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Faculty Forums on the Undergraduate Education Initiative

Thank you to all who attended the recent series of faculty forums, as well as those who played a role in setting them up. The forums were extremely valuable, providing a means for faculty input to the CFANS undergraduate curriculum initiative. They also demonstrated faculty support for the curriculum initiative, and I heard from many of you that the forums were constructive and provided a better understanding of the diverse disciplines within CFANS.

Summary of faculty forum outcomes.

The purpose of the forums was threefold:

1. To give faculty the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary, in-depth dialogue about undergraduate education.
2. To create a chance for faculty less involved with the five faculty task forces, departmental meetings and college events to learn more from their faculty peers about the general goals and objectives associated with this plan.
3. To identify concrete ideas for the process of finalizing majors and courses, which will happen during spring semester.
    

Highlights of faculty ideas and feedback

The forums brought forth new and positive ideas for moving forward as effectively as possible and highlighted questions that still need to be addressed related to the process of developing majors and courses. Some of the ideas generated by the forums included:

• Identification of ideas for an assessment rubric and associated metrics to ensure majors and courses fulfill the student learning outcomes and competencies identified by faculty and articulated in the CFANS undergraduate strategic plan.
• The potential for interdisciplinary, theme-based freshman seminars and associated capstone courses that offer a look at real-world issues, cognitive synthesis and interaction across majors.
• The exploration of models for inter-departmental, team-taught and experiential approaches.
• The opportunities for relevant, cross-cutting themes that support helpful linkages across departments and disciplines.
   

Faculty advice for moving forward

In addition, the faculty also asked that some key points be considered as the process moves forward:

• Ensuring that the process of developing courses and majors be transparent and inclusive, allowing for varying levels of involvement and multiple pathways for input.
• Balancing the need for depth and breadth in educating CFANS undergraduates.
• Ensuring a solid balance of technical, intellectual, and disciplinary knowledge among students.
• Addressing professional licensure requirements, where appropriate, in the design of majors and courses.
   

Next steps

Based on the forums and other faculty feedback, the implementation timeline has been extended. The revised timeline sets the end of spring 2012 as the new target for completing the development of majors and courses. The CFANS undergraduate curriculum initiative is complex and will require continued faculty involvement to be successful. The decision to extend the timeline was made to ensure the proposed curriculum changes fully incorporate faculty ideas – including those presented at the recent forms – and to allow for more direct faculty participation in the planning process. A more detailed timeline and process which accounts for this implementation extension will be available in a few weeks.

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