The International Relations Department Undergraduate Group completed a survey Monday night that will be presented to Melani Cammett '91, assistant professor of political science and the program's director, next week and could lead to changes in the concentration.
The IR DUG enlisted help with the survey from Cammett and IR concentration adviser and adjunct lecturer in International Relations Claudia Elliott, though the survey's content came from DUG members. The survey asked its 115 respondents to evaluate concentration advising, the research methods requirement, alternatives to requiring a foreign language and the effectiveness of the regional focus component.
DUG member Andrew Schwartz '07 said concentrators have some complaints about the program. "Though students liked the freedom and flexibility of the concentration, some of the requirements were unclear to them," he said.
"This is a collaborative relationship and we take the input of the DUG very, very seriously," Cammett wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "I haven't seen the results yet but I have seen the questions. We all went over them together before the survey went out."
Schwartz said he expects the biggest changes will be in advising. "The survey was designed to illustrate and explain ... the need for more resources for advising," he said. "We're going to present the data to higher-ups to free up some funding for that."
Students intending to concentrate in international relations currently need to take 11 courses, including four core courses, three courses out of one of the program's four tracks - global security, political economy and development, global environment and politics, culture and identity - one regional focus course, two 100-level electives and one research methods course. They also have to fulfill a language requirement that requires competency in a foreign language.
Concentrators expressed mixed opinions about the IR program's requirements. Harrison Moskowitz '07 said the research methods and foreign language requirements should remain. "They are integral to the education of a well-rounded scholar," he said. "If students become fluent in a foreign language and familiar with a specific region of the world while at Brown, they will be better prepared to pursue their goals in an international career."
Neerav Parekh '09 agreed. "One language isn't good enough in a globalizing and rapidly shrinking world, especially for someone whose concentration has to do with bridging gaps. The regional focus, likewise, gives concentrators an idea of what's happening on the micro level as compared to an overview of world politics," he said.
Amy Tan '09 said the requirements are evenly distributed but she wishes the language requirement were more flexible. "From what I was told last year at the IR open house, I cannot use Dutch to fulfill the language requirement, even though I have a bilingual International Baccalaureate diploma in Dutch and English," she said.
Some students are more concerned about limited enrollment in IR seminars. Pauline Ahn '08 said she is disappointed that, while there are a few hundred IR concentrators, most senior seminars are capped at 20.
"I would suggest creating more seminars and open them up to sophomores and juniors," she said. Ahn also said some courses in the concentration are redundant - in particular the research methods courses. "Most students have taken statistics in high school and it might be repetitive for them," she said. "Plus, if you aren't planning on writing a thesis or doing research, it's no use."
Schwartz said though the survey's outcome is not yet clear, it's possible the concentration requirements could change.
