The committee charged with reviewing Curriculum 2000 has apparently reached the same conclusion as the majority of students--C2K provides a diverse and valuable foundation in liberal arts, but is currently too cumbersome.
The review committee will release its official recommendations to the University in February, but to its immediate credit, committee chair Steve Nowicki's preliminary comments indicate that student concerns have been given serious consideration.
Amidst a largely pre-professional undergraduate student body like Duke's, any substantial core requirements are bound to elicit criticism. Many students come to Duke knowing what they want to do with their lives, and know which majors and courses to take to get them on the path to success. However, Duke has been and will remain a liberal arts university, with a responsibility to expose students to various disciplines and areas of knowledge. Many individuals have benefitted from exposure to new ideas and academic departments, finding interests and talents that would otherwise have lain dormant.
Having acknowledged C2K's obvious strengths, it is important to point out its weaknesses--a job Nowicki and the committee have thus far performed extremely well. First, the plan simply has too many requirements. Especially for those students majoring in the natural sciences, pre-med individuals or those double majoring, the 12 courses needed to satisfy C2K's Areas of Knowledge prove difficult to manage. A reduction, as proposed by the review committee, is needed. Further, allowing transfer and study abroad credit to satisfy C2K requirements is a change long overdue.
The committee is also considering several smaller changes to the curriculum which should not be implemented. Officials have toyed with the idea of eliminating the requirement that one course coded with a "Research" designation be taken in the student's major. It is essential that students conduct extensive, in-depth inquiries in their major fields prior to graduation. Students should learn to explore ideas and materials on their own, not simply analyze and regurgitate the ideas and arguments of others. Admittedly, large departments like economics may have difficulty providing enough classes coded with an "R," in which cases ad hoc exceptions can be made.
On the whole, Curriculum 2000 has been a success. C2K is less formal than a rigid set of "core classes," yet provides students with a strong liberal arts background. Should the review committee's recommendations be implemented, future classes at Duke will have a less burdensome, and more balanced experience with the infamous C2K matrices.
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