Curriculum and Structure

Archived
Yes

***Please note: This section has been superseded by a more recent policy. ***

Evergreen's curriculum-planning arrangements are an attempt to combine predictability with flexibility and to generate a sound, coherent curriculum with a minimum of formality. The college's offerings are divided into several areas: core programs, interdisciplinary planning unit offerings, broadly interdisciplinary inter-group offerings taught by faculty from two or more disciplines, off-campus programs, and graduate programs. The offerings in each area are part of a long-range curriculum plan reaching two or more years ahead and conforming to a general statement of goals. Regular faculty have the obligation to affiliate themselves with one of the planning units units according to their abilities, backgrounds and preferences, and to work actively to develop strong curriculum in it. Faculty are affiliated with a planning unitunit for a four-year period. According to the 1996 Long Range Curriculum report, each planning unitunit will commit 20% of its faculty to teach in Core or All-Level programs and 20% to Inter-group offerings. Each areaplanning unit thus has a pool of faculty committed to: 1) providing staffing for Core programs and inter-group programs, 2) providing instruction in the area; and 3) advising students in the area, 4) conducting an annual review of the area's long-range plan to modify it if necessary and to extend it another year into the future. Each planning unitunit will select a coordinator. See Section 2.401.

Faculty teaching in and affiliating with other curricular areas such as Tacoma, Part Time Studies, or Native American and World Indigenous Peoples Studies will commit to as many of the above expectations as are practical.

All faculty teaching in the undergraduate curriculum teach 22-25 full-time students each quarter. Core programs and graduate programs are staffed at a slightly lower student-faculty ratio. (22:1) than other undergraduate programs which are staffed at 25:1.

The basic curricular structure was set forth in the report of the 1976 Long-range Curriculum Planning DTF. Substantial re-creation occurred as a result of the second Long-range Curriculum DTF study of 1981-83 as well as the Long Range Curriculum DTF report of 1994-1996.