The Faculty Senate approved a new core curriculum in early January that will dramatically change the USM educational experience for future students.
The new curriculum will come into full effect in the 2009, and will only affect that year’s incoming class and all future classes.
Gone are the alphabetical requirements. In their place: a comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum that has been the vision of some USM faculty for years.
While these changes will not affect current USM students, the massive overhaul of the curriculum will be noticeable during their remaining time at USM.
When fully implemented, the program will consist of a minimum of 39 credit hours from at least 12 courses. This core curriculum starts with the already implemented Entry Year Experience, or E.Y.E. classes.
The new system is a departure from the current curriculum, which requires students to take unrelated classes in different departments to fulfill their “core” requirements.
Under the new core curriculum, students will follow a path, which becomes progressively more interdisciplinary throughout their time as an undergrad, culminating in three “thematic cluster courses” and a final “capstone” requirement.
Twelve credits from the core curriculum can be put towards a minor, meaning a student could be halfway done with their required minor courses while fulfilling core requirements.
The capstone, an interdisciplinary course with intense focus, offers students a challenging climax to their core requirements.
Sophomore Ben Taylor, vice-chair of the student senate, heard a presentation by the Core Curriculum Planning Committee. He remembers one potential capstone called “The Brain,” which would draw from biology, psychology, anatomy, and other courses to give students a better understanding of human thought processes.
Taylor thinks the program has promise. “If there is good department buy-in, and they attempt to develop interesting programs around the curriculum, it has real possibility.”
History professor Eileen Eagen, on the other hand, feels that a core curriculum created without much student input can be unfair to students. “It could really make graduating that much harder for students.” Eagen says. “There is a real risk that students will end up going where there is a less complicated core curriculum.”
Citing the new curriculum’s goals, or “outcomes,” Eagen says “education is supposed to affect cognitive development, not behavior.”
Senior Deb Penham, the president of the Board of Student Organizations, sees the new curriculum offering the sense of unity USM is said to lack.
The interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum will mean that students from radically different majors will have some in-class interaction that had previously been missing.
“It will give students a sense of unity, academically and socially, because it will bring people together,” she said.
“This new system is appealing,” said Penham.
Penham sees opposition to the new curriculum as being based in a misunderstanding. “People think this curriculum will result in superficial experience that doesn’t result in real knowledge.” She said “but I think the clear idea of a program or track that students get from this system seems very colligate.”
Eagen admits that the new curriculum does have some good aspects, but warns that the curriculum runs the risk of “being interdisciplinary at the cost of disciplines.”
Departments have begun working on designing specific courses for the new curriculum, but have been unable to provide information about specific changes as of yet.