t h e h a r d e r w ay o u t Meryl Cates ’08 was the first ever to combine dance and journalism in the BALA program. She found the journalism class she took sophomore year to be exciting and challenging, prompting a detour from her original academic route. “Creating the curriculum for my BALA was one of the most empowering moments of my college career,” she explains. While the major does allow freedom and flexibility, it’s not an easy one. “Discipline and motivafor tion were key because the nager a m s n nicatio k. u m course load of a BALA is very m r Yo is co f New s ‘08 City o l Cate rigorous,” she says. Schlesinger agrees: y e r h e t M of useum “The BALA is not a slightly easier way to get a the M Purchase degree. It’s the harder way to get a Purchase degree.” Cates, who hails from Mahopac, NY, describes her career as varied, but “always rooted in the arts and journalism.” She’s had articles published in dance magazines and blogs, covered theatre online for Interview magazine, and in 2010 received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in dance criticism. She’s now the communications manager for the Museum of the City of New York in Manhattan. “The discipline and, ultimately, the confidence that the major required me to develop helped me to prepare for my winding career path.”
Paris Whittingham ‘09, is a relationship photographer and independent creative producer.
That same year, Whittingham collaborated with Archan Nair, an illustrator from New Delhi, India, whom he met via Behance, an online platform that connects creative professionals to each other and to those seeking to hire them. The Joy Ballad, one of the images from the resulting series The Dream Collaborative, received a “shout-out” from Kanye West on his blog. Behance founder and CEO Scott Belsky, also struck by the work, cited the collaboration as a success story in Making Ideas Happen, the book he wrote about overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality. The mention on Kanye’s blog and the subsequent press coverage boosted the careers of both Whittingham and Nair. “This program [BALA] is built for passionate self-starters—students who are willing to design their own curriculum, create actionable goals, and work independently toward the result,” Whittingham says.
t r e n di n g
a s m a l l b u t s e r io u s g ro u p
The notion of individualized majors is hardly new; the option first emerged in the 1960s and ’70s. Will Shortz, crossword editor for the New York Times, earned a bachelor’s degree in enigmatology— the study of puzzles—from Indiana University in 1974 and famously remains the only person known to hold the degree. But the trend toward offering individualized majors in higher education is on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reported an uptick of 5.1 percent between 2005 and 2010 in schools offering individualized courses of study.2 Educators realize that complex global issues, such as climate change, epidemics, and terrorism, call for interdisciplinary thinking in the search for solutions.3
According to the Office of the Registrar, only a small number of BALA students are enrolled at any one time. For the past 10 years, the average number of graduates per year has been two or three. Schlesinger intentionally tries to weed out those students for whom the major isn’t quite right. The result is a small but serious group of students. “I don’t think that this is a program that benefits from having huge numbers in it. I think it’s a program that benefits those students for whom it is appropriate,” he explains. The program has appealed to a number of entrepreneurial spirits over the years. Parris Whittingham ’09, for one, is both a successful wedding photographer—referring to himself as a “relationship photographer”—and an independent creative producer. After taking an entrepreneurship class, he declared a BALA degree in independent study and arts management. “The BALA program allowed me to pursue my passion for entrepreneurship with a focus on the arts.” Whittingham has had a lifelong interest in telling stories. He remembers his mother buying the drawings he made as a 4-yearold for 25 cents each and hanging them throughout the house. “She really helped instill a value for my work and for the craft of presenting stories visually.” He launched his business as a relationship photographer from his dorm room in Fort Awesome. The first couple he ever photographed came to campus for their engagement session, since he didn’t drive. In 2010, he created a youth mentorship program called the RLS Project in Brooklyn’s High School for Global Citizenship. The program paired high school students with creative professionals to explore the art of storytelling and photojournalism and empower the next generation of emerging photographers and storytellers. PURCHASE | 8
Critics may contend that these degrees are impractical or lack depth, or that the creation of curriculum should be left to faculty. “I understand the appeal of depth, but if I personally had to choose, I would say leave depth for graduate school and let the student look as widely and broadly as possible,” Schlesinger argues. For certain students, selecting their course of study is a motivating factor in itself. “My feeling—it’s a very complicated political and educational issue—is that the less a student does that she feels she’s doing because she’s told she has to, the better,” he says. The BALA program is the epitome of the Purchase motto “Think Wide Open.” According to Schlesinger, “Purchase has always been a school that is especially rewarding for students who pursue what they want to do, whether it’s in a conventional major or not. The proactive, self-motivated student who has some sense of his or her own needs and wishes, and is willing to work for them, has always profited from the Purchase experience.” 1
Weil, Henry. “SUNY at Purchase, The Struggle for a Learning Utopia.” Change, vol 6. no. 6 (Summer 1974), pp 32-37, 40-141
2
Sue Shellenbarger, “Can’t Pick a College Major? Create One,” Wall Street Journal (Nov. 17, 2010).
3
Robert J. Sternberg, “Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning: An Alternative to Traditional Majors and Minors,” Liberal Education (Winter 2008): 12–17.