Inside Furman is published quarterly by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
A new direction
Proposal would reshape curriculum, academic calendar
During the past decade construction equipment and brick masons had been a campus mainstay. Like the ducks on the lake, they were part of the campus scenery.
In recent years, faculty and students had attended groundbreaking ceremonies and dedication ceremonies for a library, academic halls and a student center. With construction dust nearly settled, the university president, academic dean and faculty began to look inward.
The curriculum, the very soul of the university, needed to be examined and updated to reflect the changing times. It had been 35 years since the last comprehensive curricular review. A committee was appointed to study the issue. A period of critical self-evaluation and hand-wringing would follow.
Sound familiar?
The scene: Furman University.
The year: 1968.
One feature of what emerged that year: a three-term academic calendar, with 12-week fall and spring terms sandwiching an eight-week winter term. Students were also required to complete “General Education” courses that were developed to expand horizons, foster liberal learning and provide a solid academic foundation.
In his 1976 book, Furman University: Toward a New Identity , Alfred S. Reid characterizes the changes as a “complete metamorphosis.”
Fast forward to 2005. Ty Tessitore, chair of Furman's Curriculum Review Committee (CRC), does not go that far in describing the calendar and curricular changes now being recommended by his committee.
“If approved in the current form, the changes — particularly as they relate to the General Education Requirements — would be very real, but I suspect that they would occur gradually over time,” he says.
Under direction from Furman's recently adopted strategic plan, the CRC, consisting of 17 faculty and two students, began a review of Furman's academic calendar and curriculum last September. They published a working paper last spring and began gathering input through campus meetings and forums.
Synthesizing this feedback, the CRC met daily during the waning weeks of the summer to produce Invigorating Intellectual Life: A Proposal for Furman University's Academic Program and Calendar . The 53-page document was distributed to faculty September 10 and is posted on the CRC Web site ( www.furman.edu/crc ).
As of this writing, faculty were scheduled to meet October 24 to consider the proposal. If approved by a majority faculty vote, the new academic program and calendar could potentially be in place for the 2007-08 academic year.
The most visible change would be the university calendar, which would consist of two 14-week semesters. The proposed academic year would begin in mid-August and conclude with Commencement in early May. Instead of meeting daily, most classes would convene two or three times a week. Students would also have the option of enrolling in a three-week “Maymester”
Considering winter term stress, study broad programs and many other factors, Tessitore admits, “There is just no perfect calendar. All have their advantages or disadvantages. We went with the one that we felt has the maximum amount of flexibility.”
The CRC also proposes revising the current General Education Requirements to include “first-year” seminars. Freshmen would be required to complete two seminars, one each during the fall and spring semesters. The first-year seminars would introduce students to the concepts and practices of engaged learning, and at least one of the seminars would focus on writing
The courses, taught in small groups of 12-15 students, “should help to model a way of teaching and learning significantly different from the ordinary high school experience,” states the CRC proposal. “They should clearly indicate to the student that a new level of responsibility for learning is expected here.”
Under the CRC proposal, faculty are likely to submit first-year seminar proposals to a faculty committee for review and approval. The only prerequisite: The seminars must be interactive and creative and encourage first-year students to take an active role in learning.
“This is an exciting time in their lives,” says Tessitore. “The purpose of the seminars is to unleash a passion for learning. Seminars would not be lecture-based. They would be engaged learning at its best.”
The proposal also encourages the development of collaborative and interdisciplinary courses that would “encourage students to make a connection between the courses,” says Tessitore. “The curriculum is not owned by departments, so it's more flexible.”
The net result: Students could fulfill their GERs by completing 12 to 14 courses, instead of the current 16.
Pointing to several large notebook-bound bundles, Tessitore says committee members researched academic calendars and programs at the nation's top ranked 40 liberal arts colleges. They poured over surveys, books and Web sites and conducted dozens of interviews. The bibliography for Invigorating Intellectual Life: A Proposal for Furman University's Academic Program and Calendar has 68 items.
“The committee did its homework,” says Tessitore. “We put a lot of work into this.”
Predictably, the CRC proposal has sparked campus debate. It is the talk at the lunch table, in faculty lounges and in the locker room.
“When you revise the curriculum and calendar, you are touching a very sensitive nerve,” says Tessitore. “I expect people to have strong feelings. I would be appalled if they did not.”
So far, he says, the debate has been civil.
“No one has thrown fruit at me,” he says with a smile, “at least not yet.”