551 10 9760 https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/a8d1f8172d5e61f6eccf79e47a01058f.pdf 9feff77a799aadf3981df71c2c4f9b76 PDF Text Text OBSERVER Engaging Edifices By CHAD HANSON onstruction abounds on crafted in the shape of an angelic arch. I my campus. Crews of carpen­ noticed, as I walked across the campus, ters erected three buildings that my posture straightened. I grew in the past year, and a fourth taller. Without thinking consciously is scheduled to break ground. The about my gait, I slipped out of my Midbuildings are impressive in one westem-farm-kid shuffle into some­ sense—they are enormous. Even so, thing one or two shades more proper. when I look at the largest of them, I walked through one of the doors I do not feel uplifted or inspired. I and sauntered down a hall. The place stroll past the structure and think, exuded the dignity of a monastery. “That is one big, gray cube.” Each handcrafted detail invited my The designers took the issue of eyes to wander and my mind to slow energy efficiency into account, and its pace. The arches seemed to say, I applaud them for their efforts in “Our builders did not map the short­ that area. The new hall looks effi­ est or quickest distance between cient, but efficiency defines the place. points.” Instead, the graceful curves The planners gave a high priority to urged me to take time to reflect and producing the maximum number of contemplate. I found myself day­ square feet at the lowest price. That’s dreaming, thinking about all of the a common consideration for large identities that shifted as students buildings. Consequently, if you didn’t changed how they thought of them­ know that the structure stood on a selves in each classroom. Winston campus, you could mistake it for, say, Churchill is supposed to have said: the offices of an investment firm or “We shape our buildings, and after­ an insurance company. wards our buildings shape us.” As an undergraduate, I attended Higher education is a part of our so­ a modest, public institution— Northern Arizona University. The college’s roots extend back into the 1800s. There is no mistaking the campus for any other part of Flagstaff. The walls were set with bricks cut from a local variation of brownstone. Four-story columns stand before the entrances to sev­ eral buildings. The rooftops climb at a steep pitch, encouraging eyes to Unger on the architecture. I learned to love education on that campus, and one of the things that I loved best is how I felt when wan­ dering the grounds. The built environment is meaningful. Places communi­ cate. Roofs, walls, and floors all provide cues that help us define where we are and how we are sup­ posed to think and feel. They tell us what a space is for and what is to be expected. To use a concept from the theater, they provide a “set” for our behavior. Buildings tell us how we are supposed to act. This spring, on a trip to Chi­ cago, I made a point to see North­ western University. My favorite author, Joseph Epstein, taught English at Northwestern, and, even though the main campus is in Evanston, I still wanted to see the branch in Chicago. My trip did not disappoint. In the center of the city, amid sky­ scrapers and high-rises, stood a group of buildings that could have been plucked straight out of me­ dieval Belgium; well-worn bricks, heavy wooden doors, ornate, handcarved window sills, each opening C ciety and thus not immune to the influ­ ence of our culture. We value speed and efficiency. In our business-oriented way of life, most events are seen through the lens of manufacturing, even human processes that have nothing to do with producing products. For example, we have come to view and discuss higher learning in terms of simple inputs and outcomes. Increasingly, we speak the language of economics, and we enact our roles in buildings that look like of­ fice complexes or factories. N REMAKING SCHOOLS to look like factories, we have forgotten an important lesson from the field of anthropology: Education is a ritual that entails much more than the production of outcomes. B.F. Skinner said it best: “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” Skinner was the pre-eminent cognitive schol­ ar of his generation. Even he knew that specific learning outcomes pale I Chad Hanson is chairman ofthe sociology and social-ivork depart­ ment at Casper College and author, most recently, o/The Community College and the Good Society (Transaction Publishers, 2010). JOMMN B20 THE CHRONICLE REVIEW beside the long-term alterations that occur when individuals come to think of themselves as educated people. Skinner understood that a success­ ful education changes one’s identity and that an identity is a complicated bundle of memories. When we think about who we are, all of the places we have been and the people we have known come into view. In my case, I will carry the brownstone walls and columns of my undergraduate cam­ pus with me to the grave. That makes me think about what my students will remember. Will they carry the sharp angles and cost-effec­ tive space of our current campus with them as they age? Will their campus occupy the same vaunted place in their memories that my former cam­ pus occupies in mine? Will the men­ tal images make them feel thoughtful, empowered, self-possessed, and dig­ nified? Or will the recollections make them feel like workers, filling orders with efficiency? What about the stu­ dents who take all of their courses online? I cannot help thinking that we are robbing them of memories. Rituals change lives because they are invested with mean­ ing. Consider religious services. Churches, mosques, and syna­ gogues radiate poise. Steeples, domes, and stained-glass windows lift the practice of worship away from our everyday pursuits. The buildings are designed to elicit feelings of solemnity. The experience is meant to make an impression and then follow you into your life. Similarly, there is a reason why people dress in fine clothes on their wedding day. The memories would lose their luster if marriages were conducted in the outfits we wear on the job or the sweatsuits we wear when we’re running errands after work. The next time I walk past the efficient new buildings on my campus, I am going to make a point to wander aimlessly down the sidewalk, paying special at­ tention to the dandelions push­ ing through the lawn, sparrows chirping quietly from the tree branches. Better yet, I won’t even walk past the new buildings. I will take the scenic route. That’ll give me time to think. ■ FOB THE CMIONMXE BEVIEW MARCH 30, 2012 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Engaging Edifices Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2012-03-30 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_17 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Serarchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The Chronicle Review</em> is published by The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/f4beccb4c049803e5cf8221ba46c3a67.pdf c2b692b7ff0d4af8e902720d59b0d4da PDF Text Text CHAD HANSON The Last Flight of the Yellowstone Cutthroat The state of Wyoming is a square. Other states have borders that follow the contours of rivers or mountains. Ours shoot straight over the land­ scape. Then they connect at four comers. We are a box. No bumps or rip­ ples. While preparing for a trip, I stare at a map of the Rockies and think of John Wesley Powell. He ran the Colorado River in a wooden boat before we could even dream about the Grand Canyon. After the mission, Powell returned to the nation’s capital to report on the prospects waiting out to the left of the Mississippi. His assessment included warnings of drought and intermittent streams. He urged lawmakers to mark territories to match reliable watersheds—the keys to life in the dry West. For his trouble, Congress drew straight lines across a rendering of North America, routing new states onto the map in the process. Of them, Wyoming and Colorado are perfectly unmoored from reality: two man­ made squares set side-by-side on a rumpled assortment of plains, forests, deserts, canyons, and glaciers. Early Americans had a knack for reshaping the world to suit their interests, but today we see the price we paid for our attempt to define geography on our own terms, as opposed to those of the region. I am headed north to spend time on a stream that is home to an endan­ gered type of cutthroat trout. Cutthroats made their first appearance on the west coast of the continent. Their ancestors were salmon that swam up from the ocean into freshwater. Some of them liked the setting so they chose to stay. Then tectonic plates started to buckle. Earthquakes shifted riverbeds. Whole schools of trout became landlocked, and once they became isolated, the fish developed unique characteristics. In the case of cutthroat trout, at the height of their distribution, fourteen variations swam the waters of the West. Two of them are now extinct. The Yellow Fin cutthroat vanished from an area of peaks and forests near the town of Leadville, Colorado. Regional mining expanded in the early part of the twentieth century. Hungry crews of miners took too many 24 �fish from local streams. The trout were too easy to catch, and the toll was too great to sustain. In Cutthroat^ the definitive book on the subject, Patrick Trotter suggests that Yellow Fins disappeared fifteen years after they were discovered. The Alvord; cutthroat shared their fate. The Alvord Basin of northern Nevada became home to a handsome mauve and tan species, back in the Pleistocene Era. The fish grew accustomed to changes in water tempera­ ture, so they flourished in their native valley for millennia, right up to the point where settlers began stocking rainbows from the state of Washington. Rainbows and cutthroats spawn in April. When they swim the same waters, inbreeding occurs and pure strains of cutthroat are dis­ placed by a genetic hybrid: cutt-bow trout. At the same time, cutthroats also begin to lose the race to catch and eat aquatic bugs. Despite their name, cutthroats are the least assertive trout in North America. In streams where non-native fish are stocked or introduced, cutthroat populations shrink because they’re less aggressive than browns, rainbows, or brook trout, and on that score I am sympathet­ ic. I find the fish’s pacifism endearing. As a young man I participated as a member of my hometown wres­ tling team for less than ten minutes. On the first day of the season the coach spent time going over the training and event schedule for the year to come. He took a moment to pair us with partners. Then he placed us on a rubber-coated mat. In my case, he paired me with a wiry kid, four inches shorter than myself. Due to my size advantage, the coach put me in a position on my hands and knees. My partner knelt and wrapped his arms across my back and under my stomach. Other pairs assumed the same position all around the gym. Then the shrill sound of a whistle filled the room. The wiry kid slammed me to the mat so hard my brain bounced off the inside of my skull. His fingers grabbed me with intensity. They sunk into my arms and back. After eight seconds worth of grappling, the kid felt satisfied that I was pinned, so he let me go and I stood up. I said, “God damn it! What the hell!” That ended my wrestling career. Some members of our species excel in physical battles. After eight seconds, I learned that I am no good in combat. Cutthroat and I have mellow temperaments. I eventually came to terms with my own personality, but