Students weigh in at curriculum discussion

In anticipation of potential changes to the curriculum starting with the Class of 2010, approximately 65 College undergraduates met in Houston Hall to dissect the College's approach to a liberal arts education yesterday afternoon.

The discussion followed last week's faculty meeting on the same topic and is part of the College's ongoing evaluation of the undergraduate curriculum.

After another faculty meeting this December, the committee will begin crafting specific proposals, which they will open up to University-wide review in the spring. The goal is to adopt a curriculum that can be instituted for the class entering the University in fall 2006.

Both Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Rebecca Bushnell and Committee on Undergraduate Education Chairman Dennis DeTurck were pleased with the meeting, noting that the attendees proved thoughtful and impassioned.

"I was very pleased with the level of discourse. The thoughtfulness of it was really terrific," Bushnell said.

After a brief introduction by the DeTurck, students broke into several smaller groups in order to discuss five predetermined questions about the meaning of a liberal arts education and the philosophies behind different general requirement structures.

While students generally agreed about the importance of having curricular breadth and depth, they disagreed on how such goals should be achieved and how much freedom students should have to design their own course of study.

"At least now, I think, it's clear that everyone understands the problem, in the sense that whatever the curriculum is has to be a compromise," DeTurck said.

Many attendees stressed the importance of educating students as citizens of the world. Some brought up a student proposal introduced last semester to add a multicultural requirement.

Despite some disagreement, students were pleased with the conversation.

"I was really happy that Dean Bushnell involved students in the process of reforming the curriculum," College senior Jesse Salazar said.

Many students attended as representatives of various University constituencies, from cultural groups to lesser-known majors and members of the pilot curriculum.

Salazar reflected on the disproportionately high number of students from the pilot curriculum who attended the event.

"I think it is really interesting that so many of the people here were from the pilot curriculum," Salazar said, noting that some "people say that the pilot curriculum is the least involved in education."

CUE member and former Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Justin Raphael, a College junior, was happy with the discussion. "I think it's maybe broached more issues than it has solved."

"But it's kind of a one step forward, two steps backwards process," he added.

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