"That's The Power of Theater, People!" Starfleet Academy and Sylvia Tilly's Defense of the Liberal Arts

“I only want to take the classes that I need.”

As an Academic Advisor, I hear this phrase over and over. Students come in to me to help them plan their semester and register for their classes, and they have a very clear vision of what they want. They don’t want to waste any time or money, they want to get their degree as quickly and efficiently as possible. They’ve been told that a degree is the thing that will unlock their future. Their diploma will be the paper key to unlock a career, and with that, money, stability, maybe even happiness.

They’ve seen politicians and commentators emphasize STEM education as the only thing worthwhile. In my parents’ generation, everyone needed to become an Engineer. By the time I was in college, everyone needed to Learn To Code. Now, everyone needs to go into Healthcare or AI.

They’ve seen Colleges and Universities pivot hard into Career & Technical Education programs. They’ve heard people sneer in comments sections on social media that college students should only pick majors that are “useful,” that they shouldn’t take out student loans for “useless” majors. They’ve gotten notifications from their Financial Aid office that a course they registered for is outside of their major and therefore may be ineligible for their state aid.

Is it any wonder that they “only want to take classes they need?”

For some students, they mean they only want to take the classes that are required for their major, because that is what financial aid will pay for, and that is what will get their degree. They don’t want any frills, they want to take the requirements and that’s it.

But there are some students who mean that they do not want to take any courses that they feel do not directly connect to their major. Most degrees require some humanities or social sciences to fulfill general education requirements, and they want to see if they can get out of those courses. I’ve had Computer Science majors ask why they needed to take an Intro to Psychology course, Psychology majors ask why they needed to take a Literature course, and Business majors object to taking a History course. They don’t understand why they need to take these courses, and so they don’t want to take them. They don’t think they need to. Which is why I was so happy to see Nahla Ake state the problem with this kind of thinking so directly: the students don’t know what they need. 

Back in an early episode of TNG, Wesley and Picard share a shuttle ride. Wesley is going to take some exams for Academy credit, and Picard asks if he read the book on Philosophy that he’d lent him. Wesley points out that Philosophy won’t be on his Academy exams. He only wants to take what he needs. Picard replies that the important things won’t be on the exams, and that Wesley should open himself to new ideas found in art, philosophy, and literature. Wesley’s journey at the end of TNG and in Prodigy would not have been possible if he focused simply on math and engineering. Teenage Wesley understood the value of studying space and time, but adult Wesley recognized that thought was also important.

Similarly, when Sylvia Tilly introduces Theater to the cadets, Darem and Genesis scoff and question why this is important. Both of them have stated that they hope to be captains someday, and do not see the value of learning theater or literature. They only want to take what they need. They halfheartedly accept Tilly’s suggestion that theater will be helpful to them, but they don’t really buy it the way that SAM does. Later on, as the grumbling continues, Tilly says to the class “Don’t be the Captain that tears down, be that Captain that lifts up.” When she said this, I reflected on two Captains in particular that Tilly served under on Discovery: Lorca and Pike.

Gabriel Lorca was very much the Captain who tears down. He bullied Stamets, he intimidated Tilly, he barked at Saru and the bridge crew, and ultimately he betrayed Discovery. The only members of the crew he was seen to have a somewhat good working relationship with were Burnham and Tyler. He only liked them because they gave him something he would need. His interests were solely focused on war and power, and he had no use for creating relationships with people beyond the transactional.

In contrast, when Christopher Pike first sets foot on Discovery, he introduces himself on a personal level, cracks a few jokes, and asks everyone for their name. He respects them all. He shows he has knowledge of things like art, religion, and philosophy, and that comes in handy when they encounter the village, the Sphere, and Tenavik. He is motivated by a desire to help Spock, one of his officers who he cares about. Throughout his year on Discovery, Pike builds relationships with the crew, and in Strange New Worlds he is shown to be a much more relaxed Captain, regularly hosting dinner parties and cooking for and with his crew. Pike is the Captain who lifts up, and it is because his character is more well-rounded. He can relate to people on a personal level, encourage them to bring their own personality and unique skills to the table. Pike realizes that you never know what you might need, so it’s best to be open to a lot.

And that is what the Liberal Arts is for. There are some problems that can only be solved by bringing in a number of different perspectives, different disciplines, different ways of thinking. You never know what you might need some day, and so you need to have multiple ways of looking at things. Lorca’s toolbox is limited. Pike’s is expansive.

Though they fight her throughout, in the end the cadets understand what Tilly is trying to teach them. There is value in art, in literature, in reflecting and in applying the things we learn in the arts to our lives. “I only want to take what I need” tends to be something students say at the beginning of their college journey, but at the end, I tend to see students who are disappointed that their degree doesn’t have the space for them to explore more topics. As the camera pulls back at the end of the episode, and Reno congratulates her friend Tilly, it’s clear that these cadets have grown their toolboxes.

And that is why the Liberal Arts matters.

 

Staying at Starfleet Academy During Winter Break - How Colleges Support Students Who Don't Go Home.

