With the spring semester approaching its end, so is the contract of NCC’s Shimer Great Books School. On June 1, 2017, a three-year contract was signed for Shimer to join NCC. This initial process took two years to sort out. One of the major issues that needed to be addressed before Shimer’s move to NCC was its curriculum schedule.
“We were on a semester calendar before we came, so we had to convert our curriculum to a trimester calendar to come,” said Stuart Patterson, visiting associate professor and chairperson of the Shimer Great Books School. “Then as soon as we got here, we had to move it back.”
Once Shimer’s contract is up, a review will be done to see how the program is doing. Then there will be discussion with members of the College to see what the next steps will be. After that, there will be a public program review next fall to further discuss progress that has been made.
According to Patterson, there’s not going to be a distinct yes or no decision on Shimer’s contract renewal. Rather there will be discussion of what can be done to improve and progress the program at NCC. While the decision is not up to him, Patterson is very certain that the program is here to stay.
Shimer Education
Three years ago, around 30 students came to NCC with Shimer. Any student who is a Shimer major graduates with an NCC degree. Currently, there are about eight new majors. Originally, only Shimer students were able to take Shimer courses. Now, any NCC student can take those classes. This year, there are about 120 students who are taking or have already taken Shimer courses.
“We sit around octagonal tables and classes are capped at 14 students,” said Shimer Student Alexandra Huston, ’23. “The focus is on discussion and so we’re all expected to contribute to the conversation every day.”
When Shimer came to NCC, they brought their tables with them. The idea with the octagonal tables is that no one can hide in the back of the classroom. No one can just sit back and relax and let others carry the discussion. Everyone has to participate.
The faculty are trained in their field to lead the course and somewhat act as the lead student. They are able to use their expertise to help open discussion among students and advance education.
“We integrate all of the areas of a traditional liberal arts education, from the sciences to the humanities and through the social sciences; math and logic are part of it,” said Patterson.
In the program, students must take courses in four areas: social science, natural science, humanities and logic and math. All reading materials required for classes are only primary sources, which means you don’t use textbooks. For example, when studying physics, students read Galileo, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell.
“We read the original sources that set out the ideas that now have been incorporated into modern physics,” said Patterson.
Post-Graduation
A lot of Shimer students go to graduate school after college, mostly to complete programs in the humanities. However, a Shimer education prepares students to enter any field they like. People have become social workers, psychologists and clinical psychologists, entrepreneurs, teachers and lawyers.
“(Shimer) doesn’t specialize you in any technical way, what it specializes you for is thinking and communicating for yourself,” said Patterson.
The school used to have an agreement with the Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology. Students would do their first three years of school at Shimer. Then, their fourth year would be their first year in law school.
Opportunity
Shimer has had four campuses, the first three being located in Mount Carol, Waukegan, and Chicago, IL.
“This campus represents the most robust set of opportunities for Shimer students that any of our campuses has had,” said Patterson.
However, Patterson said that what they had back at the Chicago campus was special and there’s no way that they can reproduce that setting here at NCC.
“The transition from Chicago to Naperville was definitely a culture shock for a lot of us,” said Shimer Student Ellis Billington, ’20.
Although it was tough at first, Billington said that his overall experience has been positive.
Despite the difficult transition, Patterson said it’s nice to be able to send Shimer students to countries around the world to study in while still receiving the Shimer education and also doing double majors, sports and funded research.
“Shimer is part of North Central to the extent that Shimer students aren’t just Shimer students,” said Patterson.
For example, Claire Mikulcik, ’23, is a Shimer social science major and a math minor. Mikulcik is also very involved in the band department at NCC.
“That is one of the best parts about going to NCC—the ability to be involved and try anything without necessarily being a major,” said Mikulcik. In addition to Mikulcik and her involvement, Huston is a part of the honors program and Billington works in the archives.
Unfortunately, Patterson sees Shimer as something still apart from NCC. Although it is separate, to a certain extent, “we can now share Shimer with a much larger community of student than we ever have been able to,” said Patterson.
Patterson also said they would love to get more students from different majors and fields to diversify their classroom experiences.
