Although the faculty is set to formally vote next Tuesday on a proposal to change the College curriculum, members will hardly be voting on any radical changes.
Rather than completely overhauling the College's system of general requirements, administrators say that the proposed curriculum would streamline and simplify the existing system while giving students greater freedom and breadth in their academic experience.
The proposed curriculum -- which would take effect in the fall of 2006 -- would require students to take one class in the current Society, History and Tradition, Arts and Letters, Living World and Physical World sectors.
In addition, students would need one class in both the new interdisciplinary "Humanities and Social Science" and "Natural Science and Mathematics" sectors. Students could ot to take two additional classes in the five previously used sectors.
This will leave students with three fewer general requirement courses to take. Based on studies done of Pilot Curriculum students -- who have only four required courses -- College Dean Dennis DeTurck said that he expects students to use this freedom in a constructive way.
This could include taking additional courses in a major, double majoring or simply taking more electives.
DeTurck cited an "academic culture" at Penn as the reason he believes students will take advantage of their freedom.
He said that Pilot Curriculum students took certain classes in large numbers, even though they did not have to fulfill a requirement and are not generally regarded as being easy. In other words, students will continue to take these classes even if they are not required.
One of the goals of the new General Requirement, DeTurck said, will be to encourage students to take courses they ordinarily would not. Having three fewer courses should help ensure greater breadth in a College education -- as long as students take advantage of the available choices.
Under the new system, students will still be able to fulfill requirements with a variety of standard courses, including Psychology 001, Math 103 and Economics 001. Given that these are the courses DeTurck cited as being part of the College's "resilient" academic culture, it is possible that many students will choose to go with these old standbys rather than searching outside of the box.
DeTurck emphasized, though, that the point of the proposed curriculum is not in any way to discourage students from taking these standard introductory classes, but to provide students with a greater variety of options.
Student Committee on Undergraduate Education Chairwoman and College junior Farrah Freis also noted that the two interdisciplinary sectors will contain a number of nontraditional courses, including Pilot-style interdisciplinary classes and academic-based community service courses.
Students will not be required to take courses in the interdisciplinary sectors at first, however, as not enough of these classes will be available by the fall of 2006.
Despite whatever changes are made in the new curriculum, the onus will still be on students to take advantage of its spirit.
As much as the new curriculum will provide ample opportunity for academic exploration to willing students, it will also provide sufficient loopholes to those wishing not to expand their boundaries.
Another change will be that students will only be allowed to count one course from the General Requirement toward a major.
This policy may inconvenience students who have majors that draw from more than one department, but its overall effect will help provide breadth.
Considering that students who elect not to take any classes from interdisciplinary sectors will be taking multiple courses in at least two sectors, this policy should encourage the academic breadth that administrators seek.
No longer, for example, will history majors be able to take two courses from the History and Tradition sector and count both toward their major. This policy will force students to expand their academic horizons, more so than the decreased number of requirements.
One aspect of the new curriculum that remains especially up in the air is the proposed cultural analysis requirement. If implemented, this requirement would operate in a similar fashion as the current Quantitative Data Analysis requirement.
DeTurck said that these cultural courses will allow students to "get inside at least one other culture" and "impact the way [they] see the world."
This would also assist in pushing students toward greater academic exploration, as it would force them to take a class in one of the general requirement sectors that they may not have ordinarily considered.
Overall, the University's future students will have to meet administrators halfway to ensure that the proposed curriculum is a success. The curriculum surely provides the proper framework to give students of the College an academic experience with both greater freedom and breadth, but students will have to take the initiative themselves to ensure that they benefit from the changes.
