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THE GUILFORDIAN Greensboro, NC Forum outlines new curriculum BY ELLEN YUTZY World Editor The forum held to discuss aca demic changes at Guilford began in true Guilford style. Students requested that the chairs be taken out of rows and arranged in a circle to promote equality and open communication. Once the furniture was rear ranged, Olivia Riordan, clerk of the forum, got down to business. She introduced Jeff Jeske, English pro fessor and head of the curriculum task force. Jeske outlined some of the changes likely to take place in academic requirements beginning next year. He believes that the new curriculum has the potential to "transform learning" at Guilford College. Under the new curriculum, majors are likely to be more inter disciplinary. Every major will con sist of eight classes with the rec ommendation being that six are within the department and two are extra-departmental classes related to field of study. The senior IDS 401 would continue being a Senate calls first vote in history BY MARJORIE HALL News Editor Senate called a vote for the first time in its history at an emergency meeting on Thursday, Nov. 6. Senators were deciding whether or not to support a recom mendation that Guilford change the position of coordinator of African- American activities to a full-time position. The position until now has been one third coordinator of Afri can-American activities and two thirds events planning. Owens' res ignation touched off heated debate about racism at Guilford and the need for a full-time multicultural affairs director. The debate even tually resulted in the emergency Senate meeting. Following Owens' resignation, the college planned to change the position from one third and two thirds to half and half. The con cerns raised by students caused the Administrative Council to recon- 11HM1 MS| ■& H| 9 11 (■TFLfIH BH ly J^Kr^p^T gT I AHBDr _ * I L I 3L JlMi : L * W~** KanKLjL is* IK - Jeff Jeske, head of the curriculum task force, talks to students about changes. "capstone" to the curriculum, but would be tied more coherently to selected fields of study. Partly because of the extra departmental classes, Jeske said, "There would be a lot more double counting than there is now." This should make many happy as "flex ibility appears to be a major con cern for both the students and fac sider moving the position to full time immediately. Several students wanted Senate to give official ap proval of a full-time position before the proposal went before Ad Coun cil. Senate designates a one-week waiting period before any proposal can be approved so that represen tatives can talk to their constituents about the issues being discussed. The one-week waiting period is part of Senate's traditional Quaker pro cess. Four years ago, Senate ratified the Vitaglione amendment, which allows Senate to override the one week waiting period. Senate must come to consensus before the amendment can be used. Complicating the issue was the number of senators who could not attend the meeting. Senate is not supposed to be able to pass any pro posal of any sort without quorum— at least two thirds of Senate. Quo rum is 29 students, and only 28 were present. "The. Beuif can cite scripture for his purpose. '-—(diffiam Shakespeare Since 1914, but never quite like this ulty." When the floor was opened to student questions, many students expressed concerns. Alit Bedik asked about the new First-Year Ex perience (FYE) which will replace the current FYS. Anne Lundquist explained that the new FYE will continue over the entire year with a 2-credit course being offered in Although every student agreed that minorities needed more repre sentation, some disagreed with the process used to handle the situation and thought Senate should wait be fore trying to support the proposal. Three students blocked consensus. "The proposal was presented in such an artificially rushed and emotional environment that to say anything against its instant ap proval was tantamount to racism," said Peter Morsheck, one of the senators who blocked consensus. "Right or wrong, any decision made under that kind of emotional du ress is invalid." "No one disagreed with the principal issue," said Steve Karakasidis, senate member who eventually voted in favor of the pro posal. "Should we approve of it to day? That was the whole issue." Many students who spoke in favor of the proposal felt like the issue needed immediate attention because the proposal went before the Administrative Council on the spring. Ken Cameron added that the new EYE will focus on Guilford's common set of values as outlined in the mission statement. "Spiri tuality is an important part of Guil ford College," he said. Another change for first-year students will be the introduction of a course about college reading and writing to replace English 150. This will be a writing-intensive class with the expectation that the FYE will deal more with group work and presenting skills. The second course in the current English se quence, English 151, likely will be replaced by a Historical Perspec tive which will retain the writing intensive nature and research component of English 151. The curriculum task force fur ther wants to change the curricu lum by abolishing the foreign lan guage requirement. Jeske ex plained that the language depart ment recommended substituting a culture course for the current lan guage requirement, with the as please see FORUM on pg. 3 i ■■ ■* mm Becca Lee Wednesday, Nov. 12. Martin called a vote. Twenty two senators voted in favor of the proposal, 3 abstained, and 3 voted in opposition. When Ad Council reviewed the possibility of chang ing Owens' former position to full time, they knew that it had Senate's support. "I'm glad that Molly stuck her neck out and called a vote," said Tay Stocks, who spoke at the Senate meeting about the need for more minority representation. "I know it goes against Quaker principles, but we need Senate's support now. We needed it yesterday." "I support her [Martin] for what she did," said senator Jenny Craigie. "I know she's just trying to make this campus a better place." "I stand by my decision," said Martin. "As facilitator, I felt I saw the truth of the meeting. Every senator was in agreement but had gotten caught up in process. Quak erism is supposed to be about truth." November 14, 1997
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Nov. 14, 1997, edition 1
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