Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series that is looking into Iowa State’s strategic plan for 2000-2005, which encompasses three concepts: engagement, discovery and learning.

Today’s article focuses on learning.

Some people believe that learning has not taken precedence at Iowa State in recent years; however, it is one of the major concepts of the 2000-2005 strategic plan.

According to the strategic plan, “Iowa State believes that learning is at the heart of our University. It occurs in many contexts, and by all members of the University community. As a land-grant institution, Iowa State University is among world leaders in providing post-secondary access.

“However, access to success through Iowa State University will mark our commitment to enhancing learning, and it will be accomplished by providing exceptional learner-centered teaching, services, and enrichment opportunities; and by paying attention to lifelong learning needs of a learning society.”

David J. Fisher, member of the Board of Regents, the governing body that approved the plan, said lifelong learning means reaching out with educational opportunities to people around the state.

“In this day and age, when people change in occupations and professions several times during their working career, I think it’s important for the university to provide education opportunities and training,” he said.

Fisher said Iowa residents can learn without coming to the ISU campus.

“Through the Extension department at Iowa State and through distance learning, Iowa State is starting to gear up and provide opportunities for the citizens of Iowa to learn new skills while they stay in their own communities instead of moving to campus for a semester or a year or even two years,” he said.

Richard Seagrave, who has been approved by the regents as Iowa State’s interim president, said learning better reflects the mission of the university than the previously used terms, teaching and education.

“The basic philosophy is still the same, but over the last five or six years, I think most of us have made a shift in our language to realize that ‘teaching’ is much too narrow,” Seagrave said. “You’ll hear the phrase ‘lifelong learning’ more than I think we would’ve in the past.”

Fisher said teaching applies mainly to faculty, while learning encompasses students as well.

“They’re focusing on the students [to] be sure that whatever they do, it’s a learning process for the students,” he said.

Seagrave said students don’t just learn from faculty and staff.

“[The new term] has a nice feature: It recognizes that in this process we all learn together,” he said. “Faculty members, while they’re here, they learn and help others to learn. That way it encompasses a lot more activities than a professor standing in a classroom.”

One of the strategic plan’s strategies to improve learning is to “selectively enhance academic programs for national and international distinction (mostly in or related to science and technology).”

Seagrave said that though “clearly, everything we do here is important,” science and technology are the focus of Iowa State.

“It’ back to the mission of the institution. It’s the Iowa State University of Science and Technology, and that’s what makes us different,” he said. “Those are the areas we’ve historically, currently and in the future concentrated on.”

Science and technology encompass many areas of the university as well, he said.

“You’ve got to interpret them broadly— science is not just the life sciences, but also the social sciences,” Seagrave said. “The humanities is kind of the glue that runs through them all and helps them to learn by putting everything in perspective.”

Learning communities are important to assist in the education of ISU students, he said.

“As our student body has become more diverse and more international and has more people of different ages, we realize there are more different approaches we have to use in learning,” he said.

Seagrave said a lot of the education students receive in college doesn’t necessarily come through class work alone.

“The job of the professor is to guide and inspire and set an example, but the actual learning is just as apt to occur — or more apt to occur — in the dorms or other places out of the classroom,” he said. “Learning takes place all around us … 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Rab Mukerjea, assistant to the president, said the concept of learning looks at the whole state, not just ISU students.

“Learning never ends,” he said. “The question is, what do we do to facilitate lifelong learning for the people of Iowa?”

Strategies the plan suggests to improve learning include expanding learning communities, academic variety and student diversity, “with the goal of providing a holistic and collaborative approach to learning.” The plan will also focus on increasing recruitment, financial aid and providing access to disadvantaged students.

‘Learning’

According to the 2000-2005 strategic plan, characteristics of learning include:

A broad range of intellectually challenging curricula

A community of motivated students and faculty committed to their responsibilities toward learning

Critical understanding by all students of the ethical, social, historical, environmental, and economic implications of science and technology

Demonstrated strength in all graduate programs