A Proposal for Revising University-wide Requirements for Undergraduates at Rice University

A Proposal for Revising University-wide Requirements for Undergraduates at Rice
University
April 23, 1998

The Proposal
Freshman Seminar — Rice 101 (1 course)
An ideal first course to introduce students to critical, intellectual thought
and resources of the university

Ways of Knowing
Designed to expose students to substantive content as well as different ways
of thinking from multiple perspectives and to encourage development of their
own critical and creative thinking

Approaches to the Past ( 2 courses)
Encounters with Literature and the Arts
Interpreting Human Behaviour: Individual, Social and Cultural (2 courses)
Engaging Science and Technology

Required Capacities (to be satisfied within major, Freshman Seminar, or elective
Ways of Knowing courses):

Writing (4 courses)
Oral Discussion and Presentation (1 course)
Quantitative Reasoning (1 course)
Language Competency (separate vote)

Other Important Capacities ("sense of faculty" vote):

Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Teamwork and Collaboration
Health and Physical Education

Other Considerations (recommendations to UCC):

Advanced Placement
Pass/Fail

SUMMARY

The Ad Hoc Curriculum Review Committee was formed by the Faculty Council, the
provost, and the president in response to concerns regarding the university-wide
component of our three curricular requirements: major courses, university-wide
courses, and elective courses. The concerns that led to this effort were manifold,
but the guiding principle embraced by the committee was to determine how Rice
University can best fulfill its educational mission amid the complex challenges
of the coming century. What and how should we teach our students when the cutting-edge
work of today may become obsolete tomorrow? In this context, acquiring specific
knowledge, while critically important, must be coupled with learning how to
learn, how to evaluate the vast amount of information that lies at one’s fingertips,
and how to integrate critical thinking and develop analytical models across
multiple perspectives. We interpreted our mandate to address only that component
of the curriculum that applies specifically to all students regardless of major
(i.e., university-wide requirements), while maintaining essentially intact the
hours available for the major requirements and electives. The proposal for university-wide
requirements that has emerged from this examination addresses not only curricular
requirements for all students, but also provides a university structure designed
to maintain faculty supervision and ongoing discussion of, reflection about,
and development of this important curricular component.

History

General dissatisfaction with the current set of requirements that apply to
all students has been voiced across the Rice community–faculty, students, and
alumni. The current restricted distribution system arose from the effort to
implement a system of foundation courses and coherent minors and has been cobbled
through a series of more-or-less disconnected decisions without significant
integration or attention to the underlying purpose of these requirements. Faculty
concerns are reflected in discussions documented in faculty meetings over a
number of years, and student/alumni concerns are well articulated in a series
of surveys (most notably, surveys of Rice seniors conducted for the Council
on Funding Higher Education) that point repeatedly to a paucity of instruction
in writing and speaking and insufficient attention to reflective experiences.
These concerns were among those that led to the appointment of the committee.

At a faculty meeting held on Feb. 12, 1996, the faculty voted to meet no later
than Feb. 1, 1998, at which time it would either "confirm the present restricted
distribution plan or … adopt a new set of requirements." At that same
meeting, Tom Haskell, speaker of Faculty Council, reported that the council
had reached a consensus in support of having a committee appointed jointly by
Faculty Council and the administration, for the purpose of addressing various
issues related to the undergraduate curriculum. Late in the semester, that committee
was formed and charged with developing a program of general education at Rice.
The committee was informed that it "should define the fundamental issues,
assess the strengths and weakness of our current curriculum, and recommend a
new curriculum and an implementation plan."

The committee first examined what other institutions have pursued to address
requirements that are placed on all students. In open meetings held with faculty
and students in 1996-97, many concerns and a staggering multiplicity of options
and approaches were voiced. Faculty repeatedly noted significant dissatisfaction
with the perceived low level of student ability to think analytically, to develop
models, and to translate critical analytical methods across intellectual fields.
Further, concerns about writing and oral presentation abilities were widespread
among both faculty and students. As a consequence of this crucial input, the
committee was led to guiding principles that focused efforts to develop an effective
mechanism to meet the challenges of university-wide requirements. On Feb. 3,
1998–just two days past the proposed deadline–the Ad Hoc Committee presented
a preliminary proposal for a new set of university-wide requirements. In the
weeks that followed, the committee held a number of meetings which all faculty
members and students had the opportunity to attend and offer responses to the
proposal. The discussion was often lively, and the committee adapted its preliminary
proposal in light of the many thoughtful questions raised and suggestions made.
What follows is the result of that extended process of discussion and deliberation.

