2008 Woodie Awards
Connections rules to change with 2010 class
Meghan Smith '09
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: News
The faculty passed new legislation regarding connections during their meeting on April 4. Beginning on July 1, 2008, members of the Class of 2010 and subsequent class years will no longer be allowed to use two courses from the same area in three-way connections.
Professor Chris Kalberg and Professor Darlene Boroviak, members of the Committee on Educational Policy, said that the change was necessary because of a "fairly disturbing trend" of students declaring three-way connections in which two of the three courses were from their majors.
This habit, Kalberg and Boroviak said, ran counter to the goals of connections, which were created in order to encourage cross-disciplinary learning.
Under new legislation, members of the Class of 2009 and students who have already declared connections will be unaffected.
"Anything declared is grandfathered in, but anyone from the Class of 2010 on will be affected," Boroviak told the faculty.
She emphasized that the legislation will only change area requirements so that students will not be allowed to include two courses from a single area (creative arts, humanities, history, math and computer science, natural science, and social science) in three-way connections.
Requirements for divisions, which include Arts and Humanities, Natural Science and Social Science, will not be affected. Two-course connections will also be unchanged.
In response to questions about why legislation changed area requirements and did not instead prohibit connecting two courses from the same major, Boroviak said that it must change area requirements because connections are defined according to areas.
She assured the faculty, however, that the change to connections legislation would positively affect Wheaton's curriculum and would not hurt current students.
"Three or four current faculty [catalogue] connections will be affected, and seven students of the 949 who applied for connections this year would be affected," Boroviak said. "We are confident that not many students will be negatively affected by this, and we will deal with individual case."
Professor Chris Kalberg and Professor Darlene Boroviak, members of the Committee on Educational Policy, said that the change was necessary because of a "fairly disturbing trend" of students declaring three-way connections in which two of the three courses were from their majors.
This habit, Kalberg and Boroviak said, ran counter to the goals of connections, which were created in order to encourage cross-disciplinary learning.
Under new legislation, members of the Class of 2009 and students who have already declared connections will be unaffected.
"Anything declared is grandfathered in, but anyone from the Class of 2010 on will be affected," Boroviak told the faculty.
She emphasized that the legislation will only change area requirements so that students will not be allowed to include two courses from a single area (creative arts, humanities, history, math and computer science, natural science, and social science) in three-way connections.
Requirements for divisions, which include Arts and Humanities, Natural Science and Social Science, will not be affected. Two-course connections will also be unchanged.
In response to questions about why legislation changed area requirements and did not instead prohibit connecting two courses from the same major, Boroviak said that it must change area requirements because connections are defined according to areas.
She assured the faculty, however, that the change to connections legislation would positively affect Wheaton's curriculum and would not hurt current students.
"Three or four current faculty [catalogue] connections will be affected, and seven students of the 949 who applied for connections this year would be affected," Boroviak said. "We are confident that not many students will be negatively affected by this, and we will deal with individual case."
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