W&M
Faculty Approve New General Education Curriculum
Faculty Affirm, Strengthen the College's Liberal Arts
Approach
(By Staff Writers, William & Mary website, December 12,
2013)
At their Dec. 12 meeting, the Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted in favor of
new general education requirements for the undergraduate program at the College
of William & Mary. The vote caps a year-long process of faculty
deliberation and refinement following a Feb. 5, 2013 vote to adopt a new framework
and guiding principles.
As mandated by the state of Virginia, the general education
requirements comprise about one quarter of the 120 credits needed for the
undergraduate degree. They are taken by all undergraduate students alongside
the courses required for majors and elective courses that round out their
academic program. The College's "gen ed" requirements were last
reviewed and revised by the faculty in 1993. The other three quarters of the
W&M curriculum -- requirements for individual majors and electives -- were
not part of the faculty review.
Called the College Curriculum (COLL), the new general
education curriculum systematically links all four undergraduate years at
William & Mary from start to finish. Previously, students completed a
checklist of general education requirements in no particular order. Many of
those requirements were fulfilled before a student arrived at W&M by
credits earned in secondary school or at another institution of higher
education. The revised general education courses provide an improved sequence
designed by W&M faculty to emphasize connections across the liberal arts.
The COLL curriculum will provide students a common W&M
experience and a more integrated introduction to the liberal arts, said Kate
Conley, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. Each year draws on the
foundational knowledge and skills gained in the previous year as students move
into their majors and gain a wider liberal arts perspective on the world, she
added.
"Our faculty have moved carefully, precisely, and
boldly to design a liberal arts curriculum that's right for our time and looks
to the future,” Conley said. “This curriculum ensures that each student leaves
William & Mary able to think deeply and critically and to make new
connections between various kinds of knowledge – the best kind of preparation
for their future success. I congratulate the faculty on their fine work.”Innovations in the new curriculum
By design, the new general education curriculum extends
across all four undergraduate years, with each year building toward an
integrated liberal arts education. The new curriculum emphasizes inquiry (how
to frame questions, reason, create, solve problems) and writing and other forms
of communication throughout all four years.
In the 1993 curriculum, courses originated in departments
and programs and were designated as satisfying one of the GER content areas (1,
2a, 2b, 3, 4a, 4b, 4c, 5, 6, or 7). The new framework turns that around: COLL
(Gen Ed) courses carry explicit learning expectations and can be cross-listed
back to departments and programs. Some courses are conceived in an entirely new way. COLL 200
courses, for example, are anchored in a "knowledge domain" (one of
three defined areas of knowledge) and intentionally look outward to one or both
of the other knowledge domains. Interdisciplinarity is thus built into the
structure of the course itself.
For instance, a current general education course in 18th-century
American history, which now concentrates on primary historical sources, might
be adapted into a new COLL 200 course by drawing in addition on geological,
marine science, or epidemiological studies to explore how the environment
affected the communities of Tidewater Virginia. The history professor
teaching the course would consult with his or her scientific peers on campus,
and the history students would be introduced to different questions, materials,
and methods drawing on those other disciplines.
Alongside the new curriculum are new and enhanced resources
to provide a self-sustaining cycle of innovation and support for general
education. A new Center for the Liberal Arts, for example, consists of rotating
Faculty Fellows charged with helping to organize and infuse content,
integration, and creativity throughout the general education curriculum. The
first cohort of five Faculty Fellows will begin work in January 2014.Each Faculty Fellow will design and teach a new COLL course, and they will help their faculty colleagues incorporate their research and scholarship into their own general education courses. The Fellows will also help to guide the current faculty advising system to support students, and help decide how best to formulate and provide academic support to students outside the classroom (e.g., the current Writing Resources Center and the proposed Quantitative Resources Center).
A quintessential William & Mary approach
The curriculum review was a result of the strategic planning
process, which assessed William & Mary’s position as a leading liberal arts
university. In 2010, Provost Michael R. Halleran charged the deans of Arts
& Sciences, business and education to undertake a curriculum review that
should “above all else focus on developing the most vibrant and exciting
liberal arts education for our students, leveraging core values with our
distinctive attributes."
