The Liberty Hyde Bailey Scholars Program in MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) represents a distinctive form of learning community in higher education. It is a 21-credit specialization available to all ANR undergraduate students and a learning laboratory for faculty members across the College and beyond. In operation since January 1998, the program has been recognized as a best practice by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and is the only academic program at Michigan State featured by The John Templeton Foundation in its national publication, "Colleges with Character."
Inspired by the Bailey experience, related programs have emerged and evolved at MSU and beyond. The Morrill Scholars Program will launch soon in MSU’s College of Arts and Letters, and Bailey has influenced the evolution of the Community Scholars Program in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Representatives from a range of institutions ¾ community colleges, private colleges, state colleges, and public universities ¾ have visited East Lansing or have invited Bailey Scholars to visit their campuses to talk about the program. Bailey Scholars have been featured at a number of national conferences, including The AAHE (American Association of Higher Education) Faculty Roles & Rewards, The Learning Paradigm, and The Freshman Year Experience.
Distinctiveness
The Bailey Scholars Program is distinctive in intent, ethos, approach, and form. This distinctiveness revolves around the faculty role, the student role, the learning approach, and the nature of the learning environment. Faculty members assume the role of co-learners, not experts, and engage with undergraduate students in collaborative learning. Through dialogue, students and faculty decide what to learn, when, how, and where. Some learning experiences are offered through courses connected with Bailey’s 21-credit undergraduate specialization. Other learning experiences are undertaken as co-curricular opportunities involving in-reach to Michigan State or outreach to society. In contrast to what takes place in the conventional learning environment in higher education, curricular and co-curricular learning decisions in Bailey are never pre-determined ¾ they emerge.
Bailey Scholars are a diverse group of learners. They include undergraduate students representing most of the College’s majors, faculty members from most of the College’s departments, graduate students, affiliate faculty from other MSU colleges, and adjunct faculty from outside the university (including retirees).
Purpose
The outcome for all in Bailey is to develop as whole persons ¾ an outcome designed to enhance and extend the technical emphasis in agriculture and natural resources majors and departments. Rather than affirm a vision of whole person development to which all must aspire, Bailey follows a different path. Bailey Scholars respect the fact that all persons are on lifetime journeys of learning and discovery. Yet, each journey is unique. The challenge is to pursue personally relevant learning experiences. Recognizing that most of higher education is based on successfully completing requirements established for learners by others, Bailey encourages learning that starts with the learner. It is learning from the inside-out, in contrast to the conventional practice of learning from the outside-in.
With this in mind, self-directed learning is a fundamental feature of Bailey Scholars. Self-direction is guided by the ongoing quest for personal and professional development. Each Bailey student scholar creates a personalized learning plan and connects her or his 21-credit program to that plan. For example, when Bailey Scholars select credit-bearing experiences associated with the program’s 12 elective credits, they do not select from a pre-designed list of courses created by the faculty. They select credit experiences with the help of the Bailey Academic Learning Coordinator that fit their respective learning plans. It is recognized that student learning plans are not fixed ¾ they evolve and change over time.
Faculty members engage in a parallel process of organizing for and participating in self-directed learning. They prepare and share written envisionments as they enter the program. Then, each spring semester, they prepare and share re-envisionments associated with their ongoing participation in the program. This "spring ritual’ is necessary as all faculty appointments are annually renewable.
But Bailey extends beyond self-directed learning. Bailey Scholars are fundamentally ‘self-directed learners in a community of learners.’ In the spirit of collaborative learning ¾ Bailey Scholars are dedicated to learning with, through, and from others ¾ learning in community. To guide this way of learning together, Bailey Scholars live by The Declaration of Bailey, a written statement that hangs in bold letters from the ceiling of The Commons, the main meeting room. The Declaration expresses the community ethos and informs responsible action as a Bailey Scholar:
The Bailey Scholars Program seeks to be a community of scholars dedicated to lifelong learning. All members of the community work toward providing a respectful, trusting environment where we acknowledge our interdependence and encourage personal growth.
An Interdisciplinary, Scholarly Foundation
Bailey Scholars have also developed (and continue to evolve) a scholarly foundation for self-directed learning in a community of learning. Unlike most academic endeavors that are driven by a particular school of thought or approach, Bailey Scholars ¾ in a truly interdisciplinary style ¾ explore multiple literatures, perspectives, and approaches. An important feature of program development includes reading and discussing literature in a variety of fields ¾ literature designed to help Bailey Scholars understand their experience and inform program evolution. Examples of literature are shared at the end of this essay.
