Activities Timeline

Current & Ongoing Activities


Fall 2022: TCDC Meetings

The TCDC meets weekly throughout the Fall 2022 semester. Meetings are focused largely on understanding Duke and its students, scholarly research around student experiences and curricula, and the larger educational landscape. Agendas, meeting notes and other materials are available for those interested.

Access Meeting Materials*

*Having trouble viewing the materials Box folder? Request access by emailing sarah.ishmael@duke.edu with your NetID, name and academic unit affiliation.

Spring 2023: Curricular Elements & Interim Report

Formal discussions about any new curriculum and its elements began in Spring 2023, after completion of meetings with faculty and stakeholders and after soliciting input from Duke students. We synthesized all we have learned into a set of principles that will form the basis of an interim report that was presented to Arts & Sciences Council on March 2.

Spring 2024 – Discussions of Proposed New Curriculum

The initial recommendations for a new A&S Curriculum were presented to A&S Council on January 11, in advance of subsequent discussion at its February 1 meeting and presentation of a final recommendation and report at the March 7 meeting.

 


Past Activities

Fall 2023 

Our committee is focused on integrating feedback and considering how various curricular features would impact Duke undergraduates. A September update to Arts & Sciences Council provides overviews both of key visions/values central to the committee’s discussions and of several topics for which we are requesting feedback from Council and our faculty colleagues. Those topics include:

  • Selecting a model for encouraging breadth across the Trinity curriculum;
  • Structuring the first-year experience;
  • And providing flexibility in the academic calendar.

Your appointed representatives to the council will be important partners in this final phase of curriculum development.

Spring 2022

Initial TCDC meetings were organized around four topics that each reflect a foundational principle that guides the committee’s activities:

  • What should we know about Duke students and about how they interact with the curriculum?
  • What should we know about the scholarship of teaching and learning, student outcomes, etc.?
  • What should we know about the larger educational landscape (e.g., universities, their curricula)?
  • What should we know about how our students and their world will change in the next 25 years?

Summer 2022: Research

TCDC activities consisted primarily of

  • institutional and scholarly research directed at the above questions;
  • ad hoc projects by subcommittees, largely in preparation for specific topics to be discussed in the fall; and
  • planning for extensive fall meetings with faculty and stakeholders

Fall 2022: Meetings with Faculty & Staff

A primary goal will be to collect input from about the process and content of curriculum reform (utilizing our Interview Questions as a guide). These meetings can be organized into three categories:

  • Initial meetings about process. At the outset of the semester, the Trinity Curriculum Development Committee (TCDC) chair and other committee members will meet with each of the following groups to provide an overview of our process and its timetable: A&S Council, A&S Department Chairs (separate meetings with each division), A&S Directors of Undergraduate Studies, and the Deans and educational leadership for each of the Nicholas School, Sanford School, and Pratt School.
  • Meetings with departments/programs about curricular content. Beginning in late September, TCDC members will attend faculty meetings for A&S departments and programs (~40 meetings). Each meeting will be attended by two TCDC members, one from the same division as the unit and the other from a different division (in addition to any TCDC members from that unit). These meetings will be organized around an initial set of key questions asked of every unit, followed by significant time for open-ended discussion.
  • Meetings with other stakeholders. Beginning in mid-fall, TCDC members will meet with other stakeholders and groups of faculty; examples of such meetings include groups that work with students, key A&S committees, faculty members who teach large/introductory classes, leaders of co-curricular activities, faculty leadership for Duke strategic initiatives (e.g., Strategy Team 2030, Racial Equity, the Climate Commitment, etc.), and many others.

Note: We will begin soliciting feedback from students in the Spring.