As course selection for Spring term comes to a close this week, College Courses introduced in the 1968-1969 school year to foster interdisciplinary studies across departments are projected to reach record-low enrollment numbers, according to College registrar Meredith Braz. The College has tracked enrollment in these courses since 1999.
Faculty interviewed by The Dartmouth said the courses and funds that accompany them allow professors to experiment and explore interests outside traditional department standards. Students interviewed questioned the necessity of the courses, especially given that many courses within specific departments are cross-registered in other disciplines.
Over the course of the last year, 215 students enrolled in a total of 10 COCO courses. This represents the continuation of a persistent decrease in the number of students enrolled in COSO courses over the past 10 years. In 1999, 545 students enrolled in the 10 courses offered, while in 2003, only 373 students enrolled in 10 COCO courses over the course of the year. However, 2005 saw the lowest enrollment in COCO classes, when only 179 students enrolled in 10 COCO courses.
During the 2011 Fall term and 2012 Winter term combined, 82 students enrolled in COCO classes. The College will offer eight COCO classes during the 2011-2012 academic year, including Slave Societies and Paul Robeson and the Revolutionary Imagination during Spring term. This number marks the lowest number of COCO offerings in over a decade, according to Braz.
In order to develop new courses, faculty members are invited to propose ideas to the College Course Steering Committee by early November of every year, according to Nancy O'Brien, assistant to the associate dean for international and interdisciplinary studies.
English professor Michael Chaney, this year's committee chair, said proposals are scrutinized to ensure classes will be "fresh" and "interdisciplinary."
Because of their experimental nature and broad interdisciplinary focus, COCO courses differ from standard courses offered by academic departments, Chaney said.
"Even when compared to the courses offered by our programs, which are already quite interdisciplinary, COCO courses tend to be more experimental in topic, approach and teaching," Chaney said in an email to The Dartmouth. "The fact that many of them are designed around the collaborative teaching of faculty experts drawn from very different disciplinary backgrounds ensures their uniqueness in the curriculum."
Assistant Dean of the Faculty and art history professor Jane Carroll is currently teaching Constructing History, a course that combines history and art history. Carroll said she believes COCO courses are a good opportunity for departments that remain constrained by limited resources or cannot accommodate the large number of students interested in a particular department's offerings.
As professors from various departments have become more willing to collaborate, the purpose of COCO classes has changed, art history professor Marlene Heck said.
"Originally, it was an opportunity for faculty members from different disciplines with a similar idea or complementary interests to teach a course," Heck said. "Now it's an opportunity for faculty to experiment, to introduce new ideas."
Carroll said COCO classes facilitate better discussions than standard departmental courses because they draw students with a wide range of backgrounds and interests.
Since the COCO program is "avidly funded," professors are able to experiment and develop strong bonds with their students, Chaney said.
Several students interviewed by The Dartmouth, however, said they are skeptical about the value of COCO classes.
Cassie Jackson '12, an art history and film studies double major, said many courses outside the COCO listings are already cross-registered between multiple academic departments, resulting in low demand for COCO courses.
"I myself have never taken one," Jackson said. "They've never really stood out to me. When picking courses, I'm usually more interested in taking cool classes under the departments that I'm majoring in."
Bazille Owen-Reese '15, who did not know what COCO classes were, said the College should better advertise the courses.
Chaney said he attributes the decline in student interest in COCO classes to "a complex set of changes" occurring in liberal education that may not be specific to COCO courses.
"I don't know why this is happening exactly and wouldn't want to comment on a decontextualized notion of a decline in enrollment numbers," he said. "COCO courses are as timely and as cutting-edge as ever, while being in my opinion ever more finely conceived as models of educational excellence."
