Pacific University’s new core curriculum proposal has been finalized by the task force who has been reviewing and revising different proposals since August. The proposal is currently under review by the curriculum committee, a group of elected full time faculty members whose job is to make the curriculum as good as it can be, according to Professor Michael Geraci, who is head of the task force.
“If they decide they want to endorse the proposal, than they will send it to all the College of Arts and Sciences faculty on Nov. 16,” Geraci said. “The faculty will vote to consider it after it is approved by the curriculum committee. The faculty reviews it for four weeks and there will be a meeting on Dec. 8 to vote whether or not to approve the new core.”
The final proposal includes a minimum or 32 credits and a maximum of 50 credits students can take, opposed to the maximum of 60 in the previous core. The new model breaks down the core into three categories. Foundations, which includes First Year Seminar, writing, math and language. Applications, which is your civic engagement, global and intercultural competency, sustainability and senior capstone requirements. And finally, what was once called modes of inquiry has been renamed as explorations.
“Explorations is the new modes of inquiry,” Geraci said. “These are academic explorations so that if someone were a biology major, they aren’t going to spend their four years strictly studying biology. We added quantitative reasoning, which is not math but more using numbers to quantify something and understanding the roles that numbers play in things like decision making.”
Along with quantitative reasoning, explorations will include artistic practice and creative process, analysis and interpretation of texts, historical context, social systems and human behavior and scientific perspectives of the natural world.
After the final proposal has been approved by both the curriculum committee and the College of Arts and Sciences, the task force will be working on preparing the new core to make sure it is in place for the 2018 fall semester. According to Geraci, any current student will have the option of continuing to finish the old core or switching to the new core. If you have any questions about the new core, Geraci encourages students to attend the president’s open forum.
“There is a forum with the President Hallick on Nov. 16 and Gretchen Potter and I will be there to answer any questions that may come up about the new core,” Geraci said.
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