cutthroat trout need food, and when we force them to compete they either get eaten when they’re young or they go hungry by midlife. A line on my map of the Big Hom Range offers a path to the location of a far-flung, remnant school of Yellowstone cutthroat. As the name implies, their genetic roots lead to the Yellowstone River. Their descendants climbed up the west slope of the Rockies. They evolved into their current 25 �state and swam across the great divide. Then they drifted down the Yellowstone, pausing to explore the tributaries. At one point, they entered the Tongue River of Montana. Years ago, cutthroats gained access to the Big Hom Mountains through the waters of the Tongue, but as they made their way into the region, forces inside the planet pushed the range up from the surrounding terrain. Creek beds fell away and the heaving Earth left waterfalls, trapping cutthroats in the high country. The process that stranded the fish also protected them. When Europeans began to settle the region they stocked the Tongue and its watershed with their favorite fish: rainbows, browns, and brook trout. The foreigners displaced cutthroat except in areas where the interlopers couldn’t make it up the waterfalls. In creeks at high elevation, there are still cutthroats swimming without competition. The road through central Wyoming to the top of Big Homs is familiar, but not boring. The prairies of my home state differ from those of the Midwest or the coasts. Rock outcroppings interrupt hills of sage and dehydrated grass. The plains of Wyoming are broken by reminders that the roadside scenery is some of the oldest anywhere. Seventy-five million years ago a shallow sea covered the state. As time wore on, the sea dried up, and the state adopted a climate similar to Florida’s—perfect weather and habitat for dinosaurs. Then for reasons not agreed upon, the region roiled through an era of turbulent mountain building. Sheets of rock pressed up through the soil to form ridges. In the case of the Big Homs and Beartooths, gray walls of granite were vaulted into the air. In the more frequent examples, however, layers of stone were simply upended and shoved up through the dirt— where they stand today—jutting from the prairie at unusual angles. In the winter, I spend weekday nights with my collection of topographic maps. Four seasons ago I noticed a creek that parallels a trail running up to a chain of lakes at the top of the Big Homs. The topo lines suggested a waterfall large enough to have protected cutthroat trout from non-native insurgents. Four months later, I took a trip to the north of the trail over a hill and down into the canyon carved by Archer Creek. My route began at seven thousand feet of altitude. Evergreens stood fifteen yards apart and the for­ est floor rolled like a carpet of pine needles, broken on occasion by bunches of long-stemmed grass. The creek came into view after a twentyminute hike. I made camp on the shore of a pool above the waterfall, and I’ve been back every year since. 26 �This time I start my journey on a path that points toward the top of the mountains. Backpackers use the trail to access the lakes above tree line. The scenery consists of rock, ice, water, and sparse alpine vegetation. The trip is worth the hike. The fishing is extraordinary. The state of Wyoming stocked the high lakes in the range more than fifty years ago, and the progeny of the early fish have multiplied. They grow big in the still water, and during the short summers above ten thousand feet, they’ll eat any­ thing that happens to fall onto the surface. I come upon a party of backpackers in the meadow where I venture off the path. I slip into the trees behind them. As far as they know, I disap­ pear. Soon I hear the sound of Archer Creek bumping and grinding over the east slope of the Big Hom Range. Below the cascade, rainbows occu­ py all of the eddies and pockets, but above the waterfall, there are only cutthroat trout. Over the years, elk and deer wore a trail upstream beside the falls. It’s a steep path, but I make it to the top without resorting to climbing. I’ve camped here three years in a row, and there is no trace of my presence or that of anybody else. Even the sandy bank where I pitch my tent is over­ grown. Life is incorrigible. I think, “What a planet.” Foliage springs up in tufts and patches. I press my ear to the sand and stare at the shoots and leaves that pushed through the soil along the shore. Each blade of grass strikes me as a feat of biology. My tent goes up in a hurry. I pound stakes into the dirt to keep my temporary home safe in the wind. I rest my backpack against a tree trunk, take a seat on a boulder, and press the sections of my fly rod together. While I work I watch the current pour over a row of rocks. The sight of cold water flowing through a riverbed reminds me that the United Nations predicts that two-thirds of humanity will live in water-stressed nations by the year 2030. In countries all over the world, people see freshwater as a priceless gift and a precious source of life. By contrast, when we wake up in the morning our first order of business is to poop into roughly two gal­ lons of clean water. I think, tomorrow, I’ll just find a spot in the woods where I can squat. I hike upstream to find a series of fishing holes. The first one comes up fifty yards from my campsite. It’s a bend where the creek smashes into the left side of the canyon. On the outside of the curve the water rushes past the rock, but on the inside the creek slows to a more restful pace. Fish are fond of the layout. They float in the calm water on the inside of the curve, but their eyes never leave the swift current along the wall, which serves as a conveyor belt for groceries. I loft an imitation grasshopper onto the top of the bend and the current carries the fake bug. 27 �As I watch the fly shimmy with the ripples of the creek, a cutthroat leaves his position. He disappers into the bend. Then he emerges from the flow to strike the grasshopper. I raise the rod. The line jumps off the water and then it stops. The hook is set. The trout races downstream but I follow him along the bank. He swims back and forth from one side of the creek to the other, but I manage to close the distance between us. When he is within arm’s reach, I step knee-deep into the stream. I dip my hand into the water to keep the fish from feeling my skin on his body. Then I shake the hook from his jaw­ bone. For a moment, I admire the elegant work of natural selection. During the past two million years, the spots on Yellowstone cutthroats migrated south and parked down next to their tails. That left their sides free to shine like fields of ochre wheat on the prairie. The trout’s black eye looks toward the water, and I know our time is through. I ease him back below the surface of the creek. Upstream, all of my favorite bends and pools fish well. Two miles from camp I take a trout from a run lined by a row of boulders. I release the fish, and while I stand in the water I find something about the moment that forces me to pause. I climb onto a rock beside a deep stretch in the middle of the creek. I lie on my back and look up at the sky. High cirrus clouds adorn the horizon like malleable veils. My taste in clouds changed as I entered middle age. As a young man, banks of cumulus clouds captured all of my attention—thunderous plumes of moisture represent power and turmoil. I thought the clouds’ potential for weather connected them to life here on the ground. When I was young, I used to sit in the grass outside of my house watching storms roll in to shake up summer afternoons. I still appreciate puffy, gray clouds stocked with water molecules and charged with electricity, but these days I prefer light wisps of haze, holding to the top of the atmosphere. A honey bee buzzing through a stand of lupines interrupts my cloud watching. The German biologist Karl von Frisch won a 1973 Nobel Prize for his work on the habits and vision of honey bees. It turns out that bees possess a set of eyes that contain tiny light receptors, each one covered by a lens with polarizing capabilities. Their eyes see beams of light as they strike and bounce off objects. Our eyes do not work like that. For example, when we look at the sky we see a uniform palette of blue. But the sky appears blue to us because the sun’s light scatters over dust when it comes into the atmosphere. All our eyes can do is feed us a rough image—an illusion of monotone. By contrast, when bees look at the sky they see sheets of light cascading from the heavens in a myriad of directions. �A flock of four white pelicans appears over the tree line to the north, and I wonder about the process Earth’s creatures went through as they evolved. It strikes me that we received more than our share of cognitive capacity, but I try to imagine what the world would look like if pelicans had our ability to think and speak. If pelicans possessed our talents, when they talked their voices would sound like Garrison Keillor’s. Their conversations would be thoughtful and their stories would end in taut, sophisticated punch lines. When they spoke they would take long pauses between sentences. They would breathe through their noses and think about what they were going to say before they spoke again. Their language would not include words for war or pollution, because they would not be necessary. Their cities would tower along the shores of our waterways, and every one would be refined and delicate, like bird feathers. I decide to wander back downstream toward my camp. The shadows on the ground are growing as the sun descends. I make it back before dark, but I notice the bottle of gas I use to run my stove weighs less than usual. I forgot to fill it up before the trip. I try to boil a pot of water, but the fuel runs out. There is a plastic holster on the outside of my pack, meant to hold a water container. I discovered years ago that the diameter of the holster is actually just right for a wine bottle. I pour a glass into my metal coffee mug. Now it is dusk. I listen as the wind slows down and whispers to a stop. Then the ripples in the pond above the waterfall dissolve. The moment seems like the most peaceful in the history of Earth. I soak in the solace while I sip my cabernet. It isn’t until the mug is near empty that it occurs to me that the planet is hurtling through space, whirling in circles on its axis. I realize that my only shot at a hot meal is a campfire. Dry twigs litter the ground between the trees along the shore. A chunk of pine bark lights quickly, and the flame spreads over the sticks I piled together. When the coals are hot I set my pot onto the charred remains of pine cones and branches. For early people, fire represented high technology. When they learned to build and maintain fires, it must have felt like the universe was on their side. It seems that way to me this night. My cup of split-pea soup tastes better than it should. As the evening slips away, the wine bottle drops below the half-full mark, and the word “beautiful” makes it into every one of my rumina­ tions. “I can’t believe how beautiful the pine trees look along the shore. The stripes of rock on this canyon wall are so beautiful^ Etcetera. 