Engage Your Mind

This summer, Seattle U is offering an opportunity to engage with others—via a virtual platform—while exploring some of the biggest issues facing Seattle and the nation at this time in our history.  

A free, two-unit course— UCOR 1910: Engaging Seattle: Pursuing a Just and Humane World—will be led by faculty from multiple disciplines, including Arts Leadership, Biology, Communication, English, Management and Photography. The virtual course, taught via Zoom, runs August 3-26 and participants will have three day/time options that best fit their schedule and availability.

The deadline to register is June 26. For more information and to enroll, email core@seattleu.edu with the subject line Engaging Seattle course.

The course will provide a unique and provocative exploration of Seattle’s many contradictions on areas around technology, the environment, housing and employment, health, education and food. For example, students will look deeper at the $15 minimum wage movement that originated in Seattle, a city that is known for a high-cost of living amid gentrification and growing housing instability. In health care, the discussions will look at how the city has been widely heralded for an aggressive response to COVID-19, yet there is a disparity in access to care, particularly among the most vulnerable populations. And while the city is a leader in environmentalism, being the place to among the worst traffic in the country means increases in carbon emissions and greater pollution.

The course will explore the progressive and innovative ways Seattle has tackled these social and justice-focused challenges, with insights from current students engaged with local nonprofit organizations, businesses and schools. Class participants will also find out ways to get more engaged and involved in their own communities around these issues. The virtual classroom discussions will be guided by Seattle U student peer mentors. Below are more details about the course:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The learning objectives for each student to achieve by the completion of this course are:

•Describe key opportunities and challenges in the greater Seattle area. 
•Identify and use academic principles to explain one or more of the tensions or issues confronting the greater Seattle area. 
•Reflect on how the issues facing Seattle are similar to and different from issues facing their own home communities (for students from outside Seattle).
•Identify ways to incorporate community-based experiences in their Seattle University educational journey. 

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATIONS

There will be no letter grade for this course, which is credit/fail. To receive the two credits students will need to:

•Complete readings and review materials before class sessions.

•Participate in class discussions and activities.

•Complete several small writing assignments or other creative projects.

•Finish the full four-week course.