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ArtSci votes on proposed changes to curriculum
The ArtSci Council assembled on Wednesday evening two weeks ago to vote on the proposed changes to the curriculum in the College of Arts & Sciences, forwarded by the College’s New Curriculum Review Committee.
The New Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC), chaired by Mark Rollins, professor of philosophy, recently completed its review of the proposed new curriculum. In order for the curriculum to go into effect, the proposed changes must be voted on by the ArtSci Council, which represents the Arts & Sciences student body.
In an e-mail sent to all Arts & Sciences students, the Council wrote that all students of the college can take a vote that evening following Rollins’ introduction of the proposed changes. A link to the NCRC’s final report, a document laying out the proposed changes to the curriculum, was also included in the e-mail.
According to Rollins, there are three main changes in the new curriculum: the elimination of the current cluster system, the combination of the Language & Arts (LA) distribution area and Culture & Diversity (CD) requirement into the Language and Culture (LC) distribution area and, finally, the expansion of Focus programs and small group experiences.
Replacing the clusters system will be the proposed Integrated Learning Model (ILM), which will treat primary and secondary majors, minors and freshman programs, such as Focus programs, as one way of achieving integrated study in Arts & Sciences. Students will be required to complete two forms of integrated study in addition to their major.
“When the cluster system was first implemented, the faculty had intended for it to be beneficial to the students,” Rollins said. “What we are working on now is making the curriculum more flexible for students with the Integrated Learning Model.”
Despite the complaints raised by many Arts & Sciences students about the current requirements of the Art
Sci curriculum, only nine students appeared to submit their votes on the proposed changes. All students present voted in favor of the proposed changes to the curriculum.
According to Rollins, the next two semesters will be used to prepare for the new curriculum’s implementation. The new curriculum will likely go into effect in the fall of 2010.
“The students who are already matriculated at that time will be grandfathered in [by the current curriculum requirements, not the new ones],” Rollins said.
During the ArtSci Council meeting, a few students addressed the issue of Arts & Sciences requirements being more cumbersome for current transfer students and asked how the issue would be attended to in the revised curriculum.
“There will be accommodations made [for transfer students],” Rollins said.
The overall expected impact of the proposed Arts & Sciences curriculum will include creating more natural ways to achieve integrated learning, having fewer types of requirements and offering more options for small group experiences.
The proposed changes also include the possibility of integrating Writing 1 with a freshman seminar.
“We currently and haven’t known the point of the Writing 1 course. We can’t come to a conclusion until professors can establish the purpose of the program,” Rollins said. “We are aware that people aren’t happy with the current Writing 1 program”
The Arts & Sciences faculty will vote on the revised curriculum on May 1.