29 �I notice my first star of the evening. Then others reveal themselves as the sun’s light escapes behind the peaks off to the west. At high elevation in the Big Homs, new stars never stop appearing in the darkened sky. There are so many, and they are so close, if you walk with your head tilted upward it feels like you are stepping into outer space. It’s too easy to for­ get that there are stars in the sky when you sleep beneath a roof in the city. When we look up, we see the same picture that creatures saw during the Jurassic. Over the course of history, the seas and continents shifted. Every manner of life has been transformed. Entire species or classes of animals came and went. But the stars remain the same. I see the same set of constellations that Neandrathals looked at from the openings of caves. My view is the same as that of Galileo or Leonardo DaVinci. The con­ stancy of the stars somehow makes me feel at ease, so I pull the zipper on the tent’s screen door and fall asleep. In the morning, I wake to find a ridge of gray storm clouds stacked over the peaks to the west of my site. It’s a common scene. The Big Homs are well-known for producing intense and unpredictable weather. I decide that I have time to eat a handful of granola, pack my things, and hike back to the car before the lightning starts. The camp packs up quickly, but I am hesitant to leave. I rest my back­ pack on a log and take a seat beside the pool. It is still calm, despite the impending bout of wind and rain. While I watch the surface of the water, a bee flies out of a willow bush along the shore. He flies over the creek. His trajectory is haphazard. First it is high, and then it’s low. He sputters in circles back and forth. Then he sets out toward the bottom of the pool, bouncing across the surface, alternating between bursts of flight and wet landings. His eyes allow him to see through the glare on the water. He is looking for pollen, but he is confused by the layer of liquid rolling over the plants on the streambed. The bee is not the only one looking for food. I watch him touch down on the pool and bounce up again with a fifteen inch cutthroat in aerial pur­ suit. The trout jets out of the water underneath the bug, but the leap doesn’t carry him high enough. The unwitting bee sticks to his path and the fish falls back into the pool, sending ripples through a reflection of the blue sky and gray clouds on the surface. The same events repeat them­ selves. It happens again and again. The bee keeps flying toward the far end of the pond. The trout keeps leaping after him, and I keep watching them with my mouth hanging open. I realize, if I had a camera, I could stop the fish’s motion while he arches in the air, and it would look as if he’s soaring through a battalion of clouds. 30 �The bee finally reaches the end of the pool. The trout lunges, and his jump takes him over the edge of the waterfall. I scramble to a point where I can see the current clobbering the stones below, but I cannot see the fish. It’s hard to imagine that he could have survived the rocks and the force of the creek crashing down onto his body. I lift my pack and tug its straps. Then I start the hike back toward home. While I walk, it occurs to me that the trout chose a perfect way to end it all—flying into nothingness—chasing a thing he could not reach—driven by the pure impulse of appetite. 31 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Last Flight of the Yellowstone Cutthroat Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2012 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_18 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The <em>North Dakota Quarterly</em> is published by the University of Nebraska Press for University of North Dakota https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/79296731ebaba03b19f7237023ccee6b.pdf 7cbb600349f7f7ed4d392968882730e4 PDF Text Text Why Cant a Firm Be More Like a College? by Chad Hanson hy can’t colleges act more like businesses? For the past century, legislators, boards of trustees, and pri­ vate sector leaders have been befuddled by academ­ ic traditions. The scions of law-making and industry have scratched their heads and wondered why institutions of higher learning do not respond to the same prompts and incentives that work well in the marketplace. In response to the long-standing issue, Williams College economist Gordon C. Winston published the article “Why Can’t a College be More Like a Firm?”' in 1997. In the years since, others have taken up the same question. The Center for American Progress, for example, recently pub­ lished “Disrupting College,”^ wherein the authors suggest that schools might benefit from a series of radical disturbances, of the type recently witnessed in the digital economy. This report outlines the difference between schools and corporations. From an economic standpoint, important distinctions exist between groups that pursue profits and those that contribute to the common good. There are also fair questions about whether it is apt to conceive of education as a product, pur­ chased in the same fashion as a home or an automobile. Over the years, econo­ mists have explained that the mental framework we use to understand the market may not apply when it comes to improving academics. Even so, I have noticed, when a discussion of the difference between businesses and schools occurs in the W Chad Hanson is chair of the Department oj Sociology and Social IVork at Casper College in Casper^ IVyoming. He also serves as a consultant/evaluatorfor the Higher Learning Commission, and is, most recently, the author t^'The Community College and the Good Society (Transaction Publishers, 2010). He invites correspondence at chanson@caspercollege.edu. FALL 2012 THOUGHT & ACTION �field of economics, the tone is often apologetic. An astute reader can discern the message written in between the lines: “We wish colleges could be more like firms, but unfortunately, they are different.” I do not seek to question the work of any particular economists. Rather, my goal is to extend the comparison between the private sector and non-profit educa­ tion. In what follows, I move the conversation toward an analysis of organization­ al culture: norms, roles, and values. You should also note that I do not apologize. On examination, it turns out, many of the features that make colleges unlike busi­ nesses should serve as a source of pride. In fact, colleges and universities possess I do not apologize. On examination^ it turns out, thefeatures that make colleges unlike businesses should serve as a source ofpride, traits the private sector would do well to imitate. SCHOOLS MAINTAIN TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY There are few institutions the American people trust and favor more than col­ leges and universities. Studies funded by the Chronicle ofHigher Education suggest the only sectors of society that we appreciate more are the church and the armed forces.’ In our culture, we endow postsecondary institutions with high levels of esteem. The prestige that we afford to higher learning has bred confidence among students, families, and the communities that play host to campuses. In addition, schools benefit from the faith we place in not-for-profit groups. Non-profits are expected to consider whether a course of action is appropriate or ethical, as opposed to focusing exclusively on quarterly earnings. Firms do not enjoy abundant trust or cultural authority. As a consequence, they are often forced to reinvent themselves. Firms rarely rest on a stable founda­ tion of long-term support in the marketplace. Thus, “re-branding” is undertaken by corporations looking to tack themselves favorably into the shifting winds of consumer demand. For instance, Walmart changed its corporate logo six different times between the years 1962 and 2008.'' The technique has proven successful. Buyers reward businesses that change their image and product lines to match their interests. By contrast, older universities that maintain a commitment to core val­ ues receive prestige, grant-funded projects, and a flood of eager applicants. In periods of recession, colleges suffer alongside private businesses. Nevertheless, in good times or bad, the nation’s schools receive more applications than they can accept. Any business would envy the moral freedom to decide how many customers they can serve without compromising their efforts. They would further envy the chance to choose those customers from a pool larger than they I THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL �WHY CAN'T A FIRM BE MORE LIKE A COLLEGE? could accommodate. In our culture, we value tradition. Unlike corporations, often pushed to reset their identities, postsecondary schools are at their best when they preserve their practices. In so doing, we take advantage of the traditional authority granted to educational institutions. For example, even the faculty of the most business-ori­ ented schools don mortar boards for commencement. The ritual confers dignity and respect. If we lost or gave up on our traditions, we would also lose our posi­ tion of privilege in society. Our institutions appear staid and inflexible^ but in practice^ they have produced the most important innovations of the past three centuries, HIGHER EDUCATION PRODUCES INNOVATIONS For good reason, colleges work to safeguard their norms and conventions. As a nation, we applaud groups that hold onto their values, but in the case of educa­ tion, the attention to history also creates an opening for detractors. Critics charge that colleges are stodgy and unchanging. Such an assessment can make traditions seem more like burdens. In our fast-changing world, we developed an appreciation for dexterity, and we assume that businesses are nimble and innovative. That assumption is questionable, however. On the surface, firms in the private sector appear agile and inventive, but at the heart of their enterprise, they are averse to taking risks. The reverse is true in education. Our institutions appear staid and inflexible, but in practice, they have produced the most important innovations of the past three centuries. Our most significant advances in physics, astronomy, mathematics, and bioscience were not attained in business. They were achieved in schools.’ There are at least two reasons for the success of postsecondary researchers. The first is linked to organizational goals, and the second relates to the terms of a professors employment. Institutions of higher learning enjoy the luxury of pursuing the objectives associated with pure science. The aim is to ask big, basic questions about the nature of the world, and answer them as best we can. Business goals are different. Because they focus on profitability, the employees of businesses practice applied science. Corporations take the knowledge that we create in the academy and turn it into goods and services. The result is that product lines are advanced, incremen­ tally, from one year to the next. We all benefit from these efforts, but the level of innovation is lower than you find in education. The breakthroughs that change our understanding of the world and our place in it occur in the not-for-profit sector.” One reason for the success of university-based scholars relates to the job secu- FALL 2012 THOUGHT & ACTION �rity that we afford to faculty. In education, we grant tenure, an institutional com­ mitment to long-lasting employment. That practice contributes to a culture of innovation.' Tenure is liberating. We free professors to follow questions wherever they lead. Regardless of the outcome, livelihoods remain secure. Albert Einstein enjoyed the benefit of tenure when he produced the theory of relativity. James Watson and Francis Crick used the non-profit facilities at Cambridge to discover the double helix, and a group of mostly tenured faculty from the U.S. completed the Human Genome Project." Businesses do not grant tenure. To the contrary, for the alleged purpose of The truth businesses are risk averse. The real breakthroughs occur in the laboratories ofstodgy old universities. increasing flexibility, businesses fight measures that would limit their ability to fire personnel. In such a setting, scientists are discouraged from taking risks. Under the threat of dismissal, private sector employees have an incentive to ask safe questions and undertake projects with predictable results. For all of our talk about risk tak­ ing in the private sector, the truth is, businesses are risk averse. The real break­ throughs occur in the laboratories of stodgy old universities. POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS SUPPORT DIVERSE LINES OF INQ_UIRY In the time of the Roman Empire, the collegium provdded a place for scholars to ply their various abilities. Colleges were created with the intent of bringing a diverse group of specialists into a single location. Today, we often accuse academ­ ics of working in “silos,” but there is scant evidence to suggest that faculty work in isolation. In fact, all over the country, colleges and universities teach freshman seminars that blend a range of approaches to critical issues.