"Keeping Faith": A Plan to Strengthen the University Core Curriculum


Keeping Faith A Plan to Strengthen the University Core Curriculum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2001-2006 March 30, 2000
Executive Summary The Plan Core Problem 1: Budgetary Resources Core Problem 2: Course Sufficiency Core Problem 3: Instructional Quality As noted earlier, the expertise and experience of the faculty are at the heart of quality instruction. Our students deserve nothing but the best this institution can offer in the classroom. But this concern is tied to a longstanding debate over the principles of general education itself. On the one hand, some faculty feel keenly about the abilities of students who are preparing for their majors, especially in competency-based fields like math and science. Their objective is primarily with developing depth in undergraduate education. On the other hand, some faculty also feel keenly about the breadth of student learning in the Core. Their objective is to offset pre-professional training for the majors by a truly humanistic education in the variety and connectedness of all knowledge. All three notions of quality -- one instructional, the others programmatic -- require attention to the integration of the Core with the major as well as to the strength and variety of undergraduate instruction. Integrating the entire educational experience from freshman to senior year demands more flexible curricular options; ensuring the competency of classroom interaction demands more work on classroom pedagogy and faculty training. In combination, these initiatives complement better and more predictable funding of instructional needs. The result will be higher quality in every way, as demonstrated in the assessment of multiple student learning outcomes. Good progress in these goals is evident to date in the review and assessment of Core courses -- in their clear learning objectives, their well-formulated syllabi, and their effective assignments and examinations. In 1999, more than 70 percent of the courses met or exceeded the learning goals of the University Core Curriculum. But much more can and should be done, beginning with the recruitment and retention of a committed corps of faculty. Possible solutions to the Instructional Quality problem are: creation of ten Core Faculty Fellowships, chosen by the CCEC according to well-defined criteria, to be rotated every three years from faculty member to faculty member, whose compensation for teaching in the Core Curriculum would be a month's additional salary, extra OTS money, and use of a GA. Cost: $150,000 addition to base budget Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs appropriate recognition of faculty scholarship in the classroom by the means of merit pay and, if feasible, credit towards tenure and promotion, as well as awards for research done by faculty teaching in the Core. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs improvements in the training of GTAs teaching in the Core, academic unit by academic unit, coordinated by the Graduate School or by a Center for Teaching Excellence, including provisions in GTA contracts and/or degree programs so that graduate students have their training before the semester begins and so that they continue their training during the semesters they are teaching. Cost: $100,000 addition to base budget Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs, Graduate School creation of a proficiency track through the Core, similar to the one envisaged for Problem-Based Learning, by scheduling courses taught only by tenured and tenure-track faculty and targeted specifically for students who excel in certain fields but who do not have an overall g.p.a. of 3.25 to qualify for the Honors program. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, chairs and directors of participating academic units coordination and administration of better placement measures, to be devised by the most appropriate academic units, whose results would inform the academic advisers during the registration of entering students. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs assignment of a new responsibility to the director of the University Core Curriculum to observe classes, upon the instructors' request, for letters that can be used for GTA and term-faculty contract renewals and for tenure and promotion decisions of tenure-line faculty. Cost: None Responsibility: Core further review of curricular, pedagogical, and advisement activities in light of longitudinal assessment data on student learning in order to ensure the quality of the program. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, University Assessment, Institutional Research Core Problem 4: Learning Technology Conclusion Acknowledgment The generous assistance of Todd Bernhardt and Brenda Yucas in the Core Curriculum office is gratefully acknowledged.