Wabash College - Wabash Yearbook (Crawfordsville, IN)

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“In many cases the academic major was left as the only inteilectual perspective the students were left to enjoy.” The new curriculum appears to strike something of a happy medium between the two previous ones. For example, students will be required to take courses in laboratory science, foreign language or mathematics, cultures and traditions, and a Freshman Tutorial. In addition they will have to demonstrate a proficiency in English. That still leaves room for a careful choice of elective subjects in the underclass years. Under this new system hours are replaced by courses in determining academic progress, 32 courses being the minimum necessary for gradua- tion. The student must have both a departmental or major concentra- tion and also a area concentration. No more than nine courses in the major will be counted toward graduation, thus alleviating the problem mentioned above. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new curriculum is the areaconcentration. It will be the student’s respon- sibility to develop and justify his area concentration in terms of his overall academic program. Thus, a student planning on a teaching career would be able to pursue that goal in his area concentration in addition to meeting the requirements in his major subject. Apparent- ly the student will have a wide range of choice in this matter, and it is to the curriculum’s credit that it is the student who will bear the burden of developing his area of study. 3 This latest curriculum will certainly aid the student in planning a coherent course of study. It may also offer a partial answer to those who are seeking some form of revitalized “community” at Wabash. The College must attract more and better qualified students in the next few years if it wishes to counteract the recent downward trend. Whether this curriculum would be a factor in attracting such students is debatable. However, if Wabash is to survive in the coming years it must offer its students a solid liberal arts education tempered with a realization of the tight job market for the college graduate. Wabash must prepare its students for jobs as well as graduate school. The new curriculum is a step in that direction. — Kissling

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The class of 1973 has attended Wabash during a very transitional and often uncertain stage in the life of the College. A central part of this situation has concerned the curriculum, for beginning in 1973- 74 school year Wabash will initiate a new curriculum for the second time in five years. A much broader curriculum, in terms of basic requirements, existed prior to the 1969-70 year. Under that old system all students had to meet very simular academic requirements. Underclassmen found that they had to take courses in English, a foreign language, mathematics, physical education, biology, physics-chemistry, fine arts and or speech, literature, philosophy and or religion, history, and the behavioral sci- ences. Students were expected to have met most of those requirements by the end of the sophomore year so that the next two years could be spent in pursuing a major and minor subject. Of course, Compre- hensive Exams were given in both the major and minor field. Thus, unless a student was clearly superior he had little or no time to pursue electives in his particular field of interest. According to the Institutional Profile, the 1960’s was a time “‘when both the national and local environment invited more freedom of choice on the part of the student.” In 1969 Wabash altered its curriculum substantially in order to deal with that situation. Several courses were offered which had previously not been a part of the traditional liberal arts education at Wabash. Foremost among these were Chinese, Black studies, and Theatre. Today the Theatre department is in a period of rapid growing, and a major in that area is now possible. Black studies have hit a plateau after an initially fast growth rate and most of the courses seem aimed toward the naive or ignorant white student. Another possible reason for this lag is the turnover rate of professors in the area of Black studies, especially in the English department. The Chinese courses were dropped after the 1970-71 school year due to lack of interest. Still, the student under this curriculum had ample opportunity to take numerous elective courses from his freshman year on. By graduation, several students had accumulated more than 40 hours in their major subject. It is not surprising that the Profile noted 6

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WABASH 73 Guide to Off Campus Study This guide is for the Wabash man who has decided that, for the sake of his sanity and the betterment of his education, he must get away from Wabash for a semester or a year. (It is assumed he will return to Wabash and eventually graduate. ) MISCONCEPTIONS: You may think that it’s hard to get off-campus. This is the first misconception that has to be abandoned. Aside from the administrative red tape (Wabash hates to lose your money), it’s re- latively easy to gain freedom. ASPECTS OF OFF-CAMPUS STUDY TO CONSIDER: 1) Grades — Everything comes back pass-fail, so as long as you don’t flunk a course, you’re set. 2) Money — It depends on where you go. If you take a GLCA or Beaver College program, you lose out. “The fees for the various GLCA programs take into consideration the average costs at GLCA schools.”’ So there you have it — take the program route and you end up paying the same as if you were at Wabash. But there’s a cheaper road to follow — go independently. Get in some other school, pay their fees (which obviously will be lower than the Bash’s) and talk Wabash into giving you credit. 3) Credit — Speaking of getting credit for your off-campus study, it could be a problem if you go independent. Wabash doesn’t have to give you credit unless they want to. So unless you don’t want to spend another year here, best get things straightened out before you leave. If you go on a program, there’s usually no credit hassle. 4) Maturity — You’ve got to be able to take care of yourself. This is especially true if you’re independent. On a program, they’ll baby you. STEPS TO FOLLOW: 1) You’ve got to make up your mind early — like during your freshman year. This is because off-campus study has to be planned to be done right. 2) Get the required courses out of the way, take the hard ones first and make sure you’ll have enough hours to complete a major and graduate. This point can’t be stressed enough — a lot of men come back to find out that they’ve got a shit-load of hours to take, or even worse, they can’t fit them all into the remaining semesters. 3) Figure out where to go. You may come to Wabash already knowing where you want to study off-campus — becuase you've lived there, 16