Most, if not all, SMU students go through their perspectives, fulfilling the general education requirement and getting at least a C-. Maybe you’re sitting in one of those classes right now and the person next to you is sleeping during the professor’s lecture.
As the freshman class of 2011 comes to campus, these students may no longer exist. Faculty, staff and a small number of students gathered in Dallas Hall Wednesday evening for the Curriculum Town Hall meeting. Dennis Cordell, associate dean for general education, and Associate Provost Thomas Tunks presented the draft of the new University Curriculum to a filled auditorium.So what is the difference between the General Education fulfilled by students and the university curriculum? Tunks wants everyone to be assured that they are the same thing.
The proposed curriculum is made of four parts: a foundation, pillars, proficiencies and experiences, and a capstone. The current list of perspectives is broadened and slapped with a new label.
A significant cause for the proposed curriculum is to change the way students think. According to Vicki Hill, A-LEC director, that “check list” of requirements will be obsolete.
Students won’t see the university curriculum and wonder how to get them out of the way, “but think of it as a list of goals,” Hill said. Students will take the recent American history course because it sounds interesting, not because it falls with a few other history courses to complete the history/art history perspective.
The curriculum includes other adjustments besides omitting the word “required.” There would be a shift from “counting courses to [observing] demonstrated competencies,” according to the slide show. Meaning, the focus for the student would be to show the actual proficiency gained from the course, not the grade earned. This allows economics majors to count introductory micro and macro classes as perspectives.
These alterations would include the use of e-portfolios, as students’ representation of their work goes from paper to a personal screen. Here, students could display skills such as talking.
Cordell and Tunks stood firmly as they presented the slideshow but as the many hands in the McCord Auditorium rose without delay, there appeared to be less confidence in the air.
Various professors questioned the budget. The less-than-high confidence in donors may be an issue, but paying for the growth of faculty required for this new curriculum is another.
One way the new plan would require money is the foreign language competency requirement. According to Cordell, there is no possibility of the plan being implemented in the fall of 2011 without donations – however, the committee expects enough support.
The lack of faculty voting created some apathetic faces. However, “this curriculum won’t fly unless it has faculty participation,” Cordell said.
This “stage one” portion of the process has been created and altered since the first meeting with the Student Body Senate. It is supposed to be done this Saturday, April 25. However, this is not the final due date, as the process is made up of five stages, taking the total time of at least two years.
