Is W&M proposing to overhaul courses?

<p>Our son was admitted to W&M, which we are pleased about. He is still considering his options. I took a look at what appears to be the student newspaper (The Flat Hat). There is an op ed piece that is voicing concerns about a supposed change in required courses. Does anybody know anything about this?</p>

<p>I read something in the flat hat about that as well (likely the same thing you did). And yes, the Flat Hat is the main student newspaper. I googled around after I read it, and as far as I can tell, W&M is currently undergoing its 20 year review of general education requirements (GERs), so there are some people that want to make changes, etc.</p>

<p>As part of its new strategic plan, W&M is reviewing its curriculum (which is typical for most schools to do every so often…W&M’s was last reviewed in the mid to late 90s). There have been many open hearings on the topic open to all members of the W&M community. There is no formal proposal as yet as these discussions are still in their early stages but remaining a top liberal arts university vis-a-vis our curriculum is a top priority.</p>

<p>A curriculum review is underway, but nothing will be adopted soon. Students admitted before the new curriculum is adopted will follow the old rules.</p>

<p>Okay, thank you. Re the liberal arts, there is still plenty of encouragement given to STEM majors, I hope. I read about much concern about the high attrition rates in the STEM. I wonder if W&M and other schools have any data on the number of students switching out of STEM majors.</p>

<p>You may have seen this already, but this letter to the editor from a W&M alum was in the paper last weekend: </p>

<p>Letters to the Editor
By: Times-Dispatch Staff | Times-Dispatch
Published: April 14, 2012 Updated: April 14, 2012 - 12:00 AM
» 2 Comments | Post a Comment</p>

<p>What about William and Mary?</p>

<p>Editor, Times-Dispatch:</p>

<p>The College of William and Mary is at the heart of an accountability revolution going on in higher education. Parents and taxpayers are asking hard questions about quality and rising tuition costs while numerous studies call for academic rigor.</p>

<p>Virginia has responded. Gov. Bob McDonnell and elected officials are working for better educational results with lower tuition while advancing quality.</p>

<p>What about William and Mary? Tuition was raised by 49 percent and administrative costs by 61 percent between 2004 and 2011. Instructional spending increased 42 percent from 2002 to 2009. Per-pupil expenditure on higher education in the U.S. is more than twice the average of other industrialized nations.</p>

<p>Of great concern is the curriculum currently under review at the college. Instead of a more rigorous curriculum, the proposed one cuts the required number of classes in half and cuts credit hours by one-third. Three classes in math and science become one. A four-year graduate could take just four classes a semester. A new curriculum advisory center is proposed, which begs the question about increased administrative costs.</p>

<p>The Society for the College, an independent group of alumni, students and friends has worked to bring the curriculum review beyond the campus. It has proposed and presented a curriculum more intensive and specific than the current system.</p>

<p>The college community, including alumni and the board of visitors, must decide. There is a strong public preference for a rigorous classic liberal arts curriculum that meets the needs of employers, our state and the nation that must be considered.</p>

<p>Susan B. Ely,</p>

<p>BA Class of '57,</p>

<p>MA Class of '62.</p>

<p>Mathews.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the proposal offered by the society for the college (I never knew such a thing existed until this debate) is definitely not the correct answer. But I also strongly don’t agree that making all classes 4 credits is the answer either.</p>

<p>Thank you for passing on the letter. I had not seen it. While I agree that colleges need to be more accountable, I am not clear on the goals of this new curriculum. </p>

<p>I hope that W&M is not implicitly trying to cut costs by proposing to reduce the number of required classes while keeping tuition fixed or raising it? If so, whoever has proposed reducing the number of courses should be clear that their proposal would serve that end (financial). </p>

<p>College costs have been going up for some time now, funding from state schools (as a share of their budget) has been falling. There is a lot of public opposition within Virginia to the idea of raising tuition for those who can afford it or to addressing the budget problem by allowing a larger share of students from out of state (as U-Michigan has done).</p>

<p>I should’ve asked President Reveley if he had any thoughts on this on Friday when I had the chance. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of it then.</p>

<p>Every alumni carries a piece of parchment that says they’ve graduated from the College of William and Mary - the value of that piece of parchment is based on the perceived academic rigor of the curriculum at the school. To compromise this would be to retroactively de-value every diploma ever issued by W&M. </p>

<p>In my first exposure to the previous President, he made a number of disquieting remarks, remarks regretting the presence of so many middle-class non-minority students, (nice welcome - kind of like going to the prom, and having your date regret aloud how s/he wished someone else had asked them) and he rather wished aloud that W&M be open to <em>everyone.</em> I’ll take the best interpretation of his statements, and just say he meant economically - that is, to make W&M accessible to everyone, regardless of economic means. That’s an admirable goal.</p>

<p>But sometimes, we’ve seen this kind of magical thinking in academia, where someone wishes everyone can get a college education, despite the fact that many high school graduates are simply not prepared, academically or emotionally, to attend a rigorous college. </p>

<p>Too often, I’ve seen the results of this kind of thinking - admit someone who isn’t prepared, and when they fail, rather than admit defeat, you simply lower the standards - this kind of thing can be seen at any public high school, and trust me, it doesn’t stop there – similar things occur in the corporate world.</p>

<p>Changes in anything that threatens to diminish the value of a W&M education is a dangerous game - increasing class sizes, lowering standards for “full-pay” students, providing paths to graduation with less-than-challenging courses, what have you - it’s simple economics - what student is going to pay Ivy League prices for a 2nd tier institution?</p>

<p>Maintaining academic rigor at W&M must remain among the very highest priorities - compromise that, and you compromise everything, and cheat everyone who’s ever attended there.</p>

<p>Nichol was not a bad individual, but there is a reason he didn’t keep his position.</p>

<p>Reveley is on his “A” game, in my opinion. He strongly values the undergraduate education at W&M and knows that undergraduate education is where W&M is really world class and one of the very very best in the country. He acknowledges that the graduate programs, while very good, are not on the same level as the undergraduate education. I don’t think he has any plans to compromise the integrity of the undergraduate program at W&M.</p>

<p>There are a lot of people who seem to evaluate the “rigor” of a college by the number of required classes. This is silly and fundamentally misunderstands what a college education is. Oxford and Cambridge have no distribution requirements, but I have known a lot of very well-educated graduates of those two excellent universities. Having a lot of required distribution classes does not make the education better, but it does often force students to take classes that are of no long-term benefit, depriving them of the opportunity to take classes that would better prepare them for their chosen career.</p>

<p>Agree with fiddlecanoe. D graduated in 2011 and had changed majors twice. She would have much preferred to take 2 additional courses in her eventual major, rather than two GERs, one of which was not helpful and one of which was reasonably helpful but not as much as another major course would have been. I can’t complain because she just got into a good grad school, but she has been working for a year and had to take two courses after W&M to have a a really good shot.</p>

<p>I guess they don’t call them “distribution requirements” too much anymore; they did when I went to college. We had a few, but we only took 4 4-credit courses a semester, and the school had a fine reputation.</p>

<p>One idea that occurs to me is that, for many majors, there might be a way to define courses in the major that might both count for the major and introduce some interesting other topics. For instance, math, psych, etc could have a course that talks about art, music, movement or the like.</p>

<p>I don’t think increasing the number of GERs is the right strategy at all. I do think GERs have value and there are some basic classes that I think people should take, like economics. I wouldn’t especially mind if the philosophy GER was cut or the math GER. But I am against essentially only giving students 80% of the instruction for the same price, which is what will happen if they go to every class = 4 credits. I might be able to be convinced otherwise on this, but it seems like offering less for the same price.</p>