Guiding Principles

University-wide requirements must provide our students exposure to a broad
range of intellectual content, generate an understanding of the processes and
theoretical perspectives within and among disciplines, and encourage development
of lifelong competency in critical and creative thinking — the ability to identify,
develop, interpret, and translate models within and across disciplines, including
the capacities to communicate effectively in both written and oral form and
to solve problems by drawing on multiple perspectives and employing available
technologies.

PROPOSAL FOR AN ONGOING STRUCTURE — AN EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM

In investigations of other institutions, the committee found that those institutions
organized with a dean of arts and sciences or with an undergraduate school (dean
of undergraduate school or dean of general education) had built-in systems for
nurturing and developing university-wide curricula, sometimes in novel and interesting
ways. In contrast, the rather unusual divisional organization at Rice means
that no individual or body is charged currently with specific oversight of and
responsibility for university-wide requirements. As a consequence, this component
of the curriculum often takes a lower priority than, for example, the major
requirements that are overseen closely by departments. Furthermore, university-wide
requirements do not enjoy advocacy within the wider community, in part because
no individual or body is charged with the responsibility to foster conversation
and creative thinking about this curricular component or to generate enthusiasm
and support for it. Continuing dialogue among faculty at Rice, between faculty
and students, and with educators at other institutions of higher learning is
essential to creating and maintaining a compelling vision for effective implementation
of university-wide requirements at Rice. An evolutionary system, rather than
an abrupt overhaul, will provide continuity and ability to respond effectively
to changing needs and resources as well as interested and informed oversight
of university-wide requirements.

While the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) has oversight of the entire
curriculum and reports to the provost, the volume of work conducted by that
committee and the Provost’s Office precludes close attention to university-wide
requirements. The ad hoc committee therefore recommends that the president,
with advice from the Faculty Council, (1) establish a faculty Committee for
University-wide Requirements at Rice (CURR) with student representation, integrated
with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) and (2) appoint as director
for University-wide Requirements a faculty member who also serves as chair of
both UCC and CURR. The membership of the UCC and CURR might contain some common
members, and these two bodies would convene jointly several times per year.
CURR would comprise eight to 12 faculty, appointed on overlapping terms of three
years and would, like UCC, report to the director and to the provost. UCC would
continue its current mandate to oversee the entire curriculum, while CURR would
focus its attention solely on university-wide requirements. The director and
CURR would allocate new and reallocated resources devoted to university-wide
requirements; approve courses for credit toward those requirements; encourage
course development that responds to needs within university-wide requirements
by requesting proposals from the faculty, and convening working groups for development
of new interdisciplinary courses; oversee implementation of university-wide
requirements as approved by the faculty; facilitate incorporation of advanced
technologies into the curriculum; and recommend adjustments in the university-wide
requirements to the faculty on a periodic basis. The responsibility for facilitating
and ensuring continuing dialogue regarding curriculum among faculty and students
will reside with the director. The level of these responsibilities for both
CURR and the director mandates that the faculty who commit to this endeavor
be provided some incentive for their participation.

PROPOSAL FOR UNIVERSITY-WIDE REQUIREMENTS

Freshman Seminar&emdash; Rice 101

Rice 101, the Freshman Seminar, is regarded by the committee as an integral
part of a new set of university-wide requirements designed to address many of
the issues raised over the past two years. The primary goal of Rice 101 is to
create an appropriate context in which to foster a sense of intellectual community
among students and between students and faculty. Faculty who lead freshman seminars
would participate in groups at both the planning stage and during implementation
of the seminars, to encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and discussion.
Each Freshman Seminar will be expected to explore serious substantive material
(i.e., have a significant content base); emphasize a common set of skills that
includes writing, speaking, discussion, effective use of the library and information
technologies; and equip students to obtain information and experience that facilitate
informed, thoughtful, critical analysis and discussion. A key goal of this effort
is to create, at the beginning of each student’s career, an experience in intellectual
exploration that will set a life-long pattern of inquiry and analysis.

The following examples of freshman seminars already being offered at Rice or
elsewhere provide some sense of the kinds of topics that might be addressed.

