3rd Curriculum Review Focuses on Perspectives

More than 30 students and faculty members from all corners of the University gathered Monday to address the pros and cons of UNC's curriculum.

The third in a series of open public discussions, Monday's forum focused on, "What's Broke and What Isn't?: Assessing UNC's General Education Curriculum."

The main issue discussed by Monday's panel was whether upper-level perspectives are useful to students in a liberal arts institution.

The forum, held in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, was part of the initial stages of the undergraduate curriculum review, scheduled to be completed by 2003. A committee will be appointed this semester to evaluate and tweak the curriculum.

Monday's panel featured two former chairmen of the UNC general education system, who dealt primarily with undergraduate curriculum, and one undergraduate student.

Peter Coclanis, professor and chairman of the history department; Darryl Gless, senior associate dean for the humanities and fine arts and an English professor, and Sujay Kansagra, a senior and vice chairman of academic affairs for student government, all offered their opinions.

Coclanis began by acknowledging the ever-present tension in any general education program. "Our general education system is very complex and, despite improvements, our system still has Western biases," he said.

Gless continued the discussion by focusing on the need for simplification in the current curriculum. He said a more restricted range of courses is needed.

Kansagra tried to voice the majority of students' impression of the current curriculum. "There is a general feeling of tolerance and acceptance of the lower level (perspective) classes," he said.

But he said students are disgruntled about the discrepancy between instructors teaching the same course and the lack of wide-ranging majors and minors.

Annie Pierce, a junior and chairwoman of academic affairs for student government, said upper-level perspectives hindered her focus on specific majors and minors. "We are limited to only four years here, and we are paying for our own educations, so I think the students should have more say in their curriculum decisions," she said.

Tom Tweed, associate dean for undergraduate curricula, said he was pleased with the discussion of the panel. "We got to some of the most important and vexing issues, even if everyone in the room didn't agree on how to solve them."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.