By Meredith O’Donnell
The University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences revamped the core curriculum studies, and the new system will begin fall of 2004.
This will have a great impact on all students, since the majority of credits required come from the Liberal Arts College. In order to graduate students must earn 124 credits; 94 of these are from the Liberal Arts College.
The University was founded on the basis of Liberal Arts, which means composing a well-rounded curriculum where students will learn about subjects that surpass their original focus. For instance, a computer major cannot graduate having only taken math and science courses.
“It is important for anyone who is graduating from college to have knowledge about different areas of the world in order to be well-balanced,” Dr. Bernard J. Firestone, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said.
Keeping these criteria in mind, Firestone decided about three years ago it was time to closely reexamine the requirements.
“At that time, the same core curriculum that was being used was designed in the early 1980s,” Firestone said. “And anything that has been in progress for 20 years should be looked at again and readjusted.”
Up until now professors went before a board and presented their subject and issues covered in the course in order to try and get it approved as a core class.
However, when Firestone composed a committee of about eight professors from different departments, it was decided that professors would no longer need to ask permission to make their course a core requirement.
“[The new system] is removing the bureaucratic restraints so that the departments are free to use their discretion,” Dr. Barbara Bohannon, associate dean for Student Academic Affairs, said.
The title of the requirements has been changed from “cores,” to “distribution courses” under the new system.
Transfer students will be greatly impacted, as the Liberal Arts College will be more lenient on accepting credits from other schools.
“There will no longer be residency requirements, as long as the courses taken are similar to ours,” said Bohannon.
“It is likely that courses offered at local schools, such as Nassau Community College, will be like our curriculum,” Firestone said. “We’ve talked to surrounding schools and compared.”
The difference for current University students is beginning in the fall there will be a much wider array of courses from which to choose, Firestone said. For instance, the Division of Humanities section of courses being offered in the University Undergraduate Bulletin is barely one page. The list of qualified courses in the new bulletin will be four pages long.
“This expands the diversity of classes and gives students a better selection,” Bohannon said. “Improving their chances of finding a subject that they are interested in and enjoy that will also fulfill a requirement.”This new system may be the answer for many students like sophomore history major Beth Grossman.
“Sometimes I felt like I was in a class for an entire semester and working hard for hours on work outside of class,” she said. “But I thought I was wasting time because it wasn’t helping me for my major and I wasn’t interested in the subject,”
However, if a student takes a class that was not previously considered a core requirement, and then it becomes one, it will not be considered on their transcript as a core.