Academic departments are defending their centrality to Macalester’s mission while also managing budget restraints as they propose how they will each fit in to the revised academic structure that was approved by the faculty in February.

Proposals were due by May 1 to the Educational Policy and Governance Committee (EPAG).

The new structure organizes the curriculum in to three units: disciplinary departments, inter-disciplinary departments, and inter-disciplinary programs. Only the first two will be eligible for allocations requests and offer major courses of study; the latter will offer only minors and will have no full-time faculty.

Disciplinary departments are also required to have a minimum of three full-time faculty, whereas interdisciplinary departments need only have two.

According to EPAG Chair and history professor David Itzkowitz, the new structure is intended to ensure that the college solidifies its commitment to those programs that are deemed central to the school’s academic mission and values.

The faculty will vote next week on three proposals that have already been approved by EPAG.
 

Communication and Media Studies
 

One proposal would effectively dissolve the Communication and Media Studies department. If passed, current Department Chair Clay Steinman and Leola Johnson will be transferred to Humanities and Cultural Studies (which will become an inter-disciplinary department). Adrienne Christensen, who teaches courses in rhetoric, would be transferred to the Political Science department.

Chair of the Political Science department Harry Hirsch said that Christensen’s move "absolutely makes sense," adding that "it will only strengthen our offerings."

Christensen agreed that her interests fit with those of the department, but expressed concern for the other effects that the elimination of Communication and Media Studies will involve. She pointed out that while courses for students interested in rhetoric, media, cultural and film studies will continue, those whose interests lie in interpersonal and small group communication will not be served.

"In some ways it’s sort of a natural outcome," she said, "but it’s disappointing."

Johnson, who will be the interim chair of HCST next semester, said that all three tenure-track professors will be able to serve students as well as they do now. "I don’t think it’s a bad thing," she said.

Steinman said that he thinks the move "makes good academic sense," but acknowledged that it would not be happening without the financial pressure that makes the current structure difficult to maintain.

The current department is modeled after those at larger research universities, and few comparable programs exist at our comparison colleges.

Itzkowitz, however, said that the proposal is not motivated by financial problems but rather the need to streamline resources effectively.

Students who have declared majors in Communication and Media Studies and next year’s entering junior class who already have "significant progress" toward a major will be guaranteed the opportunity to complete the major.
 

American Studies
 

The faculty will be asked to approve the creation of an inter-disciplinary department, called American Studies, that would transform the current Contemporary North American Studies and African American Studies programs in to an emphasis within that major.

Both of the current programs now only offer minors.

According to its Mission Statement, the department will "underscore the central significance of race in shaping every aspect of U.S. history and contemporary life."

The major will consist of fourteen courses, including an introductory course that will be taught by Professor Duchess Harris in the fall, a civic engagement seminar and a senior capstone. Majors will be required to concentrate in either African American or Comparative Race Studies.

Harris will serve as interim chair of the department next year. A search will commence in the fall for a Dean of Race and Ethnic Studies who will eventually chair the Department of American Studies in addition to overseeing the role of racial studies in the college curriculum.

Sociology Professor Karin Aguilar San Juan will be the other full-time faculty member in the department. The steering committee formed earlier this year with faculty that teach courses cross-listed in African American Studies and CNAS will continue their involvement in the new department.
 

Educational Studies
 

The third motion to be brought before the faculty will be the creation of an interdisciplinary department of Educational Studies, the discontinuation of the school’s teaching licensure program, and a new "bridge" program that would allow students to partially complete their licensure at Macalester before continuing at a partner university.

Ruthanne Kurth-Schai is the only tenure-track faculty member in the Education department. She said that increased state licensure requirements have coincided with a lack of resources available from the school to necessitate the change.

Currently, only minors are offered in Education. Despite the title of interdisciplinary department, a major would not be created. According to Kurth-Schai, the bridge program necessitates an administrative unit to work with other institutions that can only be afforded to a department. For this reason, she said, EPAG allowed Education to become a department without offering a major and with only one full-time faculty member.

