Creating a Sense of Community among Majors & Minors

Here are comments from survey respondents describing how, if at all, they have dealt with the issue of creating a sense of community among majors and minors.

• Informal gatherings, parties, facebook communications.
• The honor society co-sponsors events with many other organizations. Those who take my classes but do not qualify for the honor society get connected with philosophy in this way.
• Please see my reply to the question about recruiting and retaining majors.
• In addition to the club/honor society activities already in progress, we have recently added a senior seminar, required of all senior philosophy majors, that brings graduating majors together in one class. This was our first year with the senior seminar, and the seniors seemed to be very glad for it.
• We don't do this very well. We need to do more of it. In the past, we have scheduled talks and gatherings, but in our latest administrative posture, we have not done so.
• Philosophy Club
• We have a philosophy club that is very active. We have weekly meetings, where we have students and faculty both within and without philosophy present papers, we watch and discuss movies, etc.. We also take an annual trip to an undergrad philosophy conference nearby.
• We have tried from time to time to establish a philosophy club with regular activities (social events, attending lectures, philosophy film nights), but have been somewhat hampered by our small numbers and by the other college and community service obligations of the professors in our department.
• We have a phil. club but we need to do more. We'd like to create more regular events (like informal brown bag lunches, movie nights, afternoon teas, a speaker series) and use the college-wide programming budgets to bring prominent philosophers to the campus. We would also do well to claim space for philosophy students (e.g.. a lounge). Recently we began a tradition of having junior and senior majors welcoming first and second-year majors to the department at an afternoon tea-type of event. There is a measure of formality and ceremony with this, and it helps to introduce students to one another and to have all of the faculty present.
• Forming a UG philosophy society with rotating board made up of representatives from every year. The society has no budget, but prioritizes expenditure, which is then ratified by staff. By making sure staff are available, participatory, and enthusiastic. By claiming and demonstrating that philosophy is a way of life.
• Small intensive reading groups with good food and wine
• Our majors are self-tending to a very large degree, as we are in a small city whose limited amenities help to focus philosophy students on one another, and our retention to date of a department lounge has given them a gathering space which they tend to use throughout the day.
• We have an outstanding philosophy club, which includes faculty from other departments, students, former students, current and emeritus philosophy faculty. We also participate in activities such as Ethics Bowl.
• Food. Movies.
• Philosophy club. Dual campus talks. But it's inconsistent, partly because students are usually here for only two years.
• I must say, this seems to do itself, it's easy and I've never thought about how we create it. It just happens quite well all by itself. It's a small, tight-knit school.
• We've started a student club that meets every two weeks for dinner and a discussion.
• We had a philosophy club, but it fell apart. I tried an online discussion group, but nobody contributed. I gave up.
• Philosophy club helped a bit.
• We used to have a functioning Philosophy Club, but our students are apparently so hard-pressed these days with juggling jobs and classes that they barely have the leisure to discuss philosophy outside of the classroom. The only thing we have going right now is an occasional film night, at which a film that involves some philosophical issues or ideas will be shown. After the viewing students, guests, and faculty usually discuss the film's philosophical themes for thirty minutes to an hour. This does create a bit of camaraderie, but not nearly enough.
• Movie and discussion nights. Student paper nights. Picnics and cook-outs every semester, one with an evening bonfire. Invited speakers.
• Organize films, gatherings, etc.
• Our Philosophy club has been the best tool we have, but I wonder if we've just been lucky in having good students.
• The philosophical society serves this purpose.
• It grows naturally out of good class discussion. Philosophical discussion spreads and becomes the context of ongoing shared inquiry and inter-generational friendship.
• We have had social events, and we have encouraged the students to form a club.
• Have tried to get a more active philosophy group, this largely fails.
• We try to provide extensive support for the Philosophy & Religious Studies Club.
• The students did a great job of taking ownership of the Philosophy Club activities and planning events that they wanted. I hosted a cookout for majors and minors (and Philosophy Club members, who need not be majors or minors) at my home.
• We do well with this.
• Holiday and end of semester parties; philosophy club; most of them are in the same classes together since we have such a limited number of courses, so camaraderie flourishes anyway.
• Email distribution list (news concerning what our majors have gone on to do, acceptance to graduate school, etc).....
• We have a Philosophy Club that meets about once a month, and we have so few philosophy classes that they tend to get to know each other that way too. Most of them are English or Psychology majors, so they often already know each other. And they are like-minded people in a school that is not especially friendly to open-mindedness. Otherwise I don't know that there is much of a sense of community among them.
• Special seminar for majors with visits from outside speakers.
• Maintaining an undergraduate philosophy club and a philosophy colloquium series, and having "majors only" events.
• Post student news on the department web page, photo of the graduating majors, news of recent grads.
• Hold parties, watch and discuss 'philosophical movies,' etc.
• Through the philosophy club, in the course of directing senior essays, and daily in informal conversation: my colleagues and I spend a great deal of time with the majors, minors and "fellow travelers."
• Lots of activity and making sure that majors and minors take courses together seems to do the trick. We need to do more. Our cognitive science program provides a good model of building community, and many of our majors overlap with it.
• We have an annual picnic for majors. We have an annual conference, and a weekly discussion series.
• Form an undergrad philosophy club.
• We get together a LOT, and I do my office hours at the cafe on campus. That amounts to quite a bit of time to talk.
• Instituted a departmental retreat (weekend stay at a retreat center out of town) every other year, with mix of planned and unplanned conversations, cooking and eating together, and outdoor exercise.
• We have a capstone colloquium course for all seniors that all faculty attend and participate in. We also have a regular philosophy and film series, and a regular ice cream social. Up until recently, there was a faculty/student cover band.
• See attracting/retaining major or minors above.
• not much of an issue because they tended to hang together and to socialize a lot.
• This is something that I have not done very well.
• We have a philosophical society and we engage in public discussions, inviting students from other faculties to attend.