Change in Core

Starting in the Fall of 2006, there will be a new core curriculum for all incoming Quinnipiac students built into their courseload.

This new core curriculum will replace the core classes that are presently in place at the University that all students must complete in order to graduate.

A committee of the faculty senate, called the Core Curriculum Committee, began looking to modify the core curriculum about three years ago.

The committee has hopes that this new curriculum will make Quinnipiac students more well-rounded. The core curriculum courses will not only be during their freshman year but will continue through upper years.

A series of education models were studied while the committee looked to instill a new core curriculum and the faculty committee decided on one.

The new core curriculum will be centered on three “common: courses.

The idea for this new type of core education was generated in hopes that all Quinnipiac graduates will have, to some extent, a common type of ground in their education and learning experiences from their tenure as a Quinnipiac student.

“As we continue to get larger and larger as a university, it is getting more and more likely that there is little “common” experience that all Quinnipiac students have,” Sean Duffy, an Associate Professor of political science, said. “Our intention is to create a common academic element to a Quinnipiac education, regardless of a student’s major.”

The committee has been seeking to change the core curriculum for the past three years and has been examining many different options as to which direction to take.

“Our intention is to create a common academic element to a Quinnipiac education. At the same time, the three common courses will tie the educational experience here together through the four years as well,” Duffy said.

Of the three seminar courses, one will be taught in the first year and the other two will be taught during the upper years of the student’s educational tenure here at Quinnipiac.

“Our intention with the first year seminar was to give out incoming freshman the experience of a small course, exploring interest issues, rather than covering materials in a rote, memorization, lecture fashion,” Duffy said.

There committee also hopes through this new core curriculum and other opportunities to change the overall academic culture of the University as a whole.

In doing this, they hope that students will get an early experience with what an education at a university is like in order to help them plan for their future, whether here at this university ooor at others that are similar to Quinnipiac.

The current core curriculum will change over the next two years.

By 2006, Duffy and the committee anticipate that the core curriculum willl be completely different from what it currrently is.

Some of the core class will remain intact, while at the same time some will be added to the current requirements of all Quinnipiac students.

The committee plans to keep classes like English 101-102 and basic math courses in the core curriculum classes, citing the need for such classes in almost all areas of study and everyday life.

Students will also be required to take a vaariety of other courses, such as science and art, to increase their awareness and respect for other areas of life and learning.

“They will take some sccience, some social science, some art and some humanities,” Duffy said.

“We hope to change the culture of learning here, and to provide a sort of ‘signature element’ to a Quinnipiac education,” Duffy said.

“We hope to be able to say that all Quinnipiac graduates will have a good, well-rounded education; that they will have been taugght how to think, and how to challenge the ideas that they come across.”

More information regarding the new core curriculum will become available to new students in the future.