By Roberto Alonso
March 25, 2018
Dominican University’s Mazzuchelli Scholars Honors Program unveils new curriculum at an all student meeting.
Co-Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Theology, Clodagh Weldon and Administrative Coordinator, Anne Sullivan announced the changes to the Honors Program curriculum at a Mar. 15 meeting for students in the program.
According to Weldon and Sullivan, the changes will take full effect next fall semester, impacting the core requirements for incoming freshmen honors students. Current freshmen in the program also have the opportunity to opt in to the new honors core requirements, and the new offerings of honors coursework will impact all of the students in the Honors Program at registration time this year.
The Foundation requirements for new students in the program will remain the same, and the freshman and senior seminars will be unchanged, but honors students will no longer have Core Area requirements. Rather, honors students will take seven honors seminars, or discussion based courses, that focus around “Big Questions” and “Exploration and Investigation”. Most of these new courses will be cross-listed with other departments at Dominican as academic departments flag their upper level 300 courses that may be offered as honor courses.
Before registration, honors students will be provided with a list of courses that will be cross listed as honors courses. According to Weldon and Sullivan, very few honors courses will continue to be offered at the 100 level, but rather at the 300 level.
The new curriculum will also be compatible with students who are planning to study abroad. According to Weldon and Sullivan, a Practicum will be required of honors students that includes either a study abroad opportunity, an internship, or research work completed with a professor. The new curriculum also requires that students complete a portfolio with at least one piece of work from each of their honors courses taken during their time in the program.
According to Sullivan, the transition period will approximately take two years to fully implement as current sophomores and juniors complete the requirements of the old curriculum, while incoming freshmen and rising sophomores begin the new curriculum.
The intent of these changes is to help students “thrive intellectually” by raising the bar and increasing the academic rigor of the program, according to Weldon. The aim with these changes is also to expand the number of honors course offerings, so that student can find courses that work with schedule and their major.
This announcement was scheduled as one of the program’s Mazzuchelli March Madness events and was precceded by free muffins in the Lewis Alcove.
Photo Courtsey: Dominican University’s Vimoe
