In the season of planning for the 2017-2018 school year, students should consider a course called Further Engagements (FE). It was the most unconventional and wonderful course I’ve taken thus far in my academic career.

For midterms and finals, we had conversations. There were no papers, only reading assignments. It was challenging, but not stressful, and it was consistently the highlight of my weeks. Books changed, on average, every 2 weeks; so did professors. For someone who holds getting to know professors as a highlight and hallmark of a Transylvanian education, the course is a steal—7 for the price of only 1 credit.

“What makes Further Engagements distinctive? It both mainlines and models lifelong learning for the liberally educated.FE mainlines lifelong learning: it urges students and faculty to feel free to use all of their experience and knowledge to address a provocative text—right now, together—without the constraint of a quiz or a paper due.” — Jack Furlong.

With courses as small and discussion-oriented as they are at Transy, classmates can make or break a good class. The quality of participating students is one element that makes Further Engagements exceptional. Students interested in the class had to send an email to a professor explaining why they were interested in taking the course and what they thought it would contribute to their liberal arts education, along with the name of a professor who could attest to the value of their participation in class. This is not to say that Transy students aren’t incredibly hard-working in general, but this assured that everyone in the course was really there for the right reasons, and was conscious of the fact that they would be expected to bring something to the table.

The students, and their relationship with the professor as required by the setup of the course completely changes the dynamics of discussion, for the better. Professors, according to the tradition of the course, chose to teach (or rather, assign readings and guide discussions for) books outside of their field of study. This may sound illogical or inefficient, but in the liberal arts, where interdisciplinary ideas overlap and curiosity and new ways of thinking abound, it’s a wonderful thing. This completely changed the dynamic of the classroom, because it put the professor at (almost) the same level of power and understanding as the students. Students were enabled and encouraged to speak more frequently, and to take the discussion where they wished, everyone was in collaboration to move the class forward. The multi-disciplinary book/professor combos, along with the enthusiasm and diverse backgrounds of other students in the class, made for some of the most absolutely brilliant group discussions of my college career.

The books chosen, and the actual material of the course also had a positive impact on the class. The chosen books were classics. We read The Feminine Mystique, Origin of Species, Peer Gynt, Frankenstein, R.U.R., The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Plato´s Gorgias. Many of these books are classics in the foundational sense; they were and are texts that either caused or reflected some of the most important aspects of our current society. To give an example— Friedan´s Feminine Mystique arguably helped establish a foundation for the feminism that followed from the 60’s, and which is still influential today. I loved the sense of accomplishment and well-roundedness this gave me. Moreover, my experience with these books was different and arguably better than it would have been if I’d experienced them through the lenses of their respective fields. I may not have developed a perfect scientific understanding of Charles Darwin’s original text of The Origin of Species, but through a multi-disciplinary, discussion-based perspective, I grappled with theological and social implications of the text and came to insights regarding how Darwin laid the foundation for a new worldview (an astoundingly hopeful and beautiful one, by the way). I was able to take away something you just don’t get when you learn about his contributions scientifically or superficially, and I feel like I see the world a little more clearly after reading something that changed the course of scientific history.

“This is the class that allows us to sit down, set aside our mundane works, and think about the fundamental questions and ideals like justice and virtue that shape human life.” —Sibei Lin, ’18

The course became philosophical in many ways, but without limiting itself to just the field of philosophy—the structure of the course simply requires examining the texts at the highest level.

All the academic and intellectual prowess of the course I’ve described above was complemented by a casual and incredibly personal atmosphere. We had class in different locations. We read the Tibetan Book of the Dead aloud to each other under the trees, and discussed philosophy over dinner in the President’s room with President Carey. We gathered in the lobby in BSC with all the stuffed birds and icky things in jars to discuss the Origin of Species with Dr. Slepyan, and made tea to accompany cookies and Chinese food in the chemistry lab with Dr. Csuhai for our reading and occasional listening to and acting out of the play Peer Gynt. I’m convinced the casual nature of our gatherings contributed to the quality of our discussions, as well as helping us form a more personal relationship with professors and peers. Something about being freshly stuffed with egg rolls brings out the best and brightest in people.

Further Engagements should be embraced by students and faculty and continued in future years. University support is important to bring in professors and to promote the course to students. Look for it on Tnet and Tnotes for the 2017-2018 school year.

Last week the Trump administration announced the withdrawal of Obama’s policy on transgender rights in educational programs regarding equal protection under the Title IX guidelines. The Obama administration had issued a formal guideline to colleges and universities which stated that schools “must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.” The Obama administration basically told colleges that the federal government interpreted Title IX rules to include protections for transgender people instead of only those who identify as cisgender.

Instead of continuing with the policy of the Obama administration, the Trump administration recently withdrew this guideline which offered protection from discrimination, bullying, and harassment in schools to transgender students. The power to interpret this part of Title IX, and therefore to protect or deny protections to transgender rights, is now being turned over to states and local school districts. They can either adopt policies similar to the withdrawn guidelines, which protect these students, or they can refuse to forbid the discrimination of this marginalized group.

According to Transy’s stated Title IX policies, the university “prohibits sex- and gender-based discrimination in educational programs”. Although the university’s official Title IX policy statement doesn’t clearly define sex and gender, it is apparent that Transy considers sex and gender two separate concepts.