Unconventional in Many Ways
Clearly, Bailey is unconventional in theory and design. This unconventionality permeates all aspects of community life. For example,
* Prospective students and faculty members select Bailey ¾ they are not selected. The entering process is driven by the belief that students and faculty members will know if the program ‘is right for them.’ There is an entering process, but there are few entrance requirements and screening criteria (e.g., only students with ANR majors can enter the program). With low boundaries, it is easy for students and faculty members to participate quickly and fully in community life. New members bring fresh perspectives and new energy to the Bailey learning environment.
* Faculty members routinely complete course assignments along with the students who are enrolled in a course for credit.
* Second- and third-year Bailey Scholars regularly join faculty members in convening courses for entering Bailey Scholars. They do so voluntarily, for the love of learning and to work with new colleagues.
* Grading systems in Bailey are designed collaboratively by students and faculty members each time a course is offered. Learners decide how they will learn accountably and responsibly. Faculty members then assign grades using the collaboratively designed system.
Bailey Scholars is also unconventional in organizational form and function. Organizational life reflects the theme of organizing around learning interests. There are no required faculty meetings. There are no elected governance positions, no by laws, and no votes taken. Technology ¾ through e-mail and virtual dialogue ¾ is a primary means for sharing information, framing issues, proposing solutions, and arriving at decisions. There is only one regularly scheduled gathering ¾ a weekly ‘soup and bread’ luncheon ¾ with an open agenda. There are relatively few standing committees. Constantly changing groups of Bailey Scholars come together to work on issues and tasks of common concern. Those who come forward do so because they want to participate ¾ not because they are expected to participate.
Connected with ANR, MSU, and Society
Bailey is, by design, a matrix organization ¾ connected structurally with other academic units in the College. All 55 Bailey students have majors and all faculty members have home units. Only the program secretary and the academic learning coordinator are appointed 100% in the program. Although nearly 25 faculty members participate in the program, their involvement adds to fewer than 5.0 FTEs.
Bailey is not only connected to the college; it is connected with MSU. Bailey Scholars participate actively (often as leaders) in a variety of cross-campus networks. For example, the chair of the university wide committee for a sustainable campus is a Bailey faculty member. Bailey Scholars also help create networking opportunities, as was the case with co-envisioning and offering the MSU Summer Colloquy on Teaching and Learning.
As awareness of ‘the Bailey experience’ grows on-campus and off-, Bailey Scholars engage in service to the university (in-reach) and service to society (outreach). For example, MSU colleagues engage in dialogue with Bailey Scholars about issues of common concern (e.g., Residence Life consulting Bailey on developing learning communities in the residence halls). And, organizations and community groups across the state and around the world have asked Bailey Scholars to work with them. For example, Bailey Scholars have organized the kick-off session of an Extension leadership program, have given a keynote address at a statewide conference, have delivered speeches at academic celebrations in Michigan high schools, and have worked on a peace & reconciliation project in Ireland. Students and faculty work collaboratively with external stakeholders to design and engage in outreach.
Bailey Scholars:
The Outcome of an Alternative Approach to Change
Bailey Scholars, as it has evolved, was not planned as such in the beginning. Administrators and faculty members sensed a gap between current reality and a possible future. With that sense, a seed was planted. Over time, and with care and nurturing, what we know today as ‘Bailey’ bloomed. Perhaps more than anything else, the Bailey development process speaks powerfully to the climate for student and faculty development in the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Bailey Scholars is also a practical example of a different approach to change in higher education. In the conventional change paradigm, ideas for change come from executive leaders and are executed by them and their staff members. They use incentives (and disincentives), talk about ‘the change’ in speeches, and work to align and redesign systems to support the change. Faculty members are expected to conform to the change.
A number of executive leaders in ANR and at MSU recognize that there is another approach ¾ nurturing a climate of innovation by encouraging faculty to experiment with new, different, and bold ideas. Seizing this opportunity means that multiple visions ¾ some similar and some very different ¾ can co-exist in a dynamic environment.
Approaching change this way doesn’t mean that every experiment will work, let alone survive over time. And it doesn’t mean that new ideas are destined to replace traditional ideas. But it does encourage ‘thinking outside of the box’ ¾ an important pathway to the future. This fosters a climate for continuing innovation. Bailey Scholars stands in testimony to this way of thinking and approaching change.
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