The Life of Muhammad
Jefferson and the Origins of the American Republic
Recording the Past in History and Film
Contemporary Issues in Science Fiction
Molecular Biology and Modern Society: Issues of Promise and Concern
Do Animals Think? An Introduction to Cognitive Ethology
AIDS: Yesterday and Today
Images of Minorities in America
Introduction to Modern Cosmology
Faces of Jesus
Perspectives on Alternative Medicine
Memory: Fact and Fiction
Issues in Native American Studies
Feminism in the Nineties
Conflict and Conflict Resolution between Israel and the Arab World

Genetics, Ethics, and the Law

Such courses will offer professors an opportunity to explore 1) topics of particular
interest to them; 2) topics that will offer students an interesting introduction
to a discipline they might not otherwise consider; or 3) topics ordinarily dealt
with in upper-division courses, but capable of being presented at a level appropriate
for freshmen with no previous exposure to the subject. These seminars will also
provide opportunities to try out ideas for courses that might later become a
regular departmental offering. Another intriguing possibility might be for professors
in several disciplines to select a common topic–for example, a given nation
such as China or Germany–and to prepare a set of related seminars, dealing
individually with such aspects as economic arrangements, political organization
and trends, religion, family structure, educational systems, literature, popular
culture, majority-minority relations, and the like. In the summer prior to offering
the courses, funds might be available to enable the team to visit the nation
to be studied and to gain a brief first-hand exposure to the country and its
culture. Without question, the professors involved should be greatly enriched
by such a collaborative experience. It is difficult to imagine that their students
will not feel a significant spillover effect.

The seminars are envisioned as comprising about 15 students each, necessitating
45 sections to accommodate all students during their freshman year. In addition,
support for the writing effort in these seminars will be provided by staff from
the existing Writing Center in Humanities and the Cain Writing Center in Science/Engineering,
for which $5 million in funding has been secured. The seminar experience will
include exposing students to the intellectual foundations of the emerging information
age–a new way to express knowledge and a new way to organize and process it–as
well as its capabilities and limitations and, more practically, to the resources
available in the library and on the Web. While systematic presentation of such
material might necessarily have to occur in large groups, its application to
the specific content area of the seminar could occur in the smaller sections.

Resource questions regarding implementation of this component of the proposal
are significant, as optimum implementation will involve full-time faculty teaching
in each of these seminars. If each faculty member taught a seminar on a regularly
scheduled basis, this responsibility would occur approximately every eight years.
Realistically, the committee does not expect that every faculty will want or
even be well equipped to teach such seminars. Reports from other institutions,
however, indicate that many faculty have had extremely positive experiences
with freshman seminars and choose to engage in this activity regularly. In addition,
many freshman or lower-level seminars already exist or have been discussed within
departments; these courses might be incorporated into this program over the
long term. Advanced post-doctoral students and non-tenure-track faculty are
alternatives to full-time faculty involvement, but multiple objections have
been voiced to such involvement, and the committee feels that resort to such
measures should be taken only after careful consideration of individual circumstances.

The freshman seminars will be phased in through several experimental efforts.
A grant has been submitted that would fund a pilot program in two residential
colleges. Another possibility would be to initiate a modest number of seminars,
with participation by freshmen on a voluntary basis. Feasibility issues and
other unforeseen aspects of the proposed program will naturally emerge in this
pilot period, and effects of instituting Rice 101 as a university-wide requirement
on faculty and students, as well as on the intellectual life of the university,
will be evaluated before expanding the program further. In the long run, in
addition to new resources, reallocation of existing resources will be required
to implement such a program fully. However, successful completion of the pilot
program and favorable evaluation should provide significant motivation to the
faculty to address the long-term resource issues within schools and departments.

WAYS OF KNOWING

For purposes of disciplinary study (majors), it is both practical and reasonable
for experts in these fields (professors in individual departments) to set requirements
and design courses that delve deeper into specific areas. But courses that meet
requirements applying to all students should include a large subset that are
aligned with modern research and intellectual inquiry and that cut across traditional
disciplinary and even divisional boundaries. This experience, so successful
with the institutes and centers in our research endeavors, can be translated
effectively to our undergraduate curriculum. The committee recommends "slicing
the pie" in a somewhat different manner, to generate encouragement for
interdisciplinary course development that broadens the perspective of our students
while providing crucial content in these courses. This need for exposure to
broad fields of knowledge is an underlying rationale for the courses within
the category of Ways of Knowing. Within each of the courses that would be considered
as appropriate for meeting the Ways of Knowing requirements, an underpinning
provided by extensive substantive content is explicitly presumed. Such courses,
however, will also have to meet additional criteria, as evaluated by the Committee
on University-wide Requirements at Rice (CURR), to be counted toward meeting
the requirements in this category.

