Starting next year, Weinberg students will be able to count certain classes with broad scopes in different distribution requirement categories under a new plan adopted earlier this month.
Weinberg faculty accepted on April 10 a proposal that will create an interdisciplinary studies section in the school’s distribution requirements Fall Quarter.
Now classes that focus on more than one discipline can count for various requirement areas.
Weinberg Asst. Dean Mary Finn said the change would allow students to keep up with current research, which tends to be focused on interdisciplinary subjects.
“Disciplinary boundaries are not nearly as stringent as they used to be in research and scholarship, and now we have an opportunity to do that in teaching as well,” Finn said.
The Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences divides its distribution requirements into six categories: natural sciences, formal studies, social sciences, history, values and literature. Every Weinberg student must take two 100- or 200-level classes in each area to graduate.
The proposal allows classes that cover more than one area to count for one credit in either category. For instance, Gender Issues in Science and Health could count in either the natural sciences or social sciences area.
If a student uses an interdisciplinary class to fulfill one credit in the area, that student must take a non-interdisciplinary studies class to fulfill the other.
Weinberg currently has a Western civilization section that allows five classics and European thought and culture classes to count in more than one area. But the new interdisciplinary section would include classes that focus on non-European culture, such as African studies or Asian studies.
The interdisciplinary studies area will grow slowly, at least at first.
Even though the studies area will be implemented Fall Quarter, the only classes listed as interdisciplinary will be the five already included in the Western civilization area.
Finn said she hoped departments would start putting more classes in the new area next year after they have had more time to decide which classes fit the requirements.
She also said she hoped the area would entice professors to offer more interdisciplinary classes.
Weinberg sophomore Rachel Lopez spearheaded the effort to make the change last Spring Quarter when she passed an Associated Student Government bill that called for the Western civilization section to be expanded to a global civilization section.
She said she was excited administrators were focusing on expanding multicultural classes.
“It shows great initiative in the faculty that they’re supporting the movement of the past year and previous years,” Lopez said. “I think the initiative is going to be slow, but at least it’s being taken.”
