As the 2018-2019 new undergraduate academic core curriculum is developing since approval in the Nov. 3 Faculty Senate meeting, Dr. Melissa Rhoten, professor of analytical chemistry, was appointed to program director of the new core curriculum on March 15. Rhoten also served on the Academic Core Curriculum Committee.
The new core curriculum will affect incoming freshman in 2018.
According to Dr. Joan Neff, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Rhoten was chosen through nominations that were given to her (Neff) by the Academic Chairs Council.
“The selection process did not require that I consult with the Academic Chairs Council, but I value their input and decided to ask them for nominations,” said Neff.
Rhoten has been the head of her department for 10 years in addition to serving for three years as a member of Academic Core Curriculum committee is currently on the Core Curriculum Transition committee.
“I feel like I have relevant experience sort of administrative type experience to try and manage this big project,” said Rhoten.
"The committee spent many hours working together to generate ideas and then met repeatedly with their colleagues throughout the university to incorporate their input." said Neff. "It was an iterative and painstaking process which resulted in a final design that reflects the core mission of Longwood to promote the development of citizen leaders."
According to Neff, Rhoten will be responsible for things such as working with deans and department chairs to make sure that faculty is diverse and engaged in teaching the core curriculum courses.
She will work with the Registrar's office and department chairs to coordinate the scheduling of the Core Curriculum courses and pre-registration of students when it is called for. These responsibilities are just two of several that Rhoten will face in the coming years, said Neff.
Rhoten said she wants students to embrace the new core curriculum and not see it as obligation to move through the current general education program but rather see the connectivity amongst the newly-approved curriculum.
“I want to see, in terms of students, I want to see them sort of embrace the idea of the core curriculum more and not see it as some hurdle that they have to just get their gen-eds (general education courses) out of the way,” said Rhoten.
Rhoten disclosed the program serving the core curriculum has plans of adding three more members to the New Core Curriculum Committee. These individuals will act as coordinators and there will be an additional nine members of the faculty that will also serve on the committee, according to Rhoten.
They, along with Rhoten will be in charge of helping other faculty members to develop courses and making sure that courses are appropriately distributed.
“We are also responsible for assessment and making sure that we are really doing what we say we’re doing. So I kind of have to oversee all of that process,” shared Rhoten.
Rhoten did not disclose the names of those individuals but ensured that they would be released in the near future.
According to Neff, the courses of the new curriculum are still in the beginning phases and faculty will be working over the upcoming years to make courses that will comprise the curriculum.
“Some courses may be completely new, and others may be revised versions of existing courses,” said Neff.
Rhoten will keep her position as a professor of chemistry while also being the director, according to Neff.
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