Word: one
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...noted, the curriculum of the College has been constantly, if incrementally changing during the past 25 years-from one with a core of strictly-defined General Education surrounded by watertight departments to a pattern where General Education means departmental courses with a wider perspective and where interdisciplinary majors are not uncommon. The periodic discussions over minor reforms-loosening Independent Study requirements for example-have led some Faculty members to begin their own private reassessment of what a college education should...
Some Faculty members undoubtedly see curricular reform as a way to channel student energies into channels they deem more constructive than occupying buildings every other week. To put it another way, changing educational patterns may be one means to lessen the general malaise contributing to the recent turmoil here...
Even if the Faculty now seems generally receptive to curricular reform, however, a coalition of particular interests and general apathy could still spell the doom of specific proposals unless they gather significant momentum-particularly among Faculty members-before they come to the Faculty as a whole. Thus, one test of the overall Faculty response will be the attendance of Faculty associates who attend the initial House meetings on curricular reform. If their participation is high-in other words if many associates wean themselves away from the departments to the Houses-the chances for curricular reform may be bright indeed...
Though the politics of curricular reform look initially encouraging, there are probably definite economic constraints to reform. May devoted only one paragraph to the costs of education among his pages of questions about it, but the paragraph is an important one. It asks the House proposals "to be realistic, in the sense of at least giving consideration to cost differentials among alternative proposals." While May did not say so, it seems probable that the funds available for undergraduate instruction can only be shuffled around, not significantly increased, in an era when the Faculty is already running a hefty deficit...
Curricular reform faces one other obstacle. If the political atmosphere of the University heats up and students. Faculty, and administrators find it necessary to manage one crisis after another, the time, manpower, and energy needed for the undramatic but vital job of reshaping the College's educational system just might not be forthcoming...