Curriculum to Be Discussed at 2 Forums

"Basically it is an additional opportunity for faculty and students to come voice their concerns," said Laurie McNeil, chairwoman of the Curriculum Review Steering Committee.

The committee has proposed a redesigned curriculum that would consist of three categories of requirements: foundations, approaches and connections.

If accepted, the new requirements would replace the perspectives classes beginning in 2004 or 2005, McNeil said.

The proposal resulted from the research of 16 satellite committees. Each committee focused on a different aspect of the curriculum.

The committee revised its original proposal after a public forum last April.

A change that sparked some debate at the April forum but was not addressed in the revised draft was the replacement of the swim test and two nonacademic physical education requirements.

A wellness course would replace the requirements. The course would combine instruction in physical activity, nutrition and lifelong health and count for one hour of graded academic credit

The faculty forum will be held Oct. 7, and the date of the student forum has not yet been announced.

McNeil said she expects different tones in the student and faculty forums.

"Faculty will in fact be affected," McNeil said, "They are the ones who will teach it."

Faculty in the professional schools also will have to consider the effects that training underclassmen in a new way will have on their programs.

Students at the forum will not be directly affected by the curriculum revision because the earliest it would be enacted is for the entering class of 2004.

Kim Sexton, a chairwoman on the Student Academic Advising Board, said students have a different idea of what they would like to get out of the general education requirements.

"We need to compromise between everyone -- from all the crazy ones who say no requirements needed to the ones who understand what's needed in a university education," Sexton said.

After both forums, the committee will meet again to incorporate any necessary changes into its final draft of the proposal before the end of October.

The proposal will then be submitted to both the Subcommittee on General Education, part of the Faculty Council, and the Educational Policy Committee of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Faculty Council then has the final decision on rejecting or accepting the proposed curriculum.

The main question that will be examined is, "Will a curriculum like this give our students what they need to know when they leave the University?" McNeil said.

She said she does not expect many objections to the proposed curriculum changes. "I've not seen anyone rise up and say that's unacceptable."

"This has been an incredible process," McNeil said, "I think we've come up with something that will be better for the campus than what we currently have."

Staff Writer Meredith Craig

contributed to this article.

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