 

Michael Pillar once said that when working on The Next Generation, he had to write “Family” because he couldn’t have the episode following Best of Both Worlds be back to business as usual because Picard needed time to heal after going through something so traumatic. After the events aboard the Miyazaki, it’s time for a break. Like Picard, the Starfleet Academy folks need time to heal, and that coincides with the end of the Fall semester and the start of Spring. The Academy will close for a few days for the holidays, and everyone will go home to their families.

At the start of this episode, I identified with Caleb. In any college, there are any number of students who cannot go home for a break for one reason or another. Caleb is unable to go home because he does not have a home to go to. There are many reasons, besides housing insecurity, that students stay on campus during breaks, including working on or near campus, the expense of travel, or choosing to stay in a place free from abuse or dysfunctional family dynamics. When we were in college, my wife and I stayed on campus for most breaks, and there were usually 20-30 other students who would stay as well, for one or more of these reasons.

But as I watched on, something started to bother me in the depiction of the Academy in break. It’s really only Caleb and Reno staying? Are there no other cadets who cannot travel home for a break? What about the staff? Why is it only Reno? Where are the RAs on duty? In my experience during winter break, the residence hall was sparsely populated, but it was not empty. There were RAs and an RD present, security and maintenance people, and the person who checked people in and out at the front desk. It wasn’t as unstructured as it seems to be in Starfleet Academy, where Caleb is basically left to his own devices and sets up a tanning bed in the atrium.

So, in preparing to write this entry, I consulted with two of my colleagues who have worked in Residence Life, Andy Adler and Amy Lorenz, to get a sense of what typically happens in housing at a college during winter break. My entire career as a Student Affairs Professional has been on the academic side of things, so both of them provided perspective from their years working in Residence Life.

Colleges closing for break will notify students ahead of time regarding the process for staying over a break, and what services will and won’t be available. Some colleges will require students to apply for approval to stay, while others will simply require a notification the student plans to stay. A college will have a number of RAs stay on campus, perhaps with an expanded area to cover. Andy Adler worked as a Resident Director, and he said that “at every institution I've worked at, RAs received incentives to stay. Though the monetary amount was always different, it was always additional compensation. Usually this was done on a first come first serve basis because we didn't need everyone to stay, just enough for operations. Then, the main function was just sitting in the duty station, handling lockouts, mail (if applicable), and doing rounds in the evening.”

Amy Lorenz, Director of Residence Life at the University of North Florida, told me that in addition to RAs, there are always professional staff and senior staff within housing on call at all times during the break. In our conversation, she told me that at UNF, only the first-year residence halls fully close down during winter break, while buildings for upperclassmen and students who live in mixed-class housing remain open. She said that during winter breaks, around 400-500 people can be around on campus between students and staff, though around Christmas Day and New Years Day, it tends to be a smaller number. There are some facilities which are kept open and staffed, but academic buildings tend to be kept locked up. Electronic logs and security cameras prevent students from accessing closed areas, so it would be very difficult for a student to, for example, break into the science lab and free a warp slug.

And, if a student did do such a thing, there would be a record and the student would be easily caught.

Of course, there are situations that will arise that staff need to be able to adapt to. Amy also said that since certain campus resources are not available, this can lead to certain challenges for students, and for the Residence Life staff working to support them. For example, we discussed that with services like the Counseling Center closed for the break, mental health issues that students were handling well during the regular semester came to a head over break. This necessitated relying on support from resources off campus.

At Starfleet Academy, Genesis is dealing with her anxiety regarding her career path and the fear and uncertainty she has. This comes to a head at a time where there is limited support for her on campus. The only person she really has to turn to is Caleb, and he is dealing with his own mental health challenges regarding his past trauma and how it is affecting his relationship with Tarima. It’s completely understandable that Genesis’ feelings of fear and insecurity would come out now, during a break, when there is nothing but time to think about them. And it’s completely understandable that she might make choices based off of that fear that show a lack of judgement. It’s also understandable that she would struggle with these feelings during a time where she has fewer supports in place.

But, in a real college, Genesis would have a more difficult time pulling off her plan to break into the bridge and edit her application. Colleges would consider this an act of Academic Dishonesty, and there typically would be a process that she would go through, including some sort of a hearing to determine any sanctions. She also would not necessarily have the ability to get into a restricted or closed area, since real colleges maintain more staff during breaks than one Temporal Mechanics Professor. In fact, according to Amy Lorenz, faculty are usually the people you generally don’t see on campus during winter break, since they’re not teaching.

While I appreciate what this episode was trying to do, showing that during the quiet times, the issues students have been avoiding can suddenly come to a head, most real colleges have a more well considered shutdown plan than Starfleet Academy is depicted as having. Showing students that you care about them, that their college can be a home and a refuge for them when their lives outside of school can be chaotic, takes work and thought. There are plenty of amazing Student Affairs professionals, many of whom work in Residence Life, who do that work every day. I hope that, as the series continues, Starfleet Academy will show that side of Higher Ed as well.

 

 

Thank you to Andy Adler, Senior Assistant Director of Advising at Hudson County Community College, and Amy Lorenz, Director of Residence Life at the University of North Florida, for their input as I was writing this.

