Change often comes slowly to the University, and change to the curriculum is no exception.
Having begun meeting in late October, the Curriculum Review Committee-which is charged with considering changes to Trinity College's curriculum-has completed its information gathering and has entered the discussion stage.
The committee intends to have compiled an outline of possible curriculum changes by the end of spring semester, said committee chair and professor of political science Peter Lange. The University curriculum undergoes regular review, but changes of this scope have not been considered in more than a decade.
During the past seven weeks, the committee has compiled extensive data by analyzing the curricula at other universities and reviewing relevant University information, such as a recent report that outlined Duke's curriculum since the 1970s.
"Whatever a university's curriculum is, it's supposed to reflect what that university values as important for its students graduating from that educational institution," said Trinity sophomore and Honor Council Chair Julian Harris, who is one of two undergraduates on the committee.
Fellow committee member and Trinity sophomore Ben Kennedy said the committee has found that there is no cohesive formula for the curricula of top-ranked institutions.
Within the Ivy League, for example, students at Princeton face a fairly complicated curriculum while those at Brown must simply complete the required number of courses, regardless of the area of study those courses would fall under, said Kennedy, who is also Duke Student Government vice president for academic affairs.
Throughout the process, Lange added, committee members have been discussing the potential curriculum changes with their peers. Kennedy said he has begun planning a student group to discuss the curriculum changes and hopes to meet regularly with the group next semester.
In addition, committee members will meet both informally and formally with members of the University community. "When we have something for people to talk about, we will have lots of meetings with lots of people," Lange said.
As it enters its discussion stage, Lange said, members will examine component parts of the curriculum and ask questions like, "Should we continue to work with the current six areas of knowledge?"
Some committee members are concerned that the current distribution requirements are too complicated. "Whatever we come up with will be less confusing," Harris said.
He added that the new curriculum will probably address both diversity and ethics. Integrating these ideas into the curriculum was a part of the original charge to the committee by William Chafe, dean of Trinity College and the faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Ethics classes would "get students to start thinking about the relationship between academic integrity and integrity in their personal lives and integrity in their professions," Chafe said. "[They would] help students acquire the types of critical thinking skills necessary to understand and analyze the ethical implications of policies and our behavior."
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