The proposed criteria include:

Extensive substantive content.

Explicit introduction to problems within the area of inquiry and to various
approaches and pathways toward understanding these problems.

Attention to the creation, development, and modification of models, multiple
theoretical perspectives, and interpretations pertinent to the subjects explored,
currently and over time.

Accessibility, when possible, to both majors and non-majors.

The exposure of students to different ways of thinking in multiple disciplines
and from different perspectives is crucial to the development of their own critical
and creative thinking. While the following categories will, no doubt, not satisfy
every member of this community, they represent a synthesis that is intended
to encompass the entire range of our endeavors and be inclusive of all disciplines.
The committee believes that every corner of our campus will be able to provide
or contribute to courses that meet the Ways of Knowing requirements.

The Categories:

Approaches to the Past (2 courses)

Courses in this category will give sustained, focused attention from several
perspectives on those aspects of the past that have exerted a significant influence
on the course of human history. History is here understood broadly to encompass
not only people, events and social and political institutions that existed in
the past, but all human endeavors that have developed over and through time.
For example, in addition to courses focused on major epochs (e.g., ancient Greek
or Roman civilization, the Renaissance, or the history of Islamic expansion),
courses in this category might focus on the rise of scientific thinking, the
development of representation in graphic art, the rise of cities and urban life,
the social uses of imaginative literature, the development of democracy, the
rise of monotheism, to name but a few. In all cases, courses in this category
should include study of primary documents and artifacts wherever possible, should
offer multiple interpretive perspectives, and should explicitly apply self-reflexive
criticism to the ways of approaching the past and the sources used in studying
the past–How do historians work? Why have they approached their topics in these
ways? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches? Preference
will be given to courses that are either chronologically broad in scope or explicitly
comparative in focus. Such courses could be offered by faculty in a range of
departments from art history to architecture, from language departments to the
natural sciences and engineering, or they could be developed collaboratively
by faculty from different departments.

Encounters with Literature and the Arts (2 courses)

Courses in this category are intended to enable students to experience, analyze
and interpret firsthand the products of human creativity that have proved significant
in the development of the human imagination. Such courses must adopt ecumenical
scope in order to do justice to the breadth of imaginative human creativity.
"Literature and the Arts" is meant broadly to include a variety of
"texts," including major texts of literature and philosophy, works
of art, music and film. All courses in this category should work closely with
the primary texts. The central focus of the courses should be on "reading"
(in the fullest sense) a number of narrative and non-narrative imaginative representations
of human experience. The courses must emphasize multiple interpretive possibilities,
different approaches, and frameworks of analysis that can coexist and converge
around a given object of study. Courses would ideally combine works from several
artistic genres and movements and examine a variety of critical, historical,
and artistic responses to the works under scrutiny. Perspectives on art and
human creativity from outside the humanities would be a highly desirable ingredient
in these courses. The committee envisions a time when resources will permit
addition of a studio or performance component to an arts requirement. At this
point, however, it appears unfeasible to formalize such a requirement.

Interpreting Human Behavior: Individual, Social and Cultural (2 courses)

Courses in this category should provide students with an understanding of the
psychological, social and cultural dimensions of human behavior. They would
familiarize students with the basic approaches in the social sciences, relating
the approaches to empirical data, and would involve the application of theory
and analysis to central problems of people and institutions. Courses should
give a sense of the range and diversity of human behavior by 1) explicitly comparing
and contrasting human behavior in a variety of societies and cultures, 2) examining
another culture or society in depth, or 3) analyzing experimental or statistical
data drawn from a variety of social and cultural contexts.

Engaging Science and Technology (4 courses)

Courses in this category are intended to provide students insight into the
key methodological and epistemological approaches in science and technology
as well as to expose them to a portion of the knowledge base that now exists.
Two courses in this category should have an explicit, substantial focus on how
we know what we know and how we have accumulated over time the body of knowledge
on which much of modern society is based, and should examine the implications
of that knowledge and its applications. These courses will be designed to enhance
insight into how hypotheses and theories are developed and tested, and how observations
and experimental results become established as scientific facts and form our
shared understanding about underlying principles. The recursive nature of this
process will be emphasized, in that insights from experiments not only may confirm
the original ideas but also generate new and unexpected hypotheses. Two courses
in this category should incorporate this theoretical perspective where possible,
but will primarily provide an in-depth view of a more specific body of knowledge
in science or engineering.

