By Katie Oglesby, Editor-in-Chief
President Bob Iuliano began Thursday’s faculty meeting with some brief notes of gratitude for the members of faculty and staff that helped the launch of the master’s program in American history, which currently has over 700 students enrolled, as well as the work that has gone toward the provost search now that the candidates have toured the College.
The conversation then launched into two main discussions: the first, on how best to support colleagues and students of color, and the second, on the first-year seminar aspect of the proposed curriculum changes.
Supporting Students and Colleagues of Color
Associate Professor of English Stefanie Sobelle and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Nathalie Lebon introduced the discussion.
Sobelle noted that they wanted space to continue Iuliano’s conversation from the last meeting, regarding the physical assault that occurred near Diaspora House.
Lebon said the conversation was important because many professors, herself included, do not have as much contact with students of color, and want to learn how best to work with their students.
There has been a sharp increase in the enrollment of students of color, especially in the current first-year class, she said.
The Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and the College Chaplin Bright said that the College should have been better prepared to accommodate the increase in students of color.
“We did not do enough preparation for them in their arrival,” he said.
He said he focuses a lot about hospitality, “thinking about how you make a person feel welcomed and at home in this space.”
Proposed Curriculum Changes
The conversation continued from the last meeting about the proposed changes to the curriculum, in particular, the first-year seminar program. The proposed change would mean that the first-year seminar program would expand to include two courses, one in the fall and one in the spring. One course would cover the first-year writing requirement and one would focus on data and society.
Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Susan Russell brought up her concern that this change, while in theory would “kill two birds with one stone” would actually kill “the blue bird of happiness.”
Russell said she was concerned that this would take away a professor’s freedom to choose whether they want to teach a writing-intensive course or not. She said she personally chooses some years to teach a writing-intensive course, and other years, to teach a first-year seminar less writing-intensive, because the ones that cover the first-year writing requirement are time intensive as well.
She said that in an ideal world, the English department would solely teach first-year writing classes and they would become separate from the first-year seminar program.
English Professor Melissa Forbes, who oversees first-year writing, agreed that in an ideal world that would be the case. However, she said that finances won’t allow for it. For the 2022–2023 academic year, there are 31 total first-year writing sections. 21 of them are taught through first-year seminars, and the other ten are taught by non-English professors.
Forbes continued by saying that the model of moving the first-year writing requirement entirely into the first-year seminar program is common among peer-institutions.
Associate Professor of Anthropology Donna Perry said that data is largely covered by classes students already have to take for their majors and for the Gettysburg Curriculum, so she saw including it as a first-year seminar to be redundant.
Economics Professor Charles Weise and Environmental Studies Professor Natasha Gownaris both noted that students in their courses, particularly upperclassmen, would benefit from a data course early-on to give them foundational instruction.
Gownaris stressed that since the world is becoming increasingly data-driven, it is important to help empower students to understand data and graphs they may be seeing on social media or in the news.
Associate Professor of English McKinley Melton said students tend to take certain first-year seminars based on interest, and professors teach certain first-year seminars for the same reason. He asked how they plan to preserve that basis, especially with the ranking process students previously used for registration, in this proposal.
Forbes noted that there is a planned balance between content and skill-learning in the proposed changes to the first-year seminar program.
