DRAFT of Purchase's new Core Curriculum Proposal

General Education Working Group

RECOMMENDATION to the FACULTY@LARGE

Nov. 7, 2007


Rationale for the Recommended Core Curriculum at Purchase College

Purchase College, and the Aims of a Purchase Core Curriculum
Purchase College is a marvelous and unlikely institution: a small undergraduate college, in a not-especially-distinguished state system, where extraordinary faculty and students determined to carve out offbeat niches dig deep into rigorous artistic and intellectual traditions; a community of internationally active artists and scholars, for whom New York City is home base and campus a place to experiment and to foster a next generation; a suburban cultural center that manages to mount cutting-edge visual and performing arts shows; a public institution produced by the pedagogical and social idealisms of the sixties; a school whose proud colors are heliotrope and puce; an institution that manages, on a shoestring, to be one of the most exciting academics environments around.

The things that make Purchase marvelous and unlikely have also, at times, hobbled it: state budget cuts and ensuing fights over scarce resources; the necessarily different pedagogies and priorities of liberal arts and conservatory/art school training, and the different again priorities of those keeping the Neuberger and PAC vibrant and afloat; faculty whose commitments and temperaments sometimes chafe against state bureaucracy; students who are unconventional and often extraordinary, but whose careers, both at Purchase and beyond, don't make for great statistics or grand alumni giving.

With all this in mind, and determined to help Purchase become something closer to the sum of its extraordinary parts, the General Education Working Group is pleased to present following set of recommended changes to current curricular requirements for students in BA and BFA programs.

'General education' is a term used by SUNY (and many other institutions) to describe a set of requirements students are expected to complete regardless of major – and SUNY, of course, has a set of requirements it asks curricula at each of its colleges to meet. In order to keep our attention on the whole Purchase curriculum, and avoid mere tinkering with externally imposed requirements, we found it useful to consider things from the point of view of distinctive Purchase-wide 'graduation requirements.' Thus, we sought to develop a package that takes account of work in and commitments to a major, that attends to developmental trajectories, and that regards the Senior Project as a common, and distinctive, feature of a Purchase education.

Because the term 'general education' has, for many, depressing or otherwise negative connotations (to some, it connotes 'brussels sprouts' or 'oat bran'; to others, it suggests remedial instruction; others hear superficiality in the term 'general' itself), the Working Group recommends that Purchase College refer to the package of common requirements for BA and BFA students as the 'Purchase Core Curriculum.' 'Core,' as one of our members pointed out, is etymologically related to 'heart' – and the hope is that the following core curriculum will indeed serve not merely to expose students to many things, but to serve as the heart of real education, its continually beating center, circulating blood, breath, energy, and inspiration, keeping the whole animated, connected, and alive.

[OK, it's late...] [help me here?]

We endorse the epistemological view that knowing and doing are intimately related, that students need both carefully structured challenges and opportunities to make their own connections, that the greatest way to foster 'student learning,' as educational theorists like to put it, is to ourselves model, and to nurture our students abilities to themselves try, the kinds of reading, writing, thinking, arguing, showing, telling, making, [etc.] that we all already do.


We recommend:

1. Distinctive requirements in 'Cultural Theory and Practice' and 'Ethics and Social Justice.'

These requirements address the need to make the common core of a Purchase Education reflective of Purchase's mission and identity as a small, vibrant college that combines rigorous programs in visual, performing, and liberal arts in an atmosphere of experimentation and commitment to social justice.


2. Ongoing institutional supports and incentives for faculty to invent courses for the core curriculum and to experiment with innovative instructional formats, including collaborative and team-teaching, TWO*LABS, linked sequences, and so on.

These recommendations address the need to craft a core curriculum that takes full advantage of faculty creativity and passion. They also return a sense of experimentation and openness to Purchase's core curriculum. We are particularly excited to recommend the institutionalization of TWO*LABS (Think Wide Open*Learning As Bridging), mini-modules that can function in a variety of ways (more detail below).


