By Gerry Everding
March 30, 2001
Providing students with the intellectual depth and agility necessary to thrive in a complex and increasingly interconnected world is the hallmark of a rich and carefully orchestrated four-year curriculum that awaits all incoming first-year students in Arts & Sciences in fall 2001.
"Although the current curriculum has continued to introduce significant program initiatives throughout the past decade, it has not had a comprehensive revision for almost 20 years," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences.
"The new curriculum reflects not only changes that have taken place within our own University, but also in the world in which we live. By providing students with the opportunity to master a wide range of materials, ideas, skills and methodologies, we can offer them the skills that Arts & Sciences alumni say are most important for advanced study and advanced professional engagement in any field or endeavor."
Designed to advance curricular coherence, the revised curriculum emphasizes a course of study that builds a network of skills and information across all four years. Key elements include greatly expanded interdisciplinary studies called course clusters; increased opportunities for small-group experiences with professors; paths to enable undergraduates to become partners in research with faculty or to undertake special projects in their chosen major through capstone experiences; and a renewed emphasis on writing and quantitative analysis as part of the undergraduate program.
Arts & Sciences has adopted the new approach to ensure that students are well-prepared for professional and scholarly leadership and teamwork. Students will gain knowledge that is both broad and deep, and acquire skills that are fundamental for a lifetime of professional and personal creativity.
"Arts & Sciences continues to attract bright, highly-motivated students who seek the challenges of a rigorous curriculum," Macias said. "The new curriculum allows students to take control of their educational experience, to chart a course of intellectual discovery that is demanding, flexible and highly personalized."
Although the new curriculum will be unveiled for this fall's freshmen, elements of the program already are receiving rave reviews from students enrolled in the several precursor programs that served as prototypes for aspects of the new curriculum.
One of the earliest of these precursors, Text and Tradition, a five-course series offering a multidisciplinary grounding in the humanities, has been one of Arts & Sciences' most distinguished undergraduate programs for more than two decades. Enrollment in the two-year program is limited to 25 students to ensure maximum interaction with faculty.
Similarly successful are programs such as FOCUS, which offers small, yearlong seminars on such topics as Law and Society, America's Changing Health Care System, and The Theatre as a Living Art; and the Hewlett Program, which pairs small groups of undergraduates with senior faculty from diverse disciplines for a two-year exploration of selected topics in American culture and in the conjoined study of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. Started last year as an outgrowth of an earlier Hewlett program in environmental studies, the University's Pathfinder Program in Environmental Sustainability engages a group of students in a four-year course of research and special studies tailored to complement their individual majors.
Encouraged by the popularity and success of these programs, Arts & Sciences has crafted a new curriculum that makes these sorts of intimate, highly integrated learning experiences available to all its students through an array of nearly 250 interdisciplinary course clusters. The new curriculum capitalizes on the University's niche as a medium-sized institution with active research departments and thriving interdisciplinary programs.
"We're taking advantage of the fact that Arts & Sciences is small enough so that faculty in different disciplines can communicate regularly, shape their courses in complementary ways, and make that conversation between faculty something in which students can participate," said Joseph Loewenstein, Ph.D., professor of English in Arts & Sciences and chair of the implementation committee for the new curriculum. "We've taken the model of the integrated first-year programs, and we've expanded it to make a kind of matrix for the new curriculum."
An undergraduate degree in Arts & Sciences will continue to be based on the successful completion of 120 units of course work, with a foundation --about one-third of these units --built from courses taken in each of four broad topical areas: Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Social Sciences; Textual and Historical Studies; and Language and the Arts.
All students will take course clusters in each of these areas. The clusters emphasize linkages between areas of specialized knowledge, encouraging students to explore how the different disciplinary pieces fit together. Students interested in American literature, for instance, might pair a course in "Chief American Writers" with courses in American history, cinema or music, to provide a context for literary practice.
Core courses will include renewed emphasis on quantitative analysis and communication skills. Wherever possible, these skills will be taught in the context of a specific discipline --students of economics, for instance, might be asked to write journalistic analyses of international trade; an art history student might develop copy for a museum catalog; a student of biology might study statistics in the context of a genetics course.
During their senior year, undergraduates will have opportunities to complete their intellectual apprenticeships in capstone experiences. These may include collaborating with faculty on group research or independent studies, co-authoring articles for professional journals, organizing scholarly symposiums or presenting a recital.
Planning will be critical. Each student will work closely with an adviser to create a coherent master plan of study encompassing all four undergraduate years. The process will be assisted by a sophisticated online curricular planning program that helps students see links between individual courses and clusters and confirms that graduation requirements are met.
"The process of developing the new curriculum has had an extraordinarily positive impact across the faculty of Arts & Sciences," said James E. McLeod, Ph.D., vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. "Whereas individuals have sometimes tended to become isolated within their academic disciplines, the collaborative work of developing a coherent curriculum has stimulated increased faculty interaction. This experience has made us a stronger school and contributed significantly to the overall excitement and momentum."
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