Members: Gerald Adams, Mark Schneider, Pablo Silva, Elizabeth Dobbs, and George Carroll (03-08). Guests: Helen Scott and Anna Swanson
1. The minutes from the 11/14/00 meeting
were approved.
2. The proposal from Math and Computer Science
to drop the ETS major field test as a computer science major requirement
was approved.
3. Both the Social Studies and Humanities
Divisions have recommended to the Curriculum Committee that the
college drop American Studies as a major, dissolve the department,
and institute an interdisciplinary concentration in American Studies.
Both divisions also recommended that the Dean constitute a committee
to design the structure and staffing for the proposed concentration.
The Curriculum Committee endorsed these recommendations and will
now forward them to the faculty as a whole. In accordance with
the Grinnell College Faculty Handbook, the resulting recommendations
will be made to the President and a decision presented to the
Board of Trustees for approval.
4. The committee had a general discussion about guided reading, independent study, summer research, and mentored advanced projects. We examined some draft catalog descriptions and designators of the various independent study categories. We talked about a composite catalog course description that would cover independent study and research projects. We will need more input from the Social Studies and Humanities Divisions about an appropriate title for the type of course work they would oversee during the summer. It may not be appropriate for all divisions to call summer course work research. Currently summer course work in the Social Studies and Humanities Divisions is related to MAP projects. We are using the designator of independent projects for MAP summer projects. We briefly looked at a possible catalog description for MAPs but as it is still in an experimental stage we decided to hold off looking at this until we know more about where the MAPs are heading. The committee will continue this discussion in the spring.
Return to Curriculum Committee home page | Return to Academic Affairs