Comprehensive Full-Time Undergraduate Curriculum Review

Working Group on Curricular Integration

The current draft of the report from this working group is available as a MSWord file or as a pdf file.

A concern identified both in the faculty conversations of the past year and in the literature on curriculum review is the perceived lack of integration among (a) diverse parts of the GER; (b) the GER and the majors; and (c) the academic and “parallel” curricula. The Working Group on Integration will study this issue and propose specific ways to bring about a more integrated curriculum. The goal will be to identify ways to use these components of the educational experience at Saint Joseph’s in a coherent manner, so that the relation of the parts to the whole makes sense to students and faculty alike.

Specific Tasks:

Make recommendations about the freshman experience, based both on a review of the Saint Joseph’s University program and the prevalence and effectiveness of programs in operation elsewhere.
Conduct a review of senior capstone experiences currently available to SJU students and students at other universities and formulate recommendations for inclusion in the curriculum based on research on their prevalence and effectiveness.
Summarize the current status of interrelationships among GER courses and make recommendations about the advisability and feasibility of promoting such interrelationships in the curriculum.
Investigate the availability of internships at the University, and make recommendations about whether and how internships should be part of the curriculum.
Consider the role of interdisciplinary courses in the curriculum.
Investigate the frequency of faculty-mentored research done by students, and make recommendations about whether and how this learning experience should be a part of the curriculum.
Consider how to foster high levels of student engagement and rigor in a curriculum that includes diverse educational experiences.

Composition of Working Group (9 members):
One faculty member from each division
One student representative
One representative from Student Life
One representative from Faith-Justice
Two members from the Comprehensive Curriculum Review Steering Committee