PORTFOLIOS

The faculty took an odd approach to establishing the portfolio requirement. In our infinite wisdom, we made portfolio postings a requirement for all students beginning with the Class of 2008. Then we set about designing a framework for portfolio postings and began the difficult task of convincing students that the portfolio requirement was in their interests. In doing this we were hampered by the fact that in order to get a majority of the faculty to approve the portfolio requirement faculty needed to be assured that they would not be required to be involved in any way. The problems that have arisen with the portfolio requirement – the clunkiness of the format, the low participation rates by students, the cynicism with which many students approach the requirement, and the general state of confusion among faculty and students about the nature of the requirement and its usefulness – stem from this backwards approach. Since students were forced to participate from the beginning, we never made the efforts that would have been needed to make the portfolio something that students would eagerly and voluntarily embrace. The disengagement of faculty has surely contributed to the confusion and cynicism on the part of students.

The Provost would like us to give the portfolio requirement another couple of years to see if we can work out these problems. But given how we started this process and what the attitudes of students and faculty are now, I don’t see how we can expect any improvement in the next two years. Instead, I predict that two years from now we will be presented with the same clunky, unpopular and ineffective apparatus we have now and will then need to decide whether to scrap the portfolio entirely or continue with the status quo.

I propose instead that we take things in the reverse order that the Provost proposes. Let’s eliminate immediately the requirement that students make portfolio postings. The people who have been working on portfolios to this point and others who are enthusiastic about their potential should continue to promote portfolios to the students. They should work to come up with a new framework that students will adopt voluntarily, and advertise to students the benefits to them of engaging in this type of reflection. Two years or so from now, let the faculty revisit the issue of whether to make portfolios a requirement. Show us that there is a platform that has achieved acceptance by a critical mass of students. Show us the value of the portfolios to students and faculty advisors. Let’s hear testimony from students about their experiences with portfolios. Then let the faculty vote – who knows, we may at that point embrace portfolios in the way that the advocates dreamed we would in the first place.

Vote YES on the motion to eliminate the portfolio requirement from the curriculum!