The faculty voted to change the CORE curriculum last month after student reaction to the curriculum was more negative than hoped. The changes condense the required hours from 12 to nine and changed the required Bible courses slightly. Two CORE classes will now be one class, and another CORE course will be consolidated with a two-hour Bible class. Now a Bible professor will be instructing in every CORE class and a cultural competency or foreign language course will also be required.
The changes mean CORE wasn’t perfect. Students found it confusing, time consuming and impractical.
The greatest protest against CORE was the lack of a common experience. The same course is being taught by physics, Bible and English professors, which means not every class will teach students the same thing. Instructors were allowed too much variability in their syllabuses, giving students varied CORE. Class variation takes away the common experience they are looking to create.
The changes show the faculty understand the challenges CORE created. These changes are headed in the right direction but probably won’t be the last amendments made to the program.
Combining the CORE 120 (Human Person and Identity) and CORE 220 (Community) courses reduces redundancy. The different classes that have been offered are closely related, sometimes overlapping. Each course builds on the next, and each one is interconnected. Condensing CORE 320 with BIBL 440 was another practical change that will allow for better learning
The cultural aspect will also be beneficial. Current CORE classes deal with the student’s immediate culture but don’t go far beyond that. The three credit hours in cultural competency or foreign language would increase the student’s options for learning more about other cultures or expanding classes taken in high school.
We never know what we have until it starts. CORE was a good idea with flaws. The changes will help. However, the new provost, who is expected to be hired by the summer, will have the power to make any changes he finds necessary. The curriculum isn’t a popular idea among students and isn’t common in other universities, so it’s possible the new provost will make even more changes sooner rather than later.
