A bad radiator ends a road trip (just prior to departing the country for exchange study in Brazil) to the Northern Cheyenne Nation in Montana to visit friends. I start planning a trip for the following Spring.

Over the summer, I think about the potential for offering a course at UT (via UT's DemTex program) focused to sustainable development with American Indian communities.

I decide to develop a DemTex course based on UT's criteria for academic service-learning, and to include an optional spring break site visit / service-trip as part of the course. To lower barriers to participation, I decide to design the class as a distance learning course. I begin to build a course syllabus.

Late Aug

I exchange emails with JJ Hermes (I don't hear back from Matthew Davidson), hoping to get more specific information about developing a DemTex course. JJ's response to my questions is somewhat vague. . . but he indicates that "we'll be in touch" as the semester progresses (unfortunately, it is the last that I hear directly from him).

Early Sept

I send an email entitled "community projects, the new colonialism?" to the Community & Regional Planning (CRP) program listserve at UT - sharing resources related to critiquing experiental learning endeavors based on their ethical orientation.

Early Sept

I download and read through the resources related to developing a DemTex course that I can find online.

Mid Sept

I attempt to identify a CRP faculty member to work with as a faculty sponsor for my course (a sponsoring faculty member is a DemTex requirement), but I am unsuccessful - I am also working with numerous CRP faculty members on applications for additional schooling, and do not pursue CRP faculty member support for my course aggressively.

I contact Prof. Benjamin Gregg of UT's Department of Government, based on his research interests and past work as a DemTex course sponsor. He agrees to act as the sponsor of my course. We begin to complete the required paperwork.

Inspired by the example of Temple University and its financial support for undergraduate student developed and coordinated service-learning projects in Brazil, I attempt to identify funding at UT to support DemTex course development, facilitation, and/or service-learning trip costs. Currently, DemTex offers student instructors no financial support for developing or facilitating DemTex courses.

I contact Fast-Tex coordinator Suzanne Rhodes, of UT's Department of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) to explore the potential for Fast-Tex support for the technology requirements of the course. She is unfamiliar with DemTex, but she indicates that the course is elligible for consideration, based on the fact that it is being offered for UT credit (at this point, I assume, based on DemTex materials that courses are offered for credit - they might still qualify for support, since students do register for one credit hour to enroll in the course).

I submit a draft funding proposal to Suzanne. She indicates that the course is not a likely candidate for Fast-Tex support, based on the limited number of students it intends to impact directly through enrollment (6-8).

I receive the following announcement from UT's Center for Sustainable Development

PROJECT: Informal Course and Alternative Spring Break, Spring 2007 - Tlamacazapa, Mexico
Organized by Engineers for a Sustainable World and Caminanos Juntos.

I'm curious about the class and their approach, but I decide that I am not interested in developing my course as an "informal course" - especially, when there is the option of students developing for-credit classes via DemTex (I'm still under the assumption that courses are for credit) - and how this accredited status impacts potential UT funding and support for student developed courses.

Oct 5

Prof. Gregg and I submit a project proposal to Fast-Tex listing Prof. Gregg as the faculty member and me as the suggested student worker. The proposal is geared to supporting the building of the public website (www.sdwaic.org) needed to fullfill some of the learning and service objectives of the course.

The proposal stresses the wide benefit of the public website to the UT community - including its role in documenting and sharing the process of developing and facilitating a DemTex course and/or a service-learning course at UT.

I contact the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center (VSLC) at UT regarding the course proposal. I get a very positive email back from Glen Baumgart, suggesting that I get in touch with UT's Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program regarding planning the optional spring break trip portion of the course. He also confirms his willingness to work with me to navigate the process for academic service-learning course approval at UT.

I indicate to him my concern about meeting any UT human subjects research requirements that might impact my course, and I ask him if the VSLC regularly assists service-learning instructors with meeting such requirements with their courses.

Mid Oct

I contact UT's Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program regarding planning the optional spring break trip portion of the course. I get positive emails back from Lyndsay Jolley, ASB Director about the course proposal. She is unfamiliar with DemTex and asks me if it is an official UT student organization (I pose this question to Jeff Brewer). She shares with me resources related to travel planning for offical student organizations.

I ask her about the potential for sucessfully organizing a "by-the-book" trip for Spring Break in partnership with students once the semester starts. I have similar concerns about meeting any human subjects research requirements UT might have for student course-based service-learning work that is determined by students during the semester.

I realize that my situation is further complicated by the fact that, as a student graduating in December, I will be losing access to blackboard and the UT Libraries online holdings. I plan to use both to facilitate my course.

Through contacting "ask a librarian"(and with Prof. Gregg's assistance) I am successfully able to get my online holdings access extended through the Spring semester - based on my status as a DemTex instructor. I contact the computer science center in hopes of getting a similar extension of my blackboard access through the Spring.

I exchange emails with Jeff Brewer regarding the quality / content of the official course detail, which reads:

"HMN 001D DEMTEX HOUR(S) TO BE ARRANGED. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WITH AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITIES. MAY BE REPEATED. MAY NOT BE COUNTED TOWARD ANY DEGREE. RESTRICTED TO UNDERGRADUATES. TAUGHT AT OFF-CAMPUS LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED."

Currently, it is not possible to add active web links to the official course detail to allow for more robust descriptions of either the course or the DemTex program.

I pose some additional questions to Jeff Brewer - including about the statement that DemTex courses

"MAY NOT BE COUNTED TOWARD ANY DEGREE."

Jeff Brewer confirms that this is accurate - that the Provost's Office (?) has determined that credit earned directly from DemTex ourses cannot be counted towards a degree, even as elective credit. He suggests that the Humanities Program might still be working to change this. Jeff also indicates that I should contact Dr. Larry Carver and/or Dr. Paul Sullivan of the College of Liberal Arts with any additonal questions regarding DemTex.

In addition, Jeff also informs me that the official course detail cannot be modified to include reference to the sdwaic website.

(NOTE: I learn from another sources that the issue with DemTex credit might reside at a Texas state legislative level, but this has not been confirmed)

Dr. Sullivan emails that an example similar to the DemTex "noncredit credit" course is the FIG (firstyearinterestgroup) noncredit course. I review DemTex materials to get a better sense for why I assumed that DemTex course were for-credit (which is the norm for similar programs at other universities).

The DemTex website indicates that:
"Enrolling in DemTex classes is just like enrolling in any of your other classes." In addition, the required sponsor form (pdf) indicates that the course will bear credit .I research the issue more and discover the history of the DemTex course credit struggle:

Daily Texan Story (2005)
Revised DemTex For-Credit Pilot Proposal (April 2006)