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Assembly
LXI: The Undergraduate Curriculum at Yale
Thursday, October 24 - Saturday,
October 26, 2002
Assembly Chair Marc B. Lockhart '84
Executive Summary
Dean's Breakout Session
with Hugh Flick, Dean of Silliman College
Dean Flick introduced himself as an advisor who
has spent fifteen years working with Yale College students on curriculum
matters. He indicated that the most challenging freshman is the
one who arrives with preconceived notions about his or her entire
academic course, or one who has a career goal in mind that thoroughly
dictates his or her choices. An easier scenario involves a freshman
who does not know where to begin, in which case the Dean might recommend
mixing first-year lecture courses with a seminar or two; starting
a foreign language; or exploring an entirely new area of study.
In any case, each student is so different that, from a Dean's perspective,
the construction of a coherent Yale College curriculum must be a
customized process for each individual.
The general conversation then turned to the realities
of choosing courses at Yale as distinct from the way in which delegates
chose courses for their Assembly exercise. A current Yale student
has to:
- Negotiate his or her way through the somewhat arcane language
of the Blue Book to figure out what the Distribution Requirements
really mean;
- Make course choices based on the time they meet, so that
they do not conflict with other courses or extracurricular activities;
- Make course choices based on the place they meet, so that
they are not running from one end of the campus to the other multiple
times each day;
- Make course choices based on which professors are teaching
the courses, so that they can benefit from Yale's greatest professors;
- Make choices based on their impressions during the "shopping
period;" and
- Make course choices based on how the final exam schedule
is going to work out.
Some suggestions from delegates to make students' choices easier:
- Rewrite the Blue Book section on Distribution Requirements;
- Use the online course registration system to track those
cases where student choices show two courses repeatedly coming into
conflict with each other, and made course schedule changes based
on that information;
- Revamp the course critique system so that it is an effective
tool for students;
- Consider applying the principles of the science of performance
review to teaching at Yale; and
- Offer "Online Shopping" previews of courses via
streaming video; previews could be filmed during the previous semester
and would ideally show the first lecture or meeting since that is
when the professor sets forth his or her expectations.
After the opening presentation and comments in
the breakout, Dean Flick had the delegates separate into small groups
to discuss with one another the curriculum choices each had made
as part of the Assembly's "homework exercise." When these
groups reported back, they produced a number of interesting comments
and outcomes:
- For the exercise, the majority of delegates chose the same major
they had when they were at Yale, though there were some differences
on how specialized a major should be.
- Access to courses taught by the "great teachers" is
important, though difficult to achieve.Study in any given field
should combine a reading of the "great books" and an
examination of contemporary issues.
- The ability to experiment in choosing courses must be balanced
with the need to prepare for graduate or professional school.
- An undergraduate education should touch upon all of the areas
with which an educated person should be familiar, those areas
being determined by the times in which we live.
- The advisor system needs an overhaul.
- Writing courses or writing-intensive courses are extremely important.
- Meeting academic requirements should not take priority over
pursuing one's own interests, a desire to broaden one's world
view, and a need to keep up with current issues.
- An undergraduate education should take into account all three
of the modes of learning: oral, written and visual.
- Non-majors in any given field need access to a wider variety
of mid-level courses, so that they can pursue their interest beyond
large introductory lecture courses.
- Undergraduates should be given an opportunity to synthesize
their course of studies, perhaps by means of some kind of interdisciplinary
project in their senior year.
- A freshman seminar program should be considered.
- The notion of the senior essay should be re-examined: is it
a waste of time and resources?
- The introduction of a minor system might be useful in allowing
undergraduates to gain access to upper level courses in their
secondary field of interest.
- The study of foreign languages is important.
- The study of foreign languages is best left to summer study,
travel or outside institutions (Berlitz); it is a waste of Yale
credits to sit in a language lab.
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