Faculty members air views on undergraduate report
Archived article from Oct 10, 2005
By Ashanti M. Alvarez
At an annual conference, faculty expressed general approval and support of a report drafted by an undergraduate education task force but aired concerns over details. About 150 faculty members attended the Sept. 23 Conference on Undergraduate Teaching at the Rutgers Student Center on College Avenue. They tackled proposed changes to curriculum, the student experience and structure at the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus in three separate hour-long discussions. The annual conference has been held by the New Brunswick Faculty Council and the Center for Advancement of Teaching since 1997.
“It was certainly nice to hear positive things ... a lot of people felt it was a good report,” said Martin Gliserman, an associate professor of English and conference chair. “This conversation goes directly to the New Brunswick Faculty Council, which will look at the task force findings and make a report to the president with our recommendations.”
The report from the Task Force for Undergraduate Education, released this summer, focuses on matters of curriculum, student life, admissions and recruitment, structure, and campus planning and facilities. Five working groups studied each area and came up with recommendations for reform. President Richard L. McCormick will make his own recommendations to the board of governors based on the report and months of discussion to take place this semester.
The report recommends combining liberal arts colleges into a Rutgers College of Arts and Sciences. It would also create a newly empowered vice president of undergraduate education. Several faculty members expressed delight at the prospective post. Richard Miller, co-chair of the curriculum working group, told the audience that his group sought to more closely involve faculty in student education before they declare majors. Students at each school currently must take a certain number of core credits in the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, math and other areas. Faculty tend to have closer interactions with students once they enter a program of study and do coursework in the academic departments. The intent of the core curriculum is that it should span the entire time a student is an undergraduate. “The meeting of requirements should take place throughout four to five years, instead of trying to get rid of all the courses in the first two years,” Miller said.
Core requirements at each college and school vary from 18 to 42 credits.
The curriculum report drew concern from faculty at professional schools. Paul Panayotatos, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, said that the rigorous 136 credits required of engineering students leave little room for the 36 credits of core requirements for all undergraduates in New Brunswick/Piscataway proposed by the working group. Also, he said there is little flexibility since the professional schools’ programs must meet accreditation standards. Engineering students currently must satisfy an 18-credit core requirement; pharmacy students must fulfill 21 credits. Miller responded by saying his working group intended for many of the credits to be satisfied within the major.
Paul Leath, physics professor and chair of the faculty council, expressed concern that a new curriculum, if approved by the board of governors, would be set in stone. Mathematics professor Amy Cohen concurred, saying that any core curriculum requires external reviews “from time to time.”
A couple of faculty members seemed confused by the new categorizations of courses in the proposed core, such as “aesthetic,” “reflective” and “experiential.” Miller said that, if approved, the curriculum would require further committee work to determine what courses meet which required categories.
“Some of these titles and categories don’t speak to me,” said Gary Rendsburg, professor of history and chair of the Jewish studies department. He praised the current core curriculum as a “menu” that “gives students choice.” Joel Shapiro, professor of physics, said, “I thought all courses required students to reflect on things.”
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