That charge was followed with two years of research, design,
and faculty conversations led by an appointed Curriculum Review Steering
Committee. In Fall 2012 that group turned its proposed curriculum over to the
elected Educational Policy Committee (EPC), which has oversight of the general
education requirements. After convening various working groups to vet each part
of the proposed curriculum, the EPC led the year-long discussion and refinement
by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "The faculty steering committee that initiated our
review could have tinkered around the edges and suggested minor revisions to
our 20-year-old general curriculum," said Lu Ann Homza, A&S Dean for
Educational Policy, whose portfolio includes the general education
requirements. "Instead they proposed an entirely new framework with a
uniquely William & Mary approach."
The framework is designed to be both robust and flexible,
Homza said. It brings the liberal arts to the center of the overall curriculum
and challenges faculty members to bring their best work to the general
education courses taken by all undergraduate students. "This is a game-changer," said
Homza. "It's a very exciting time to be a faculty member at William &
Mary."
Making the switch
Academic departments and programs already have been
reviewing their course offerings in relation to the new curriculum, looking at
possible changes in courses that already exist, new courses, and courses that
will no longer be needed. That planning ramps up in Spring 2014 with more
formal assessments conducted with the A&S Dean's Office. Simultaneously,
Provost Halleran will join President Taylor Reveley in a full review of the
proposed curriculum, including projected costs.
There will be some development and transition costs, Halleran said, as
faculty design and implement the new courses, and some modest increased
permanent costs in expanding the engaged learning model that characterizes a
W&M education. Now that faculty have approved the new curriculum, the
A&S Dean’s Office will conduct a formal assessment of temporary costs, associated
costs such as increased faculty support and new, direct costs.
“From what I've seen so far, those costs appear to be
reasonable and appropriate,” said Halleran, adding the College will support the
new curriculum through a combination of resources, including reallocation of
existing funds, budget priorities through W&M’s annual strategic planning
process and private donations. "Our
plan is to pilot new COLL 100- and 200-level courses as early as Fall
2014," said John Griffin, Dean of Undergraduate Studies. "In Fall
2015 we expect to launch the new curriculum with that year's entering freshman
class."The curriculum will be implemented over four years, with current students graduating under the existing general education requirements, Griffin said. This, he added, allows for a manageable transition and an opportunity to secure new funding.
The total number of credits required for a bachelor's degree
remains unchanged (120), and the number of general education credits remains
about one fourth of that total (~30). So once the new curriculum is fully
launched, the credits per student will be comparable to the general education
curriculum now in place. Pre-college credits (e.g., AP, IB) will still be
accepted but will not replace COLL courses.
Transfer students will participate in many, but not all, of the new
requirements. According to Griffin, "We want them to benefit from the new
curriculum as much as possible, while still completing their degrees within the
usual four years."
Adapting to contemporary realities
While substantial work remains on the implementation side,
President Reveley congratulated the faculty for its hard and creative efforts
so far. “The passage of two decades between revisions of our general
education requirements is quite a long time in today’s world,” Reveley said.
“Much has changed since 1993 when our general education requirements were last
revised. The international community has drawn much closer; interdisciplinary
research, teaching and problem-solving have become much more essential; and
there has been an explosive advance in many areas of knowledge. While our
professors have been refreshing and tweaking their courses over the years, it
was time to bring many of these ideas together in an integrated way. Like other institutions, colleges and
universities must take contemporary realities into account if they wish to
remain relevant and excellent. Thus, leading colleges and universities revisit
and revise their general education requirements with some frequency.”
http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2013/story-123.php
Among all the things William & Mary must accomplish soon, however, by far the most important is to rebuild our financial foundation, taking into account the decline in state support that has occurred over a generation and the enormous demands that are now being made on very finite state resources. While William & Mary greatly appreciates any support the state provides us, we recognize that the College must largely fund itself going forward. This we can do by combining campus productivity gains with growing philanthropic support and more earned income from students who benefit from the extraordinary education William & Mary provides (coupled with need-based aid for those students who qualify for it).
