University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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COURSES JOIN THE GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE LEVELS 18

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THE NEW SHAPE OF ACADEMICS IN otre Dame is expanding and specializing at a rate that belies the steady yearly turn- over of 1500 students. In the University ' s pace, there is a maddening movement, for the student who lacks orientation. A growing consciousness of the dangers of misdirection underlies a series of developing interrelationships. Though under separate deans, the colleges are increasingly interdependent. This year engineering students began taking the collegiate seminar reading program. Significantly, there are no separate engineering sections, but a scattering of the engineering students among the existing sections, with the corresponding addition of teachers from the engi- neering college specially prepared to teach the regular sections. The engineering major who finds he would like to explore the humanities even more deeply can join the com- bination program and graduate in five years with both the A.B. and B.S.E. Another ex- ample of interaction between colleges is the business school ' s six-year program in con- junction with the law school, resulting in a business degree in the fifth year and the law degree in the sixth. The information explo- sion in all fields has expanded the compu- ter ' s application beyond the scientists and engineers to include experiments in mar- keting and political science. No college stands by itself. While 150 arts and letters intents have been exposed to an improved, conceptual approach to modern science in the new unified science program, and more are taking advanced courses in the science college than in pre- vious years, business students take almost half their courses in the arts and letters as part of their approach. Corresponding to a growing interdependence among the four colleges is a new intra- dependence within each college. Initiating a regular-year master ' s program injected a new dynamism into the language department. Expansion has spurred increasing inter- est in the various area studies programs, combining courses from almost all the arts and letters disciplines. Though not directly related, the sophomore year abroad his similar- ly involved a general education in the culture of another area. While the number of fresh- men competing for Innsbruck has dropped from two years ago, a program of studies in France began this year and next year a small group will study in Japan. The department of engineering science, to teach its majors the analysis, synthesis, and design of systems in traditional and newly emerging fields as aerospace engineering and operations re- ND-SMC RELATIONSHIPS ARE DECIDEDLY ONE- SIDED AT THE ACADEMIC LEVEL

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search, draws heavily from its sister departments, notably electrical engineering. Con- temporary emphasis on particle research brings together all the science disciplines, em- phasized most recently by the linear accelerator being added to the Radiation Building and the Van de Graaff accelerator extending behind Nieuwland Science Hall. Beyond the intercourse between graduate assistants and undergraduates in the teach- er-student relationship, numerous courses also join the two levels, allowing shared insights drawing from their difference in milieu. Graduate level research provides a professor substance with which to update his undergraduate lectures. More generally, the develop- ment of several graduate departments has attracted new men and resulted in new courses whose benefits most often filter down to the undergraduate students. A closer relationship is likewise developing among the administration, faculty, and stu- dents. Discussions on a faculty manual and senate highlighted the year ' s interchange be- tween the Golden Dome and the various colleges, similar in many ways to the successful attempt to provide lay representation among the trustees of the University. A faculty mem- ber was chosen to direct the library, and faculty members continue to provide counseling in the Freshman Year of Studies. In the four colleges, advisory systems have been widely adopted, while the library ' s faculty lounge continues to provide an informal meeting place with students. Notre Dame-Saint Mary ' s relations are decidedly one-sided at the academic level. While the Notre Dame enrollment at the girls ' school has declined from an initial spurt of curiosity, Saint Mary ' s enrollment at Notre Dame has considerably increased. An ad- vertisement seeking a finance major to handle the economics of student government served to indicate a closer contact between the curricular and extracurricular. Finally, the Continuing Education Center began last year and continues as a very promising and flexible channel for dialogues often directly related to undergraduate education. The entire scope of these relationships is perhaps best seen in theology, a department affecting as many students as any other on campus. Notre Dame ' s theology department has noticeably improved over the last few years. Increasing student interest in theology led to the department ' s extension beyond its traditional service role, especially with the recent offering of a major in theology. This addition has brought new and excellent pro- fessors to the department, who in some cases are teaching a lower division course as well as courses in the major sequence. Over last year, undergraduate theology electives increased from seven to eleven, whole the number of graduate courses grew from four to sixteen. The more specialized students take Rabbi Karff and Father Blenkinsop to study the theological implications of Jewish literature and language or Stephanou for a view of Greek Orthodoxy. The department head, Fr. Schlitzer, has indicated an interest in adding a Protestant theologian to the department. At the more basic level, undergrad- uates point to Fr. Hegge, Fr. Burtchaell, and Dr. Ford as a few of the more stimulating teachers. Reacting to student interest in all aspects of the theological, the law school this year opened a course in natural law to a number of capable undergraduates. And last March, the academic focus of the university at all levels was the discussion of issues growing out of Vatican II, a conference that most appropriately inaugurated and exercised to its ca- pacity the Center for Continuing Education. With growth resulting as much from student interest as from departmental initiative, the theology department in its disciplinary and interdisciplinary as well as extracurricu- lar aspects is indicative of the development which characterized the University this year. A MADDENING MOVEMENT FOR THE STUDENT WHO LACKS ORIENTATION . . 19