The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies

Contracting is at the heart of the Johnston Center. Students contract with faculty to achieve their learning goals in everything from individual classes to their entire educational experience at the University of Redlands. Three types contracting occur in Johnston:

1. Individual Course Contracint
2. Group Course Contracting
3. Graduation Contracting

Individual Course Contracting

Johnston students individually contract with the professor to achieve their learning goals for the course. This may mean that students read extra texts, write research papers instead of take exams, or facilitate particular class discussions on a topic they want to learn more about or have expertise in. For example, in a recent course titled Gods and Monsters: Understanding Power, a student contracted to teach the three class meetings on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra because his graduation contract focuses on Nietzsche. Individual course contracting is a dialogue with the professor about each party's goals for the course.

Group Course Contracting

Less formal than individual course contracting, group course contracting occurs when a faculty member seeks collaboration from the students on the development of the syllabus. For example, in the above course on Gods and Monsters, the student successfully persuaded the class to add the Nietzsche text to the course reading.

Graduation Contracting

This is the most formal and significant kind of contracting in Johnston because it involves the student's education itself. Students who are accepted to Johnston are put into the Johnston First Year Seminar where they are assigned an advisor and taught the Johnston contracting processes. Students work with their advisors for the first year, determining appropriate interests and courses and developing a contract. A contract is a three-part document that includes a narrative (an intellectual autobiography), a proposed course listing by semester, and a proposed course listing by discipline or area of interest. In the fall semester of the sophomore year, students go with their advisor to their "contract committee meeting," which is comprised of three other faculty, two students, and the Johnston registrar. The student and the advisor present the contract, answer questions about it, and receive suggestions from the committee. It is essentially an extended advising session designed to focus and enhance the contract by directing the student snd the advisor to campus and community resources. In the final semester of the senior year, students rewrite their contract to update their interests, explain any new directions they have taken in their study, and answer questions about their emphasis. Students choose three faculty members and two students to serve on their grad committee, and celebrations typically ensue once the motion for graduation is made and consented to by the committee.