Recommendations

CLA Document

1. The education of Arts & Sciences students, both in the major(s) and outside the major(s), should exemplify the six Common Learning Objectives of the Foundations for the Future document.
   
   
2. Meeting these goals requires a Common Learning Agenda expanded beyond the current distribution requirements and major requirements. We recommend a new structure including a Foundation Seminar, a Disciplinary Breadth requirement, a Broadened Perspectives for the 21st Century component, and a Capstone Experience, each addressing the Common Learning Objectives in ways most suitable for that category.
   
   
3. 1. A distribution requirement that ensures exposure of all students to the. humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences should be maintained. We recommend that a Disciplinary Breadth requirement apply to all students (in Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Education, and Bachelor of Music programs as well as Bachelor of Arts) and that it be modeled on the current B.A. distribution requirement. The Disciplinary Breadth requirement would go into effect with the Class of 1997, entering in Fall 1993.
      
      
   2. During 1992-93, each division will meet to discuss the Disciplinary Breadth requirement as it applies to its division, taking into consideration the Common Learning Objectives and the Pedagogical Goals for Disciplinary Breadth courses (see p. 12-13 of this report). Each division should consider the purposes of exposing students to its course offerings and whether they wish to develop specific criteria for offerings that will meet the Disciplinary Breadth requirement. Any such criteria, the Common Learning Objectives, and the Pedagogical Goals for Disciplinary Breadth courses would then serve as guidelines for individual faculty wishing to offer courses that count towards the Disciplinary Breadth requirement in their division. A division may choose to waive one or more of the required courses for students majoring in that division. Specifications of divisional requirements must be approved by a majority of the faculty and of the departments in the division and by . the Curriculum Committee of the College of Arts and Sciences, which will oversee their implementation. Until other divisional specifications are agreed upon, courses will satisfy each division's requirement as currently stated for the B.A. degree (1991/92 Catalogue, Divisional Distribution, p. 4), with the exception following in Recommendation #3c.
      
      
   3. No department's courses should be excluded by divisional criteria from the courses satisfying the Disciplinary Breadth requirements, unless they are accommodated by another division. To correct such a situation and to better meet the Common Learning Objectives, we recommend that, for purposes of the Disciplinary Breadth requirement, the required distribution be 4 Humanities courses, 2 Social Science courses, and 3 courses in Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Two of the courses in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics division could continue to be laboratory courses in the natural sciences; students would select a third course from the departments of natural science and mathematics, from computer science, or from a list of science and engineering courses offered by department outside the division that are found suitable by the division. A definition or listing of courses that satisfy this requirement will be distributed to the Class of 1997, entering in Fall 1993.
      
      
   4. The Distributional Guidelines (Catalogue, pp. 4-6) will be revised to recommend coursework or other experiences in content areas that are represented in the Common Learning Objectives but not currently included in the Guidelines. In addition, each division may choose to revise recommendations concerning coursework within that division by proposing new language for the Guidelines to the Curriculum Committee.
      
      
4. We recommend adding to the distribution a component entitled "Broadened Perspectives for the 21st Century" with a requirement in each of two areas: "Perspectives on Natural and Fabricated Worlds" and "Perspectives on Human Diversity". Appropriate courses that satisfy the Disciplinary Breadth requirement will also satisfy this requirement. Students in the Classes of 1997 and 1998 will be required to fulfill only one of these requirements during their four years at Bucknell. Assuming adequate staffing, students beginning with the Class of 1999 will be required to fulfill both requirements.
   
   
5. Beginning in Fall 1993 with the Class of 1997, every first-year student will complete a Foundation Seminar in the fall semester, or in the spring semester if impossible to schedule in the fall.
   
   
6. Beginning in Academic Year 1995-96 with the Class of 1996, every senior will have an integrating Capstone Experience. This recommendation assumes sufficient faculty development and allocation of faculty to staff small seminars and other capstone experiences for the entire senior class; implementation will be delayed if that assumption is not met.
   
   
7. The Foundation Seminars, the Disciplinary Breadth requirement, and Broadened Perspectives for the 21st Century will be reviewed by the Curriculum Committee in Spring 1996. The Capstone Experience will be reviewed in 1998, or, if there are delays, two years after full implementation.
   
   
8. The four new components that we are proposing will be administered by the Common Learning Coordinator, a faculty member released from teaching one-half time and reporting to the office of the Dean. The three Associate Deans of the College, the Curriculum Committee, and the Faculty Advisory Committee on Teaching will assist the Coordinator in the task of generating sufficient interest in offering courses in the necessary areas of the curriculum and in planning and implementing faculty development activities.
   
   
9. To avoid an arbitrary distinction between the major and the rest of the curriculum, we recommend that Arts and Sciences departments and programs examine their major requirements by Spring 1997 to determine how well the majors meet the Common Learning Objectives and what revisions might enhance their ability to address those objectives successfully. The Curriculum Committee will work with departments and programs to facilitate this review.
   
   
10. Recently acquired and future faculty development funds should be devoted to incorporating the Common Learning Objectives into all elements of the curriculum, with special attention to the Common Learning Agenda. Such funds should facilitate the divisions' and departments' discussions, the development of the Foundation Seminar and Capstone Experience programs, the development of new courses to meet Disciplinary Breadth requirements or new Distributional Guidelines, and the integration of Common Learning Objectives and the Pedagogical Goals for Disciplinary Breadth courses into existing courses. Funds should support stipends for individual curricular development projects, workshop presenters and participants, travel to conferences, released time, and the like.