Officials Unveil Curriculum Plans

At a Monday forum, the Curriculum Review Committee presented a draft proposal for overhauling the General College curriculum.

The findings came from the research of 16 satellite committees, each of which focused on a particular area of the curriculum. The Curriculum Review Committee, which is composed of students and faculty, was formed in fall 2001.

According to the proposal, the general education curriculum will be composed of three new categories of perspectives: 17 hours in "foundations" classes, 25 hours in "approaches" courses and six "connections" requirements.

Courses that fulfill the connections requirements also can count toward majors or minors, elective hours, approaches requirements or the supplemental general education requirement for juniors and seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Students also would be able to take courses or use their experiences from study abroad, service learning or internships to fulfill connections requirements.

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences would go on to fulfill nine hours for the supplemental general education requirement. Students in professional schools and certain majors -- bachelor of science, bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of music -- will instead take 66 credit hours and up to 12 elective hours.

The proposed review also would change the name of the cultural diversity requirement to U.S. diversity, which falls under the connections requirements.

Tom Tweed, who sat on the steering committee, said the name change more accurately reflects the intent of the students who initially proposed the requirement in the 1990s.

Other significant changes were proposed Monday. A wellness requirement would combine instruction in concepts of physical activity, nutrition and lifelong health and would be worth one academic credit hour.

The wellness class would replace the requirement of two one-hour nonacademic credit physical education courses.

But biochemistry Professor Pierre Morell, who also is a teaching assistant for the physical education department, was one voice of dissent toward that proposal.

"We need to direct students to a healthy life, and giving a lecture on body fat is not going to do it," he said.

At the forum, faculty members raised concerns about the removal of a requirement in non-Western history. The proposal states that one history course must include historical analysis, one must cover a period before 1750 and one can be of any designation.

History Professor Lloyd Kramer, who served on one of the satellite committees, proposed that a non-Western requirement be implemented but suggested that it be fulfilled in other ways.

The forum was the first of at least two planned discussions, the second of which will take place this fall.

Once final revisions are completed, the proposal will go to the Faculty Council, which officials say they hope will occur by the end of the 2002-03 academic year. The earliest that a new curriculum might be implemented would be by fall 2004.

Overall, Laurie McNeil, steering committee chairwoman, said that while some requirements and names have changed, the proposal essentially accomplishes the same objectives as the current curriculum.

"You'll notice the fundamental philosophy is really the same," she said. "It's the foundations and the approaches to knowledge that should be connected to each other and to the world at large."

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