Clemson is voted number one public school
After taking office, University President James Barker gave Clemson 10 years to become one of U.S. News and World Report’s top-20 institutions, but on Aug. 17, officials announced that the University received an unexpected but welcome honor of being named “Public College of the Year” by Time magazine.
The accolade appears in the 2001 edition of “The Best College for You,” an annual college guide co-published by Time and The Princeton Review.
The honor comes with a two-page spread in the magazine that describes the University as being known for its agriculture school and nationally ranked football team.
Barker said that the honor “belongs to faculty and students.”
Time editors focused on colleges and universities that do an exceptional job of teaching writing and communications skills. Clemson was boasted as being “on the cutting edge of communication-across-the-curriculum movement, in which faculty integrate not only writing, but also oral, visual and electronic communication in all disciplines.”
Clemson was actually one of four colleges recognized by Time; the first time the magazine has selected more than one institution. The three other colleges named “college of the year” were selected from different categories to reflect the diversity of institutions excelling in communication—Sarah Lawrence College as liberal arts college of the year, Long Beach Community College as two-year college of the year and Cornell University as private research college of the year.
Art Young, professor in English, brought the “Writing Across the Curriculum” concept to Clemson in 1987 when he was named to the Campbell Chair of Technical Communications.
Young described Writing Across the Curriculum as integrating communications skills into core courses.
“We can use writing to learn the content they are studying,” said Young.
“The principle we work on is that writing and speaking are learning tools as well as communicating tools.”
Young expanded the Writing Across the Curriculum concept to “Communication Across the Curriculum” to encompass oral, written, computer and visual skills.
When he “blindly” sent out flyers for his first Communication Across the Curriculum workshop, over 60 Clemson faculty members responded and spent a full day learning about the concept.
Since then the University has held workshops at more than 70 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad and has held three national conferences.
Communication Across the Curriculum not only helps professors teach more effectively, it helps students learn.
When Patti Connor-Greene was named Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology three years ago, a student cited her innovative teaching and association with Communication Across the Curriculum in a nomination letter.
Biology Professor Jerry Waldvogel noted that using Communication Across the Curriculum helped “take [instruction] from the scientific realm and [apply] them elsewhere.”
“It certainly makes the teaching more interesting to me, and I think it gives the students some handle of real-world sorts of issues, as opposed to just the minutiae of science,” he said.
Clemson was chosen over schools such as the University of Missouri, Washington State University and Temple University.
Barker noted that with this honor, degrees and alumni receive more credibility and the announcement should be a celebration for the whole state.
“I expect this to shine Clemson in a positive light. We should see an increase in the numbers of students applying,” said Barker. “I expect it to have a positive impact for the future and current quality of Clemson students.”