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History
of the Classics Dept.
Monmouth College
by Thomas J. Sienkewicz
Classics has had a significant presence
in the curriculum since Monmouth College was founded in 1853 to train
Presbyterian ministers and teachers. For many decades there were two
Classicists on the faculty, a professor of Latin and a Professor of
Greek, and most, if not all students, studied at least one of the two
ancient languages.
Until the college’s ties with the
Presbyterian Church began to loosen in the mid-twentieth century, Koine
Greek was taught on a regular basis for students planning to go into
seminary. By the mid-1980's such students were a rarity.
Gamma Omicron chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national Classics honorary society, was founded in 1956 and plays an important role in the department.
The Classics Dept. maintained a faculty
of two until the death of Harold J. Ralston, Professor of Greek in 1971.
The next two decades were particularly challenging ones financially for
the college and no permanent replacement was provided for Prof. Ralston.
Until her retirement in 1981 Prof. Bernice L. Fox struggled to offer a
full Classics program by herself. She taught all levels of Latin
language and literature, plus Classical Mythology and Word Elements and
occasionally added Elementary Greek as an overload. She still managed to
produce a number of outstanding graduates, several of whom made the
teaching of Latin their careers and at least two earned Ph.D. degrees in
Classics or fields related to Classics. She was also very active in the
Illinois Classical Conference, the state organization for Latin
teachers.
In the early 1980's the college received
a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to
establish an endowed chair in Classics. The purpose of this chair was
not to enhance the Classics curriculum but to ensure its long-term
survival. Thanks to a generous gift by Mr. Keith Capron in honor of his
mother Minnie Billings Capron, the endowed chair in Classics became a
reality a few years later.
In 1984 the college hired Thomas J.
Sienkewicz as professor of Classics and offered him the endowed chair
the following year. When he was interviewed, Sienkewicz was encouraged
by both President Haywood and Dean Amy to develop ways to make the
Classics more central to the Monmouth College curriculum and more
attractive to more students. It was understood that the emphasis of the
new Classics curriculum would be on exposing large numbers of students
to the Classics rather than producing large numbers of majors or minors,
although the college still wanted to keep those options open to those
students who desired them.
In 1985 Sienkewicz radically changed the
emphasis of the Classics curriculum from a traditional language-based
program to a more flexible one incorporating the study of
the Latin and Greek languages into Classics courses taught in
translation. The core of
this curriculum is the triad course, taught for Classics, Latin, or
Greek credit, based upon the individual student’s skill and interest.
This type of course brings into the same classroom students who have
varying degrees of language skills with students who can only read the
material in English. All share their own unique perspectives on the
material. One advantage of the triad course, which has since been
adapted at several other small liberal arts colleges, is that a small
faculty can maintain core courses in language and literature for majors
and minors while still offering courses in translation for the general
student body. As a result nearly every course taught by the Classics
Dept. fulfills some requirement in the general education curriculum at
Monmouth College.
In 1987 Mr. Capron provided some
additional funds to create a dedicated classroom for the teaching of
Classics, with state-of -the-art equipment and appropriate interior
decorations. In 1998 the college updated this classroom with the
addition of computer-projection capabilities.
The triad course generally works well
although Sienkewicz has regularly had to teach at or above the official
full-time load in order to meet student needs. The system seemed to work
better under the term-system which Monmouth used until the late 1980's
than under the semester-system. The term system simply allowed a single
professor to teach more courses per year than a semester system does.
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