Culled from 47 faculty and administration proposals, the five initiatives recently presented by President Michael Roth offer a wide swath of ideas on academic, extracurricular, and admissions changes within the University. We applaud Roth for drawing upon the faculty’s experience and insight when attempting to determine new policy. While recognizing that many of these initiatives remain in the planning stages, however, we cannot help but temper praise with frustration over each of the initiative’s often amorphous and ill-defined nature.
1. Strengthening the University Experience: Greater encouragement for seniors to undertake “capstone” projects may convince certain departments to broaden opportunities for those who wish to complete something other than traditional senior theses. Mandating a common class for all first year students, though, would likely result in a superficial academic experience, and seemingly contradict the University’s insistence upon flexible curriculum.
2. Internationalization: Efforts to double recruitment of international students underline the key role they play in the Wesleyan community, but the University should remember that geographic diversity also extends to underrepresented areas of the United States. As for improvements within the Office of International Studies, numerous complaints regarding credit transfers point to an issue in need of immediate attention.
3. Creative Campus: The proposed expansion of writing opportunities within the University (more courses, a potential writing certificate program) reflects a positive response to student demands. Overall, though, the initiative neglects to illustrate how the University plans to foster creativity within other majors.
4. College of the Environment: Increased attention to environmental issues are not unwelcome, but we fail to see how this proposed interdisciplinary program (modeled after the College of Letters and the College of Social Sciences) would substantially differ from pre-existing programs like the Science in Society or the Environmental Studies Certificate programs.
5. Civic Engagement: This proposal’s focus on encouraging community partnerships appears well intentioned. When over 60 percent of the student body participates in some form of community service, though, how much do we really need the administration’s encouragement?
We anticipate and expect more details from the administration regarding these initiatives in the coming months. If not, the time and effort put forth by consulted faculty members will have resulted in little more than high-minded rhetoric.
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