For those of you that aren’t clear on the difference, sex is simply the physical difference between a penis and a vagina, while gender is a social construct consisting of various gender roles that are attached to a specific sex. You can see some of these gender roles played with and expressed on well-known websites similar to hdpornvideo. Check this hdpornvideo to see what hype is all about. When a person says that they’re a man or woman, that’s an expression of their gender identity. A person who’s transgender has a different gender identity than the one that matches their physical sex assigned at birth. A person can also express a non-binary identity, which means they aren’t necessarily identifying as a man or a woman in terms of their gender identity. Every aspect of life is harder when someone is transgender. From Transgender Dating, to deciding what bathroom they should use and what clothes they should wear, removing these transgender rights is making life more difficult for trans people.

Many people express their gender identity through following gender roles. Gender roles are essentially socially constructed rules that are differentiated by one’s sex. They assign typical characteristics, attributes, behaviors and lifestyles for both the male and female sex within society. These predetermined expectations shape and influence who a person is. Gender roles tell us that women are meant to be softer, quieter and more maternal than men, who are expected to be tough and macho, not even adult film sites conform by these social constructs any more, don’t believe me? Head on over to somewhere like Nu Bay.

All these different definitions can create legal questions when a law like Title IX doesn’t clearly define what is meant by sex and gender. The law isn’t clear, for example, on whether gender identity is protected under Title IX.

Transy, for its part, has taken a pretty clear position. Even though the Title IX handbook doesn’t clearly state how the school handles cases of discrimination or harassment towards transgender students, Ashley Hinton-Moncer, Transy’s Title IX Coordinator, states that it is the school’s duty to protect transgender students. She states that “With or without the federal guidance, I am committed to ensuring all students have the right to equal education free from harassment.” Hinton-Moncer is not the only staff member or professor on Transylvania’s campus that has gone on the record to commit to protecting trans* students. The Academic Dean, Laura Bryan, also stated Transylvania is committed to “creating a safe and respectful environment for all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of gender identity or expression.” It has been made extremely clear from the faculty, staff, and administration that our university believes in equal protection and validity of all genders on campus.

Transylvania’s position is the morally justifiable stance towards transgender rights in educational programs. Gender equality is a basic human right that should be implemented in law and society, and gender identity and trans* issues are a part of that. In the same way that Transylvania cannot discriminate against a female student based on sex, it is equally as absurd for Transylvania to discriminate against a student based on their gender identity. It’s encouraging and important that Transy takes a stand on this issue, and I’m glad they did. Last week I was reminded as to why I chose to get my education at Transylvania University when I heard the position they took regarding this important issue.

Megan Goins

Václav Havel is not a widely known figure in the West. The Czech playwright, dissident, political activist, and eventual first democratically elected President of Czechoslovakia in the post-Communist era wrote for about thirty years on a wide range of political topics. Among his favorite themes, one that was of pressing importance in the oppressive atmosphere of Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia, was the importance of simply talking to people, and of telling the truth.

I was first introduced to Havel’s work last semester, in Dr. Ken Slepyan’s survey course of wider Eastern European History. At the time, I read it more-or-less the same way I read most course material—lightly. However, lately I’ve been coming back to his work, especially his political essays. This column is a result of sitting with those essays, and thinking about how these writings from forty years ago might be useful to us, here at Transy, today. I’d like to take this column and introduce you to these ideas.

Before anything else, Havel writes that there is a basic moral duty to speak the truth. This seems like an obvious idea, scarcely worth mentioning, but it’s important to consider what exactly Havel means by truth. The truth is not simply facts that can be verified by one means or another, but are the facts that actually matter. If you’re talking about window tiles falling onto people, “we should talk about window ledges and not bring mankind into it.” Havel calls this type of untruth evasive thinking, and it forms the basis for his essay of the same name.

The truth, according to Havel, “is where the whole thing begins and ends, and all the other ifs, ands, or buts are just attempts to muddy the waters.” The parallels to the modern situation could not be clearer; how many times, usually in arguing about politics, do we try and divert the subject from an uncomfortable area to a topic that better favors ‘our side?’

The problem is that this evasive thinking does nothing but degrade our shared civic society. Without a shared reality, and a shared set of principles, then the social ties that keep us together will collapse. Given the divisive political climate, and the incredible acrimony over basic facts, the immediacy of this threat, of a collapse of our shared society, is ever-more pressing.

I want to take a moment and talk about this civic society. This is, essentially, the idea that we are tied to one another by our shared experiences and ideas with each other, and the fact of sharing creates bonds between us, outside of any outside influence. In his essay on Power and the Powerless, Havel describes these bonds as an “inner relationship to other people and to the human community.” The bonds are the basis for all other organizations, whether economic, political—or educational.

Transy, as what is for better or worse a somewhat insulated community, is ideally placed to become an incubator of the kind of civic society Havel envisions. In any given day, you, the reader, will probably make eye contact with a good part of the campus. We’re a small enough school for that to be an option. I’d like to use this column, reader, to ask you to start a conversation with someone you meet eyes with and don’t know. You might find you like them. One the other hand, you might find you don’t; that only makes it more important that you actually talk to them. Tell them the truth and nothing but, and listen when they do the same with you.

As some of the stories in this issue attest, Transy itself is reacting to the new political climate in a profound way. These tensions are deep and serious; that cannot be denied. They might be unbridgeable. But at the very least all of us should try to bridge them. And that’s the plain truth.