After a multi-year process involving the formulation of Learning Outcomes and extensive consultation with the department's students and faculty, we recently secured approval for a major revision to our undergraduate curriculum—a revised slate of courses, and new requirements for the Major, Minor and Area of Concentration. The changes are effective Fall 2017 (although students have the choice, when applying for graduation, whether to do so under the new program requirements or the ones in force when they started their degree).
The emphasis in the new programs is on simplicity, manageability and the development of esprit de corps. There are no longer multiple long “two of” lists dispersing program students across 29 courses. Instead there is a small list of core, required courses and the rest is entirely up to the student (while satisfying certain very general requirements, e.g. concerning the number of credits at the 3000 or greater level). The new capstone experience in the Major program is the Philosophy Research Presentation course, in which students prepare a conference-style presentation on some topic that has excited them from their previous courses.
