I I
the ridgerunner • Wednesday, february 23, 1972
Humanities at UNC-A,
The Controversial Course:
A Conversation with Dr. Riggs
For the nest few issues, we
will be examining the past
and in part, suggestions for
the future of the Humanities
Program at UNC-A. The pre
sent set of articles are taken
from conversations with those
involved in the original set
up of the program as well as
those who are proposing
changes. This week, we will
study a little of the past of the
program as seen through the
eyes of Dr. Roy A. Riggs,
Vice-Chancellor for Aca
demic Affairs.
Dr. Riggs was one of the
first members of the Humani
ties Program then as a mem
ber of the Department of
Literature and discussion
group leader and lecturer. He
says, “There has been inter
est in revising the Humanities
Program periodically on the
part of the faculty and this
year is no exception.” Dr.
Riggs added, “I am one who
favors change for several
reasons, and in the past eight
years, there has been change
in the program; books have
been changed, tests have been
tried and revised and the struc
ture of the course has changed,
but if we are going to change
the program drastically, we
should go back to the original
aims and objectives of the
course.”
The original course was set
up for 24 hours to supplant
the semesters of General Edu
cation courses required at
other institutions. For
example, Riggs said, at an
other school, a student might
take several semesters of
Literature and History, etc.
“Here, we decided to take
those semesters and make a
course which would integrate
all the areas of the Humani
ties and offer it as an intro
duction to the liberal arts
education we offered.”
Riggs added, “Particularly,
in the cases of Literature and
History majors was the course
necessary, because majors in
those fields were instructed
to build on the basis and gen
eral acquaintance they had
achieved in the Humanities
coursfe; they were told to build
on the beginning they had re
ceived in the Humaniti^
program.”
Riggs stated that the basic
aims and objectives of the
course were to eliminate dup
lication and overlap in the
beginning student’s experience,
as well as to end the ineffic
iency and wastefulness in
volved in other programs
which prescribed introductory
hours for freshmen.
“We were trying to aim at
the best liberal arts experience
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we could contrive, and we
must always be asking our
selves ‘is this the best we can
doT,” Dr. Riggs added.
The position of UNC-A
as an experimental school
also enters into any back
ground study one wished to
do on the Humanities Program.
Dr. Riggs maintains that be
cause of the experimental
status of the institution, the
course was designed with
innovation and constant re
vision as one of its character-
istic^_‘l^_wanLJo try dif
ferent approaches,' differerft
methods.” Riggs reemphasized
the constant change involved
in the program so far and the
committment to keep changing
as times require as very ele
mentary parts of the Humani
ties Program.
There are, according to Dr.
Riggs, two salient objections
to change in the program. The
first are those faculty who see
the program as an “enriched
Modern Civilization Program”
with the chronological matrix
and the histroical methodology
that such a program stipulates.
The other objection is the
sheer administrative com
plexity of breaking up the pre
sent structure. “As it stands,
the program provided order
and administrative simplicity,
added Dr. Riggs. He went on
to explain that any revision in
the program must take into
account the administrative
work required in the process.
“It’s time we rpade some
changes; they’ll do us some
good,” Dr. Riggs added.
(More next week.)
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