Vice-President of Academic Affairs for Student Assembly Aly Rahim '02 outlined plans for a broad-ranging academic proposal entitled the Undergraduate Teaching Initiative -- in a conversation with The Dartmouth last evening.
The Initiative, which will be proposed at next week's Assembly meeting and is likely to be passed, deals primarily with ideas for enhancing the quality and importance of undergraduate teaching at the College.
"One of the most important issues at the College is the future of undergraduate teaching," Rahim said. "This is Student Assembly's way of ensuring that it remains a hallmark of Dartmouth education."
At the Oct. 16 meeting of the Assembly, the Initiative will be proposed in resolution form and will be voted upon for approval by Assembly members.
Speaking on the future of the Initiative, Rahim thought it "vital" that his proposal receive publicity on campus, and emphasized his willingness to work closely both with the administration and with other Assembly committees in its implementation should it pass.
The proposal contains four principal components, each of which takes a different approach to enhance the quality of undergraduate education.
The first would provide for an annual assessment of undergraduate teaching, according to Rahim. Such assessments would include rankings based on measurable criteria, such as average class size, student to faculty ratio, and number of majors and minors, as well as student feedback.
"Rankings tend to be provocative ... my hope is that they would galvanize discussion and concern about undergraduate teaching, as well as being a reference and great resource for students," Rahim said.
The second component would establish quarterly awards -- the Student Assembly Excellence in Teaching Profiles and Awards -- to be given to professors who distinguish themselves in the eyes of their students.
"We will survey the students and ask them to vote their favorite professors," Rahim said. He explained that one award would be given out each quarter to recognize and profile an outstanding professor, who would then lead a discussion seminar with students on the future of teaching at Dartmouth.
A third component, the most "tangible" of the four, according to Rahim, would establish grants of varying size for Dartmouth professors.
Funding for the grants, which would be set at around $1000 apiece, would initially come directly from the Student Assembly budget, Rahim said.
They would be given to fund innovative undergraduate teaching projects or other proposals that might not otherwise receive support, according to Rahim.
"We are envisioning three or four grants to be available by application," he said. "Over the years the object of this is to demonstrate to the College that the student government is taking a lead, and to encourage them to open their pockets to support undergraduate education."
Rounding out the Initiative is the fourth component, which seeks the creation of a comprehensive report stressing the need for Dartmouth to create a separate teaching center at the College.
Based on the experiences of institutions at other colleges, such as the University of Michigan, which runs its own Center for Research On Learning and Teaching, the report would illustrate the need for such a center at Dartmouth, and would be presented to both students and the administration.
"There's so much that a center like this can provide in terms of resources," Rahim said, citing immediate teaching concerns, teacher training, regular seminars, and non-conventional teaching methods as possible responsibilities for such a center.
If the Initiative is approved by the Assembly, the first three components may get underway by the end of Fall term, with the report pushing for an Undergraduate Teaching center coming later in the year.
The Initiative was drafted over the summer, and according to Rahim was a "logical follow-up" to the Academic Direction of the College Report, produced by President and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jorge Miranda '01 and Mike Perry '03 of last year's Assembly.
"We want to do something that makes a material and tangible contribution to the College," he said. "These four types of activism are types that people can really see, and we are addressing all the capabilities that the Student Assembly has."
Michael Newton '04, Student Body Vice President, praised the Initiative proposal for dealing head on with the quality of undergraduate education at the College.
"I think the [Undergraduate Teaching Initiative] would be a great thing for Dartmouth because the academic direction of the College and the quality of the undergraduate experience ... is really the most important issue to students," he said.
He felt that academic issues had taken "a back seat" to the social changes of the past few years, but hoped that the Initiative would succeed in bringing them to the fore.
Student Body President Molly Stutzman '02 said she also hoped the proposal would make students think about issues of importance to them during their time at the College.
"It's important that people look at the bigger picture of their academic life ... [the Initiative] can get us talking about these important issues," she said.
"All the usual issues of the Academic Affairs Committee will still come up and be dealt with," Rahim said, assuming the passage of the proposal. He emphasized that it is the Initiative that "truly considers what's important in the academic life of the College. We are really trying to get Student Assembly involved in the bigger issues of this campus."
