Melinda Leung Desma 9: Week 1: Two Cultures

Two cultures: Charles Percy Snow’s argument that society is separated into science or art. And I agree with RSA Animate — schools do reinforce this idea.

Even in UCLA, the distinctions are clear. Everyone is either defined as a north campus major (humanities and arts) or a south campus major (mathematics and science). North campus majors rarely step foot into Boelter while South campus majors dread the walk to Broad. North campus classes meet Tuesday and Thursday; South campus classes meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The school even provides competitions to further split the school.

Do you support North or South campus?

Unfortunately, I believe this creates disparity in learning. As a physical science major, I see fellow south campus students collapse under endless computer science projects and math assignments. Everything is methodical and set.

South campus majors’ constant responses to stress: “Oh I wish I was a North campus major, they have so much more free time for fun activities.”

This is where I disagree. I believe both North and South campus possess many qualities both sides should learn from one another. There should be no fine line that defines one or another. This is why I think Design Media Arts is the perfect example of a unity between the two. It ties in creative and imaginative artistic values that North campus majors values with technical coding background from South campus. It is the perfect yin and yang.