As the College continues to implement the new curriculum, which stresses increased interaction between departments, some professors say academic programs are the wave of the future.
For instance, Women's Studies Program co-Chair Diana Taylor said she would like "to see more departments become like programs," because their diversity gives the curriculum "a much broader range of courses."
The academic programs -- groups of classes that are of interest
to multiple academic disciplines -- are important to the College's intellectual mission, Acting Dean of the Faculty Karen Wetterhahn said.
The academic programs currently consist of African and African-American Studies, Asian Studies, Comparative Literature, Environmental Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences, Native American Studies and Women's Studies.
Students can major in all academic programs except for African and African-American Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Studies.
Wetterhahn said the programs are organized outside of traditional departments because they "tend to be very interdisciplinary in nature."
The strength of programs
Taylor said it is the interdisciplinary nature of programs that makes them an important part of the College's curriculum.
"We could share more faculty and offer more creative courses," she said. "Programs are what we should aspire to and get away from rigid barriers."
Taylor said many of the programs are especially relevant to women and minorities because "those are issues that were not dealt with in the regular courses."
Taylor said the breadth of the programs' offerings have many benefits for students.
"For example, gender affects us all. We're not just talking about the X-Y chromosome, but what will happen in work, in your home life, and every other aspect," she said.
"The same thing holds true for race in this country," she said. "That is very different from courses that are dedicated to one issue."
Latin American and Caribbean Studies Chair Marysa Navarro said there is also more concrete value in studying areas such as those examined by the academic programs.
Latin American and Caribbean Studies is important because "there are changes in Latin America that affect profoundly the United States," she said.
She cited federal aid packages to Mexico and immigration of Latin Americans as examples of such changes.
Taylor said "a lot of the jobs we have now are not met by standard traditional disciplines. It is important that people have a much broader knowledge."
Programs versus departments
Committee on Instruction Chair Gary Johnson said the programs began when "faculty from various departments saw a common interest. It came from interest among students and faculty to identify interdisciplinary issues.
"In the traditional ways departments were set up many of these categories couldn't find their home
in departmental offerings," he said.
Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities Mary Jean Green said academic programs came from student interest, "to handle new areas of academic research.
"And most of them are flourishing," she said.
Native American Studies Chair Sergei Kan said in programs "some or all of the faculty members are affiliated with another department."
Native American Studies currently uses faculty from the English, anthropology, film studies and religion departments.
According to Kan, the use of faculty from various departments is very important to the programs' mission.
"I believe the interdisciplinary nature of Native American Studies is its greatest strength," he said.
Another distinction between programs and departments is their allocation of resources. Wetterhahn said programs have "a proportionally smaller budget than departments."
"Departments have a legitimacy that programs do not have ... We're supposed to do something that is relevant to the College and yet with fewer resources," Navarro said.
The College gives "special support to interdisciplinary courses, yet we don't support as generously as we could the programs which are mostly interdisciplinary," she said.
Taylor agreed that program budgets should be expanded.
But Wetterhahn said "I think the programs are getting the budget they need to offer the courses they have. Every department and every program would like to have more resources."
Student and faculty opinion
Some students are concerned that some programs appeal only to certain demographic groups.
Tom Franks '98 said if a program "is an attempt to alleviate the tension between groups and make people more aware of the situations of other ethnicities, it might be approached in a better way.
"I don't know that having a course on it would help since if someone doesn't agree with [the subject matter] they won't take the course," he said.
Some students also fear programs might divert resources from more popular classes.
Franks said it would be unfortunate if "further resources were taken away from other departments."
Taylor said the majority of students enrolled in Women's Studies courses are women. But she said she does not feel programs are preaching to students.
"People will be interested in different things, and those are always self-selected," she said.
Kan said although most students who minor in Native American Studies are Native Americans, "we have had some non-native students who have minored.
"We have had a lot of non-native students who take these courses," he added.
Navarro described Latin-American and Caribbean Studies Courses as "mixed in gender and in origin."
Despite perceptions to the contrary, professors say median grades from programs are consistent with median grades from departments.
Navarro said she grades her Latin-American and Caribbean Studies classes just as she grades classes for the history department, her home department.
The future of programs
Taylor said the number of students who major in Women's Studies "is growing very rapidly."
Last year about 16 students majored in Women's Studies, she said.
"We have classes with huge enrollments," Taylor said. "We had to cap the Women's Studies courses at 100."
Navarro, whose program has had 11 majors, said Latin American and Caribbean Studies courses have also been very popular with Dartmouth students.
Kan said Native American Studies "would like to receive more funding, but we don't have serious complaints."
Taylor said "departments are privileged significantly over programs."
She said there is inequity in the tenure process because "people who work in programs will always be judged by their home departments."
Programs also do not posses the same clout as departments on College councils, Taylor said.
"Program chairs aren't treated the same way as department chairs," Navarro said.
But Kan said he does not see programs as "some second rate citizen without full rights."
Wetterhahn denies that the programs are marginalized. She said programs "are very important to us, and we feel they are fully integrated into the College."
Navarro said "the same legitimacy given to departments ought to be given to the programs."
But she said she is "not advocating programs becoming like the disciplines."
Kan said "especially the strong programs may eventually become departments. But it is not a major issue right now."