Meeting the Criteria:

Many professors and departments have been understandably concerned with what
courses will qualify for inclusion in the above categories. Will they be expected
to devise entirely new courses? Will they have to be interdisciplinary? Will
existing courses, as they are now taught, meet the criteria? If not, what changes
will need to be made? What courses will not meet the criteria? Who will decide?
What effect will this have on enrollments and recruitment of majors? All these
are quite legitimate questions and concerns, and not all can be answered with
assurance at this time. We can, however, assure our colleagues that we seek
the kind of cooperation and participation that will be broadening and enriching
for both faculty and students. Because our ad hoc committee is not the committee
that will be making these decisions, what we offer here is somewhat hypothetical
and deliberately quite incomplete. But the following is what we have in mind.

Courses that qualify for inclusion in the Ways of Knowing categories will be
of three types:

1) New courses, specifically designed to meet the criteria set forth above.
We propose that a minimum of five to 10 new such courses per year be developed
in each of the next five years. Departments and faculty participating in the
development of these courses could reasonably expect to receive appropriate
assistance–for example, technical assistance, provision of special instructional
equipment, attendance at workshops, visits to other universities. Released time
or other compensation may also be possible.

2) Existing courses, modified to fit the Ways of Knowing criteria.

3) Existing courses, taught as they are currently taught.

It will be necessary to offer students a wide range of courses from which to
choose–courses that will be taught on a regular basis, and at varied times.

Because we do not currently have a large number of broad-gauged courses of the
sort we envision, the Ways of Knowing categories will necessarily include, in
the early years of the program, a number of courses that are less than ideal
for the purpose. As new courses are developed and existing courses modified,
some courses that initially qualify for inclusion would likely be excluded from
the categories unless appropriate changes were made.

Decisions as to the appropriateness of a given or proposed course will be made
by CURR, after consideration of syllabi or proposals submitted for approval.

Some examples of courses that would probably qualify, especially if modified
a bit, are listed below. The committee has examined the General Announcements
carefully and believes that a substantial number of such courses are currently
being taught. We have selected a small number of these to illustrate each category.
Please keep in mind that these are but examples. They may not be the best examples,
even from the departments in question. They are far from the only examples.
In addition to these, several "university courses" that have been
created in the last few years are likely candidates for inclusion in various
categories.

Approaches to the Past

HUMA 101/102: Constructing Western Traditions (These courses might also qualify
for inclusion in the "Encounters with Literature and the Arts" category
[below]. In such cases, students would be able to choose the category for which
they wished to receive credit.)

ARCH 343: Cities and History

HIST 284: The Crusades: Holy War in Medieval Christendom and Islam

MUSI 322: Historical Studies of Music of the 18th and 19th Centuries

PHIL 201, 202: History of Philosophy

RELI 286: The Reformation and Its Results

Encounters with Literature and the Arts

ENGL 377: Literature and Art

HUMA 104: Self in Text and Image

WGST 327: 20th-Century Women Writers: Sex, Gender, and Modernism

SPAN 304: Latin American Literature

HART 205/206: History of Art

RELI 200: The Bible in Western Tradition

Interpreting Human Behavior:

Individual, Social and Cultural

ANTH 299: Contemporary Cultures and Global Transformation

POLI 212: Introduction to Comparative Politics

PSYC 202: Introduction to Social Psychology

LING 300: Language and Culture

RELI 260: Religion and the Social Sciences

Engaging Science and Technology

BIOL 122: Fundamental Concepts in Biology

ELEC 201: An Introduction to Engineering Design (Students design and construct
a functional robot and program iy to perform simple tasks.)

ENVI 201: Introduction to Environmental Systems

NSCI 111 and 112: Science Today:

Physics and Astronomy (111), Chemistry Biology, and Earth Science (112)

For good examples of interdisciplinary science courses offered at other universities,
please check the committee’s Web site at http://dacnet.rice.edu/~currrev/Notes/.
See Section 6.11.3.2. Note especially the Stanford courses, "Light,"
"EarthScience: Planet Earth&emdash;A Survival Guide," and "The
Heart."

