I. Academic Programs

A. Changes to the First-Year Experience Program

The Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office initiated changes in the First-Year Experience Program to improve student transition, to strengthen student engagement in the life of the University, and to improve student retention. These changes include adding a new one-credit course (FYE 101), the development of First-Year Seminars (FYS), and initiating Learning Communities for first-year students.

FYE 101 is a new one-credit course that would be attached to existing FYE courses, resulting in both students and faculty having four contact hours each week and receiving four hours of credit. Over the years, many faculty who teach in the current FYE program have found it especially challenging to meet the discipline-specific content requirements of their courses, as well as the learning objectives associated with the FYE program. The extra hour of meeting time per week is intended to alleviate this problem.

FYE 101 was passed by the Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate contingent upon provision of additional faculty lines and resources to meet the teaching demands. These resources have not yet been forthcoming, so FYE 101 courses will not be implemented in the 2006-2007 academic year.

First-Year Seminars are courses that permit faculty to offer topics of special interest to first-year students as an alternative to standard introductory courses in a discipline. In presenting this concept to the curriculum committees of all four schools, it was determined that the FYS designator should be available for courses with variable credit (2.0-4.0) to suit the varying needs of departments as they consider development of such courses. FYS courses numbered 101 through 106 were passed by the Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate this year. Each course number corresponds to a specific study or skill area within the General Education Program. New proposals for FYSs will be reviewed by the General Education Subcommittee to determine if the assignment of each course to a particular study or skill area is appropriate. Four new FYS courses will be offered in Fall 2006.

A plan for the implementation of learning communities for first-year students was proposed by a team of Arts and Sciences faculty, the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, and personnel from Student Affairs. The plan links courses across disciplines under a common theme, using shared readings and projects and collaboration between the instructors of the linked courses. Several learning communities have been created as part of a pilot program for Fall 2006. These include links among English and Psychology, English and Art History, Biomolecular Science and Philosophy, Earth Science and Music, and Chemistry and History. Students in some sections of these learning communities will also be enrolled in the Master Student course (ID 102), offered through the Learning Center, as part of their learning community course cluster.

The FYE Program and the new learning communities are open to all students and are not limited to those who are enrolled in programs within the School of Arts and Sciences. The School of Arts and Sciences believes that implementation, official oversight, funding, and administration of these University-wide programs should occur through the Office of Academic Affairs. Although Arts and Sciences is willing to continue to play an administrative role in the delivery of these programs, the future success and growth of these programs depend on a more formal mechanism of administration that is at the University-level.

B. Curriculum Changes

Departments and Programs within the School of Arts and Sciences continue to review, refine and develop their programs of study and the organization of their curricula. These changes are initiated to better fulfill the missions of the programs, to reflect the changing content of a field of study, to improve student preparedness, and to adapt to changes in personnel, faculty expertise, and academic resources. As in other years, dozens of minor changes were made to courses and programs to clarify course descriptions, modify course titles, realign cycling patterns, set new prerequisites, and improve the sequencing of courses.

Briefly described in this report are some of the major curriculum changes that were approved this year.

New Programs

Two new graduate programs were approved by the Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate and are now being reviewed by CSU.

· Master of Arts in Anthropology The new graduate offering includes three specializations: archeology, general anthropology and community anthropology.