New hope for curriculum reform

Though hopes for wide-spread requirement changes was destroyed three years ago, faculty and students now express optimism that small-scale curricular reform my be possible.

The administrative restructuring process and the creation of the Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience _ both initiatives that were implemented by University President Larry Bacow last fall have given

The difficulty in changing requirements at Tufts was illustrated three years ago.The EPC made a proposal to the Committee on Curricula (CoC) in the spring of 2000 after spending six years studying the stringency of Tufts' liberal arts curriculum. The EPC presented three scenarios to the CoC: maintaining the status quo, making a few minor adjustments, and having a major curriculum overhaul. The CoC, comprised of a select group of faculty and students, met with faculty about the issue and later rejected all proposals for change.

The EPC has since dissolved.

In the past, the major stumbling block for change has been the University's desire to maintain a sense of uniformity in the education Tufts provides.

As faculty, "part of our responsibility is to provide some shape to education," said Professor Steven Hirsch, who served on the EPC for five years and is a current member of the Academic Review Board (ARB).

"There has been a persistent call from the student body for fewer requirements," Hirsch said. Student proposals frequently neglected fundamental educational values, however, and "we did not pay a whole lot of attention," Hirsch said.

Institutional inertia is also a major factor in preventing significant curriculum changes. The last major change occurred with the addition of the World Civilizations requirement, which was instituted in the early 1990s.

"Departments are built around curricular structures," said Charles Inouye, Dean of the Colleges for Undergraduate Education. "Just because the students want something doesn't mean it's going to happen."

Professors also have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, since altering the curriculum would void certain positions. This was seen in 2000, when faculty expressed contentment at with the requirements at the meeting with the CoC. Now, the only hope for any curricular change is "starting from scratch" or guaranteeing that "everybody is willing to make concessions," Hirsch said.

The advent of the ARB may allow for such conditions to be met. The new committee reviews student petitions and works with the CoC _ which handles faculty suggestions _ in order to produce an adaptable curriculum for each department, Inouye said.

The Task Force could also be involved in such changes, since it allows a large group of faculty and students to openly discuss University policy. The new optimism for curricular reform is partly a result of this expanded student-faculty collaboration. Now, it is "not a small group" making decisions, Inouye said. "We'll be able to decide together."

The Task Force has given us a "clearer, more comprehensive view of change," Inouye added, and it has brought out a "shared vision." Because the Task Force has support from the administration its weight is greater than that of previous committees without administrative mandate, Hirsch said.

Concrete proposals from the Task Force will not be presented to Bacow until the Task Force releases its final report in the spring. One of the things it has been asked to evaluate is curriculum.

The Experimental College has also been an avenue for curriculum change, since it offers courses that are sometimes later approved as Liberal Arts College courses. Faculty members and administrators view the current Ex-College courses Hindi-Urdu 1 and 2 as prime candidates for success in the Liberal Arts College.

"We have the example of Chinese," which began in the Ex-College and became a popular Liberal Arts course, Inouye said. Arabic language classes have also followed this path.

The key is "whether or not the students are going to be in support of it" by enrolling in the courses, not by merely signing petitions to add them, Inouye said.

The decline of faculty resistance may also facilitate change. The "faculty will be in on the change from the beginning," Inouye said. "We poll the faculty _ we know there's interest." Inouye said the likelihood for curriculum development is "huge," and is "very excited about the year ahead of us."

The ARB also offers a place for student voices in curricular reform. "There are various [student] proposals happening," Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Vice President Andrew Potts said. "There is definitely a very vocal and active group of students."

The Asian American Curriculum Transformation (AACT) is one example of student initiative for curricular change. The AACT, which was started just over two years ago, aims to add an Asian American Studies minor. Students have been involved in the search for the new tenure-track Asian American professor and in gaining approval for the Asian American Studies courses as fulfilling the culture requirement, according to Kelly Condit, TCU Senate Asian/Asian American Culture Representative.

Though there have been failures in curricular reform in the past, they do not affect the odds of future success, Potts said. "Projects have failed one year, and a new senator has tried it a different way the next year," he said. "Each year is very different."

When more students are involved, "it automatically becomes a larger issue," Potts said. Everything depends on "how much press it might get" and "how much student interest there is," he said.