After almost two years of discussion, the Faculty Senate appears to be one step closer to finalizing a new curriculum for Saint Anselm College. An email was sent to faculty members on January 30 highlighting the new changes proposed to the curriculum.
The Faculty Senate voted on the changes on Tuesday, Feb 5, and the senate voted to approve the new curriculum. The new curriculum proposal was then forwarded to the Monastic community to vote, who had rejected a previous new curriculum proposal, and then will be sent on to the Board of Trustees for approval.
The new curriculum creates a 128 credit requirement for graduation, and each course would be worth four credits. Therefore, students would take four classes per semester rather than five. Professors would then only teach three classes each semester instead of the current four.
The new Core requirements are very different than the current curriculum. A “First Year Experience” is being implemented, and will be taken both semesters of a student’s freshman year. Additionally, students will be required to take one semester of an “Aesthetic and Creative Engagement” course.
Students will also be required to take a Historical Awareness course, one semester of Social Scientific Awareness, and one semester of Quantitative Reasoning.
Other current Core Requirements have been modified. The science requirement has been reduced to one semester, including a lab, and both Theology and Philosophy requirements have been cut from three courses each to two.
In terms of language requirements, students will only be required to take one semester of a Foreign or Classical Language at the Intermediate Level. Freshman will still be required to complete one semester of a first year composition course, but will then be required to take one writing enriched class every year throughout their next three years at the college. This brings the total number of core courses to fourteen.
Though these new curriculum requirements appear vague, that is in part the intention. According to the email sent out to the faculty, this variety of requirements would give students an opportunity to double-dip, or to use certain courses to complete both the Core requirements as well as courses for their majors.
The ability to double-dip, according to the email “would provide more room for majors, minors, experimentation, internships, honors, study abroad, and other such desirable ends.”
This new curriculum is very similar to the curriculum that was first proposed in April 2012, however there were a few additions and edits. For example, the language requirement has been reduced from last April’s proposal.
The Faculty Senate does acknowledge the weaknesses of the newly proposed curriculum. The flexibility that many were hoping to create is not as extensive as they wanted, but they cite many additional benefits to only taking four classes a semester as opposed to five.
Some examples of the benefits include retaining students so they will not feel overwhelmed, give student’s AP credits more valuable, and it is easy to implement and administer.
Some students, alumni, and faculty do appear to have some concerns. One source notes that approximately fifteen faculty letters were submitted in opposition to the new curriculum, and several alumni also oppose then changes to the curriculum.
There is also the question of what will happen to the nursing curriculum, for nurses make a large percentage of the student body. The nursing majors have very little opportunity for flexibility in their schedules with the current curriculum, so it will be interesting to see how the nursing program will manage to incorporate the required courses for nursing majors, as well as clinicals, with a 4-4 course load and new requirements.
Once the monastery at Saint Anselm College approves the proposal, the new curriculum will be passed on to the Board of Trustees for approval.