Core curriculum changes to take effect in fall 2015
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett, has worked alongside a team of staff to design a new general education curriculum composed of eight core requirements and classes composed of 20 students for incoming freshmen starting the school year in fall 2015.
The categories will remain similar, though they will be lettered A through F and will span departments outside of the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. In addition to taking classes in the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences and physical sciences, students will be required to take a quantitative reasoning class.
Instead of taking six general education classes, new students will be required to take eight. Two new categories will supplement the material currently covered by the diversity requirement. These categories are “Citizenship in the Global Era” and “Traditions and Historical Foundations.”
Dr. Steven Lamy, vice dean of academic programs, explained that the change is not meant to eliminate the previous requirement, but evolve it.
“The new themes will not replace the diversity requirement. Instead, they will deal with the same issues of the diversity theme, but on a broader scale,” Lamy said. “General education courses will have tags indicating these themes. When people choose these, they will satisfy both their general education core classes and their themes.”
Dr. Gene Bickers, vice provost for undergraduate programs, explained that the diversity requirement will involve the study of past and current social issues.
“The ‘Citizenship in the Global Era’ theme will deal with contemporary issues and diversity outside of the United States. Meanwhile, the ‘Traditions and Historical Foundations’ will deal with the past and societal development,” Bickers said. “Students will not need to fulfill these requirements by taking additional classes. Students will fulfill these requirements the same way they complete their diversity theme now.”
Bickers explained that the idea behind this initiative is to provide more rigor and flexibility into the curriculum.
“General education classes will now be incorporating the whole university. Students will be able to fulfill their general education by taking classes in Annenberg, Roski and even Keck,” Bickers said.
Spanning such a wide array of schools, Bickers stressed that students who are not in Dornsife will now have the opportunity to start completing their majors earlier.
Miranda Mazariegos, a sophomore majoring in English who transferred from Boston University, explained that she considers USC’s curriculum to be relatively flexible.
“USC is definitely more flexible in terms of their general education. When I was in BU, I really wanted to double major. As a result of its general education requirements, it was almost impossible for me. In USC, the general education allows you to do more,” Mazariegos said.
The changes will only apply to freshmen entering USC in fall 2015 or later. Transfer students will not be affected.
Students will also be able to complete one of their core requirements in a class of 20 students, as opposed to the large lecture style of many general education requirements.
“This is great news. This means that freshmen will have at least two small classes during their first year. This can be extremely helpful, given that USC is such a large school,” Lamy said.
Shea Carter, a senior majoring in communication, explained that she would have preferred to be enrolled in general education courses with smaller class sizes.
“When I came to USC, USC’s size was very overwhelming. If I would have had to take classes that were smaller, I would have had the opportunity to meet people and have classes that were more personal,” Carter said.
Bickers explained that this initiative has taken three years to develop and has received significant faculty input.
“Our main intention, though, is to give students more flexibility and provide them with classes that will be relevant to them after they graduate,” Bickers said.