The College Curriculum Council may finish reviewing up to 13 undergraduate concentrations - more than it originally planned - by the end of the academic year, said Karen Krahulik, the chair of the council's concentrations subcommittee.
The council began comprehensive reviews of Brown's 95 undergraduate concentrations last semester, as recommended by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, which released its report in September.
The process requires departments to clarify the goals of concentrations they offer and to explain how they fulfill Brown's broader academic aims, said Krahulik, who is also the associate dean of the College for upper class studies. Departments are also asked to review advising and senior capstone opportunities, she said.
Nine concentrations had originally been slated for review this year. But some concentrations wishing to make significant changes to their programs have been added to the schedule, potentially allowing the council to finish between 11 and 13 reviews by the end of the semester, Krahulik said. For convenience, the concentration reviews are timed to coincide with other departmental reviews, she added.
Krahulik would not say which concentrations are currently under review, but according to the original schedule, the first nine to be reviewed were Africana Studies, Cognitive Neuroscience, Comparative Literature, Education, Hispanic Studies, History, International Relations and Psychology, as well as the Theatre, Speech and Dance concentration.
The task force report set a 2011 deadline for reviewing all concentrations, which could still be met, Krahulik said, adding that they should be completed in no more than five years.
Krahulik called the review of a concentration a "thorough process" that extends beyond a departmental meeting with the council. Each department prepares the appropriate documentation, reviewing it with Krahulik before sending it to the other committee members, she said.
"For the most part, concentrations know what their strengths and weaknesses are, so when we get to the meeting, it's more a matter of just following up with them and seeing how they are progressing," Krahulik said.
After the meeting, the council discusses the review and makes recommendations that Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron communicates to the departments, Krahulik said.
The Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance was one of the first to have its concentrations
reviewed.
Rebecca Schneider, associate professor and chair of the department, said the review was well-timed because the department is undergoing dramatic modification, including introducing two new concentration tracks and officially changing its name to the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.
As part of its review, the department addressed how to better articulate its program and the links between its concentrations and University-wide goals, such as internationalization, Schneider said.
"The whole thing was a really great exercise in self-examination and self-improvement," Schneider said. "It was a fabulous thing to go through."
One of the most useful parts of the review, according to Schneider, was the opportunity to discuss how components of concentrations, such as the Department Undergraduate Group, are run in other
departments.
"The concentrations almost always come to us with areas they want to strengthen," Krahulik said, adding that they seek suggestions for specific improvements. "The conversations are quite invigorating intellectually."
