By Jordan Morris
Assistant News Editor
For the first time in 18 years, Seaver College’s general education program will undergo comprehensive changes. Effective next semester, new requirements and courses will affect all new and returning students.
These changes are the result of a process that lasted more than four years and involved discussion among both faculty and students. Since the process began, Dr. Don Thompson, associate dean of Seaver College and director of general education, has participated in these discussions in curriculum revision committees.
“This was the fourth draft of changes,” he said. “The initial seemed too radical, but this (draft) is definitely an improvement.”
The most important changes are the added focus on writing, fine arts and cultural diversity. Thanks to these changes the new curriculum is a great improvement, Thompson said.
After researching the components of acceptable writing, administrators determined that evaluating a student’s writing ability during the first year does not work, Thompson said.
As a part of the revised writing requirements, new students will be required to keep a writing portfolio of every paper they write from freshman year until junior year. Students will receive a letter from a committee of faculty during junior year and will be required to submit a selection of work to the committee.
The committee will then determine whether a student writes at an acceptable level to graduate. Students whose work does not pass the committee’s standards will spend time with a tutor in the Writing Center until they produce work acceptable by the committee’s standards.
“The same professors will evaluate 700 junior portfolios,” Thompson said. “They will internally define the standard for passing this requirement.”
In addition to the portfolio, the new curriculum requires that all students enroll in a writing intensive course within their majors.
While students will not receive university credit for fulfilling the writing requirements, the fine arts requirement mandates that students take at least two units for credit.
“This enhances experience in the fine arts, whether (students) perform … or are informed consumers,” Thompson said.
Some students expressed excitement over the new requirement.
“I really like the fine arts requirement,” freshman Megan Phillips said.
Thompson said that above all, discussion of cultural diversity is hard to find on campus.
“We need to make it a reality … through courses like Political Science 104 and History 304,” he said.
He added that a major initiative of the new curriculum is to establish a link between GE classes and major classes. This is underlined in the new writing and research requirements within students’ majors.
“This will help students see that the GE requirements are useful in their area of study,” Thompson said.
Although these new requirements will only affect incoming freshmen this fall, returning students will also have to deal with course changes and substitutions.
For returning students who have not fulfilled their history or political science requirements, they will now take HIST 304 or POSC 104 instead of HIST 200 or POSC 200.
Those who still need to take English 102 must choose from a variety of courses that are designated in the course catalog as fulfilling the literature requirement.
The humanities requirement also affects current students. Those who have not taken HUM 112 or 113 can substitute the requirement with HUM 212 and 313, respectively. If a current student has not begun the humanities sequence, he must adhere to the current requirement, taking the courses in sequence for three units of credit each instead of four. Students may have to make up the two units with elective credit.
Dr. Erika Olbricht, associate director of general education, was highly involved in working with the course substitutions and administrating the placement of a Web site at http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/ge/, which outlines the differences.
“Our site is designed in a frequently asked questions format to help students understand the changes,” she said. “Hopefully this will be students’ first stop and answer their questions.”
Olbricht added that she is listed as a contact on the Web site and welcomes any questions or concerns.
According to Olbricht and Thompson, the response to the new curriculum has generally been positive.
“It’s still new,” Olbricht said. “The new requirements are not drastically different, and the faculty is pretty happy.”
Others, like sophomore Hilaree Sorenson, were unhappy with the new requirements.
“I wouldn’t want to do all the extra work,” she said, referring to the new writing requirement.
Thompson said the most challenging aspect of the new policy was the elimination of units and courses, which could potentially anger some faculty.
There was an initial shock when the current system was proposed, but in a spring 2001 survey, 70 percent of the faculty was in favor of the change, Thompson said.
He added that at a November 2002 meeting with a committee at the university level, the new system “blew them away.”
“They thought this was an innovative, exciting GE program,” he said.
Thompson also said the major goal of the program is to make students and faculty more engaged in discussing writing, research and connecting the different parts of the education.
“It makes everything part of a larger picture,” he said. “And that will be the greatest success.”
January 16, 2003