In this month’s Faculty Senate meeting held on Nov. 3, the faculty senate passed the 2018- 2019 undergraduate new core curriculum.
Phil Cantrell, associate professor of Asian history and African history, proposed that the faculty senate vote via secret ballot rather than hand count.
Both David Gill, a sophomore representative of the student government association and Greenwood Library Dean Brent Roberts both counted the votes once the senators voted.
For the vote, there were 22 members that approved the curriculum with three who disapproved and one abstention.
There were a total of 26 voting members present at the meeting.
“I am very excited about the change with the core curriculum. I think it gives us more opportunity to do more interdisciplinary work. I think it streamlines the process of a core we need to have,” said Dr. Lissa Power-deFur, professor of communication sciences and disorders and faculty representative to the Board of Visitors.
In addition to passing the new core curriculum, the senators unanimously approved three new courses to be added Citizenship 110, Symposium on the Common Good 410 and English Writing and Rhetoric 165.
“We are very excited,” said Department Chair Dr. Melissa C. Rhoten, professor of analytical chemistry, who also served on the core curriculum committee.
The faculty senate unanimously approved the new policy for instruction and advising, the new policy of governance and the new policy of a core curriculum director in addition to the core curriculum.
“In fall of 2018, all incoming freshmen will be in this program, everyone else will be in the current general education program,” said Dr. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell, professor of mathematics, “In fall 2019, all freshmen will be in this new program, but transfer students are going to decide based off their major.”
All students entering Longwood in the fall of 2020 will be in the new program, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
“I’m really excited it’s going to be different from our goals,” said Gills, “It’s a really good change for Longwood, and all of these professors have worked really hard to ensure the success for the students in the future, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.”
The Faculty Senate formed a committee three years ago composed of twelve faculty members with a goal to change the current general education program at Longwood.
“The very first thing we did was that spring semester (2014) we went into every English 400 level class,and we surveyed every student in every one of those sections, and we found out that they did not see the connection between our current general education courses and their major,” said Emerson-Stonnell.
The core curriculum is composed of three levels with the foundation levels being 100-200 level courses that do not require any prerequisites. A change from the current general education program, all students will only be required to complete a maximum of two semesters of a foreign language rather than three, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
“It’s an absolutely beautiful program,” said Dr. Jacqueline Hall, associate professor of mathematics, and who also serves on Faculty Senate.
The Board of Visitors will vote on the new core curriculum in Dec. of this year, according to Wade Edwards, professor of French Culture and department chair of English and modern languages, who served on the core curriculum committee.
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The monthly Faculty Senate voted on the new core curriculum this past Wednesday.
The monthly Faculty Senate voted on the new core curriculum this past Wednesday.
The monthly Faculty Senate voted on the new core curriculum this past Wednesday.