^ Educators routinely form learning communities that demonstrate how problems can be solved through the application of multiple perspectives and methods; and increasingly, institutions organize themselves around interdisciplinary departments.'” In my own field of sociology, much of the innovative work is conducted at the crossroads of multiple disciplines: social psychology, political sociology, and socio­ biology, for example. On occasion, academics wage feuds between disciplines. But the overriding tendency is toward collaboration in pursuit of new, diverse branch­ es of knowledge. Interdisciplinary teams routinely break ground in both the arts and sciences." American businesses, on the other hand, have demonstrated a stubborn form of single-mindedness. Oil companies, for example, have been reluctant to diversi­ fy their interests and expertise in alternative forms of energy. Some have gone so a THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL �WHY CAN’T A FIRM BE MORE LIKE A COLLEGE far as to fund studies that cast doubt on the threat of climate change?* As a result, American businesses have accepted defeat in an important new sector of the econ­ omy. China is now the largest producer of wind and solar power equipment.” The American automobile industry has shown a similar reluctance to diversi­ fy its fleet. For the first widely available electric car, the American consumer must look to a Japanese company, Nissan. Of course, there are economic reasons for the reluctance to reach into new markets. Some of the reasons include capital invest­ ments in oil drilling equipment, and factories tooled up to produce internal com­ bustion engines. But there are also cultural reasons for our inability to extend Faculty pursue knovjledge in all of its variousforms, including the undiscovered. Some ofthe most successful corporations havefollovoed this example. beyond our historic focus. American oil companies think of themselves as oil com­ panies, auto manufacturers as auto manufacturers. By contrast, universities have managed to avoid the constraint of a single pur­ pose. On campuses, faculty pursue knowledge in all of its various forms, including the undiscovered. Some of the most successful corporations have learned from this example. Companies like Apple and SAS gave up the office complex and the silo, and have built campuses to house and motivate their employees.” SCHOOLS PROMOTE DEMOCRATIC SOCIAL RELATIONS For close to half a century, American firms have struggled to make themselves humane and democratic. Such efforts started sooner in Japan. Beginning in the early 1950s, Japanese companies began to make use of the practices advocated by W. Edwards Deming, management scholar and New York University professor.” In a series of consultations, Deming challenged the top-down hierarchy of the Japanese corporation. He urged managers to use the expertise possessed by employees at every rung of the ladder. Deming suggested the formation of “qual­ ity circles,” social arrangements where a wide range of people come together to discuss how their work can improve. Businesses learned a good deal about them­ selves through the use of quality circles, but more important, they discovered the process made employees feel empowered, and in turn, those conditions led to increased productivity. In the 1970s and 80s, the concern with quality and participatory involvement moved to America. Deming’s approach remained intact, but a new literature incor­ porating his techniques also grew up in the U.S., under the title of Total Quality Management (TQM). Corporations such as Xerox and Motorola were among the first and most successful practitioners of TQM. More recently, business organiza- FALL 2012 THOUGHT & ACTION ! �tions have been involved in pursuit of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a program of recognition for groups that engage their employees in attempts to enhance quality."’ For the most part, higher education institutions have not been forced to go through the same series of management revolutions—nor do they need to. Postsecondary schools already practice shared governance. Compared to the hier­ archy of the corporation, the structure of authority and responsibility in schools is relatively flat.'" Faculty senates and employee unions signify our commitment to recognizing the value of broad participation in decision making. At the bargaining Firms ought to consider creating a meaningfulform ofemployee senate^ or better stilly they could support collective bargaining. table, educators have ensured their way in matters of promotion, academic free­ dom, and course management. I will concede that the tradition of shared leadership has been undermined as schools have begun to think and act like businesses, but the heart of the enter­ prise—the curriculum—is still the responsibility of the faculty. In the future, as firms work to find a means to allow rank-and-file employees to control the nature of their work, they ought to consider creating a meaningful form of employee sen­ ate, or better still, they could support collective bargaining. GRADUATES IDENTIFY WITH THEIR ALMA MATERS The human mind likes metaphor. We like to think of things in terms of some­ thing else. Analogies are often illuminating, but on occasion, they are only partial­ ly appropriate. Other times they cloud and reduce our understanding of issues. As a case in point, for years we have been trying to conceive of students as customers but the student-as-customer metaphor is problematic. It nearly always leads to a discussion of whether students are customers? Or products? Then the discussion devolves into absurdity, because, of course, they are neither. Even so, we are a busi­ ness-oriented nation. That means we try to think of higher education as a busi­ ness. It also means that we treat students as if they were customers, but students are superior to customers. Students identify with their alma maters. They display school logos on sweat­ shirts, ball caps, and automobiles. Corporations like Nike and Adidas have achieved similar levels of success in convincing customers to pay for the chance to advertise their symbols. But most firms have a hard time convincing consumers to advertise on their behalf The relationship between colleges and students is a rela- THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL �WHY CAN'T A FIRM BE MORE LIKE A COLLEGE tionship that businesses covet. Students become attached to their institutions, and in some cases they are so grateful for the opportunity to have been associated with a school, they make sig­ nificant donations to college foundations. They do so with the hope that their alma maters will use the funds to make sure future students can enjoy the same experience. I am not aware of people being so grateful for a pair of sneakers that they have made a philanthropic contribution to Adidas. The relationship between a college and its students is precious. It is a relation­ ship that should be respected and appreciated on its own terms. Attempts to con- 1 am not aware ofpeople being so gratefulfor a pair ofsneakers that they have made a philanthropic contribution to Adidas. ceive students by means more familiar to business only reduce our understanding of the role that colleges play in the development of undergraduates. If anything, businesses should look for a new metaphor to help them understand their relation­ ship with customers. Such efforts are in the works. Service-oriented companies have taken to refer­ ring to customers as “guests.”’’ The hope is that the new term will change the way their employees relate to the public. If they knew what was good for them, busi­ nesses would aspire to hold a place in the minds of customers similar to that of the place that colleges hold in the minds of graduates. Their performance would likely improve if they thought of and treated their customers as if they were students. (ED ENDNOTES 1. Winston, “Why Can’t a College be More Like a Firm,” 1997. 2 Christensen et al.. Disrupting College, 2011. 3 Selingo, “U.S. Public’s Confidence in Colleges Remains High,” 2004. 4 Accessed from http://walmart8tore8.com/aboutus/8412.aspx. 5 For example, see Davies’, Cracking the Genome. Op cit. 6 For a discussion of the differences between education and industry, wnth respect to long-term goals and organizational structure, see Miller and Le Boef’s, Developing University-Industry Relations: Pathways to Innovation Jrom the West Coast. Op cit. 7 Ibid., 4-5. 8 Accessed from www.genome.gov/10001772. 9 The most well-known interdisciplinary approach to the freshman and sophomore curriculum is the case of Columbia University. See Bell’s, The Reforming of General Education. Op cit. 10 See Beachboard et al., “Cohorts and Relatedness: Self-Determination Theory as an FALL 2012 THOUGHT & ACTION �Explanation of How Learning Communities Affect Educational Outcomes," 853-74 and Jacobs, “Interdisciplinary Hype.” 11 12 Thorp and Goldstein, Engines ofInnoaation, 2010. Roosevelt, “Critics' Review Unexpectedly Supports Scientific Consensus on Global Warming,” 2011. 13 Scherer, “The Solyndra Syndrome," 42-5. 14 Musil, “Jobs Stumps for Spaceship-Like Apple Campus," 2012; and, SAS, “SAS Incorporates Green Principles into New Construction on Campus,” 2008. 15 For a thorough account of Deming’s work on the Asian continent, see Aguayo's 1991 volume, Dr. Deming.' The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality. Op cit. 16 A rendering of Baldrige Award history can be found on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s website at: www.nist.gov/baldrige/about/history.cfin. 17 Meyer, John W. and Brian Rowan. “The Structure of Educational Organizations," 1978. 18 Carroll, The Hidden Power of^our Customers, 2011. WORKS CITED Aguayo, Rafael. Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality. New York; Touchstone, 1991. Beachboard, Martine and John Beachboard, Wenling Li, and Stephen Adkinson. “Cohorts and Relatedness: Self-Determination Theory as an Explanation of How Learning Communities Affect Educational Outcomes.” Research in Higher Education, 52 no. 8, (2011): 853-874. Bell, Daniel. The Reform of General Education: The Columbia Experience in its National Setting. