Students in charge of advising the International Relations program have made their first recommendations: decrease core requirements, increase the number of cluster courses and make certain cluster courses required.
The Director's Leadership Council (DLC) - formed last spring by the program's director, political science professor Malik Mufti - presented its proposals to students and faculty last week.
DLC Co-Chairs Mauricio Artinano and Ipek Gulec, both seniors, and junior DLC member Alexandra Liveris led the presentation Monday to students and some faculty, including Mufti. The DLC students attended a meeting of the program's core faculty on Wednesday.
The goal of the proposals, the students said, was to make the program more coherent but keep it interdisciplinary.
According to the 2003-2004 University Fact Book, published by the Office of Institutional Research, the international relations program has the most graduating seniors of any major.
"[The DLC] has a very ambitious agenda," Artinano said.
The international relations major's core requirements are Introduction to International Relations, Principles of Economics, and one course each in international economics, United States foreign policy, theories of society and culture and the historical dimension. There is also an eight-semester foreign language requirement, as opposed to six for other liberal arts majors, and a foreign language culture requirement.
Students must then choose a thematic cluster from which to take four courses. The cluster options are foreign policy analysis, regional and comparative analysis, global conflict, cooperation and justice, international economics and environment, and nationalism, culture and identity.
There is also a seminar requirement, which the program recommends but does not require to be from the chosen cluster. This requirement can be fulfilled by a year-long senior honors thesis or a one-semester directed research project.
These requirements, Artinano said, only give majors an "intermediate grasp of theory."
The DLC students proposed to address the problem by increasing the number of courses required to fulfill the thematic cluster from four to six.
In the presentation, the students gave the example of the Middle East and Southeast Asia option in the regional and comparative analysis cluster. The cluster can be satisfied by Economic Development, Macroeconomic Development, International Economics and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East - only one course specific to the region.
Liveris called the current format, "not necessarily the best foundation."
The students recommended the creation of required subsections within the clusters. In the regional and comparative analysis clusters, they said, this could include history, economics, cultural and political science requirements, in addition to two cluster electives.
"It would be more meaningful to have a more coherent body of knowledge on an issue," Gulec said.
The proposed changes are a result of dissatisfaction in recent years by the program's students.
"Seniors have complained that their major did not provide them with a specialized body of knowledge," Gulec said.
The DLC also suggested changing the seminar requirement. "The range of courses for the seminar requirement is quite limited," Artinano said.
The students recommended allowing internships and a "capstone project" to count for the seminar requirement.
"We thought if the major recognizes internships more ... students would get a better chance to experience active global citizenship," Gulec said.
Sophomore Alexander Sultan-Khan, an international relations major, liked the students' proposals for the seminar requirement.
"Many of the reforms suggested by the DLC were well founded," he said. "I believe it would be a great way to get students acquainted to careers that they may consider in the future."
The DLC also made proposals to increase public speaking instruction, make basic geography knowledge a requirement and create writing-intensive courses within the program that would count toward the University's writing requirement.
In addition to the proposed changes to the existing thematic clusters, the students wanted the creation of new clusters on current issues, including terrorism, security studies and sustainable development.
After the students presented at the faculty meeting, Mufti said, "There was considerable discussion about various aspects of the proposed reforms."
The proposals are now being considered by the program's executive committee. The students' ideas were not unexpected, Mufti said. "They articulated what many of the faculty feel as well," he said.
According to Mufti, the consensus among the faculty was that the core requirements should be reduced, the cluster requirements increased, and more appropriate course options be offered for each requirement.
"In general, they were very receptive to our proposal," Artinano said of the faculty.
Gulec said he got the same impression. "I think they are considering our proposal very seriously and positively," he said.
Despite the initial receptiveness of the faculty, the DLC has to wait for the executive committee decisions. "I believe the hardest part of the proposal will be eliminating some core requirements," Gulec said.
"We are very optimistic," Artinano said, "We feel that any change will be very helpful to the program."
