SAS faculty to vote on changing Gen Req

The proposal would test a smaller core curriculum on 200 college students a year beginning with the Class of 2004. The faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences will vote today on taking the first step toward an eventual overhaul of the undergraduate curriculum. If approved, an experimental core curriculum will be tested on a group of 200 students for five years, starting with next year's incoming freshmen. The proposal would reduce the current General Requirement from 10 narrowly focused classes to four broader, interdisciplinary ones. After the test period, the faculty would vote again on whether to institute the change for all College students. The alternative curriculum was debated at a faculty meeting last April. Thirty-three SAS professors endorsed the idea of the pilot program, stipulating that the 14-member Committee on Undergraduate Education -- which originally proposed the overhaul -- return this month with a more precise plan. "I think the pilot curriculum proposal? is significantly improved and strengthened from the one tentatively approved by the faculty in the spring," said College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman, who supports the plan. "I very much hope that the faculty will approve the pilot curriculum," Beeman added. In September, more than 60 faculty members brainstormed course topics for the proposed pilot curriculum. Courses would fall under four numbered categories -- respectively entitled Structure and Value in Human Societies; Science, Culture and Society; Earth, Space and Life; and Imagination, Representation and Reality. Last month, CUE Chairperson Frank Warner sent all SAS professors updated pilot curriculum materials to study prior to the voting in Logan Hall today. "Many of the faculty did not have time to think about this in the spring," said Warner, a Mathematics professor. According to Warner, changes to the original proposal include modified category descriptions, clarifications on the number of courses, guidance in elective selection and an emphasis on oral communication. At this point, courses are still evolving under the redefined categories. But an appendix to Warner's communique provides preliminary course descriptions. One suggestion in the Science, Culture and Society category is "Biology, Language and Culture" -- a general introduction to several areas of research -- developed by Linguistics Professor Mark Liberman and Anthropology professors Alan Mann and Gregory Urban. Warner stressed that these courses are still in the developmental stage and that today's vote is not on the courses themselves. Warner added that if the proposals pass, the school would have to move quickly in finalizing courses, forming an evaluation committee and developing an administrative structure before departments finalize fall course rosters. "In many [aspects], we are waiting to get past this vote," Warner noted. Pointing to numerous responses from faculty members, Warner said he is "anticipating strong, positive votes." But not all professors strongly supported the pilot proposal last spring. Indeed, many faculty members, particularly from the natural and physical sciences -- argued that the pilot curriculum's four categories were too confining and time-compressing. Last spring, Biology professors Eric Weinberg and Richard Schultz wrote a letter to The Daily Pennsylvanian that highlighted faculty concerns from last April's meeting. They were specifically concerned that the pilot curriculum would leave students unprepared to compete in an increasingly technology-dependent society and that the pilot proposal did not have appropriate criteria for judging success or failure. With CUE's efforts to modify categories and create an evaluation committee, some of these concerns may have diminished. "It is my understanding that CUE has taken these discussion points under further consideration and that the curriculum [which will be voted on tomorrow] has been extensively revised," Schultz said yesterday. "My attitude is one of 'wait and see.'" CUE also strengthened the "Electives" component of its recommendations -- previously called "Depth, Breadth and Coherence" -- in encouraging students and advisors to interact in shaping the courses freed by the reduced General Requirement. Now, the committee wants to incorporate oral communication models, including writing courses, recitations and freshman seminars. Beeman, who has fully endorsed the pilot proposal from his position as dean, maintained that today's vote comes on the heels of CUE's "extensive consultation" with faculty.