A new core curriculum is one step closer toward implementation after the Faculty Council approved the measure with a 31-13 vote Thursday.
The faculty members debated how the Ball State University Core Curriculum for the 21st Century would affect each department. Some members said the discussion focused on knick-picky items instead of bigger issues.
Professor of Urban Planning Eric Kelly said he supported the new curriculum and respected the people who worked on it and spent time on it.
"The process this has been through is starting to look like a New Yorker cartoon," he said as he addressed the faculty members. "This has been studied by our colleagues, recommended by our colleagues and it's time to adopt it."
According to the new curriculum, it is meant to be completed over a student's time at Ball State. Students would take 39 credit hours, which are broken into three tiers, according to the report. Students have to take 41 hours in the current core.
According to the new curriculum documentation, UCC-21 also includes a WISER-Plus designation where courses are given a specific letter and students must complete courses with those identifications. The areas include writing, international awareness, service and civic engagement and environmental awareness and sustainability. The other letters are respect for human liberty and diversity among peoples and cultures, and technological literacy.
Chairman of Campus Council Matthew Walker, who also represented the student voice in Faculty Council, said some students had concerns about the curriculum. One of the concerns included an addition made during a Undergraduate Education Committee's September meeting.
During the meeting, the UEC members voted to add an "A" designation to include american institutions and/or history.
Walker said some students were against the addition of the "A" because it was not researched, and it already was covered in other areas. Some students also are concerned there would be hidden hours, he said, that they are not told about up front but will have to take classes for later. One of the concerns was with prerequisites.
Buck assured Walker and the other faculty members there would not be more than 39 credit hours.
"I will not allow a foundation course or any other Tier 1 course to have a prerequisite," she said, "and I'm very committed to make sure it stays at 39 hours."
Some faculty members said they thought having a new curriculum was not necessary.
Professor of Economics James McClure said he thought the current curriculum should be kept with some of the UCC-21 concepts added into it. He said the "W" writing component and the capstone course, which is in Tier 3, could be implemented into the existing core.
"Why are we throwing out the baby with the bath water," he said to the members before the vote.
After further debate, the vote was cast and the meeting ajourned with applause.
Walker said the student concerns were addressed. Although he and other students are not thrilled at the addition of the "A", he said, students cannot always get what they want.
"[It's] moving forward, but most of the students and faculty are happy," Walker said.
Julie Eflin, who was chairwoman of the UCC Task Force II when the new core curriculum was being constructed, said she was pleased with the vote and was glad some questions that were addressed got answered.
"It will mean that we can now talk about Ball State as really being in the 21st Century," she said of the vote. "We're not going ahead with some plans and leaving others behind, but now we're going about it as a whole. It's not out of sink with the rest of the advancements."
UCC-21 will move to the University Senate, which has student, faculty and professional staff representatives. If it passes the Senate, Gora or the Board of Trustees will get the curriculum.
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