A note to Curriculum Committee
I’m wrapping up preregistration and only have a few students left to register. One of my more challenging students sent me a message something like the following [1].
Dear Professor [2],
I realize that you think I should take a course in the Humanities next semester. I was planning to take [name of course] [3]. However, it is not offered next semester. I will plan to take it my senior year.
In addition, in my remaining three semesters I have to take four courses for [other major], four courses for my CS major, and two courses for my [name of concentration] concentration. I’d also like to take [course that seems related to the two majors] [4].
What was my reaction?
First, I wondered how we could have ended up in a situation in which the student needed eight courses for two majors in three semesters. There are some complications that led to the situation which are inappropriate to discuss in a musing [5].
Next, I wondered why we allowed the student to add a concentration [6] on top of that.
Then I realized: I never approved that concentration. So I checked the concentration declaration form [9]. Lo and behold, although the concentration advisor has to sign the form, the major advisor does not [10]. So, even though I’d been trying to step back from worrying about things [11], I composed a note to Curriculum Committee.
Dear Curriculum Committee Members,
This semester, I’ve been getting pushback from a lot of students who
say I can’t take X because I need to finish the requirements for my
concentration in addition to two majors
. In many cases, I was not
aware that the student had declared a concentration in addition to their
two majors.
I see from the concentration declaration form that a student’s major advisor(s) need not be consulted for their declaration. Since the declaration of a concentration affects a student’s four-year plan, I think all of their advisors should sign off. (We might even require the signature of the chair(s) of their major department(s), as in the declaration of a second major.) I’d also recommend that an updated four-year plan be included in the declaration.
I believe this kind of policy is the purview of Curriculum Committee. I ask CC to consider updating the requirements for concentration declaration to require that all such declarations include (a) signatures of their advisors and (b) a revised four-year plan. I assume that such a proposal must then go to the faculty.
If such a policy is not in the purview of CC, please let me know where I should more appropriately address the request.
I wonder if the request will get any traction. It really is strange that we treat concentrations so differently than majors in the declaration process.
I’ve also realized that I should make students put their four-year plan in Self Service [12] when they declare a major so that I can access that plan at all times and see when they decide to change it.
[1] I have reworded the message and eliminated some identifying details.
[2] Problem one. Students know I don’t like to be addressed in the generic.
[3] Problem two. That’s a special topics course. It’s unlikely to ever be offered again.
[4] I’m not sure how many more problems that counts as.
[5] Now that I look at it in a fresh light, I realize that they really only need three more courses for the CS major.
[6] Grinnell doesn’t have minors. Concentrations serve as our alternative to minors. They tend to be in more interdisciplinary areas, like Technology Studies [7], Global Development Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies [8]. But we also have some in more traditional disciplines, such as Statistics.
[7] Soon to be renamed. We don’t yet know what the new name will be.
[8] No, not all of the concentrations end in Studies
.
[9] https://grinco.sharepoint.com/sites/Registrar/Shared%20Documents/Concentration%20Declaration%20Coversheet.pdf
[10] Or the major advisors do not.
[11] Please stop laughing. I’m serious. I really do plan to step back.
I’ve resigned two positions, including one that required me to be at
faculty meetings, for just that reason.
[12] Our online course planning system.
Version 1.1 of 2017-11-15.