REQUIRED CAPACITIES

A third category, Required Capacities, can be satisfied within the entire range
of courses students take to meet their total hours for graduation&emdash;Rice
101, Ways of Knowing courses, major courses, and electives. These requirements
are not intended to be additions to the courses delineated for majors and university-wide
requirements, but would be met in the normal course of satisfying those requirements.

Writing

Writing was repeatedly identified as a key concern of both students and faculty.
Students will be required to take at least one course designated as an "intensive
writing" course each year. Rice 101 will count as one such course. The
Committee on University-wide Requirements at Rice (CURR) will designate additional
courses as meeting this requirement, after careful perusal of each syllabus.
Writing requirements could be met in any course that meets requirements for
graduation at Rice, although encouraging departments to develop courses with
writing components for their majors will ensure capacity to write in multiple
contexts and in ways appropriate to given disciplines. Well-funded and well-staffed
writing centers in humanities and in science and engineering will provide expert
assistance to students and faculty, to encourage and facilitate optimal development
of writing skills. Requiring at least one intensive writing course each year
is an acknowledgment that good writing requires sustained practice, not just
a course or two that can be "gotten out of the way" and forgotten.

Oral Discussion and Presentation

Oral discussion and presentation were also noted repeatedly by both students
and faculty. Students will be required to take at least one course that involves
substantial emphasis on group discussion and oral presentation. The ability
to convey concepts orally is essential in the modern world in almost every work
context. This requirement is designed to provide students feedback and opportunity
to develop their oral skills. This requirement can also be met in any course
that meets requirements for graduation at Rice. In this area, experience within
the major with oral discussion/presentation might be most appropriate, but this
requirement can be met in any other course so designated by CURR after examination
of the syllabus. It may also prove to be the case that the requirement could
be satisfied by Rice 101. It could also be met by successful completion of one
of the increasing number of speech courses being offered at Rice.

Quantitative Reasoning

This requirement is designed to ensure that students have the basic ability
to reason with numerical data. This can include the ability to work through
the development of a quantitative model, whether it be scientific, economic,
sociological, or other. Students should understand the relationship of numerical
data to functional or graphical representations of that data, and the importance
of these representations to quantitative reasoning. Alternatively, this requirement
can ensure the ability to assess the basic statistical aspects of an argument
from an understanding of statistics and probability. Students should have at
least an introductory understanding of careful probabilistic thinking.

This requirement, like writing and oral presentation, could be met in courses
on a number of topics in which quantitative reasoning is an inherent part of
the subject. Such courses, of which there already exist a wide variety, will
be designated "quantitative reasoning-intensive" courses. The incorporation
of quantitative reasoning into additional existing courses and attending more
carefully to developments of skills that utilize logical and quantitative reasoning
in our broader curriculum will expand student experience with this important
capacity.

Languages

The Language Steering Committee (LSC), an ongoing committee appointed by the
dean of humanities to advise on language instruction at Rice, comprises the
chairs of the French, German, Linguistics, and Spanish departments, the director
of the Center for the Study of Languages, and the heads of Asian Studies and
Classics-Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations. The LSC indicates agreement with
many Rice faculty who feel that knowledge of a second language is one of the
"hallmarks of an educated person," and that it ought to be considered
an essential component of a "first-rate university education." In
this context, the LSC has developed specific recommendations for a language
competency requirement. Despite an entrance requirement for language, experience
has shown that this prior experience does not ensure that students enter with
proficiency in a foreign language. Therefore, the LSC recommends a language
competency exit requirement that can be met in a variety of ways. Given the
many demands on Rice students, maximum flexibility was considered a priority.
Thus, the LSC recommendation offers six alternative ways to fulfill a foreign
language exit requirement:

1) A score of 4 or 5 on the national Advanced Placement foreign language or
literature tests.

2) A score of "intermediate-mid" or higher on a standardized placement
test administered by Rice.

3) A grade of C+ or higher in a single Foreign-Language-Across-the Curriculum
(FLAC) course. Such courses, now being planned under the guidance of the Center
for the Study of Languages, are content-based courses in which all or some of
the instruction is conducted in a foreign language. FLAC courses will be available
in all schools of the university and could be offered as Freshman Seminar and
Ways of Knowing courses, thus allowing students to satisfy the language requirement
while satisfying those other requirements.

