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U. of Ark. officials defend requirements reduction

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  • Originally published May 2, 2010 at 5:02 p.m., updated May 2, 2010 at 6:01 p.m.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - A planned reduction in the curriculum requirements for undergraduates in the largest college at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville isn't popular with some faculty members who fear the school will no longer turn out well-rounded graduates.

Chancellor G. David Gearhart said the move does not amount to "dumbing down" standards that students must meet and will bring the school into compliance with a new law aimed at helping transfer students.

"What we're trying to do in the state is get more students with baccalaureate degrees," Gearhart said. "Anything we can do to make it seamless and make it an easier transfer is good."

The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences plans to reduce its core curriculum from 66 hours to the state's minimum 35-hour general education requirement. The goal is to ease the transition for students transferring from the state's two-year colleges and raise the number of college graduates, university officials said.

The core curriculum is a set of general education courses that all students within a given college must take, regardless of their majors, to complete their degrees.

The most significant changes are a reduction of science requirements, elimination of a foreign-language requirement and requiring only college algebra, which is "high school-level stuff at this point," said Fulbright College Dean William Schwab.

Most departments, concerned that thinning the core curriculum would hurt students, have adopted requirements for foreign language credits for specific degrees, and a higher-level math course was made a prerequisite for another required course.

The changes will bring the school into compliance with a new state law that forbids imposing on junior college transfer students any requirements for additional freshman- and sophomore-level general education credits, according to the university.

Schwab met with language faculty members April 20 to reassure them that he intended to minimize the new degree requirements' impact on their departments.

"We cannot, and don't wish to, support a two-tiered system in which transfer students would be required to have only 35 credit hours of core courses and students who originate their college career at UA would be held to a higher standard and greater number of required core courses," the dean said in a follow-up e-mail to the language faculty members.

The effect of adopting language as a degree-specific requirement for most majors will be essentially equal to restoring it to the core, Schwab wrote.

State Sen. Sue Madison, who voted for the new law when legislators approved it last year, said she'd heard a lot of concern about the measure from faculty and students. But she said "it never entered (legislators') minds to dumb down the curriculum."

___

Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com



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