3. A set of distribution requirements that cover 'Essential Tools' and 'Work in the Disciplines.'

These requirements ensure that all students graduate with the knowledge and skills – to communicate verbally, to think and analyze critically, to understand and to synthesize across traditional disciplines – needed for meaningful work, engaged citizenship, and lifelong intellectual and creative agility.





In coming up with these recommendations, the Working Group sought to promote

· a core curriculum that contributes to, rather than pulling away from, the college's sense of itself
· greater flexibility for all students, but particularly Arts students, in how they accomplish their Purchase Core requirements
· a curriculum that, while sharing a philosophical base, may be implemented differently for the Arts and LAS given the different realities of different programs
· opportunities for students to apply talents and energies outside campus in internships, research projects, etc.
· opportunities for students to gain studio arts experience outside their own majors
· anticipation and constructive accommodation of State assessment demands
· more classrooms that mix Arts and LAS students
· shared curricular experiences, which connect students to each other and to the institution
· Core requirements that contribute to preparing students for successful work on Senior Projects
· a core curriculum that is thoughtful about the trajectory of student development, and that aims at helping students become self-aware, self-actualized, autonomous, whole people
· thoughtful use of newer instructional technologies
· institutional incentives and other support structures to enable faculty collaboration and innovation
· etc. [more? some of these are too redundant with what is above? do we want this list?]





Recommendation
The Core: the Heart of a Purchase Education

We have grouped our curricular recommendations into four broad categories:
1. Cultural Theory and Practice;
2. Ethics, Social Justice, and Global Citizenship;
3. Essential Tools; and
4. Work in the Disciplines

What follows elaborates recommendations falling under each of these rubrics in turn.

[Blue indicates correspondence to existing Purchase/SUNY requirement – we can find a better way to highlight this]


1. Cultural Theory and Practice
We recommend a required, campus-wide, sophomore-level course that addresses, in an integrative way, several approaches to thinking about and making art. One model is our earlier proposal of a course called 'Cultural Theory and Practice' (proposal on web page), which highlights integration with the PAC and Neuberger, but we would like to expand this requirement to make room for several formats, if there are faculty willing to create and pilot them, and to ensure that all "CTP" offering share central aims and characteristics. (So, models currently be advocated by Michael Torlen, Wayne TeBrake, and Laura Kaminsky, for example, might find a home under this rubric, much as a small number of distinct courses find a home under the 'Science and the Modern World' rubric.)

This course would satisfy, for all Purchase students, the current requirement for coursework in 'The Arts.'

[More about the integrative, common, etc. spirit to be pursued here]


2. Ethics, Social Justice, and Global Citizenship
Engagement with ethics, social justice, and global citizenship is accomplished through an array of courses in:
Foreign Languages
Other World Civilizations
Western Civilization
Race and Gender
American History
Ethics and Social Justice (new)

[explain in turn how each is to be accomplished under our recommendations]


3. Essential Tools
Essential tools, for any course of study, and any life outside Purchase, are among the things accomplished through:
Writing Across the Curriculum [or another name for the whole writing sequence?]
requiring Math Proficiency
courses in Quantitative Reasoning
internship/service-learning/collaborative learning experiences (through TWO*LABS)
Physical Education

[explain in turn how each is to be accomplished under our recommendations]


4. Work in the Disciplines
Richness and depth are accomplished by courses in one or more of the traditional liberal arts disciplines:
Social Sciences
Humanities
Natural Sciences

[explain in turn how each is to be accomplished under our recommendations]



*******
[What follows is the minutes from the 10-28-07 Sunday meeting, with a few changes to which we agreed Wed (10-31). My aim is to translate these sketchy points into legible descriptions of the requirements as we envision them. I think we should refer to the existing proposals where it is appropriate, while acknowledging that our current thinking diverges.]


At the Arts Academic Council, the faculty felt that there should be writing in the junior year but do not tie it to the senior project.
Jennie suggested having a junior-level requirement that the Arts could sort out for themselves. Any Conservatory or BOS could designate a writing course for the major, or refer students to the host of writing intensive courses being offered.

Also suggested were special sections of College Writing in the spring for students who received a D or F in the fall. This would prepare them for the sophomore writing intensive class.