The
William & Mary Promise
(By Taylor Reveley,
William & Mary website, 19 April 2013)
Dear William & Mary Community,
Today our Board of Visitors took steps
vitally needed to help secure a future for the College worthy of our storied
past. These steps are called “The William & Mary Promise.” They are
sketched in the press release found here. You will find even more details and a video on our Promise website at www.wm.edu/promise.
Please take a look at this information.
Here, though, are the basic elements of the
Promise. The new financial resources it generates will (1) help provide enough
compensation to recruit and retain the outstanding faculty and staff essential
if we are to educate our students with “public ivy” quality, (2) materially increase
the College’s affordability for low- and middle-income undergraduates from
Virginia, and (3) provide more seats for in-state undergraduates at William
& Mary (we will enroll an additional 150 in-state students phased in over a
four-year period, and they, when added to the additional 150 students we began
phasing in with our fall 2011 class, will result in 300 additional students
from Virginia – or an 8% increase in the size of the in-state student body as
compared to its size in fall 2010). (4) The William & Mary Promise also
guarantees that incoming in-state students will pay the exact same tuition for
four years – no increases, and (5) it raises annual tuition at no more than the
rate of inflation for in-state undergraduates enrolled before implementation of
the Promise. (6) The Board of Visitors limited the increase in out-of-state
undergraduate tuition for next year to the lowest percentage in over a decade
to help William & Mary remain competitive for out-of-state students.
Let me provide some context for the BOV’s
actions and explain why, in my judgment, they are essential. U.S. News most
recently ranked the College 6th in quality among all public
universities. Counting both public and private schools, we ranked 33rd in
quality among the leading national universities but only 112th in
financial resources. That’s a gap of 79 points. No other leading university has
a gap approaching that magnitude and none ranked below 80th in
financial wherewithal. William & Mary offers an academic experience that is
rich in talented people, steeped in student/faculty engagement, devoted to
undergraduates as well as professional and graduate students, and funded on a
shoe string. We do remarkably more with less. Up to a point, this is a virtue,
but only up to a point. Our shoe string is worn and pulled taut.
William & Mary’s strategic plans hinge on
the College’s continuing to offer one of the very best undergraduate educations
in the world while remaining a university internationally recognized for
academic excellence. This requires salaries sufficient to retain and attract
marvelous faculty and staff and financial aid sufficient to meet the needs of
our students. We have fallen behind in both regards. Faculty salaries are
currently at the 14th percentile of W&M’s peer institutions as
identified by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). They
are projected to be in the 9th percentile by the 2015/16 academic
year. Similarly, staff salaries at W&M seriously lag behind those paid by
our SCHEV peers. This is flatly unacceptable. We must reverse the trend, while
also increasing the amount of need-based aid we provide, focusing initially on
in-state students. The Provost will shortly send a message explaining the steps
we will take to raise salaries.
Funds are needed on many other scores as
well. For instance, we should become more multi-disciplinary in our academic
programs, because the issues our society faces are multi-disciplinary, and
students need to learn to think in those terms and solve problems in those
terms. We also need funds so the university can become more internationally
engaged, because the world in all its dimensions is increasingly
interconnected, our students seek international engagement, and we are well
positioned to take advantage of our strengths in this arena.
Among all the things William & Mary must accomplish soon, however, by far the most important is to rebuild our financial foundation, taking into account the decline in state support that has occurred over a generation and the enormous demands that are now being made on very finite state resources. While William & Mary greatly appreciates any support the state provides us, we recognize that the College must largely fund itself going forward. This we can do by combining campus productivity gains with growing philanthropic support and more earned income from students who benefit from the extraordinary education William & Mary provides (coupled with need-based aid for those students who qualify for it).
In other words, we all have to do our part –
faculty and staff through productivity gains on campus, alumni and friends
through philanthropy, and students and parents through tuition. No group can
stand on the sidelines expecting the others to carry the ball alone. It takes
us all, pulling together, to build a sustainable financial foundation for
William & Mary in this century. And it is crucial that faculty and staff,
alumni and friends, as well as students and their families be confident they
are not pulling alone.
