An information session on a free University of British Columbia
course that will be offered next fall to the city’s disadvantaged
will be held on Thursday, June 18 at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Community
Centre, 401 Main Street.
A project of UBC and the university’s student Alma Mater Society,
Humanities 101 is a free, non-credit course designed to provide
access to post-secondary level course work in the humanities to
people who would not usually be exposed to higher learning.
The course, to be taught by university lecturers, will attempt
to remove any potential barriers for students by providing meals,
bus passes and child care expenses. There is space for 25 students
for the course, which will begin in September.
The aim is “to offer non-vocational training that empowers students
to use critical thinking in everyday life and inspire a passion
for lifelong learning,” says Allison Dunnet, who along with Am Johal,
is co-chair of the committee planning the course.
The idea for Humanities 101 came from an article in Harper’s magazine.
It described a similar program set up in New York’s Lower East Side
by author Earl Shorris. He started the program after an inmate in
a women’s prison told him the poor needed “a moral alternative to
the street” to be able to rise above their circumstances.
Graduates of the New York program, none of whom had previous higher
education, have gone on to college studies or full-time jobs.
“There are lots of skill-based programs out there, but none that
focus on the arts and humanities. We believe that teaching critical
thinking skills is just as valid as teaching specific job skills,”
says Dunnet.
The program has enlisted the help of UBC lecturer Jim Green, former
head of the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association, and now a
provincial civil servant in the Ministry of Employment and Investment.
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