Jan 23, 2008

Curriculum Committee Minutes

Members present: Susan Cordes-Green, Mark Gealy, Stephen Grollman, Michelle Lelwica, Mary Rice, Jonathan Steinwand (chair), Samantha Schmidt

Minutes of January 16, 2008 meeting were approved

The meeting began with old business, the Global Studies change of major requirements (Worlds in Dialogue Track). Based on communication with Rebecca Moore, we recommend revising the rationale to explain the process for revision emphasizing the opportunity for department input and emphasizing that the main point of the revision is to strengthen the problem solving focus of the major.

The first item of new business was a course proposal for THR 211 Costume Construction. This course was not approved as proposed. While we think that this could be a good course to add to the curriculum, we would like to see some revisions of the course to emphasize and deepen the theory and the context of costume design. For example,

• since the reading assignments are so minimal, one could add a text that goes more into the history and/or theory of costume design in the theatre (or even the history of fashion as such).
• to emphasize the context, one could require students to analyze the costuming choices and design elements of various theatrical productions they attend (or participate in) over the course of the semester.
• to emphasize the theory and context of costuming, one could divide the course into classroom and lab/studio time. Much of what appears on the schedule seems to fit more as a sewing lab that could work well with a classroom devoted more to the theory and context of costume design. We'd like to see a broader vision for the course emphasizing design and the theory behind costuming, which we realize also requires the technique and skill that of course should also be included.
• work some more on this broader vision in the learning goals and objectives to emphasize theory, context, analytical skills, and critical thinking in addition to techniques.
• work some more on the cross-curricular objectives and goals for liberal learning to connect your course to the theatre program and liberal arts mission of the college.

The next three items were new course proposals from the religion department. (1), REL 362 Approaching the Qur’an, was approved with feedback: There was minor concern about having the reading reports due 5 minutes before class, since that might be very difficult for students moving to class directly from another class across campus. The wording on page 6 seemed more appropriate than that on page 5. Also, we notice that none of the catalog descriptions of religion courses contain the prerequisite of Religion 100. That is an issue we encourage the religion department to take up. (2)REL 384 Exploring Islam. This course was also approved with the remark that the pie chart is missing the quiz points. (3) REL 386 Religion in the Postcolonial World. Approval on this course was suspended pending two requests for revisions: First, we think that the course description provided is so long that it will be out of place in the catalog. We suggested exchanging the course desciption from the syllabus for the course description in the proposal in response to question #1? Second, to clarify the regional focus of each version of the course, we'd recommend keeping "Religion in the Postcolonial World" as the generic catalog title, but then using a subtitle in the registration booklet. In the English Department, for example, we have a major authors course, but when we choose the author (currently Robert Frost), it is the author's name we use as the advertised course title (when actually it is a subtitle). This will help in attracting students with these regional interests. Perhaps other regional foci could be added to the list, such as Latin America? Point #1 is more crucial to our approval than point #2.