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966. Carroll, Becky', The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Christensen Clayton M., and Michael B. Horn, Louis Caldera, Louis Soares. Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education. Center for American Progress. February 30,2011. Retrieved from: www.americanprogress.org/ issues/2011/02/pdf/disrupting_college.pdf. Accessed March 5,2011. Davies, Kerin. Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2002. Jacobs, Jerry. “Interdisciplinary Hype.” http://chronicle.com/article/Interdisciplinary-Hype/49191/ . Accessed January 14,2012. Meyer, J.W. and Brian Rowan. “The Structure of Educational Organizations.” In Marshall Meyer and Associates Ed., Organizations and Environments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1978. Miller, Robert and Bernad Le Boeuf. Developing University-Industry Relations: Pathways to Innovationfrom the West Coast. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Musil, Steven. “Jobs Stumps for New ’Spaceship'-Likc Apple Campus." Retrieved from: http://new8.cnet.eom/8301-13579_3-20069915-37/jobs-8tump8-for-new-8pace8hip-like- apple-campu8/?tag=mncol;txt. Accessed January 4, 2012. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Retrieved from: www.nist.gov/baldrige/ about/history.cfm. Accessed December 12,2011. National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Retrived from: www.genome.gov/10001772. Roosevelt, Margot. “Critics' Review Unexpectedly Supports Scientific Consensus on Global , THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL 1 �WHY CAN'T A FIRM BE MORE LIKE A COLLEGE? Warming,” Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2011. Retrived from: http://articIc8.latimcs.eom/2011/apr/04/local/k-me-climate-berkeley-20110404/2. Accessed November 9,2012. SAS. “SAS Incorporates Green Principles into New Construction on Campus.” Retrieved from: www.8as.com/news/preleases/greenbldg.html. Accessed January 4,2012. Scherer, Michael. “The Solyndra Syndrome: The Solar Company’s Failure is More Than a Political Scandal. It’s a Sign of the Times.” Time, 178 no. 14, (2011)':42-45. Sclingo, Jeffrey. “U.S. Public’s Confidence in Colleges Remains High.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 50 no. 35 (2004):l,10. Thorp, Holden and Buck Goldstein. Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Tvuenty-First Century. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Veblen, Thorstein. The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities hy Business Men. New York: Hill and Wang, 1957. Walmart. Retrieved from: http://walmart8tores.com/aboutus/8412.aspx. Accessed January 19, 2012. Winston, Gordon C. “Why Can’t a College be More Like a Firm?” Change, 29 no. 5 (1997):32-38. FALL 2012 I THOUGHT & ACTION | � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Why Can't a Firm Be More Like College? Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2012 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_19 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The NEA Higher Education Journal</em> is published by the National Education Association https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/824960755a1bc5f3dc753100426ee6cf.pdf 127345e7cb2873cf60d715e863227489 PDF Text Text MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 The Alt of Education s ��Art of Becoming Yourself BY CHAD HANSON We know that higher education is much more than test and essay results, but we often forget that basic truth. ver the past two decades we have placed the out­ comes of higher education under scrutiny. Accred­ O iting agencies make the assessment of learning a key to appraising institutions. We scholars make our voices heard on the matter, and politicians have grown curious about undergraduates. In the first decade of the new millennium, Secretary of Education Margaret Spell­ ings’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education spent three years collecting data on the best way to measure the ef­ Academics, accreditors, and government officials are all working to improve the performance of schools. Their efforts represent diverse perspectives, but the research pivots on cognitive psychology: the study of learning, knowl­ edge acquisition, and skill development. Even authors in other fields gravitate toward cognitive psychology when they turn their attention to higher educa­ tion. For example, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa are both sociologists, but their 2011 work Academically Adrift relies on psychometrics: they studied the cognitive skills developed en route to the baccalaureate. This scenario begs a question. Is cognitive psychology the most appropriate tool to employ in the study of education? The discipline of psychology offers CHAD HANSON serves as chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Casper College. He is the author of The Community College and the Good Society and a forthcoming collection of essays, Trout Streams of the Heart. His e-mail address is chanson@cespercollege.edu. PHOTO • THE LAST COOKIE (CC S * 2 01 fect of a college education. ACADEME JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 I 15 �a valuable perspective, but postsecondary life is more than a psychological enterprise. Education is a social institution. Attending a college engages you with one of our cultural traditions, a process akin to taking part in a wedding, funeral, or bar or bat mitzvah. Physically, campuses resemble other kinds of sacred ground. They sometimes even look like churches. And 1 cannot think of a good reason for anyone to wear a mortarboard, aside from adhering to the demands of a deep-rooted rite of passage. Anthropologists suggest that culture influences behavior. Traditions work on thoughts and they determine tendencies. Customs affect the choices we make—the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, and the cars we drive. No doubt our culture shaped our inter­ est in the cognitive outcomes of education. We are individualistic. As a nation, we look inward when we look for answers to questions. We practice “pop psychology” but we have no comparable “popu­ lar anthropology.” Psychological research dominates discussions of higher education because our culture steers our attention in that direction, but accumulated evidence suggests that cognitive development is a poor lens through which to view postsecondary schools. AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH Since the publication of Kenneth A. Feldman and Theodore M. Newcomb’s 1969 book, The Impact of College on Students, researchers have demonstrated that changes in ethics, self-concept, personality, and aesthetic preferences are longer lasting and more signifi­ cant than what are often short-lived advances in skills or knowledge. Unfortunately, what we usually describe as learning is ephemeral. Undergraduates quickly forget what they learned when they were cramming for mid­ terms and final exams. In Academically Adrift, Arum and Roksa report that after three semesters, 45 percent of the students they studied did not show sustained improvement in writing or critical thinking. Over the course of an education, however, students may come to love ideas or reading or the elegance of mathematics or the craft of writing artful sentences. In the words of the eminent psychologist B. F. Skinner, “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” When our institutions are at their best, they turn students into educated people with the values, status, and opportunities that we associate with the college degree. In view of our individualistic tendencies, it makes sense that we see education as a means to personal skill enhancement, but the focus on learning has left a hole in our understanding of the function that educa­ tion serves in our society. At this juncture, and for 16 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 ACADEME immediate political reasons, we need a social and cul­ tural conception of colleges and universities. To that end, we could gain from the methods of anthropolo­ gists, but the field of anthropology has been maligned of late, and by the very people who could benefit from its insights. The Miami Herald-Tribune quoted Florida gover­ nor Rick Scott as asking, “Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? ” He answered his own question, “I don’t think so.” The interview focused on the need for higher education leaders to channel public funds toward fields with the poten­ tial to produce technology and jobs: math, science, and engineering. Shortly after the publication of the Herald-Tribune article, Scott took part in a radio broadcast, in which he suggested of anthropology that “it’s a great degree if people want to get it, but we don’t need them here.” Cultural studies are qualitative in nature. Anthropologists work in the medium of talk or narra­ tive. In our technology- and data-driven lives, we do not hold this form of scholarship in high regard, but a qualitative approach is necessary where our thoughts on education are concerned. The field of anthropol­ ogy surely could help us to understand the kinds of people who graduate from our institutions and why society applauds them. Personhood, after ail, has an aesthetic component. We cannot reduce identities to numerical data, nor can we understand the human self through the use of metrics. Becoming an educated person involves the creation of a new set of stories to tell yourself, a new understanding of who you are. Becoming an educated person is an art. RITES OF PASSAGE The anthropologist Victor Turner conducted seminal studies on the process of taking part in rituals. During his fieldwork, he spent time with the Ndembu people of western Zambia. Through his association with the Ndembu, Turner created a model for understanding the steps through which we pass on the way to elevat­ ing our place in society. Only a handful of scholars make use of Turner’s principles in research on educa­ tion, but the concepts lend themselves to a discussion of postsecondary schools. Turner described three steps in the process of upgrading status: “separation from the mainstream, a period of marginalization or liminality, and finally, aggregation,” where we return to the group in a new capacity. The liminal, from the Latin limen, or “threshold,” is crucial to the process of becoming edu­ cated. Turner describes the liminal state as “betwixt and between.” For a period of four or more years. �We cannot reduce identities to numerical data, nor can we understand the human self through the use of metrics. Becoming an educated person involves the creation of a new set of stories to tell yourself, a new understanding of who you are. traditional undergraduates at residential colleges and universities are “neither here nor there.” Each autumn, sons and daughters leave the homes of their youth to establish themselves on a campus. In the new environment, they become submerged in the culture of college: new rules and values, sex, all-night study sessions, alternative music, alcohol, and extracurricular sports. These are the rituals in which we engage as we move from one stage of life to another. On a personal level, these rites become part of our own biographies or life stories. They are also the means that a society uses to evolve and reinvent itself. As a ritual, higher education affords us a chance to pull away from social and cultural expectations. Immersed in the liminal state, students prepare