My diagnostic test for my ability to analyze quantitative data just so happened to be my Astronomy final. After turning over the coversheet of the exam, I remember several of my bewildered classmates asking the professor, "What exactly are we supposed do in these problems? We didn't do anything like this all semester!" The professor smiled and explained that those problems dealt with quantitative data and reminded us that our class fulfilled the College's Quantitative Data Analysis requirement.
Oh, right.
Unfortunately, general-requirement horror stories are not as rare as they should be. One of my friends took a Freshman Writing Seminar where she learned how to write papers with weird, quirky theses. Evidently, that's what the graduate student teaching the class placed emphasis on instead of the basics of style and grammar.
When I related these experiences to Dennis DeTurck, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he first pointed out the recent overhaul of the Writing Program at Penn. The changes, he said, would make it extremely unlikely that any student today would have a similar problem with a writing class. He also suggested that I take another QDA-type class to gain the skills that the previous course should have taught me. Since I've got just five classes left at Penn, I guess I'm lucky that only one of my general-requirement classes was a complete disaster.
This is not to say that that the curriculum as a whole is a disaster. If anything, the College curriculum is improving with three fewer general requirements and the addition of the Global Cultural Analysis requirement.
But perhaps Dean DeTurck put it best himself when he said, "We are under no illusion that what we are doing is ever perfect." That's why every course in every sector of the general requirements will get reviewed by the Committee on Undergraduate Education. This way they will be able to ensure that each class fulfills the requirement. However, it will take at least four years to get through the entire general requirement course catalogue, not counting classes which hope to be given the designation. Considering the number of courses that must be reviewed, four years is pretty fast, but not fast enough. Four years is an undergraduate's entire time here.
Dean DeTurck suggested that any students who have concerns about the College curriculum and its courses should get involved with the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education. The number of students with important feedback to give far outnumbers the available spaces on the committee, and the body of students who also have the time to get involved.
Don't laugh, but I think Penn Course Review can help. At the moment, this is basically asking to be saved by a drowning man. Yes, PCR only came back online a week ago and yes, it still doesn't have the data for the two most recent semesters. It's safe to say that the administrators of the PCR have their work cut out for them and these problems should certainly be their top priorities.
However, they are also in a unique position to help SCUE make more informed recommendations to the Committee for Undergraduate Education. Currently, the course evaluations ask students why they're taking the class (general, elective or in major), if they liked the professor, how helpful the reading material was and to rate the course's level of difficulty.
The questionnaires should have additional sections asking specifically about the requirements. If the class in question fulfilled a requirement, students should be asked if they think the course achieved the goals set for the requirement. If the class did not fulfill a requirement, the student should be asked if they think it should receive that designation.
With such data, SCUE would be able to identify problematic requirement courses in addition to successful non-requirement courses that should be considered. Of course, the administration's review of all the requirement courses will still take a significant amount of time. But with the help of PCR and SCUE, the committee will be able to review the classes that students think need the most help faster.
In the meantime, since the Penn Course Review is outdated, I thought I'd ask for some course recommendations. I'm in the market for a good QDA class.
Amara Rockar is a junior political science major from St. Louis. Out of Range appears on Tuesdays.
