Despite the sweeping changes of the new curriculum and the distributive requirements beginning with the Class of 1998, the new course listings in the September 1994 Organizations, Regulations and Courses book will have little or no impact on the listings for upperclassmen.
The College is essentially operating under two curriculum structures right now -- the new curriculum for freshmen and the old one for all other classes.
But earlier fears of operating under overlapping structures would cause great confusion so far appear to be unfounded.
Course descriptions listed in the ORC are followed by codes that tell how each course fulfills the different set of distributive requirements established for the new curriculum. The three distributive areas of the old curriculum -- Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences -- are replaced with 10 new areas of study and world cultures and interdisciplinary requirements.
Registrar Thomas Bickel, who organized and wrote the new ORC, said there have not been any major problems or comments concerning the listings in the course book.
"We want [the upperclassmen] to ignore the codes. They might be misled," Bickel said.
But he mentioned that one senior was slightly confused because some of the anthropology courses that were designated as Social Science courses were coded as Sciences under the new curriculum.
Associate Dean Anthony Tillman said administrators met with different groups of freshmen last Sunday to discuss the new curriculum requirements, provide reference materials and answer any of their questions concerning the listings in the ORC.
Dean Sylvia Langford said she has not received any questions from upperclassmen dealing with the new codes in place for the new curriculum effective with the Class of 1998.
Bickel said his main problems in organizing the new ORC came from the months-long process of compiling information and the time it took for the Committee on Instruction to approve courses and their classifications.
"We're trying to keep the paperwork correct. Some courses were added late in the year but don't yet ... have their category determined," Bickel said.
He added that the problems will be resolved in future corrections to the ORC.
Many undergraduate advisors said their freshmen did not have much difficulty understanding the coding system.
"I've talked to more than half of my freshmen, and none of them have had any problems understanding the structure of the new curriculum or deciphering the new distributive course classifications," UGA Jake Wegmann '97 wrote in an electronic message.
Stephen O'Connor '98 said, "It wasn't really confusing because I looked through the ORC for what I was interested in ... and after that I looked for 94F and after that I looked for prerequisites and that was all I was interested in."
