This lecture by RBG will likely be the only one of its kind that students will get in their time at Meredith. The arts and humanities departments are gearing up for the visit, but STEM departments are having a different reaction. Some professors cancelled labs that were supposed to be held in the afternoon, yet there was a lack of formalized communication between STEM professors and students. Professors in humanities courses such as Journalism or Intro to PR shifted their lessons for the ticket distribution and events. Most Meredith faculty agree that the lecture is important. The issue arrives when the space in the curriculum for this historical event, just wasn’t made.
We often hear that women in STEM fields are the future. While it is important to challenge male domination in those fields, women as people do, have non-STEM interests as well.
In 2011, Steve Jobs stressed the importance of liberal arts and humanities by saying “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing”. It’s clear that STEM and Humanities feed off of each other and Meredith does place a large emphasis on cross curricular interaction.
Holding two events, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, gave students the option to try for one lecture when they couldn’t attend the other. The camcard system for reserving a ticket to the student Q&A also helped relieve some of the class skipping stress. But it’s about first come, first-served, and students in STEM have to choose between class and trying to witness a historical event. It’s 2019; our society needs to stop pretending that only STEM is the future. We cannot leave our humanities educations behind; it’s what makes us human in this ever so scientifically driven world.
By Angela Cowo, Contributing Writer
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