Dear Editor,
I want to thank you for your coverage of the Liberal Studies Program throughout the semester. There have been a lot of changes for students majoring in Liberal Studies and your newspaper has helped provide valuable information on these changes. I am writing this letter in response to last week’s feature story your reporter wrote on me as the new Director of Liberal Studies [“Lisa Porter guides future teachers,” Nov. 17]. I would like to say that I was extremely honored to be a part of last week’s edition. However, I was hoping that you could help clarify a couple of segments found within the article that could be misleading to your readers. First of all, Liberal Studies is a program found within the Education Department; it is not a department in and of itself. The unique aspect of being a Liberal Studies Major is to take courses offered from a variety of departments on campus. The second clarification I was hoping you could make relates to the topic of the name change from Diversified to Liberal Studies. Although making this change was a top priority of mine when beginning the position, the idea of changing the name had been discussed amongst the faculty and staff of ULV for a long time. The article printed last week implied that the decision was made solely by me. Although I supported and advocated this change, the decision was made by various bodies on campus beginning with the approval of the Liberal Studies Committee, then the UGAP committee, Faculty Senate, and finally Faculty Assembly. So, as you can see, this name change was a university decision made primarily by the faculty. I point this out simply to show that it is not university policy for a decision such as this to be decided by one individual. Understanding university policy is important for all members of the university.
If your readers saw your cover story on the name change back in September, they would have known the steps towards reaching the approval of the name change that I mentioned above. If not, last week’s article could be misleading. Thank you for understanding my concern. I know that hiring a director, placing Liberal Studies in the Education Department, and changing the name of the program are a lot of changes at once. However, I believe these changes are beneficial to the students. As your reporter quoted, I really enjoy working with future teachers and hope to create stability and assistance for them in my position as director.
Lisa Porter
Assistant Professor of Education
