Integrity and commitment are the two biggest words. Get rid of the talkers,
as soon as possible; they may be helpful, but you really want people along
who will be able to make things happen. A team is destroyed if you can’t
trust the people you work with to hold up their end of the bargain.
Integrity and commitment.
Finally, it is true that opportunities are everywhere but it frequently
takes a practiced eye to see them. The best people will see the most and
be able to pick out the best. organizations are never built on one piece
of luck. most of the time you will be hedging enough so that in all likely
scenarios you will be in a decent position. One single effort done
perfectly is rarely as effective as two done 90% as well. We can’t stress
this enough: you need to put yourself out there, make mistakes, and learn
from them as much as possible. Soldiers with the most battlewounds end up
being the hardest to kill. Get in there, start planning, and figure out
how to make it happen.
The experience of running an organization is an amazing opportunity. You
can always have more to learn and everything becomes relevant. Boredom
kind of doesn’t really exist anymore, because you understand the
importance of learning the things that you need to know in order to make
your organization succeed. The things that you learn are meaningful.
Because of this, you will find that you personally are likely to gain a
lot from your experience with the organization. You will learn more than
you ever expected. It is an amazing experience.
For more information
We’ve tried to make this website as comprehensive as possible with as
much information as we could muster. If you have any further questions
then please feel free to contact us at decalprogram@gmail.com.
Anything else?
YES, of course there is a lot else. But you will have to discover it
along the way. Now that you’ve read through this, you should have a
pretty good idea of what you will need to do in order to make your class
successful. Now it is up to you to make it happen. Keep in mind that there
is no “right” way to do this. Loosely interpret the guidelines, and
create your own class in a way which you think would be most successful.
We’ve given you advice, but there are many ways of doing this.
So, rip this up but keep the cover sheet for website information which you
may need. Then go and figure out how to make this happen on your own. If
you run into any problems or have any questions then we’ll be happy to
help. Let us know how it goes!
Good luck!
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Updated July 4, 2006.
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