An even more problematic question is whether the core, which is traditionally conceived as a set of key courses (the equivalent in literature of the sacred canon), is like a list of educational ingredients that, when taken like a pill (2 of this, and 3 of that, here a little, there a lot), nutrient, or even purgative, produce the intended result. Rather than set courses, should that prescription, instead, be a recognized set of content information or skills that can be gotten through and across many disciplines?

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As with many of my peers, I am deeply concerned and involved with the curriculum. As all of us have, I taught my load, advised hundreds of students, served on departmental curriculum committees and on the All-College Curriculum Committee. As department chair I had to handle student requests as well as problems, not to mention transfer course evaluations. Over the years, I have come to think of the curriculum as a ball and chain that shackles both faculty and students to an unwieldy structure. The curriculum as a structure has become outmoded to the point that many consider it a deterrent to education.

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In my six years at Salem State College, I have heard much anxiety about assessment not only from colleagues in the Department of Biology but also from colleagues further afield in our college. I do not mean to be flippant by using my aversion to dentists as an analogy, but I really do believe that a clear understanding of the assessment of learning objectives will significantly benefit the long-term health of what our students are learning and of our own long-term health as teachers.

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We should be much better informed in this country of the implications and consequences of the Bologna process, and we soon might have to be as the Western Governors University and a Lumina Foundation initiative gather steam. So what is the Bologna process?

The first misconception is that Bologna is an initiative of the European Union. In fact, it is perhaps the most tangible non-legal initiative of the Council of Europe

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Requiring a mathematics or quantitative reasoning course as part of a liberal arts education is not a new concept, but many of the innovative ways that students are able to fulfill this requirement are. Previously students would likely have taken a course covering traditional math content, such as precalculus. The entire course experience was almost certainly reminiscent of the high school classes that, for too many of these students, had felt mechanical and uninspiring. Surely this was not what anyone had envisioned when they included a mandatory math component for graduation.

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Simply stated, I believe the core curriculum should have two purposes: first, to provide the basic knowledge and skills that the student will need to be successful in college and in life after college, and second, to engage students in learning about themselves, other people, and the world around them from a variety of perspectives provided by the different academic disciplines. It is time to implement a simpler core curriculum.

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I would like to initiate a discussion here about the desirability of making any changes to the current foreign language requirements at Salem State College, whether it be to relax them or to increase them. Such a conversation could be nothing but helpful in these times where the core is open for review.

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But arguments for revising the core curriculum are historically situated and context specific. What worked for Matthew Arnold in 19th century England or for Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago in the 1930s or John Dewey in the first half of the preceding century will not work in the early years of the 21st century. For a 21st-century Core, we can’t look to the past. For one good reason: The Internet.

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A Core for the 21st Century
By Rick Branscomb, English Department
Arguments for revising the core curriculum are historically situated and context specific. What worked for Matthew Arnold in 19th century England or for Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago in the 1930s or John Dewey in the first half of the preceding century will not [...]

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By Jude Nixon
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
This is my first opportunity as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (SOAS) to address you in ASpect. I wish first to express my deepest gratitude to Chris Fauske, who served tirelessly and diligently as Interim Dean, holding the office together in order [...]

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