A Sideways Look at the General Studies Revision

The proposed GST revision has an interesting set of concentric circles in it with the "global citizen" at the center. At today's forum, someone mentioned that the current graphic being used only shows the student at the center and reinforces an egocentric mentality devoid of other humans. I was confused, since I had always seen other people in the picture. I tried to draw a quick sketch to make my case, but my quick sketches didn't really do the job. When I got back to the office, I modeled it quickly on the computer.



I've always imagined that the yellow "global citizen" circle was a person seen from overhead. He was surrounded by other citizens (in the purple ring) that he interacts with through ethical reasoning and personal responsibility.



Of course, it could be that our faculty and students are the "global citizenS" that interact with others.



Finally, as a natural scientist, I like to imagine that the big blue sphere represents the world that we try to gain knowledge of through inquiry.



However, I think other see the purple ring as a lens through which we view the world instead and that there should be blue people in here somewhere. :)

Anyway, I'm much more interested in the details of the GST review (e.g. how courses might get tagged, who is making the final decisions on classes, how much science students will be learning). However, today my mind drifted a bit to thinking about Viz Cult and how a flat image of colored concentric rings could have so many different meanings to people.