|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rice Thresher
Phone:
|
by Elizabeth Jardina Thresher editorial staff The list of courses offered for distribution credit to all current students has been expanded to include any courses offered for distribution credit since the 1997-'98 academic year. The provost announced the change in a memo to the academic deans and department chairs Nov. 3. Students currently attending Rice will be able to satisfy their distribution requirements with any course offered for distribution credit since Fall 1997, when this year's senior class matriculated. The faculty decided to alter the curriculum in 1999, introducing the foreign language requirement and eliminating the restricted distribution category. They also decided to review and re-evaluate which classes would satisfy distribution requirements. When changes in curriculum were instituted this year, the intention was that 100-level language courses would not count for distribution credit, although they had in the past. Now, any student currently attending Rice can receive Group I credit for introductory language classes as long as she takes both the 101 and 102 classes. Director of Academic Advising John Hutchinson said there were two primary reasons for this temporary inclusion of these classes for distribution credit. "One is that the listing of courses in the General Announcements and the course schedules have been inconsistent with one another - that is, courses are listed differently in different places," Hutchinson said. He said that in particular, many classes that were not intended to be marked as distribution were marked as such in the Fall 2000 printed Schedule of Courses Offered. The other problem prompting the action was the confusing wording in the General Announcements books from the 1998-'99 edition to the present. In the 1997-'98 book, it states that courses should be counted as distribution credit if they "appear on the list of approved courses in effect at the time of course registration." In subsequent books, it says, "Courses that fulfill the distribution requirement are so labeled in the Courses of Instruction section of this catalog and the Class Schedule." Hutchinson said he did not know how this change came about, and he described at as "accidental." Next year's matriculating class will have the language of this section in their General Announcements corrected to go back to the wording of the 1997-'98 book, and those students who matriculate next year will have to graduate under those standards. Hutchinson said that in effect, the curriculum changes decided on in spring 1999 are not being carried out because of problems in executing those changes. "There was a failure in implementation," he said. "I think we're all concerned that the graduation requirement for students should reflect what the faculty passed. "However, the graduation requirements must equal what we put in the General Announcements. ... Therefore, we have to correct the General Announcements." He also said there were concerns from upperclassmen who had planned to take 100-level language courses for distribution credit but then found out this year that they would no longer receive Group I credit. Some of these students successfully appealed to the Committee on Examination and Standings to receive the credit for introductory language courses. "Since the committee granted it for some students, we felt we should grant it for all students," Hutchinson said. He said that he expects no "wholesale changes" to the distribution list in next year's General Announcements, so a problem similar to the one about introductory language classes will probably not come up again. He said students will be divided into two categories: those who matriculated before 2001 and those who matriculated in 2001 or after, and that the leniency announced for the classes at Rice now are the result of having a transition period between the two curricula. A list of distribution courses that will count for current Rice students should be available on the Registrar's Office Web site sometime in the next week.
- back - |
|
|
Search the Thresher pages:
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