This is why the actions taken by our Board of
Visitors today are so vital. “The William & Mary Promise” embraces the
reality that we are all in this together.
William & Mary is a treasure for the Commonwealth and for the
country. It is an iconic national institution that was present at the creation
of both the State of Virginia and the United States of America. The College is
now well into its 320th year. As the stewards of this great
inheritance, it’s up to us to sustain William & Mary in our time.
Taylor Reveley
Board Of Visitors Adopts New Operating Model For William
& Mary
(By Brian Whitson, William & Mary website, April 19, 2013)
William& Mary’s Board of Visitors
today approved “The William & Mary Promise,” a new operating model that provides
vitally needed resources to secure the future of Virginia’s distinctive “public
ivy” while markedly enhancing affordability and access for Virginia
students. Highlights of the new model include:
- FOUR-YEAR TUITION GUARANTEE: Provides Virginia families
with financial predictability through a commitment to incoming in-state
students that tuition will remain constant through all four years of
undergraduate study.
- RELIEF FOR “MIDDLE-INCOME” FAMILIES: Reduces the “net tuition” paid
by middle-income families, as defined by the state’s Higher Education
Advisory Committee. More than 70% of Virginia households qualify as
“middle income” under that definition and would pay the same or less to attend
William & Mary under the new model.
- LESS DEBT FOR W&M GRADUATES: Reduces by up to $8,000 the
loan burden for middle-income in-state undergraduate students who have
demonstrated financial need.
- TUITION CAPPED AT C.P.I. FOR
RETURNING VIRGINIA STUDENTS: For in-state undergraduate students enrolled at William &
Mary before adoption of the new model, holds annual tuition increases to
no greater than the rate of inflation (annual change in the Consumer Price
Index, 1.8% next year).
- ADDITIONAL VIRGINIA STUDENTS: Provides for 150 additional
in-state students to be enrolled to William& Mary over the next four
years, which combined with the recent commitment of 150 in-state students
represents an 8% increase since 2010.
- ENSURING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Increases faculty compensation
(based on merit) to the level recommended in the state’s new landmark
higher education law (TJ21), keeps classes small and interactive, and
increases average faculty engagement in instruction.
- SECURING A “PUBLIC IVY” FUTURE: Ensures a sound financial
future for the College through innovation, enhanced efficiency and
productivity, greater philanthropic support, and increased tuition
revenues.
“William
& Mary is a treasure for the Commonwealth and the country,” said President
Taylor Reveley. “It is one of the greatest liberal arts universities in the
world, rare for its genuine commitment to both research and teaching and for
its abiding emphasis on undergraduate education of compelling quality. To
sustain this treasure and enable it to move forward in this century, we must
take action on many fronts. Those of us on campus must keep seeking ways
to provide superior results at less cost. Our alumni and friends must
help sustain William & Mary with increasing generosity through annual
giving, endowment gifts, and funds for bricks and mortar. Our students and
their families must help support more of the cost of the ‘hands on’ education
that is the glory of the College. At the same time, we must become more
affordable for Virginia low- and middle-income families and reduce student loan
debt. With all of us doing our parts, William & Mary can continue to
contribute magnificently to the Commonwealth and nation. Our new operating
model is a vital step to that end.”
The Board of
Visitors adopted the “William& Mary Promise” to fund expenditures in the
university’s approved six-year plan and to address priorities identified in the
Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011 (TJ21), which the General Assembly
adopted unanimously two years ago. The plan takes into account that long-term
declines in state support require a new financial model to meet the
university’s essential needs. The plan will make the College more
self-sufficient during uncertain economic times and will provide the stable
funding necessary to offer one of the best undergraduate educations in the
country and to be recognized internationally for academic excellence.
Resources generated by the plan will be used to retain and attract the
outstanding faculty and staff necessary to deliver “public ivy” quality,
enhance affordability for low- and middle-income Virginia students, and provide
more opportunities for in-state students to attend William & Mary.
