As a Mechanical Engineering student it was important for me to understand the humanity side of both our campus as well as our society as a whole. This conversation of "two cultures" is something that has been discussed in several of my classes before taking this course and it will be interesting to continue this discussion. In my engineering ethics class we briefly analyzed the societal divide between "technical" and "non-technical" professionals. Issues that come with this include non-technical politicians having to make technical decisions and often times getting them wrong (See figure below). This has caused many issues and will continue to cause problems in the political sphere as long as there is this divide.
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| Evidence of the society of two cultures (top members of the Obama administration. |
This is also prevalent in our own campus. At UCLA there is a rivalry between the North Campus (Arts and humanities) and South Campus (Science and Engineering). This transcends all aspects of our lives on campus, south campus thinking north campus students take easy classes and the north campus students thinking south campus are all nerds. In addition the competition between sides of the same campus extends into the graduate life.
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| UCLA fund donation graph |
The UCLA fund pinned north campus and south campus against each other in a recent donation campaign, furthering the divide. This impacts me directly as a scientist there is many negative connotation that comes with it, including images like the one below.
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| A Mad Scientist |
People consider scientists and engineers to be cold and calculating, boring and dorky. Which for the most part isn't the case. As the former social chair of my fraternity I would say that I have not all that dorky, nor am I boring. However, as someone currently looking for a job having the engineering degree benefits me substantially. I am more than willing to take this for my advantage in the hopes of getting into the workforce.
References
Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.
Weltman, Gershan. Engineering 183EW, Introductory Lecture.
"UCLA Fund - And the Winner of the North vs. South Campus Challenge Is....ALL Bruins!" UCLA Fund - And the Winner of the North vs. South Campus Challenge Is....ALL Bruins! N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015. <http://www.theuclafund.ucla.edu/news/nvschallengewinner.aspx>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_scientist
Hi Mitchell, I am Kelly. I was really intrigued by your blog post on your view of North vs. South Campus majors. I happen to be a North Campus major, History is my major. But don't worry, I am not going to start a debate or anything. In fact, your post definitely brought some awareness to me in the sense of how I had no idea there was such stereotyping between the two sides of campus. I played on the UCLA Women's volleyball team, and being in a sport, my schedule was obviously pretty busy jumbling practice, weights, meetings, film, tutoring, class,homework, eating, road trips etc. Talk about time management! I was so focused on my sport, that I didn't really pay attention to this separation, North vs. South. I have had most of my classes on North campus, but a fair share amount on South campus. And to me, being involved in a sport, I understand the dedication, commitment, and work ethic that students put in to their studies on both sides. Everyone has their path and goals of what they want to pursue as far as career. Mine being pursuing professional volleyball. But I think no matter what side of campus you spend most of your time on, everyone shares the common motive of working hard to pursue their career path. I think North or South campus doesn't define who you are, or one is better than the other. We should instead think of North and South as a community where we are all trying to make each other and our community the best in the west. (yes that rhymed). So yeah, I thought your blog was really interesting and definitely grabbed my attention.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that the backgrounds of the people leading the nation were so heavily weighted on the "humanities" side. I find it interesting that our leaders do not appoint people from outside their fields of expertise. I understand that knowledge of the law is absolutely essential, but it is still surprising that there are not more members of our government with different backgrounds. Also, it is strange that I immediately assumed that a B.A. automatically meant "humanities," for many of their majors are not specified. Do you think there is a stigma about if degrees of the same nature hold higher levels of prestige based on their field?
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