"It is a significant loss to not be able to fully license teachers on this campus," Kurth-Schai said. She added that in order to continue the licensing program, there would need to be 3-4 full-time faculty with additional supporting faculty.

There are currently 22 students in the licensure program and 25 working towards a minor in Education.

"There as been a strong interest, and there is reason to believe that it will continue," Kurth-Schai said. "It’s very positive that the college has renewed it’s commitment to the preparation of teachers. The challenge will be to provide an academic experience given the limited faculty resources."

When EPAG’s academic restructuring document passed in January, a deadline of May 1 was imposed for departments that are making allocations requests to submit their proposals of how they will fit in to the new structure. Only the three proposals listed above, however, will be voted on before year’s end.

As of press time, most departments had not completed final drafts of the proposals they intended to submit to EPAG. Several departments, however, were willing to share the content of the proposals that will, by the time this is printed, have been turned in.
 

International and Area Studies
 

There are currently three area studies programs that function outside of the International Studies program: Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and Russian, Central and East European Studies (RCEE). All of them currently offer majors and none have any of their own faculty.

International Studies (IS) professor David Chioni Moore said that the proposal that IS will submit, which he is writing, will suggest the housing of Latin American Studies and RCEE under IS. Both will continue to be offered as majors and will maintain their current Steering Committees to advise students.

Moore added that the change would not affect students of either IS or the area studies programs. Both Latin American Studies and RCEE already require IS introductory and capstone courses as part of their major plans.

"It will be more of an issue for the people type-setting the course catalog than it will be for students," Moore said, suggesting that the change would be structural more than curricular.

Gary Krueger directs the RCEE program and is also a member of EPAG. He said that the shift in IS reflects a larger movement occurring nationally in area towards a more thematic mode. "It’s a forward thinking move," he said.

He said that the only significant effect to be felt by students will be the elimination of so-called "boutique majors" – or students who graduate with triple majors because of what he terms "program sprawl." (For example, a student who majors in History, Russian language and RCEE with most of the courses cross-listed).

History professor Jim Stewart coordinates the Latin American Studies program, which over the past several years has experienced the kind of inconsistency that EPAG was attempting to remedy with the new structure. He said that that program "was devised as a curriculum in tandem with the IS program. It folds very nicely in to the bigger umbrella."

"Life has gotten better for Latin American Studies," he said. "We’re happy."

Moore said that Asian Studies was invited to come under IS as well, but instead chose to submit a proposal that would reconfigure that program together with Japanese language.
 

Asian Studies and Japanese Language
 

According to Religious Studies professor Jim Laine, who chairs the Asian Studies program, when the invitation from IS was received, the decision to propose joining with Japanese had already been made. He said that it is a more logical choice.

"We considered the IS proposal," he said," but we felt that the other was more in keeping with what our mission is. Of our current 20 Asian Studies majors, the majority are focusing in Japanese,"

For Laine, the work being done in Asian Studies does not align itself with that being done in International Studies.

Japanese professor Satoko Suzuki echoed his view. "It doesn’t make sense because our students are on a more humanities oriented track," she said, pointing out the strong language and cultural focus that many Asian Studies majors choose.

Laine pointed out that, unlike Latin American Studies and RCEE, Asian Studies does not have any required IS introductory or seminar courses as part of its major plan.

Dean of International Studies and Programming Ahmed Samatar strongly disputes the assertion that humanities students can not find a place within IS.

"International Studies reaches across social sciences and the humanities," he said, adding that to say IS works primarily in the social sciences is "just false." Samatar said that "Conceptually, housing area studies in international studies is so common-sensical that it doesn’t require a great deal of intellectually thinking."

He said that each area will maintain its own integrity, and for Asian Studies to remain as a separate department would be "clumsy."

"We belong together," he said. "It would be an incomprehensible compromise."

Stewart recognized the distinctions that would keep Asian Studies separate, but also sees such a structure as clumsy.