 

Challenge & Support in the Final Frontier: How the Academy &the War College Help Students Develop

Chancellor Kelrec hasn’t really impressed, up to this point in Starfleet Academy. He’s been played mainly for laughs in the first 5 episodes, but underneath the jokes about a deflating blobfish and his being weirdly obsessed with making tea, he’s been shown as a rigid thinker. He’s not someone who expects his cadets to be creative or insightful, but rather he expects them to follow the rules and procedure. I’ve heard some commentary YouTubers compare him to Arnold J. Rimmer from Red Dwarf, an ineffective and incompetent leader who is too obsessed with regulations and wears a blue jacket for much of the series.

Kelrec is clearly there to be a foil for Nahla Ake, who is much more about free expression and encouraging individual thought, which is why I was glad to see that in Episode 6 of Starfleet Academy, “Come, Let’s Away,” Chancellor Kelrec isn’t portrayed as a caricature or a buffoon, but rather as something Rimmer is never seen as: a competent officer. Kelrec introduces the exercise with authority, and when the crisis begins, he has confidence that his cadets will be able to handle themselves. Throughout the episode, even knowing he’s had interpersonal problems with Nahla, he puts those feelings aside and works with her in a way that shows a growing respect for her.

Admiral Vance is in the position of trying to find balance between the two. When introduced in Discovery, Vance was a man in crisis mode, focusing on keeping things together through rules and regulations, but throughout Discovery he learns to loosen up. This is why, I believe, Vance didn’t close the War College when reopening Starfleet Academy, because he knows that Kelrec’s ways of thinking got them through the Burn, but Ake’s ways of thinking will help them lift their eyes back to the horizon.

One of the earliest College Student Development Theories is Nevitt Sanford’s 1966 theory, a major component of which is the concept of development through challenge and support. Sanford believed that if an environment is too challenging, a person won’t develop. They’ll retreat and shut down, so you need to have support to make sure things aren’t too hard. But, if you provide too much support, you take away too much of the challenge, and then the person does not develop and grow. Colleges, then, should strive to find a good balance, encouraging challenges and providing just enough supports to encourage growth, without making things too easy. In the triad formed between Nahla Ake, Kelrec, and Vance, Nahla is the embodiment of the supporting educator, Kelrec is the embodiment of the challenging educator, and Vance is Sanford’s theory, trying to find a balance between the two.

Vance is creating a trinity between the three of them, similar to the way Kirk, Spock, and Bones operated in TOS. Vance is in charge, and he has two equal advisors, one more focused on logic and rules, the other more focused on feeling. Vance knows that Starfleet will be served best by having officers trained by both, working together, both challenged and supported from both perspectives.

These philosophies play out in the way that the various cadets are seen to handle themselves in this episode. The Academy cadets are shown to be creative problem solvers, encouraged to think in unique ways that the War College cadets aren’t used to. When Caleb uses programmable matter to get the U.S.S. Miyazaki’s life support system back online, the War College cadets ask if that’s allowed. It does not occur to them that the rules that they were given might have allowed for some flexibility. It is Genesis who figures out how to track the cloaked ship, and SAM who comes up with the idea of having the Miyazaki’s computer read the comic book to help it understand the cadets are it’s new crew. Both are examples of thinking outside of the box, the exact kind of thinking that is needed at the time.

As the Furies attack, the War College cadets demonstrate that their way of thinking and operating is equally valuable. When Commander Tomov sacrifices himself to save the cadets, Caleb is shocked, but B’avi understands the reason, quoting Spock’s famous line about “the needs of the many.” Kyle, similarly, throws himself into combat to protect his comrades, joking after that a few scars will be good on a soldier.

But the War College cadet that really impressed me this week was Tarima. There is a moment where she is trying to convince Kelrec and Nahla that she is willing to take the risk to herself to act as a communication conduit with Caleb, who is trapped on the Miyazaki. Tarima says to Kelrec that “One of the things that the War College has taught me, that you taught me, is to see the task clearly. I can see what I have to do. And I can see I’m the only one on this ship who can do it.” Tarima specifically says that she learned this lesson from Kelrec, that his instruction has shaped her thinking. She has learned from him a clarity of purpose, an understanding that she has unique gifts and abilities that will make her the only person for the job.

Here, we see that Tarima has grown through Kelrec’s style of challenging his cadets. In this scene, he offers her a way out, he offers her the chance to back down, he offers her the safety of support, but she does not take it. She she learned that she is the only one who can accept this particular challenge. She shows that she has grown and developed and she accepts the risk. The supports are there, she takes this risk with The Doctor monitoring every step of the way, but she still steps up.

When I first watched this episode, I thought to myself “wow, Kelrec is actually competent!” But on further reflection, I understand that Kelrec is actually a good educator, he understands that it is important to challenge his students, to support them as they go through the challenges, to get them to understand what they have to do to be successful.

I look forward to seeing the dichotomy between Kelrec’s and Nahla’s approaches continue to be explored as the show goes on.