PSU Magazine Fall 1994

By the end of the four years, students will have earned 45 credit hours through the new curriculum– about a quarter of what they will need to graduate. To understand why the new curriculum is so significant, one needs to look at the old way of doing things. Under the old model-which 90 percent of the colleges and universities around the country have been operat– ing under for decades, according to White-students had to take a specified number of credit hours within the broad areas of science, social science and liberal arts. They had the opportunity to sample from hundreds of courses, but many of those courses had nothing to do with each other. If students wanted to study Shakespeare, political movements in the 16th Century, and how science during the Renaissance was creating a new social order, they could. But they had to do it on their own; there was no built-in system for connecting all three. Along the way they were taught to write-not by the professors who taught each subject, but by instructors in writing courses. Students were requir– ed to take two such writing courses by the time they graduated: 6 credit hours out of a total of about 180. "As faculty, we had always complain– ed about the writing ability of our students: 'Why isn't the writing program taking care of this?'," says White. "Then on reflection we thought 'How could it?'" Because departments were protec– tive of their own turf, and because there was little structured connection between any of the courses, faculty of differing disciplines rarely got to know each other. White, a political science professor who has been at PSU for 22 years, admits that he met English professor Shelley Reece, a 25-year PSU veteran, for the first time on the curriculum reform project. Meanwhile, students, rather than feeling part of a group, felt as discon– nected as the courses in the catalogue. Their educations lacked relevance. They had little interaction with their instructors, and little academic bonding with their fellow students. '' I would like to have seen this as a two-year experiment, rather than making a massive shift in resources. '' So they dropped out. PSU's record for retaining students past freshman year has been dismal. According to White, 40 percent of incoming freshmen at Portland State typically do not return to be sophomores. Dropouts continue during subsequent years to the point that very few students go through all four or five years to graduate. In one study of 20 universities, PSU ranked near the bottom in retaining students. Part of the problem rests with PSU's urban nature. Students frequently live at home, and work full time off campus to support themselves-two factors that can result in dropping out. But White and others who formed the new curriculum are confident that the way students are taught is also a big factor. But not all faculty are happy with the plan. Ansel Johnson, professor of geology, says he feels uncomfortable about removing the distribution requirement for science, which he says may result in a negative impact on individual departments. He is also skeptical about instructors being able to teach in teams. Also, it may be hard for new faculty members to prove their abilities if they have to teach outside their disciplines. "I would like to have seen this as a two-year experiment, rather than making a massive shift in resources," he says. "We're jumping forward on blind faith, and hoping it works." During the phase-in period, the University will be offering the old and the new system so that students in the upper classes won't have to shift to a new set of rules. That and certain start-up costs of the program, says White, will make the new curriculum more expensive for a while. These initial costs include bringing in experts to train faculty in teaching the new method. The University also has purchased 42 new Power Macintosh computers to help students hone their communication skills and become more technologically literate. On the other hand, White says the national reputation PSU is gaining from the reform is opening the way for grant money. He sees it as matter of shifting dollars rather than needing vast new reserves. Gregory Wegner, who has been part of a series of roundtable discussions with colleges and universities from around the country, sees a big future in the kind of changes being made at PSU. The discussions, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, have involved upwards of 135 institutions since 1986. "We hear at every roundtable comments about the need for community-that somehow colleges and universities should do a better job of providing a collective experience for their students," says Wegner, managing editor of the roundtable's newsletter Policy Perspectives in Philadelphia. The new freshmen program at PSU reflect themes that have been discussed by all of the participating institutions, he adds. Since the beginning of the nation– wide dialogue, PSU has been among the most energetic and the most willing to make concrete changes, according to Wegner. "They were up and running and ready to do something significant," he says. Although Wegner is not aware of other colleges doing exactly what PSU is doing, he pointed to a handful that are remaking the undergraduate exper– ience into a cohesive whole rather than a collection of parts: Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institution in Troy, N.Y.; Chatham College in Pittsburgh; and the University of Pennsylvania. "The recognition of the need of what PSU is doing is universal," he says. D (John Kirkland, a Portland freelance writer, is a regular contributor to PSU Magazine.) FALL1994 11