Faculty conference examines flaws in undergraduate education
Archived article from Oct 20, 2003
By Phyllis Gottlieb
Faculty on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus took a hard look at how first- and second-year students are educated at Rutgers’ undergraduate colleges at the sixth annual Rutgers University Teaching Conference held Friday, Oct. 3, in the Rutgers Student Center.
The conference agenda was a response to a recent report of the Teaching Committee of the Faculty Council. That report characterized distribution requirements during the first two years of study as “by and large uncoordinated, unattended to and uninspired,” said Martin Gliserman, associate professor of English and conference organizer.
President Richard L. McCormick set the tone of the conference in his keynote remarks. “The questions you have set yourselves this morning are very big and very important,” he told the 200 faculty members in attendance. “What do we mean by an educated person? What bodies of knowledge constitute a university education? How can we transmit that core of knowledge during our students’ freshmen and sophomore years?”
McCormick outlined four challenges to thinking boldly and imaginatively about undergraduate education: a predominantly middle-class student body that maintains strong ties to home; a research-oriented faculty; budgetary constraints; and organizational and structural issues stemming from the history and culture of the New Brunswick campus.
Structural issues and the problem of a disengaged faculty dominated the morning’s discussion as administrators from the liberal arts and professional schools briefly presented their perspectives.
Deans of the professional schools, including engineering, pharmacy, business, the Mason Gross School of the Arts and Cook College, said their faculty periodically review undergraduate curricula in light of the unit’s mission, accreditation requirements and student course load. The deans of Douglass, Livingston, Rutgers and University colleges, however, acknowledged that such reviews are no longer happening regularly at their schools, where few faculty serve on curriculum committees.
Several speakers argued that the organization of the New Brunswick campus discouraged faculty from engaging in discussions of general education requirements. While the liberal arts colleges set degree requirements, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences controls budgetary resources with FAS departments determining course offerings. As a result, curricular changes can be difficult to implement. Dean Carl Kirschner cited a 1980s decision by the Rutgers College fellows to implement a “very modest” language requirement. “But the dean of FAS decided that the recommendation had significant resource implications and chose not to fund it,” he recalled. “So the reform died.”
The second theme that emerged from the conference was the difficulty of getting faculty interested in advising undergraduates during their freshman and sophomore years. Although some colleges such as Cook assign each student a faculty adviser during first-year orientation, other colleges wait until students declare a major, usually in their late sophomore or junior year.
The result is that many arts and sciences students select their courses during their first two years without consistent guidance from a professor who knows them well and can help them shape the distribution requirements into a coherent program of study.
Carmen Twillie Ambar, dean of Douglass College, noted that having a list of requirements is a starting point, but it will not solve the problems of an uninspired course of study. “What will inspire our students is an opportunity to engage with faculty members,” she asserted.
Most of the presenters agreed that a Rutgers education should give all students a thirst for lifelong learning. It should also provide a set of tools for success, including computational, communications, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and an ability to work with people from a variety of backgrounds. Several deans noted that there needed to be greater availability of courses and experiences that allow students to see the world through the prism of other cultures. They also emphasized that the conversation should be widened to include all who provide learning experiences at Rutgers both within and outside the classroom. The conference then broke into smaller groups for further discussion. Participants could also visit some 15 displays from RUCS, the library and the Teaching Excellence Center focused on new teaching technologies.
“A lot of very good ideas about how to reorganize to deliver a better educational experience came out of the discussions,” Gliserman said. These ideas will be shared with the Faculty Council Teaching Committee and with the Senate’s Instruction, Curricular and Advising Committee. Gliserman also hopes that a universitywide committee will be formed to review these matters. “We need to bring all the colleges into a more cooperative relationship with each other to oversee this swath of the curriculum that affects every student,” he said.
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