THE UNIVERSITY must not support the Virginia State Senate's resolution that seeks to bring a mandatory technology requirement to all Virginia colleges and universities. A push for greater technological skills all around is a good thing, but making it a requirement of all students will cause more trouble than it is worth.
State Senate Resolution No. 156 calls for a study of "the development of a common, transferable set of competencies ... to be offered as part of the core curriculum at each of Virginia's four-year colleges." The idea would be to give every college student in the Commonwealth a mandatory basic knowledge of technology -- a noble goal perhaps, but this program will be nothing more than a headache to Virginia's institutions of higher education.
On the most practical level, a new technology requirement at the University potentially could mean yet another troublesome required class that all students would have to take or test out of before moving on to more pertinent or desirable fields of study. This requirement would be in addition to all the other general requirements that University students have to complete before they earn their diplomas. These include the infamous first year writing requirement and the foreign language requirements for College students. Some feel these mandatory classes are wastes of valuable time that could be better spent towards a student's chosen major.
A deeper concern regarding the issue of a technology requirement is that there are still plenty of people in the world, young and old, who do not embrace technology with a blind passion like so many technological trend-followers today. Instantly these more old-fashioned types are angrily labeled "backwards" and "anti-technology." They generally are looked down upon for keeping the world from moving into the future.
These computer-wary are not anti-technology at all. Whether for philosophical, spiritual or health reasons, they simply choose to live life with as little contact with computers as possible. They do not agree with the techno trend-setters who favor a total intertwining of our lives with computers. These people typically place an importance on craft, on the actual process that goes into completing a task rather than simply the arrival at an end-product as quickly as possible. It is this group in particular that would be troubled by a mandatory technology requirement at the University.
While there may not be a vast number of students who practice these beliefs, their rights should be respected. If a student chooses to follow a more romantic, traditional pathway through college -- focusing on the acquisition of knowledge rather than the preparation for a real-world job - he won't want to bother with the intricacies of a technology requirement. This student might be forced to log on to a class Web site every week to get homework assignments or to check his e-mail for important messages from professors. To most, this small dependence we already have on our computers seems like nothing at all. To others, however, it is a dependence that we can do without.
The Senate is considering this mandatory technology requirement because computer skills fast are becoming necessary for almost every job available today. The Senate feels that its schools have a duty to provide all their students with the proper skills needed for a white-collar job. This is the wrong way to think about college.
Higher education too often is treated merely as a preparation for the workplace rather than as a place to explore the world of knowledge and to be intellectually stimulated.
The Senate's resolution is characteristic of this shift. The resolution states, "It is essential that Virginia's four-year colleges prepare their students to learn, adapt, and expand their skills, thereby equipping them with the tools necessary to succeed in an increasingly competitive, technology-based, twenty-first century global marketplace."
No longer are ideas such as intellectual curiosity and overall personal growth given the most important places in colleges. Now, the greatest concern seems to be to prepare young minds for the highest-paying jobs possible, and the key to this concern is technological skill.
While familiarity with new technology certainly is helpful in getting a good job after college, the development of these skills should not be mandatory. Make it as big a program as it can be here at the University, but leave it simply as an option for those who want it. There still are a few hopeless romantics left in the world who would be grateful for the choice.
(Maverick McNeel is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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