When it comes to the curriculum, administrators have one message for students: Tell us what you think.
Four years after UNC implemented a new plan, administrators, faculty and students have formed a committee to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the new curriculum. The objective is determining whether it has accomplished the goals laid out when it was established.
ATTEND THE MEETING
Time: 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. today
Location: Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library
Info: curriculumreview@unc.edu
The group will submit a report to administrators, who could make changes based on those recommendations. But the entire process is contingent on student feedback and suggestions, which committee members said have been lacking.
“We need them to show concern about their educational experience at UNC,” said junior Chris Carter, a member of the committee and one of the few undergraduate representatives.
Five subcommittees — focusing on foundations, approaches, connections, supplemental education and miscellaneous issues — are directly investigating whether every element of the curriculum is fulfilling its stated purpose.
These committees are examining specific classes and how they fulfill general education requirements, but also assessing the effectiveness of the requirements themselves.
“They’re looking at each element of the curriculum, but then they’re also looking at the overall,” said Erika Lindemann, an associate dean in the Undergraduate Education Office in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We welcome comments on both.”
Administrators pledged in 2006 that the curriculum would be reviewed after four years. Lindemann said major issues at stake are the supplemental education and experiential education requirements, which have received the most attention from students.
The committee’s work is still in the planning stages, and members have not yet formulated a specific plan for their report.
Lindemann said examples of the types of changes they could suggest include reducing the number of required connections from eight to five, or implementing a one-semester writing requirement.
Student input is critical in conducting a successful review, Carter said, because they need to know if current requirements are manageable or in need of alterations.
Carter also said the student members on the committee are an inadequate representation of input from the entire student body.
“It makes the people on the committee more representative of student opinion, which is not necessarily very good,” he said.
Lindemann said she expects the committee to deliver a report to administrators in September, and the Faculty Council should make a final decision as to any changes in December, she said.
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