Arts & Sciences Council discusses new curriculum implementation in final meeting of the academic year

Arts & Sciences Council held its final meeting of the academic year Thursday, which featured a presentation on the implementation of the new Trinity College of Arts and Sciences curriculum, committee updates and a revision of the council bylaws.

The council approved the new Trinity curriculum in a 32-1 vote at their last meeting April 4. The curriculum, which is set to roll out fall 2025, creates new general education requirements for Trinity students with a greater focus on humanities, a new first-year program of three thematically-linked courses and “century courses” that fulfill two graduation requirements.

Thursday’s meeting was also the final session with Joshua Socolar, professor of physics, serving as chair of the council. In his opening remarks, he thanked those involved with the council during his term for their hard work and support.

“I think we've done well together. The highlight may have been the adoption of a new Trinity curriculum, but we did more than that,” Socolar said.

Implementation of the new curriculum

Deb Reisinger, professor of the practice of romance studies and interim dean of academic affairs for Trinity College, presented updates on the plan to implement the new Trinity curriculum. The council designated Reisinger to lead the implementation effort during its April 4 meeting.

Reisinger first introduced the Office of Academic Affairs, which will manage the curriculum’s implementation. The office administers a number of other programs, including Program II, the Focus Program, SPIRE Fellows and Service Learning, among others and includes 14 academic deans who oversee around 450 students each.

“More than any other office on this campus, we are positioned and well poised to implement the new curriculum,” Reisinger said.

She also provided updates on the implementation team’s plans for the new first-year experience, which will feature “constellations” — a set of three interconnected courses that explore a topic from multiple perspectives. The goals of the new constellations include building connections, encouraging curiosity and promoting epistemic humility.

Reisinger estimates that the implementation team will establish between 32 and 36 new constellations for the new curriculum’s first year, which will go into effect for the Class of 2029.

The Office of Academic Affairs will create two additional committees to work in tandem with existing Arts and Sciences Council committees to establish the new curriculum. The Implementation Committee will be chaired by Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, professor of the practice of statistical science, and the Constellations Committee will be chaired by Greg Samanez-Larkin, Jack H. Neely associate professor of psychology and neuroscience.

One faculty member asked if the deadline for faculty to submit constellation proposals, which is currently set for mid to late August, was still in place, noting that many faculty do not work over the summer.

Reisinger responded that the summer deadline is necessary in order to meet the council’s goal of rolling out the curriculum in fall 2025.

“We need to get those courses to the registrar, encoded properly, so that students may enroll by the spring,” Reisinger said. She clarified that the proposals are “not expected to be perfect.”

Committee updates

The council heard updates from a number of other committees on their work over the past year.

Michelle Connolly, professor of the practice of economics and outgoing chair of the curriculum committee, gave a presentation on her committee’s work over the past three years.

The Curriculum Committee’s responsibilities include reviewing proposals for new programs and proposed changes to existing programs, advising the council on curricular matters and ensuring the Undergraduate Bulletin is up to date and aligned with the curriculum and council policies.

Connolly shared that the committee saw the creation of five new minors and two new certificates, as well as the sunsetting of four certificates in the past three years. She added that the committee’s processes became much more streamlined and better organized, but that there is “still a lot of room for improvement.”

Connolly expressed that much of the committee’s work during her tenure focused on overhauling the management of certificates after the moratorium on creating new certificates was lifted in fall 2021.

After reviewing the full list of existing certificates, the Curriculum Committee created certificate fact sheets with information about enrollment and a Sakai site for use by certificate directors. The committee also implemented semesterly meetings of certificate directors, annual reviews by the dean of academic affairs and hard coding of certificate requirements to “maintain their rigor.”

Connolly also identified a number of general curricular problems the committee encountered, which included “gaming” attempts by faculty, departments and students, as well as problems stemming from miscommunication between faculty and administration.

Examples of faculty and departmental “gaming” included “excessive cross listing of courses” and “attempts by programs to title and market themselves as pre-professional,” which Connolly connected to student “gaming” efforts. She highlighted attempts to increase credentialization, saying many students take advantage of interdepartmental majors as a way to get around Trinity College’s limit of three “credentials” in one degree program.

Sherryl Broverman, professor of the practice of biology and chair of the Program II Committee, then gave a presentation explaining her committee’s responsibilities and recent work.

Duke classifies all majors as either Program I or Program II. Program I majors are standard degree paths offered by all departments and programs on campus, while Program II majors are interdisciplinary subjects that cannot be accomplished by any combination of majors, minors or certificates.

Students seeking to complete a Program II major must submit a 15-20 page application that includes 14-18 proposed courses linked by a central theme, a year-long capstone course and a faculty advisor.

The Program II committee approved 16 out of 20 applicants in 2024, a higher percentage than 19 out of 24 in 2023 and 15 out of 25 in 2022.

Broverman noted that common themes among recent applicants included medical humanities, urban studies, disability studies, sports culture and the intersection between social media and mental health. She later clarified in response to a question that the committee does not propose new majors, minors or certificates based on Program II majors with high levels of student interest.

Broverman added that Program II majors have a union that organizes activities to build community among students.

In other business

The council voted 20-0 to approve a new set of bylaws for the upcoming year.

Prior to voting on the full bylaws, the council unanimously approved an amendment to the section regarding the Faculty-Student Interaction Committee. The amendment stipulates that the committee will report to the vice provost of undergraduate education in addition to the vice president of student affairs and also adds the vice provost of undergraduate education as an ex officio member.

Catherine Admay, senior lecturer in the Sanford School of Public Policy, advocated for the changes, drawing on her experience as a longtime faculty-in-residence.

“It’s one thing to do residential learning — it’s another thing to do residential educational learning,” she said. “It really helps us as faculty-in-residence to have folks whose job it is to attend to the educational quality of what we’re doing.”

The council also approved the minutes from its March 28 meeting and passed an amendment to address the possible omission of a council member’s question. It also approved the minutes from its April 4 meeting.

---