Trinity College of Arts & Sciences- We want to start by inviting you to think big. What do you think is the purpose and virtue of a liberal arts education and what do you think the function and impact of a liberal arts education should be at Duke?
- Our current curriculum is more than twenty years old, and Duke and our students have changed. How can changes to the A&S curriculum allow you and your unit to respond to that change and offer future students the kind of experiences that will have the greatest positive impact on their development at Duke and beyond?
- Next, we want to home in on details, specifics, with an eye to helping us think about possibilities for concrete change. So, in the light of the previous question, what do you consider to be specific strengths and weaknesses of the current curriculum? Things that it does well or less well? Elements that it should have more or less of? Things it doesn’t include at all, but should? Please help us understand as specifically as possible the basis for your view (e.g., personal philosophy, global view on where things are going, direct observation of student outcomes, etc.).
- We all know that wider issues of campus culture intersect with the curriculum in complex ways. For example, competition, selectivity, credentialism, and so on. In some cases, curricular reform might help us to address some of these issues. So, we would be grateful to hear your views on relevant campus-cultural concerns or goals that we should bear in mind as we think about the curriculum per se.
- Faculty conduct research and contribute to the teaching missions of their units, signature programs such as Focus, Bass Connections, Duke Immerse, and to the general curriculum as well. The tension between these commitments can have both positive and negative consequences for everyone. So, it will be critical for our committee to consider the broader effects of any new or revised curriculum. As you think about your research, your own teaching and the character, needs, and constraints of your department’s (unit’s) teaching mission, what potential opportunities or conflicts do you think might arise with the wider curriculum, now or as we might re-envisage it?