“With the
steep decline in public funding for higher education over the last generation,
and the uncertainty of such funding in the future, it is time for bold and
creative ideas to provide the kind of resources needed to sustain great
institutions like William & Mary, while also improving affordability for
students with financial need and predictability about tuition amounts for
everyone,” said W&M Chancellor Robert M. Gates. “I am fully supportive of
what is proposed and believe it places the College on much more solid footing
for the future.” Rector Jeffrey B.
Trammell praised the collaboration and creativity that led to the William&
Mary Promise. “The board, administration
and university community came together to craft and refine this new operating
model. William & Mary is committed to providing the best undergraduate
liberal arts education of any public university and securing a future worthy of
our past,” Trammell said. “The William & Mary Promise is a visionary plan
that increases affordability for lower- and middle-income Virginia
families. It enables more Virginians to be educated at the College. It
allows us to retain and recruit the very best faculty and staff. And it
provides an innovative, predictable tuition model for in-state students. The
reinvention of our operating model allows us to enhance and sustain William
& Mary's national preeminence and promises that the fourth century will be
the best yet for our 320-year-old institution."
Todd Stottlemyer,
chair of the Board’s Committee on Financial Affairs, said the new operating
model is a promise to everyone associated with William & Mary. “This is an innovative plan to preserve and
strengthen the university’s long-term excellence,” Stottlemyer said. “In the
face of growing competitive pressures and limited public funding, William&
Mary will become more self-sufficient so it can continue to offer an
outstanding educational experience as one of the leading institutions of higher
education in the Commonwealth and nation. Because of William & Mary’s
strong position in the higher education marketplace, the College is able to implement
a financial model that simultaneously lays a firm foundation for its future as
a leading American university and enhances affordability for middle-income
students from Virginia.”
Additional
information on key features of the William & Mary Promise follows:
Four-year
tuition guarantee:
-
Beginning this fall, entering Virginia students will know exactly what their
tuition costs will be for all four years at William & Mary, and those costs
will not rise from year to year. The Board’s action today sets tuition for
classes entering in the fall of 2013, 2014 and 2015. Virginia
undergraduate students in each entering class will see a one-time step increase
their freshman year: to $10,428 for the 2013-14 academic year, $12,428 for
2014-2015, and $13,978 for 2015-2016. For each entering class, tuition
will be frozen at that level for all four years.
-
To put the new tuition model in perspective, the cumulative four-year cost of
tuition for the class that enters in fall 2013 will be less than it would have
been under the annual 7.1 percent increases that were the average at William
& Mary over the past five years.
-
The William & Mary Promise ensures that all Virginia students, regardless
of income or financial aid eligibility, will continue to receive a “public ivy”
education at William & Mary for less than it actually costs the College to
provide that education. Even after the step increases in tuition
described above are fully implemented, William & Mary as a public
university will still be subsidizing the education of all in-state students,
even those whose family incomes and assets make them ineligible for any
financial aid. Under the William & Mary Promise, however,
“middle-income” families will receive a larger share of this subsidy than under
the current model. When the effects of increased financial aid are factored in,
the "net tuition" paid by the majority of students who qualify for
financial aid will be significantly lower.
-
The new tuition rates and four-year guarantee are for new in-state students
only. Currently enrolled in-state students will see their tuition increase no
greater than the rate of inflation (Consumer Price Index, or CPI), which means
an increase of just 1.8 percent for the 2013-14 academic year – the lowest in-state
increase for current students in more than a decade. Tuition increases for
these returning students in fall 2014 and 2015 will also be based on increases
in the CPI.
-
The guaranteed tuition plan will not apply to out-of-state undergraduates. But
out-of-state students will have a 3% tuition increase for fall 2013, the lowest
increase in 11 years. The College will continue to evaluate out-of-state
tuition on an annual basis, considering total costs as well as tuition and
fees.
