Williams Home > Strategic Planning > Curricular Innovation > Phase V: Implementation
Phase V: Implementation
In the academic year 2001-2002 the CEP and other college committees worked to implement those proposals that received at least 60% of the faculty vote in May 2001. Some are already in place; the rest are in various stages of development. The proposals fall into the four areas of: Skills and Contents Requirements, Experiential Education, Interdisciplinary Team Teaching, and Tutorial Expansion.
SKILLS AND CONTENTS REQUIREMENT
Overview: Beginning with the Class of 2006, all students will be required to take two courses designated as Writing Intensive as well as one course in Quantitative and Formal Reasoning (QFR). Descriptions of those requirements and further guidelines for departments and programs can be accesed below.
Writing Across the Curriculum
Quantitative and Formal Reasoning
EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION
Experiential Education Coordinator
A subgroup of the CEP worked to design the half-time position of "Experiential Education Coordinator," reporting to the Dean of the Faculty. (link to job posting)
Williams in New York
Members of the CEP have visited several similar programs in New York City, and a subgroup of the CEP has continued to refine the original proposal, in consultation with the Committee on Priorities and Resources and with other groups on campus.
INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM-TEACHING
Summer course development stipends will be awarded to faculty proposing interdisciplinary courses on a competitive basis. The selection committee will convene annually and will be comprised of the chairs of the CAP, CEP, and IPECS (Interdepartmental Program on Experimental and Cross-Disciplinary Studies) committees. Although this initiative was not fully in place until after most courses were proposed, examples of new team-taught courses that will be offered in 2002-03 include:
Minds, Brains, and Intelligent Behavior: An Introduction to Cognitive Science (Philosophy/Psychology)
Culture, Society, and Disease (Economics/Biology/English)
TUTORIAL EXPANSION
Expansion of the tutorial program is underway, thanks to continuing efforts of Tutorial Program Director and Professor of English, Stephen Fix. Full realization of the tutorial expansion will not occur, however, until the planned expansion of the faculty is complete. The College continues to offer $4,000 summer course development stipends, and we are allowing faculty to re-apply for these funds, as long as they intend to develop a new tutorial. For 2002-03, we anticipate approximately 37 tutorials. This represents an increase over offerings in years past, and is especially impressive given the across-the-board courseload reduction. In an effort to make tutorials even more a part of the William student consciousness, we are encouraging faculty to offer, where appropriate, tutorials aimed at the sophomore level (see the original proposal for further details). Of the 37 tutorials offered in 2002-03, sixteen are at the 200-level, which represents a significant increase from 2001-02, when only six of 32 tutorials were at the 200-level.