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Creating and implementing a new certificate program was a pioneering effort in many ways. From the very beginning, there was a consciousness that the new preservation program had to be strong academically and serve as an important education link between the amateur's interests and formal academic degrees. The Social/ Behavioral Science department valued our participation in organizations such as Preservation Pennsylvania and NCPE, enabling faculty and students to better understand their role in the broader field of preservation education.
A twenty-four credit program was accordingly devised and structured so that there were three required courses. History and Theory of Historic Preservation, History of American Architecture, and Methodology and Documentation. The six electives from which students choose four are: Oral History in Preservation; Introduction to Historical Archaeology; Material Culture in Historic Preservation; Building Conscrvation; Law,Taxes and Zoning for Historic Preservation; and Restoration Workshop. In addition, a closely supervised three-credit internship involves a major individual project. The Restoration Workshop was a new course offered during the summer of 1994 and provided for the first time a hands-on experience for those wishing to Learn applied skills such as masonry and woodworking. This has been very successful, resulting in the restoration of a highly visible springhouse on campus. Our next hands-on project will be the restoration of a woodshed in neighboring Tyler State Park.
Some of the students take two courses each semester and complete their requirements within two years. Four students have already taken this route. Others have chosen a more deliberate pace, fitting their coursework around job responsibilities. In order to make the program as flexible as possible, courses may be taken in any sequence. Fortunately, Bucks has attracted highly- motivated and well-qualified students to this program. These include people with master's and Ph.D. degrees, architects, interior designers, and historic site administrators. Some take these courses in order to study their own house, while others parlay the skills of preservation into an existing job. A number are interested in a career change.
Students often remark that they can put their course theory into practice as soon as they leave the classroom. Several have found employment in the greater Philadelphia area, serving in historic house administration or carrying out historic surveys in the community. Initially, all of the students attending these courses were Bucks County residents. Now this is changing. The community college at Bucks has been able to draw up reciprocal agreements with neighboring community colleges, which enable their residents to participate in the Bucks preservation program without paying out-of-county fees. This reciprocity has attracted students from five neighboring counties, boosting enrollment from 18 to more than 40 in three years.
When the Social Behavioral Science department set up this program, serious consideration was given to its administration and teaching mission. I was appointed as the first director in 1991, together with an Advisory Board which supervises and oversees all aspects of program development. Since its inception, five faculty members have joined the preservation team, each bringing their own individual style and perspective to provide a unique and challenging academic experience to our preservation students.
Another facet of the Bucks preservation program is reflected in the establishment of a semi-annual Preservation Forum lecture series. Some people are extremely interested in preservation but do not wish to take the time to study formal course offerings for an entire semester. The Forum lectures enable these persons to attend one-day lectures one Saturdays. Since 1991, our lecture topics have varied from an emphasis on high-style architecture to vernacular developments. Each Forum lecture is set up as a formal presentation by a prominent scholar, followed by a relevant field trip into the nearby community. These events have been very exciting, drawing people not only from the greater Delaware Valley, but also from surrounding states.
The Bucks experience is still a fledgling program, learning how to meet the needs of preservation education at the grassroots level. Through these efforts, preservation consciousness has been raised and members of our community are learning a great deal about the built environment. As W. Brown Morton III states in our preservation brochure: "Historic preservation is an autobiographical undertaking. A person, a community, a society or a nation paints its own portrait by what it chooses to save."
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