for new roles and, while they are unmoored from the responsibilities of professions, enjoy the luxury of time spent in reflection on the norms and conventions they left behind. In the era before cognitive ability came to dominate discussions of undergraduate development, Alexander Astin reviewed the studies of student outcomes con­ ducted between 1977 and 1993. He used survey data to give us a partial sense of the changes that students undergo through the course of a baccalaureate. They develop a positive self-image and a greater sense of intellectual competence. Students increase their levels of social activism, their commitment to solving envi­ ronmental problems, and their interest in developing a meaningful philosophy of life. In short, they become different people. Astin’s work suggests that the specific learning outcomes associated with courses are not the strongest determinant of student change. In his classic What Matters in College?, he concludes, “The student’s peer group is the single most potent source of influence on growth and development during the undergraduate years.” As educators, we assume that students enroll in our classes for the sake of the learning outcomes listed on our syllabi. The truth is that learning outcomes are actually a small part of the endeavor. The postsecond­ ary ritual is a large and life-changing experience. Generally speaking, we do not conceive of education as a rite of passage. As a result, our tradi­ tions have grown susceptible to challenges that also ignore this reality. Without a cultural conception of education, it has been possible to minimize our customs and reduce education to training. In particu­ lar, when students take courses on the Internet, we dispense with the cultural portion of education. In online learning, we assess the knowledge and skills that students can demonstrate, momentarily, while logged on to the website for a class. Questions about who you are or what you become are not central to the venture. A recent advertisement for the online Western Governors University suggests that the university mea­ sures “how much you learn, not how much time you spend in class.” From a purely cognitive standpoint, the assertion is logical; but there is also reason to believe that spending time in class is one of the more important elements of becoming an educated person. In addition to time spent with peers, face-to-face con­ tact with faculty members also ranks as a significant determinant of student change. HIGHER EDUCATION AS A CULTURAL PROCESS During the past twenty years, we have taken a compli­ cated, rich, and historic rite of passage and reduced it to its most basic utilitarian purpose. In the process, we have ignored the tools we could have used to explain or understand what we lost in the bargain. It might help to imagine another rite of passage in the same terms we have been using to describe the practice of going to college. Consider marriage. What if we limited weddings to their most basic function? If all that matters, with regard to the institution of mar­ riage, is that two people agree to a set of vows, then we could easily conduct weddings over the Internet. An appropriate person could send copies of the vows to both the bride and groom. They would receive them on their smartphones, and after reading the text, both parties could type the words “I do.” It is questionable whether weddings would have the same meaning if we reduced them to their most basic component and conducted them online. ACADEME JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 I 17 �Education, as a cultural process, is similarly irreduc­ ible. Even those who believe that cognitive skills are the most important outcome of education should acknowledge that it is hard to build skills without an accompanying change in one’s identity. Educators spend a good deal of energy testing critical-thinking ability and, frankly, are frustrated with the results. One reason we have difficulty produc­ ing critical thinking is that we separate thinking from thinkers. We treat critical thinking as if it were a freefloating ability when, in fact, it is a function of oneself or one’s identity. Critical thinking is a way of position­ ing oneself toward a problem. For critical thinking to take place, students must first come to think of themselves as people who are willing to take a critical stance in relation to an issue. Similarly, we conceive of writing as a skill, but good writing is possible only when students come to think of themselves as writers. Let me use myself as an example. I have enjoyed a modest level of suc­ cess as an author. Still, if you compared first drafts of my books and articles with those I produced as a senior in high school, you would find a close match with respect to the level of quality. From what I can tell, my ability has not changed since my late teens, but good writing does not simply result from tal­ ent or abilities. Good writing is the result of editing, revising, and rewriting. My native ability has not improved since I was a teenager, but I have a differ­ ent identity today. As an undergraduate, I started to think of myself as a writer; that changed everything. To be a writer, I found out, takes a willingness to edit your own work until you fall asleep with your face stuck to loose pages of manuscript. Becoming a critical thinker, a writer, and an edu­ cated person is a cultural process. When it is at its best, the process is formative, even transformative. It involves beginning as a neophyte and then becoming an expert or a practitioner of one kind or another— and recognizing the process as a time-honored ritual. Cognitive development is part of the process, but our real task in education is to create an environment where students can become writers, scientists, histo­ rians, biologists, and mathematicians. Each of these professions amounts to more than a skill set. Each is also more than a career. These are identities rooted in the self-concepts of our graduates. STORYTELLING I serve as a consultant-evaluator for the nation’s larg­ est regional accrediting agency. Under the auspices of the Higher Learning Commission, twice a year I visit schools and implore them to measure what students 18 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 ACADEME learn. Even when a college’s mission statement sug­ gests that the institution exists to produce a certain kind of person—“good citizens,” for example—we educators tend to relieve ourselves of the duty to understand the identity shift that occurs during the course of an education. Scholars with a variety of backgrounds have done a good deal to assess the skills that students develop, or fail to develop, in college. In the end, howevei; the important but ignored questions of education have to do with personhood. The economist Howard Bowen once suggested, “The impact of higher education is likely to be determined more by the kind of people col­ lege graduates become than by what they know when they leave college.” To understand the change that students undergo, we need to solicit stories from them, and for that, we will likely need ethnographers and a commitment to understanding the processes and rites of education and not simply their quantifiable outcomes. Efforts to collect students’ stories will serve stu­ dents well if we continue to value job placement as one sign of success upon graduation. Few employers conduct performance appraisals as part of the hiring process. During interviews, people are asked to talk about themselves. Job interviews, in this sense, are exercises in storytelling. Staffing demands are shifting fast in the twentyfirst century. Corporations can train and retrain employees for work in their organizations, but they cannot make an educated person. For that, we need institutions of education. Creating the kinds of people who can successfully inhabit the future is a serious undertaking. The weight of the task should force us to wonder what, exactly, we are trying to achieve. Will we supply the workforce with a corps of single-minded technocrats? Or will we usher in the next renaissance? To accomplish the latter, we will need to view our graduates as people instead of skill sets. We will have to give thought to the norms they observe, the values they share, and the roles they are able to fill. In other words, we will have to study their sense of self—the stories they use to make sense of who they are and where they fit in our society. On assignment for the Higher Learning Commission, I once served on a team that granted initial accreditation to White Earth College, a Native American institution located in west-central Minnesota. One of the distinctive features of the college was a practice that required each student to tell and record a “graduation story.” I listened to a sample of the stories during the time I spent on campus. They struck me as the germ of a custom that could help us plot our course to a better future. ■ � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Art of Becoming Yourself Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_20 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Academe</em> is published by the American Association of University Professors https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/2508ccee7c32dae03d729f8f41c43787.pdf 72a1c9f44b588a829b583b7c1b26af18 PDF Text Text Chad Hanson Creatures That Don't Exist His third grade teacher told him not to mention things that were impos­ sible. Now he has trouble remembering if there is a creature called a “mud puppy.” Their gills were on the outside. He thinks he saw one. In a river? At the state fair? His imagination fills the space in the record. Then he feels the old scold, like in school, so he ditches the memory. His sister lost a child in a complicated birth. He recalled that someone said the souls of dying children enter birds. Then they visit their families as nuthatches. He didn’t mind telling her that story. 53 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Creatures That Don't Exist Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_22 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The Fourth River</em> is published by Chatham University https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/196b69ab15aa6db931f35cbf97177f5e.pdf ed0cd1c37df9dbb2bbcacbe215c85e05 PDF Text Text The Prose Poems Page 1 of 1 HOME http://www.prose-poems.com/pagetwoX.html 4/9/2013 �The Prose Poems Page 1 of 1 HOME SPUING 30n Volume 3Jssue 2 SPRING 2013 Managing Editor Contributing Editon Design Eilen Clay OIMo Mithoefer, Emily Lee Equinox Publishing Cover photo; Lighthouse Railing, REI, 2011 € 2013 by Equinox Publishing. All rights reserved. No parr of this volume maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means.elecrronk. mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher: Equinox Publishing, PO Box 424, Shelburne. VT 0S482. /SSN21SS-I(»6(oo«ne) O http://www.prose-poems.com/pagetwoX.htmI [> �The Prose Poems Page 1 of 1 HOME iPItINfi 2013 Chad Hanson Godfather of Soul J ean left him at the new cabin for twenty days. The place needed repair. He didn't plan well, though. He brought the right tools, not enough food. The prior owner left a boom-box but he could not find a radio station. On day three, he ran across a compact disk. The songs were by James Brown. He listened to the Godfather, nonstop, for sixteen days and nights. His personality started to bend. Papa don't take no mess. He shouted. Get up offa that thong! He started to imagine that James Brown turned himself into James Brown through the force of his own will. Until then, he assumed that you were simply born yourself. He didn't know that you could choose an identity. After the third week, Jean drove up to check on her husband. She felt the change before she made it to the top of the driveway. le http://www.prose-poems.com/pagetwoX.html <] o 4/9/2013 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Godfather of Soul Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_23 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The Prose-Poem Project</em> is published by Equinox Publishing https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/ba27f3ceae8034986a34f862e957bdaa.pdf c2fef1374610a2dc212c47dc4baf43be PDF Text Text SALMON FLY ARMADA Chad Hanson They spend months on the bottom sides of stones set into the creek bed. Then they launch into the current. They swim to the top. They wrestle with their skeletons. When the great bugs finish with the ordeal, they fly. In the middle of the stream, I lift my sight to the horizon. Armada. Too many to see with my two eyes. A tight formation, hovering while I wobble over the rocks. 