“I’ll have to apologize. I don’t think this is going to do much for the Bachelor’s call for less boring chapel talks, but I’ll do what I can.”
With that quip, Professor Stephen Morillo began his Chapel talk, titled “Where’d That Come From?” providing recommendations from the Curriculum Architecture Committee (CAC) for the first major alteration of the Wabash College curriculum since 1973.
The recommendations include three significant changes to the universally required courses. The Freshman Tutorial class would be only in the fall, with a modified C&T course in the spring – thus eliminating the year long C&T commitment during the sophomore year. A final capstone course would be added in the second semester of the senior year. It would provide majors from multiple fields an opportunity to interact and examine a world problem.
Course concentration proposals include elimination of the minor with a greater focus on the major and areas of concentration. There would also be greater focus on Team Taught Interdisciplinary courses (TTI). A second week of Spring Break would be added and seniors would take their written and oral comps in that week.
The 1973 curriculum, an amendment to one that had been in place since 1927, was constructed at a time when Wabash enrollments were down.
“It [the 1973 Curriculum] can be read as substantiating lots of little compromises over departmental turf wars,” Morillo said. “Clearly, at this point, that’s not the case for the College. Our enrollments are strong. We’re in good financial position – we’re going through this process because we think it’s time to do it.”
That process began about three years ago when the current Dean of the College formed the Academic Program Review Committee, which became the umbrella organization that facilitated conversation about the topic of curricular exchange. The reports generated by this committee and subsidiary working groups which were central to formulating the recommendations of the CAC.
From November to January the CAC , which consists of Professors Morillo, Castro, Feller, Mikesell and Placher, took the conversation and the reports generated by the Academic Program Review Committee and crafted their proposal.
Since all students are bound by the curriculum as it was when they entered Wabash, they will not be subject to the potential changes.
“Think of this as your first opportunity to think as an alumnus,” Morillo said. “This is something that will impact your school, so it’s important to think about even if it doesn’t apply directly to you.”
“After as much open discussion and input as possible over the next few weeks or months,” Morillo said, “We hope to bring something pretty close to what we’ve written as a formal motion at the faculty meeting.”
That afternoon the CAC hosted a discussion forum where students were able to ask questions and voice their opinions about the proposal.