Middle-income
affordability and lower student debt:
-
Under the William & Mary Promise, students from middle-income families who
qualify for need-based financial aid will pay no more “net tuition” (tuition
less financial aid) than under the current model, and the vast majority will
pay significantly less. The new model will enable the College to increase
the amount of need-based financial aid it provides to in-state students by 50
percent over the four-year period. Most of the increased aid will
be used to provide grants in lieu of loans, thereby reducing student debt.
-
Through the new financial aid, the William& Mary Promise will lower the
average annual borrowing and four-year cumulative debt average for Virginia
undergraduates with demonstrated need as determined by the financial aid
office. The plan will lower the maximum amount of loans included with an
in-state financial aid package by 36% ($2,000 annually) for families with an
income between $40,000 and $60,000, and by 18% ($1,000 annually) for all other
families with demonstrated financial need. Students from Virginia families with
a household income of less than $40,000 will continue to receive financial aid
that covers 100% of their need with grants, and thus will incur no debt.
-
The definition of “middle income” used in the William & Mary Promise
encompasses more than 71% of Virginia households and was supplied by the
Commonwealth of Virginia pursuant to the new TJ21 legislation. Adopted by
the General Assembly in 2011, TJ21 stressed the need to improve middle-income
affordability and directed a newly created Higher Education Advisory Committee
to provide a definition of the target group. The Committee has done so,
defining “middle income” as extending to 400% of the federal “poverty” definition,
or to roughly $100,000 in annual income for a family of four with two
children.
More spaces
for Virginia undergraduates:
-
Overall in-state undergraduate enrollment will increase by an additional 150
students above current commitments, phased in over a four-year period. This is
in addition to the 150 in-state slots William & Mary has been phasing in
since 2010.
-
When completely phased in, W&M will have added an additional 300 spots for
Virginia students compared to the 2010 enrollment when the expansion began—an
increase of about 8%.
Academic
excellence and financial soundness:
-
The William & Mary Promise is designed to achieve the objectives identified
in the College’s six-year-plan, which was adopted last year after passage of
the TJ21 legislation. Each fall, public institutions of higher education
in Virginia are required by TJ21 to submit updated six-year plans to designated
state officials. The plans identify critical needs and priorities as well
as expenditures and planned resources. William & Mary’s plan, first
adopted by the Board of Visitors in September 2011, was informed by both the
goals of the TJ21 legislation and the ongoing strategic planning effort that
began in 2008.
-
A primary objective of the plan is to narrow the gap between quality and the
resources the College has to sustain that quality. According to U.S.
News, the gap between William & Mary’s academic quality and the
university’s financial resources is unparalleled: W&M ranks 33rd
in the nation in quality and 112th in resources. No other
university in the top 50 has a gap anywhere close to the 79-point difference of
those two rankings, and this gap has been growing significantly over the last
three years.
-
Retaining and attracting top faculty – the lifeblood of any great university,
especially a “public ivy” – is exceptionally difficult when the resource gap
becomes so wide. W&M’s faculty salaries are currently at the 14th
percentile of the university’s peer institutions as identified by the State
Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), and are projected to decline
to the 9th percentile by 2015 under the existing operating model.
To put this in perspective, the TJ21 legislation enacted just two years
ago reiterated the Commonwealth’s longstanding goal of having its colleges and
universities provide faculty salaries at the 60th percentile of their
SCHEV-identified peers. The William & Mary Promise will provide
resources to help the College reverse the negative current trend and move,
based on merit, toward the 60th percentile recommended in the TJ21
law.
-
While the Governor and General Assembly in recent years commendably have halted
and begun to reverse the decade-long state disinvestment in higher education
documented by the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation
and Investment, the uncertain economy and long-term fiscal constraints suggest
that the pace of reinvestment by the Commonwealth will be limited. The
new operating model thus relies on a combination of sources within the
College’s control – savings from even greater productivity, efficiency, and
innovation, increased private philanthropy and higher net tuition revenues – to
ensure that instructional quality is preserved and enhanced while extending
affordable access to many more deserving Virginia students, especially those
caught in the “middle class squeeze.”
No comments:
Post a Comment