45 �GRASSHOPPER Chad Hanson He watched Robert Redford’s adaptation of A River Runs Through It. Then he bought a fly rod. He spent twenty-four years chasing trout. He searched for fish, but he also went in search of authenticity. He wanted something simple and untainted by television commercials. Now his knees hurt. His parents are gone and he looks sad. He no longer catches fish on hooks to stave off the decay of our culture. He catches grasshoppers, instead. After he finds ten of them he rides his bike to a bridge over the Henry’s Fork. One by one, he drops the hoppers into the current and one-by-one trout rise up to eat them. 61 �FLY FISHING FROM A SEVENTEEN STORY WINDOW Chad Hanson From a hotel room in Seattle, in a dream before the dawn, I swish my fly rod over streets, rooftops, and city parks. I sail my line over the green carpet of leaves that coat the Emerald City. Fish swim up between the trees. Scales become parrot feathers. Fins turn into airplane wings. A school is a flock and the sky is full of rainbow trout. They follow my lead, but they don’t find a hook. In this dream 1 am simply conducting. 77 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Salmon Fly Armada," "Grasshopper," and "Fly Fishing from a Seventeen Story Window" Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_24 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The <em>Owen Wister Review</em> is published by The University of Wyoming https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/f32860aea059f87b7c1da15ea7d29d5e.pdf f03ccf5f595b82e85c091c9baa48e433 PDF Text Text �CHAD HANSON Pf i shine Grip A crowded sidewalk. Chicago. Ronnie walks along. He thinks L ♦ IL When she turned seventeen she bought a pair of boots covfrl ered with sequins. She wore them to church. Then she wore I ve got a pair of big boy pants. No one has anything on me.” The pants don’t fit. Guess jeans made them for women in the 1990s K them to her grandmother’s cabin. She wanted to shine. No one He pulls at them and remembers the day that he lost his grip The desk in his office opened up to become the windshield on the Starship Enterprise. Warp drive. He drank to make it stop. E thought about water when she looked at the boots. Bodies of K water shine sometimes. Lakes ripple whenever it’s windy. At I times a lake will beam sunlight. Other times they lose their Then came the lawyers and the “peace” officers. In a city park, he I- luster. They let people look through them. After dinner, her holds onto the base of an oak tree. It’s better than clinging to fur­ ‘ niture. Tree roots burrow into the soil. They know how to sink 34 Summer 2013 E could fault her. Everybody needs to shine. But her grandma > grandma paddled to the cove at the end of the lake. She let the canoe glide over a spot where she could see the bottom. Clarion 16 Hanson | 35 �Calculations His company won the contract. They would build the new hydro, electric dam. The engineers gathered in Tulsa: laptops, calcula­ tors, and drafting pencils. As a team, they drew up plans. The’ spent the first day, “operationalizing.” Afterword he met his wif» at Applebee’s. During their second glass of wine she asked hin about the river. Is it home to fish? Salamanders? Does it nourisl any farms along its route? Is it pretty? He didn’t know. The uni­ versity taught him to calculate. He couldn’t make any judgments 36 I Hanson Summer joi: �Calculations His company won the contract. They would build the new hydroelectric dam. The engineers gathered in Tulsa: laptops, calcula­ tors, and drafting pencils. As a team, they drew up plans. They spent the first day, “operationalizing.” Afterword he met his wife at Applebee’s. During their second glass of wine she asked him about the river. Is it home to fish? Salamanders? Does it nourish any farms along its route? Is it pretty? He didn’t know. The uni­ versity taught him to calculate. He couldn’t make any judgments. 36 I Hanson Summer 2013 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Grip," "Shine," and "Calculations" Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_25 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Clarion</em> is published by Boston University https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/334990721b65602ee6b9355a55fd9c98.pdf 789889ac5a967dfc23174971b4174832 PDF Text Text Connecticut River Review 2013 �chad Hanson Sight Club He lost his sight in an explosion on an oil rig. He listened to the nurse. The patches on his eyes felt like pancakes. The doctor told him, "I am not optimistic." He explained that he did not stand a good chance to recover. For seven months he lived with memories of hue and tone. He put his hand on his yellow lab and used his mind to make an image of the dog, bounding through a green field, chasing pheasants in the fall. When they cut the bandages he opened his eyelids. A picture of his wife flew into his pupils. He won a settlement. He bought an easel and a stack of fifteen canvases. He had never held a brush, but he knew how to paint. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sight Club Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_26 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Connecticut River Review</em> is published by Grayson Books https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/ac1c0187927a0962e554ab8327054c7f.pdf 7210d48e6274afd571d87b609a59714d PDF Text Text QNB BLy FISHER TO ZEN Wrif+eiA by HltAKSOK it r a i^riend Dan throws parties in the summertime. F Z They are the big events of the season. People mill around the backyard drinking beer, laughing, and asking questions about politics and gardening. Last August, on a run from the yard to the kitchen, Dan bumped my arm by _ accident. His eyes lit up, he said. “Hanson,** and then he vanished into the basement. Seconds later, I heard his voice bubbling from below. He said, “Hanson. Come down here. I want to show you something.** At the bottom of the stairs, he stood holding a tube made out of thin metal — 2 inches thick and a little more than 2 feet long. Printed on the side were the words, “Tenkara U.S.A." I asked, “What is it?" He said, “A fly rod.” He unscrewed one end of the tube and pulled out a short, black stick with a wooden handle on the end. He repealed, “It’s a fly rod.** 11)6 �“Dan. That is a small, black wand. Do the kids have you reading the Harry Potter books again?’’ He popped a cap off of the tip, and then he started pulling thin, telescop­ ing sections out of the hollow staff. The pieces kept coming, one after another. When he finished, the rod extended out 12 feet. He passed the handle my direction. “They’re Japanese. My sister worked on a project for the company that imports them." “Where is the reel seat? Where are the guides for the fly line? Why is it so long? Is this a cane pole?” In the next two minutes, Dan explained how Japanese fly fishers tend not to use reels. They tie 10 or 12 feet of braided line to the end of their rods, and then they fling their flies like Huckleberry Finn. Daaaaaaaaad! Upstairs, five kids were chasing each other with implements from the garage. Dan set the rod against a chair and ran upstairs to quell the mayhem. Maybe it’s because I was drinking my third beer, and the situation felt sur­ real, or maybe it’s because I’m not receptive to new takes on old tradi­ tions, but either way I didn’t think too much about the telescoping pole. After my brief introduction, I forgot about Tenkara. Lynn and I camp on the west side of the Big Horn Mountains in the fall. In September, elk come out of the high country to bugle and mate in the rolling juniper and sagebrush. For three days we hike along ridges and down to the bottoms of valleys. We stroll through the woods and walk onto the prairie — Big Sky Journal 107 �In tkc next two minutes^ Dan explained kow Japanese fly fiskers tend not to use reels. Tkey tie lo or 1£ feet of kraided line to tkc end of tkeir rods/ and tken tkey fling tkeir flies like Hucklckerry Fi nn. listening. Shrill horns trumpet across the land. We make camp on a sandbar in the middle of Sleeping I say, “No. I did not check the car. It is not in the car. It’s on my desk.” Bear Creek. There are rapids on either side of the island, so I cleaned my line two days before, and then set the it’s easy to walk across the creek on the tops of stones. We carry our gear to the site, pitch the tent and build a fire in the sand at water’s edge. This year it takes longer than usual to haul our stuff to the campsite. As we get older, we seem to “require” more “Aaagh.” I join Lynn next to the campfire. I stew and pout for equipment: comfortable chairs, a deluxe coffee maker, a cooler full of small-batch beer. When the tent is set up 15 minutes. I hold my hands up near the flame. While I watch the fire leap from the sand, a trout rises on the water and the fire is started, I ask the perennial question, “Do you mind if I go fishing?” It doesn't bother Lynn. The downriver. That is too much. I tell myself, “I have to figure something out.” I sift through my fishing bag and find a truth is, once the fire is started, she plants herself next to the flames, and then nothing comes between her and the radiating heat. spool wound with tippet material. I pick it up and am struck by the thought of Tenkara. I start to wonder if I need a reel. I put my fly rod together and open up my fishing bag. I cut a 10-foot section and fix it to the last eyelet at the tip of the fly rod. Then I tie a bug to the end of the line. It only takes a moment to rifle through the whole entire thing. Then I go through the pockets. the creek slows down and forms a pool. A school of trout I cannot find my reel. Lynn asks, “Did you check in the car?” 108 reel in front of me so I could admire my attention to detail. Then I packed for the trip and left the reel beside my com­ puter. 1 crouch and sneak upstream. Above the whitewater, hold themselves above the point where the current dives into the rocks. �She said, “You are a nut. Grab a beer and find some I attempt to make a cast, but the effort is a disaster. The timing is different from anything that I have tried. firewood.” Without a fly line, the tippet lingers in the air over the creek. 1 decide to practice on the shore. It feels like I am At home, I start to look for information about Tenkara. It in slow motion, but I fall into a rhythm after five minutes. turns out there is just one group that promotes the practice. 