Date:  Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:10:08 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: gen ed



when i was at umass (amherst) as an undergrad, some ling courses

counted as humanities credits, some as social science, and some as

natural science/math in the gen ed system. that, i think, is how it

should be! here at wits, i'm trapped in the faculty of arts, which

they are thinking of reorganizing into "nodes" and our tiny

department is heard crying through the halls of academe "no! no! don't

put us with literature!"



when i was at illnois (urbana), we got gen ed recognition for (i

believe) two classes: the intro to language science course and the

intro to psycholinguistics course. the main thing that was necessary

was to make it a writing-heavy course, which is rewarding enough to

do in itself (except for all the weekends spent marking).



here, there is no such thing as general education or even liberal

arts. alas and alack.



lynne



---------------------------------------------------------------------

M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-4199

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA