While still working on the enaction of last year’s academic program changes, this year the faculty is beginning an initiative to renew the curriculum.

The Educational Policy and Governance Committee (EPAG), which oversees all curricular and educational policy matters, has stated that curricular renewal will be its top priority in the upcoming year.

The last round of curricular change was in 1991.

The new academic program, which the faculty passed in the spring, revised allocations guidelines and required that each department or program fit into one of three structural units. The Communication and Media Studies department and the Teaching Licensure program were dissolved, and African American Studies and Contemporary North American Studies merged into a new department, American Studies.

According to Political Science professor Andrew Latham, who will chair EPAG in the spring, all of those changes will be enacted before the printing of the 2004-2005 Course Catalog.

Several smaller programs, Latham said, are still uncertain as to their status within the revised structure. Throughout the year, he said, they will work with EPAG to determine how they will look at next year.

Curriculum renewal signifies the fourth stage of the Academic Restructuring Process, which is rooted in the Strategic Directions charge led by former President Mike McPherson and the subsequent task force findings that proposed their implementation.

The work currently done by EPAG stems from that initiated by the Task Force on Academic Structure. That committee’s report, released last fall, was the target of much criticism and few of its recommendations were retained in EPAG’s eventual proposal on the academic structure.

Latham said that EPAG attempted to divide the structural issues, addressed last year, from curricular issues, which are this year’s focus.

The first of a semester-long series of faculty forums on the curricular renewal initiative was held Monday, Sept. 29 in the Weyerhaeuser Boardroom.

Latham and Economics Professor Gary Krueger, who is chairing EPAG this semester, led the meeting.

“We’re going to try to be very efficient, democratic and transparent in this process,” Latham said.

Currently, Macalester has what Krueger described as a “major-centered” curriculum, meaning that most of a student’s curricular structure falls within his/her major.

He said that one of the central issues to be discussed will be the option of shifting to a core-oriented curriculum, in which each student must take a more rigorous set of core classes.

Student-faculty research, team teaching and the honors program will also be examined.

“Our objective in the fall semester is to get as much input as possible,” Krueger said. He added that EPAG hopes to put something before the faculty for a vote by the end of spring semester, and that the entire process would take anywhere from two to five years.

Both stressed that the central role of EPAG would be to facilitate the conversation, not dictate change.

Latham authored a Discussion Paper (which, as Math Professor Danny Kaplan pointed out at the meeting, does not in fact reflect any actual discussion) outlining the initiative.

The paper includes the school’s Statement of Purpose and Belief, which was adopted by the faculty in 1995.

Latham said that ensuring that the school’s curriculum reflects this statement is crucial. “We need to bring the curriculum into accordance with that promissory note,” he said.

Although the programs at other colleges and universities will be considered, Latham stressed that any curriculum changes we adopt must be reflective of Macalester’s mission.

“The goal is to produce a 21st century curriculum that…others look to as a model, not a pale reflection of what other schools have done,” Latham said.

As Krueger pointed out, however, they are conscious of the fact that many schools in the nation have undergone recent curricular overhauls, and that most have moved away from the “distribution elective” system that Macalester maintains and that, as Latham noted, peaked in popularity during the 1960s and 70s.

Latham said that Macalester’s upcoming accreditation review (schools must be accredited every ten years) is another consideration prompting the discussion.

Latham and Krueger stressed that current budget issues would not be a consideration.

Treasurer David Wheaton attended the forum, and reinforced this message. “Whatever decisions are made here will last over a decade,” he said. “They shouldn’t be based on any short-term economic crisis.”

“It will be easier to run a capital campaign with a stronger curriculum,” Krueger said.