1 discover it is possible to fling the fly: flick ... wait, flick Tenkara U.S.A, maintains a Web site with information ... wait, flick ... wait. It seems about the history of Japanese ungraceful, but it works. I walk fishing, educational videos, and a catalog complete with flies toward the stream with the tip­ pet swinging back and forth. When I drop my fly on the and rods. In English, the word water a trout swims up to the “Tenkara" translates to some­ surface. Sip. Tug. The two of us thing like the phrase, “From the sky." Years ago, the Japanese are connected. discovered that most trout are caught within 10 or 20 feet Out of habit, I reach for the reel with my left hand. There of an angler. Culturally, the is no reel. There is no reel? 1 mutter, "Uh. Oh." The trout scrambles through the pool Japanese are also given to ascet­ while I think about what to do icism, and it is the combination of sober assessment and love next, but he’s not interested in fighting. I set the rod down of austerity that gave rise to Tenkara. It turns out that it and then draw him toward the doesn’t take much gear to make shore. This trout did not mind a fly fall onto the water 15 feet that I left my reel at home. I from where you stand. release him into the pool and he A Tenkara fisher brings rejoins his companions. During the next half an a minimal amount of equip­ ment to the river — a pole, a hour, in the horizontal light of dusk, I catch four more trout braided line, and typically one type of fly. One type of fly? The with 10 feet of tippet tied to the end of my custom-made McFarland rod. I suspect that I just voided the manufactur­ er’s warrantee by admitting as much, but what the heck. It's all enkara fisker brings a minimal amount or equipment to tke river — a pole/ a kraiJeJ -inc/ and typically one type of fly­ I could do, and it was fun. With a successful cast I could lob the fly no more than 15 feet. That meant I had to crouch on shore, slink over rocks, and creep up behind unsuspecting fish. Casting with no fly line or reel changed the nature of the angling experience. Japanese do not strive to “match the hatch.” They learned a key lesson over the course of gener­ ations: trout like insects. If you present a fly properly, and the timing is right, one bug works about as well as another, espe- daily on creeks in remote locations. Each Tenkara fisher has a favorite fly, but they’re all dry and they don’t carry a variety. When I started reading about Tenkara, the philosophy Back at camp, I boasted to Lynn about the brook trout gave me a sense that I had come home. I’ve always felt that I caught, and I described the technique born out of under-dressed because I do not wear a fishing vest full of necessity. 4,000 different fly patterns. I suddenly felt justified, with Big Sky Journal 109 �respect to my choice to cast an Adams in nearly every cir­ cumstance. a weekend in October. Jackson is stunning. The town sits at the catalog. The rods all telescope. They shrink to less underneath the Teton Range. The rugged peaks rise over the village, serving as a reminder of a time when the Earth sought to reach up toward the sky. than 20 inches, and they extend from 11 to 13 feet. There are six models to choose from. Like a good consumer, I It’s a good place for Lynn and I to recreate. We both like to drink coffee and the town hosts several fine cafes. began to analyze each rod with an eye toward making sub­ tle distinctions. I spent two hours trying to weigh the costs The landscape offers me a chance to fish and ride my mountain bike. Lynn likes to watch animals, and from that and benefits of each rod's length and characteristics. standpoint, it is the best destination in North America. My wife is also an artist, so she likes to peruse the galleries to After growing familiar with Tenkara, I started to look Then 1 read a piece of advice in one of the forums posted on the Tenkara Web site. One of the group’s propri­ etors wrote, "Don’t sweat the decision. Each rod is good. Each one will serve you well. You’ll have fun no matter which model you choose." That sounded reasonable, so I chose the one described as an "all-arounder.” I ordered a 12-foot "Ebisu." I liked the thought that it was designed without a narrow purpose in mind, but the real selling see the work of regional painters. She draws inspiration from others, much in the same way that writers read out­ side of their genre. I like to look at paintings, too. But I do not enjoy art as much as Lynn. After I’ve seen 40 renderings of the Grand Teton and its surrounding peaks. I'm ready for a change of venue. Lynn understands my short attention span where point was the wooden handle — carved from red pine grown on the side of a mountain in Japan. paintings are concerned, so when I ask if I can take an This fall my wife and I drove over to Jackson Hole for The Buffalo Fork drains the Continental Divide east of afternoon to fish the Buffalo Fork River, she says, "What a good idea." Gallery Saluting flyfishers all around the world Enter into the world of Parks Reece's Surrealism, Satire, Commentary, and utterly “Untamed Imagaination” feel free To LAUGH 119 South Main St Livingston, MT Tel. 406.222.5724 VAMvu.parbsreece.eom 1 10 Trophy of the Velloivstone �Teton National Park. It flows through a series of meadows before it pours into the Snake. It is late October, I am standing in what should be one of the process begins to seem ordinary. I forget about the fact that I am not using a reel, and it occurs to me that this style of fishing is utterly silent. the coldest valleys in the nation, and With no clicks or whirs from I’m wearing cut-offs and a tee shirt. It is 70 degrees, the sun is shining, and a reel to draw my attention, I find myself focusing on the sound of air the air is calm. rustling through the sagebrush and I can smell the freshly carved red pine when I take the Tenkara pole prairie grasses. I am moved to look up at the dry leaves that remain on from its container. I extend each sec­ tion out until the rod stands 12 feet the branches of cottonwoods. I’m not tall. I tie a 10-foot length of braided line to the tip of the pole. Then I add a tippet and a fly. While I am in the making a sound, and I find myself in a moment of suspension. My ears tell ELICHAI my eyes where to look and my mind reaches out toward the water, through FINE JEWELRY parking lot I practice switching the rod back and forth. The fly swings the treetops, and upstream beside the slowly through the air and wafts onto the ground like a sparrow feather. As I relax into the scene along the bank of the Buffalo Fork, it occurs to When I reach with my arm I can loft a me that a moment of silence is the highest tribute we can pay to a person cast as far as 20 feet, but no farther. I start to realize this technique is going shore. to take more strategy than I am accus­ or place. It’s a deep and solemn way to offer an acknowledgment. We say, tomed to using. “Let us have a moment of silence.’’ On the shore, I begin to look for a pocket of water that could hide a official method of concentration — a school of trout. But I notice the water level is low on account of a long and dry summer. The stream looks like it’s been stripped to its skeleton. Deep Many religions accept quiet as an means of touching the divine. When I was young, I used to watch the Roland Martin fishing runs shrunk into capillaries. I walk show. During one of the episodes, I heard him declare: “You can’t catch the bank looking for a place to cast a fish if your line is not in the water.” a fly, but the river doesn’t offer any feeding lanes or refuges for trout — I took the message literally. Most of nowhere to toss a bug. Still, for the the time, if I am near a body of water, my line is in motion. Even so, after I sake of practice, I throw my line onto the water. finish practicing with the new rod, I The left side of my body starts to feel neglected. Once again. I’m fishing see a trout. I let my ears lead me upstream. I fish for an hour, and I spot several fish with no reel, so there’s no job for my left arm. I hold the pole with my right keep my fly off the current unless I holding in the deeper runs along the hand. I swish it back and forth to bank, but I can’t compel a fish to rise. generate enough momentum to propel The trout are reluctant to come out the line. It takes 20 minutes, but then in the bright afternoon sun. They’re Big Sky Journal 111 �Wken 1 started reading akout Tcnkara/ tke pkilosopky gave me a sense that 1 had come kome. 1 ve always felt undcr^dressed kccause 1 do not wear a Gsliing vest full of 4/000 different fly patterns. 1 suddenly felt justified/ witk respect to my ckotce to cast an ?\dams in nearly every circumstance. Snake River fine-spotted cutthroats. I’ve only caught a few of them. Before I knew what they were, I called them "blue- rod bends and bounces with the fish as he wages a fight. Tenkara poles are soft and flexible. Even if you were back" trout. When you see them through the water, their backs appear notably blue. They’re distinct from the well- inclined to, there is no way to dominate or redirect a fish, and I decide that’s just as well. It takes three minutes, known Yellowstone cutthroat. Historically, their range was maybe more, but eventually I lure the trout toward the limited to the Snake and its tributaries. They are handsome fish. Their smoky blue backs complement their tangerine pectoral fins. bank. It’s a fine-spotted cutthroat. The fish looks healthy in It’s getting late, and I consider hiking back to the car, but upstream I notice a stretch of river where the current is diverted through a channel running in between a boulder The return trip to Jackson takes half an hour. It is and a half-sunk cottonwood. At the bottom of the channel, the water drops over a ridge and forms a pool with a surge nearly dark by the time I make it to our hotel room. When of current swirling into its center. I creep along shore, doing of a book she bought while I was on my fishing trip. It’s a my best to avoid casting a shadow onto the surface. When I collection of essays on the lives and personalities of sand­ get close, I swing the pole into motion. 1 drop the bug onto hill cranes. I pour a glass of water at the sink and join her outside on the porch. We are quiet for a minute. Neither the river as it pours over the ledge at the top of the pool. The water sweeps the fly downstream for a moment — then a strike. A fish takes a swipe at the bug. The trout swims for the deepest part of the pool. My 112 spite of the low water. His orange fins send a smile across my face. I shake the hook out of his jaw, and then he slips back into the river. I return, I find Lynn on the balcony. She’s reading a copy one of us says anything. I start to feel my ears straining involuntarily. I think I hear my breath, but then I wonder — maybe it belongs to her. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Magazine Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tenkara U.S.A: Resourcefulness Leads One Fly Fisher to Zen Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div id="dublin-core-rights" class="element"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <div class="element-text"><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2013-02 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chad Hanson Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_27 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>Big Sky Journal</em> is published by J.D. Publishing, LLC