4) One semester of study or work abroad in a foreign-language environment,
followed by satisfactory performance (with a grade of C+ or higher) on a Rice
fourth-semester equivalency exam. This should abet efforts to increase the opportunities
and incentives for Rice students to spend part of their academic career abroad.

5) Completing a course of instruction in an intensive summer language program
(in the United States or abroad), followed by a grade of "C+" or higher
on a Rice fourth-semester equivalency exam.

6) A grade of "C+" or higher in the fourth semester of any foreign
language course taught at Rice or accepted for transfer credit.

The ad hoc committee supports this recommendation by the LSC, regarding it
as a significant contribution to a program of university-wide requirements,
but proposes that it be voted upon as a separate component of the larger proposal.

OTHER IMPORTANT CAPACITIES

This category of potential requirements encompasses a number of areas, about
which the diversity of faculty and student opinion is broad. At this point,
the committee recommends that any final proposal regarding these requirements
be considered further by the CURR and UCC before presentation to the faculty
for a formal vote. We will, however, ask for a "sense of the faculty"
vote, to gain a clearer idea of the importance of these issues to the faculty.

Ethics and Moral Reasoning

Many institutions require courses in ethics and moral reasoning as part of
their curriculum. The worth of exposing students to the processes involved in
making value judgments, in taking ethical considerations into account in decision-making,
in resolving complex dilemmas with competing forces, and in the construction
and adherence to professional ethics is self-evident. Nonetheless, we found
some opposition to the institution of a specific requirement in this area, and
the committee’s judgment is that we will encourage individual departments to
make a self-conscious effort to incorporate a substantial ethical dimension
into all courses of study for the major.

Teamwork and Collaboration

The ability to work effectively within a team and to collaborate to generate
a product is necessary in the modern world, not only in business but in most
major professions, including academia. A requirement for one course that incorporates
teamwork and collaboration was viewed to be an excellent goal for the future.
The committee recommends that faculty and students consider this matter seriously,
particularly in future examination of the curriculum.

Health and Physical Education

While not a specific part of our charge, the physical education requirement
has long been a university-wide requirement and may properly be considered in
this context. Both faculty and students have expressed considerable support
for, or lack of opposition to, continuation of this requirement, with some sentiment
in favor of permitting participants in varsity and club sports to waive one
of the two courses. Another, apparently smaller group, however, strongly favors
eliminating this requirement. Because it has not been a pivotal concern of our
committee, and because the implications for the Human Performance and Health
Sciences Department, the intramural program, and the athletic programs are extensive
and complicated, the committee proposes that the question of the physical education
requirement be dealt with by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, the body
regularly designated to deal with such matters.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Advanced Placement

AP and International Baccalaureate (IB) credit for university-wide requirements
is problematic, as the intention of the committee is to encourage the development
of courses that cross disciplinary boundaries and introduce students to different
ways of thinking than they might encounter in courses that provide AP credit.
The committee recommends that AP/IB credit could be used to satisfy two of the
courses for Engaging Science and Technology, and that CURR, in consultation
with departments, may decide what AP/IB credits, up to two additional courses,
may apply in other categories. The committee reasons as follows: It appears
that most AP tests appropriate for science and engineering credit do indeed
indicate a level of understanding equal to that expected in the courses for
which they now receive AP credit. But in history, for example, a high score
on an AP test may indicate a good knowledge of basic historical facts, but little
exposure to the approaches to the past a Rice student should be expected to
understand. On the other hand, some high school history courses can be truly
outstanding, and a high AP score, coupled with information about a student’s
actual background, might satisfy a Ways of Knowing requirement. In any case,
AP credit will continue to count toward the total number of hours required for
graduation, though it might not fulfill a Ways of Knowing requirement.

Pass/Fail

Pass/Fail is perceived by many faculty to inhibit class discussion and interaction
in courses in which a substantial proportion of students take a specific course
P/F and thereby change the character of the class itself. The committee has
heard a number of options offered by both students and faculty, and clear concern
has been expressed by students regarding the loss of the P/F option. The committee
prefers that Ways of Knowing and Freshman Seminar not be an option for P/F,
but recognizes the demands on students. We therefore recommend that the Freshman
Seminar not be allowed as a P/F option and that only two Ways of Knowing courses
can be designated P/F. In addition, we recommend that the UCC seriously consider
raising the standard for a grade of "Pass," so that "C"
will be the lowest grade eligible for a "Pass." Grades lower than
"C-" will be accorded a "D (+/-)" or "F."

