Course loads, schedules, GPAs, internship opportunities -- there are few aspects of life at Dartmouth that aren't affected by academic departments. In hopes of improving the quality of students' experiences, two academic departments, English and biology, are considering changes to their majors and policies.
The English department is in the process of altering course requirements for its majors in response to changes recommended by a committee two years ago. The new major, which the department hopes will be effective for the Class of 2006, adds a course in literary theory and eliminates the department's previous single-author course requirement.
Core courses will also be divided differently. Currently, English courses are organized into four period groupings corresponding roughly with historical eras: medieval-Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries, 19th century and 20th century. The new major will distribute the classes into three groups instead of four, with group I raging from medieval to early modern, group II comprising the 18th and 19th centuries, and group III including 20th-century literature.
English majors will also be required to take a special topics course in addition to an advanced seminar.
Peter Travis, the department chair, said that this requirement will help students bridge the gap between core courses and advanced ones. "We have a large number of core courses, but few 'stepping stones,'" Travis said.
The biology department is holding a town meeting Nov. 24 to discuss the department and suggest improvements. The meeting, open to majors and non-majors, comes after the department received low grades last spring in the Student Assembly's Departmental Report Card survey, in which students rated different departments. The biology department was given a grade of 68, or C-plus.
"It is a sign that we should be looking at the department holistically," medicine and biochemistry Professor Lee Witters said. "By some of the SA's criteria, the department didn't look so good."
He called the meeting a sign that "this department is listening and responding."
"We have a large number of majors, and lots of students that take our courses," Witters said. "We want to engage them in a constructive dialogue."
Biology major Swathi Gopalakrishnan '04 said that biology professors could be more approachable, but "the fact that they are having this meeting is a giant step forward."
The sense that the biology department is "big and intimidating" is also a complaint of Christina Buchter '03. "I wish it was a smaller and cozier department," Buchter said.
Witters did not mention any specific goals of the department, stressing that the meeting was "the beginning of a process."
"I am very open-minded about this right now," Witters said.
The English department has already approved its major changes, and they are now being considered by the humanities chairs.
Travis sees the theory requirement and the special topics course requirement as the key changes to the major.
"We have for a long time required a theory course for honors majors, and we feel that we have two kinds of students -- those who have had a theory course and those who haven't. It makes students more sophisticated literary interpreters," he said
Upon coming to Dartmouth, Allison Toombs '04 was surprised to hear that there was no theory requirement. "It teaches you how to look at writing," Toombs said.
The requirement of an intermediate seminar will also he helpful, English major Mari Bennet '03 said, since they are smaller classes and stimulate more discussion.
"The larger major courses weren't as engaging," Bennett said.