Timeline

At the November 14th All-Faculty Meeting: The committee will present recommendations. A comprehensive package will be presented with local options.

Three possibilities for a vote:
1. Yes, ready to count as Faculty@Large recommendation to the College (Provost and President).
2. No, needs to be rethought.
3. Yes, but here are the things you need to work on.


Review of Existing Proposals/Categories, with eye to how to address in package

The 4Rs

Jon suggested we present it as a pilot curricular innovation, of the sort we hope to enable generally.
Joanne suggested that others might come up with sequenced courses (like the 4Rs might be) that would allow for minors/concentrations.
The Center for Integrative Studies could help with the 4Rs. “Institutionalize Possibilities.”
Joanne suggested that when our package is presented, we should frame it as providing more ideas and BOS involvement. It would get everyone excited about GenEd.
Len suggested the 4Rs could be run in a smaller scale as a pilot program.


Core Requirements

The group supported the idea of “GenEd” becoming “The Core Curriculum.” Jennie dropped her concern that it has 'great books' connotations, a la University of Chicago and Columbia, after polling friends and looking up 'Core Curriculum' on Wikipedia.

BR will look into what precipitated the change away from using the term "core" at Purchase in the past.

Len pointed out that, etymologically, 'core' is related to heart. This seems a nice connection to exploit in our writing about general education.


Cultural Theory and Practice

Jennie stated that there was a lot of support for the idea of a class that utilizes the PAC and Neuberger, and for a class (perhaps the same one?) that addressed multiple arts forms, interdisciplinarily or collaboratively (team-taught).

After some discussion, the group felt this class could meet the Arts distribution requirement.

Joanne added that this class would give flexibility in offerings. Particularly, if the Neuberger and PAC planned there events well in advance, faculty would be able to design courses around these particular events.

The thought emerged that current proposals being elaborated by Michael Torlen, Wayne TeBrake, Laura Kaminsky, and others could all be pursued under a general 'Cultural Theory and Practice' umbrella – much as SMW is an umbrella for several courses that serve common aims.

Bryan asked what would happen to the School of the Arts designated courses. The consensus was to offer the existing Arts courses and Cultural Theory and Practice. Eventually Cultural Theory and Practice could possibly be the only way to satisfy the Arts requirement.

Basic Communication

Fall of Freshman Year: College Writing – no AP out. An honors section as an option for qualified students. D or worse requires taking College Writing again in the spring semester.

Sophomore Year: Writing Intensive I

Junior Year: Writing Intensive II (major determines offerings that qualify) (will need lots of options for Arts that double-qualify)

Humanities

Array for everyone.

Nat Sci

SMW would be examined to possibly make 3 credits. The ultimate aim would be to extend to the Arts.

Social Science

Would basically remain the same with increased double dipping.

American History

Would remain in its current format

Foreign Language

All LAS students would have to complete a least 1 semester of a 3 credit class. Eventually, this would be required of all PC students. (encourage Arts to take; change to current requirement that if taking into level, must take full year? (what about student who already knows Italian, but wants a semester of German?))

Math Proficiency

All students, including Arts students, would be required to meet the Math Proficiency. Online review and peer-to-peer tutoring from the Learning Center require no additional resources.

Math
that not changing

Western Civ

Array, including options to be developed by interested faculty of courses with coordinated common content
Students can take any time in their careers; need to ensure that adequate 1000-level to fill demand, but also offer some upper level courses


LABS
Pilot by tying to courses (esp but not necessarily exclusively general education courses, esp but not necessarily exclusively 3 credit courses)
Staffing: pay $1000 per credit, or allow faculty to 'bank' so 4 LABS = 1 regular course
Can the Center for Integrative Studies help coordinate?

Ethics and Social Justice
add as distribution requirement; develop SLOs (debate values; critically examine reasoned argument about value; exposure to debates about the nature and demands of justice; etc.)
Don't horsetrade for race and gender: have both


that moving toward 3 credits; taking workload and grid into accountNon-curricular recommendations
faculty club