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Sabbatical Leave Report A. Applicant Name: Monte Freidig Department: Social Sciences Type of Leave: Project Leave Dates: Fall 2014 B. Purpose of Leave I traveled to Washington DC to develop plans for an SRJC “Study in DC” summer program. To that end, I prepared for the trip by immersing myself in recent studies of US History from the Pre-Columbian era to 1877; visited a variety of potential field-trip locales in the area; met with housing, classroom, food and transportation providers; revised syllabi for Political Science 1 and History 17.1 to take advantage of learning resources in the DC area and returned home to develop contractual, financing and marketing strategies for the program. This feasibility study has given us a clearer picture of the opportunities and obstacles involved in establishing such a program. If issues can be resolved, our students could be learning in DC by 2016. C. Objectives 1. Completed a fact-finding trip to Washington, DC and met with providers of student housing, classroom, food and transportation there to explore options and determine the costs of establishing SRJC’s “Study in DC” summer program. 2. Visited numerous potential field-trip locales in Washington DC, as well as other course- relevant sites in the wide region between Jamestown, VA and Boston, MA. 3. Revised syllabi for POLS 1 Introduction to US Government and HIST 17.1 History of the United States to 1877 to integrate area field trips and assignments. 4. Confirmed we are able revise existing SRJC travel contracts for a “Study in DC” program and created marketing materials for the program. D. Narrative Preparation and research in advance of the fact-finding trip The genesis of creating an academic program in Washington, DC was rooted in my experiences with our Study Abroad programs—if we are able to teach our students history and politics in European capitals, we should be able to do the same in the US. Furthermore, a DC program would be more accessible, affordable and relevant than Study Abroad to the majority of SRJC students. My previous experiences teaching in Study Abroad and as an International Studies committee member gave me insight that was utilized to model “Study in DC” on our existing programs. I began my research for this project the same way I prepared for teaching in Paris-- by immersing myself in the current literature related to the courses we would teach in the program and by making fact-finding trips to explore options available there. My review of recent literature in early US History began in the early stages of my sabbatical leave. As a political scientist, I keep current with literature in my field, but I hadn’t taught a history class since 2008 so I immersed myself in the recent scholarship from the time period covered in the 17.1 course. This would not only be necessary for teaching the class, but also be useful for identifying possible field trip locales back east. Several major 21st Century works in early US history won Pulitzer’s, Bancroft Prizes and National Book Awards and my sabbatical presented a unique opportunity to plow through these often lengthy tomes. I focused on new biographies of US presidents and on recent works about Native Americans, slaves and women— all areas in my studies that needed bolstering. (See Appendix A) Objective 1: Travel to the East Coast to meet with student service providers I scheduled my 3 week trip to Washington for late September and early October 2014 to give myself some time to do the preliminary research and visit Congress before they adjourned to campaign for the November elections. Unfortunately, after my tickets were bought, they decided to reschedule their recess so they could return home to campaign early. (Schedules in DC are always subject to change). But I had a useful meeting with members of Rep. Mike Thompson’s staff (one of them an SRJC Political science major) about how they could assist our program by arranging tours of government buildings, setting up a meeting with congressman Thompson and helping us find guest lecturers in related fields (both governmental and NGO officials) for our classes. We also had a fruitful discussion of setting-up Washington internships for our school, but that project would be separate from the “Study in DC” program. (A full list of my contacts is found in Appendix B). I also met with representatives of two student housing providers in Washington. Washington Intern Student Housing (WISH) is the main provider of housing for students doing internships in Washington. I toured their facilities, including some classrooms and apartments, obtained price lists for various options and discussed student liability and safety issues with them. Next to the US government, George Washington University is the largest holder of real estate in the Washington DC area and offer a variety of classroom and dorm options, as well as meal programs and some transportation services for groups using their facilities. After meeting with them, discussing our options and touring classrooms, dorms and dining halls, I was more impressed with what they have to offer us than I was with WISH. This impression was reinforced by the director of Santa Monica Community College’s Washington intern program, which has been using GWU for several years. In short, we have a number of options from which to choose when it comes to the logistics of establishing an academic program in DC. If students fly into DCA, they can purchase a metro card that will get them anywhere in the city for $36 per week. I also spoke with area bus tour companies and returned with price lists, photos and timetables addressing various program requirements for DC and field trips beyond ranging from student board and room, to classrooms, hotels and travel in the area. (Appendix E contains some samples of contracts and price lists for the program). Objective 2: Exploring possible field-trip locales in the region The great advantage of on-site learning programs is giving students an opportunity to observe things firsthand and the Washington DC area is filled with sites (most of them free-of-charge) for students studying politics and early US history. The major challenge for instructors involves figuring out how to match field-trips with course material and fitting everything in given the limited amount of time available there. For the Political Science 1 class, most of the choices are fairly obvious: Congress and the Supreme Court are both in session during the month of June and can be observed by the students. I was also able to take the White House tour, as well as tour of Arlington National Cemetery and the Treasury Department’s US Mint tour, where students can see how money is made---literally! They can view important documents, like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in the National Archives and find other important artifacts of interest to students of history and politics in the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery and in the many monuments to our leaders and troops on the National Mall. While the Newseum requires a fee, we can get a discount and its archives, displays and memorabilia will be useful to students from both courses taught in the DC program. The same would be true of the US Holocaust Museum and there is no entrance fee for that. Our US history classes begin with the Native Americans, so I spent time exploring the National Museum of the American Indian, which is among the many of the 19 Smithsonian museums of interest to our students—all of them for free. (I also got information at The National Museum of African American History & Culture Visitor Center. It opens in 2016). Like most institutions in Washington, they have special programs for student groups. After reading several recent works on colonial history, I decided to rent a car and visit Jamestown, the first successful British settlement in the US (1607) and colonial Williamsburg, both in southern Virginia. I was so impressed with the insights they offer students into the lives of colonists natives and slaves, I’m inclined to recommend them as required field trips (rather than recommended ones), despite the fact that there are fees as well as lodging and transportation costs associated with them. The same is true of Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, which can be visited via a pleasant boat ride down the Potomac, which offers insights into the lives of our forefather and the slaves who worked his plantation. I created my own DC walking tour of many Lincoln assassination sites, including the boarding house where Booth plotted the killing, Ford’s Theater and the boarding house where Lincoln died. Other DC sites visited for the History 17.1 class included the Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian museums of American Art, American History, Natural History and the Arts and Industries building. (Appendix C lists all the potential field-trip sites toured on my trip). After leaving Washington, I toured Independence Hall and the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a 90-minute Amtrak ride from DC. I decided to make the Gettysburg battlefield site a recommended rather than a required field-trip, because of the extra time and expense. The same is true of historical sites I toured north of Philadelphia. Students can explore Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA or dine at Fraunces Tavern in NYC, where he bade farewell to his troops, during weekend excursions if they want. The Boston area is loaded with important sites from America’s earliest days, but it’s too far afield to be officially integrated well into our DC program.

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