Sept 22, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA Sept 22, 2000 |
 by Miguel StrotherReturning to the University of Victoria more than 20 years after her appointment as the student society’s first ombudsperson in 1978 has been better than Dr. Patricia Beatty-Guenter had imagined. “I’ve been so impressed coming back here,” says Beatty-Guenter. “The impression often given by big institutions is that they are very impersonal, but that’s not the case at all with UVic. From the moment I arrived on campus I’ve had to keep picking up my jaw at the treatment I’ve received from everybody. My name was on my office door when I arrived, I had no problem getting my library card, my parking pass was easy to get because I was already in the computer … it couldn’t have been better.” Beatty-Guenter joins UVic’s education faculty as a visiting assistant professor after working as the director of institutional research and associate dean of student services at North Island College in Courtenay, B.C. Beatty-Guenter focused on higher education while completing her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. During her two-year contract at UVic she’ll work with education graduate students to develop and design curriculum for adult education. Last year, the education faculty offered only one course in adult education, but Beatty-Guenter’s presence shows a further acknowledgement of the difference between educating adolescents and adults. “The move to a formal program focusing on adult education is a big development for the faculty,” says the dean, Dr. Bruce Howe. “It underlines the principle that education is a lifetime process.” “Educating adults is different because, first of all, adults don’t have to be in the classroom and educating them has to do with tying everything you’re offering into their previous experience,” says Beatty-Guenter. In addition to teaching on campus, one of Beatty-Guenter’s graduate level courses will be offered on a distance basis for the North Island, so she’ll be traveling to Malaspina University College in Nanaimo once a month until April 2001 to meet with students. At the end of April, those students will travel to UVic for the summer semester. They’ll repeat the process the following year and by the end of 2002 will have their master’s in adult education curriculum studies. “Last year the education Web site said: ‘We do not have any courses in adult education at this time,’” says Beatty-Guenter. “We’ve now removed that statement.” |