Challenging the merits of Brown's current curricular offerings is, as they say, pretty hot right now. Accordingly, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron recently began a large-scale review of all aspects of the New Curriculum with her Task Force on Undergraduate Education. Even The Herald's editorial page, a longtime defender of the curriculum in its present condition, recently conceded that "what might have been appropriate for Brown - and for Brown students - in 1969 might not be right in 2007."
At the root of these challenges lies a concern about whether the curriculum's self-directed nature and lack of distribution requirements leave Brown students without important, even necessary, skills - knowledge of a foreign language, say, or the ability to multiply and divide.
This concern is, perhaps, a bit misguided. What worries me most about the New Curriculum is not the notion that students abuse its self-directed nature to learn impractical things, but rather that too many students - and a large number of seniors - might not be learning much of anything.
Senior year at Brown tends to be something of an anticlimax - academically, at least. From the moment we arrive on College Hill, students hear that we alone are the architects of our educations and that we benefit from academic freedom unmatched by other schools. And many of us do our best to meet the challenge inherent in such statements: in an effort to find a suitable academic path, we shop courses aggressively, we research departments and we consult friends, professors and Meiklejohns. When sophomore spring rolls around, we pick a concentration, find an adviser and write two essays (of dubious significance, but that's another column) about our interest in our chosen field.
For too many of us, this is the crowning moment. After we file our concentration forms, the next four semesters entail little beyond meeting basic departmental requirements and completing a set number of courses.
The most viable existing option for students looking to expand beyond required coursework is the honors thesis, a lengthy research paper that requires at least a two-semester commitment. The appeal of the thesis is pretty limited, however, in no small part because it is often viewed merely as a way to get an honors designation on a transcript and/or as something that will come in handy when it comes time to apply to graduate school. Accordingly, only 27.8 percent of seniors wrote an honors thesis last year, a figure that has hovered between 26 and 33 percent over the last decade.
For those of us not writing theses, concluding academic experiences during senior year vary depending on our concentrations, though typically they are far less demanding. Some departments, like international relations, require some form of senior seminar, while others, like economics, require only that seniors pass 10 classes.
Enter senior capstone projects - perhaps the most promising potential savior of a curriculum that, by some accounts, is flagging. Ever since assuming her post in University Hall last summer, Bergeron has been pushing to expand these projects, in part because, as she recently told me, large-scale projects undertaken during senior year "get mixed into that kind of idea of things coming to an end" and can help students make sound post-graduate decisions.
What's more, she said, widening the concept of what constitutes "capstone" work - or conceiving of capstones as "the thesis in the broadest sense" - complements Brown's tradition of valuing a nontraditional approach to higher education.
Recent thesis-survivor Natasha Bronn '07 - who is also a member of the College Curriculum Council, which has addressed the issue of senior capstone projects - told me she believes "a lot of people would be surprisingly happy with a sort of pet project" to work on during senior year. She added that such projects could provide an alternative for students who might not take kindly to the idea of spending their last semesters holed up in a carrel at the Rockefeller Library.
I happen to agree. But what form will capstone projects take, and what sort of credit will students get for taking one on? Bergeron told me she envisions anything from research to internships as falling into the capstone category, adding that the projects will also likely involve close work with a faculty mentor.
Regarding the question of credit for capstone work, she said, "You always can explore the idea of how this can become visible on the transcript, but that shouldn't be the point." It's true that students should pursue capstone projects out of an innate desire to enhance their educations, but, realistically, how many students will attempt such projects when tangible incentives aren't clearly defined? In order to establish capstone projects as a viable alternative to the honors thesis - one that engages more students in more creative ways - they should probably be accompanied by some sort of transcript notation, even if it's not an honors designation.
Clearly, specific details about capstones are not yet outlined. Here's hoping the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, which is charged with addressing the issue (and first met April 19), can successfully work toward defining requirements and parameters. Once this is accomplished, seniors can realistically consider a culminating academic experience that lies somewhere between finishing a 100-page research paper and waking up in time for that last City Politics section.