Student Responsibility

Students must assume a new level of responsibility for their own education
–identifying those areas in which their knowledge is weak or missing and taking
an appropriate set of courses to address these deficits. One mechanism for assisting
students in self-evaluation is to provide a list of questions that might be
used in a variety of contexts–from freshman week to freshman seminars to direct
interactions with advisors. These questions will be designed to generate awareness
of the range and types of information that many consider crucial for an "educated"
person. The committee recommends that the UCC, CURR, student advising, college
masters, and students engage in discussions about mechanisms for implementing
a program that will encourage the development of individual student responsibility
in designing a curricular plan.

Time Frame

The ad hoc committee expects that a period of three to five years, beginning
in the fall of 1999, will be required to add new courses and revise existing
ones before a full complement of desirable offerings will be available. In the
meantime, the Required Capacities and Ways of Knowing requirements might have
to be met by courses that are adequate, but not ideal. In the likely event that
not enough freshman seminars are available to provide that experience to every
freshman student at the outset, that requirement will be optional until the
program expands, is altered, or is dropped. Precise timing on these matters
will be determined by the Committee on University-wide Requirements at Rice
(CURR) after careful examination of courses proposed by departments, schools,
and individual faculty.

Effects on Course Load

Rice 101, Ways of Knowing courses, and Required Capacities are designed to
entail a total of 11 courses (a decrease of one course from the current 12 required
courses). All of the Required Capacities course requirements can be met within
the major, university-wide requirements, and elective courses by even moderately
careful attention to the choice of courses each year. By our analysis, most
students will take eight courses outside their major to meet university-wide
requirements, similar to the present load, while in the "worst case"
situation, some students may have a maximum of nine courses outside their majors.

One view of this system is as a matrix–one axis corresponds to all courses
taken, while the other indicates which courses meet writing, oral, and quantitative
reasoning requirements. Thus, the writing-intensive, oral skills-intensive,
and quantitative reasoning-intensive courses are part of the total number of
courses required for graduation, not an addition to them. These requirements
can be met within any category of courses that meet the total number of courses
required for graduation.

Resource Issues

The need for new resources to implement the recommendations provided by this
committee is evident, particularly for development of freshman seminars and
new courses in the Ways of Knowing categories. In addition, reallocation of
existing resources will also be necessary as the faculty evaluates, based on
experience with the new system, which aspects of the curriculum are effective
and which are not. Departments and schools must reflect upon and, when appropriate,
reorganize their own efforts to address the curricular needs of our students
as we move into the 21st century. The commitment of the administration and the
board to substantial new resources in the implementation budget for the Strategic
Plan should provide a measure of confidence that we can undertake these changes.
Recognizing that the partner for change is resistance, the structure proposed
is designed to provide an on-going faculty-driven system to preserve from our
present curriculum those aspects that have served us well and to provide new
dimensions that address the shortcomings noted by faculty, students, and alumni.

CONCLUSION

The proposed changes to curriculum and creation of a sustaining structure are
intended to provide a beginning, not an end, to curricular discussion and development.
In the two-year discussion of curriculum undertaken by this committee, each
member has found his or her own teaching affected in unanticipated and valuable
ways by the discussion. The committee therefore encourages our colleagues to
engage in continual discussion that may lead to creation of courses not yet
imagined, taught in novel and creative ways to provide our students with unsurpassed
educational opportunities. If our university-wide requirements are to have a
lasting impact on our students, we must continually examine and refine our efforts
to expose our students to information and experiences that engage them in intellectual
thought and critical analysis and provide them resources for learning that will
last throughout their lives. The vision for these requirements, both university-wide
and disciplinary, will change with our context, and the rate of this change
is increasing rapidly. A responsive structure coupled with an engaged and challenging
faculty will be essential as we continue to envision a curriculum that meets
the needs of the next century.

Ad Hoc Curriculum Review Committee:
Brandon Bidlack, undergraduate; Sidney Burrus, electrical and computer engineering;
Priscilla Jane Huston, provost’s office; John Hutchinson, chemistry; Walter
Isle, English; Benjamin Lee, anthropology; William Martin, sociology; Kathleen
Matthews, biochemistry and cell biology; Carol Quillen, history.

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