2008 Woodie Awards
Committees tackle theses, staffing
Jessie Singleton
Issue date: 11/30/06 Section: News
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The Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) held its first joint meeting of the year with the Student Educational Affairs Committee (SEAC) on Nov. 20 to move forward on the agenda for the academic year. Reports from the closed-door meeting indicate that the joint-committee focused on how to begin evaluating the current academic situation, such as senior work and staff hiring, and recommending adjustments to meet the needs of the College's Strategic Plan.
According to Acting Dean of the Faculty Sunder Ramaswamy, departmental staffing requests largely dominated the EAC's fall term agenda, leaving little space for student input or involvement. The impetus for this significant task comes from the College's Strategic Plan, which calls for the addition of new faculty positions over the next eight years while maintaining the current size of the student body. The Strategic Plan supports hiring enough faculty to provide a large selection of courses for students while allowing each faculty member to teach smaller, more focused courses and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Every year after the EAC concludes its fall logistical obligations, the EAC calls on the SGA-appointed student counterpart to participate in forthcoming deliberations about all-things academic on behalf of the students. After addressing grade inflation last year, the focus this year is on academic elements of the Strategic Plan.
In preparation for the meeting, Frances Kammeraad '08, the chair of the SEAC, researched the ways that overlap schools such as Amherst and Williams handle issues ranging from distribution requirements to senior work. The SEAC took direction from the guidelines for academic improvement found in the Strategic Plan when deciding what information from other institutions to research and compare with the College's current operating model. These include reevaluating the 12-year-old distribution requirements, restructuring major requirements as the emphasis shifts within each field of study, balancing the proliferation of double and triple majors and student creativity with the cost of staffing all the courses. The College is also exploring the possibility of a "lab science requirement" that would, as Dean Ramaswamy stated, "increase the analytical literacy of Middlebury Students for the 21st century" and is considering different options for meaningful engagement of senior work.
According to Acting Dean of the Faculty Sunder Ramaswamy, departmental staffing requests largely dominated the EAC's fall term agenda, leaving little space for student input or involvement. The impetus for this significant task comes from the College's Strategic Plan, which calls for the addition of new faculty positions over the next eight years while maintaining the current size of the student body. The Strategic Plan supports hiring enough faculty to provide a large selection of courses for students while allowing each faculty member to teach smaller, more focused courses and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Every year after the EAC concludes its fall logistical obligations, the EAC calls on the SGA-appointed student counterpart to participate in forthcoming deliberations about all-things academic on behalf of the students. After addressing grade inflation last year, the focus this year is on academic elements of the Strategic Plan.
In preparation for the meeting, Frances Kammeraad '08, the chair of the SEAC, researched the ways that overlap schools such as Amherst and Williams handle issues ranging from distribution requirements to senior work. The SEAC took direction from the guidelines for academic improvement found in the Strategic Plan when deciding what information from other institutions to research and compare with the College's current operating model. These include reevaluating the 12-year-old distribution requirements, restructuring major requirements as the emphasis shifts within each field of study, balancing the proliferation of double and triple majors and student creativity with the cost of staffing all the courses. The College is also exploring the possibility of a "lab science requirement" that would, as Dean Ramaswamy stated, "increase the analytical literacy of Middlebury Students for the 21st century" and is considering different options for meaningful engagement of senior work.
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