European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Cheges enhance undergrad curr1culjjms new York times students at Wesleyan University in Middle own conn., will be taking More science courses soon. At Colgate University in Hamill on m v., students Are studying non Western cultures. The faculty at Hobart and William Smith colleges in Geneva -, recently voted to require students 1o delve into issues of throughout the new York metropolitan Region and across the country colleges and universities Are reassessing and changing their curriculum. Introducing new Lequla regents built around a More coherent definition of whal an educated person should know. Researchers for the Carnegie foundation Lor the advancement of teaching reported earlier this year that pro thirds of the co Koges in the United states had revised or were revising their general education programs. In a Survey released last july the american Council on education the largest College umbrella group in Washington put the inure at b6 percent. From Trinity College in Harl food to the University of Washington in Seallie faculties Ara approving distribution requirements that Lorce students to Sample courses across the academic spectrum and Are ins diluting proficiency requirements in areas such As Waling mathematics and foreign languages. Many colleges have begun requiring courses in specific academic areas including the effects of modern technology on society beginning next tall. Iresh me n Al Whealon College in Norton mass., must Lake a course on non Western civilizations and a course thai focuses on the diversity of race class or ethnicity within . interdisciplinary courses Ara now As prolific As Laboratory mice. Colgate s new general education program requires a sequence of four classes organized to make students think across the boundaries that Divide the traditional students entering Trinity College this fall will have to select not Only a major lied of study but also a six course minor thai embraces Al least three disciplines. In part because of the Large number of institutions involved in the process no single pattern of curriculum revision has emerged. College officials cite different reasons Lor their new concern Aboul what undergraduates study. Several National reports in the last four years have assailed the Quality of College teaching. A particularly vocal critic has been the Secretary of education William j. Bennett who asserted that american colleges were ripping on heir students with ill conceived curriculum. Some educators see the new concern for Structure and coherence As part of a general return to traditional values and ways of doing things within Tho academic world. Others see it As a Rel decl on of broader social anxieties. Curriculum changes usually arise out of political and social crises said Leon Borslein. The president of Bard College in Annandale on Hudson . Columbia s Gene education curriculum grew out of world War i Bolstein said. Chicago s came out of the crisis of democracy in the 1930s. The current re Lorrn movement reacts a sense of urgency about american economic and pc Lical Power. A curriculum is the imposition of one generation s sense of crisis on the next generation. Educators say the new wave of curriculum Reform Mui be understood against tha background of the student unfed a of the 1960s and 1970s. Acceding to student demands for More control Over the courses the took Many a cities reduced and in some cases abolished curriculum requirements. The result was intellectual said Peter h. Pouncey the president of College. There was a decline in what students knew. Certain skills like Good writing Tell by tha reaction against this situation began in tha mid 1970.
