A forthcoming university initiative could call for more academic experiences that all Northwestern students share, University President Henry Bienen said in an interview with The Daily on Monday.
Bienen said that at some of NU’s peer institutions, all incoming students come to campus with a shared experience, such as a “common book” read over the summer. This is not the case at NU.
“At some places there are distributional requirements that overarch whatever school requirements there are,” Bienen said. “There’s some kind of integrated experience, whether it’s a network of seminars on a particular theme that everybody undergoes — no matter what school.”
“I think that’s worth thinking about at Northwestern.”
The forthcoming draft of the initiative will focus on what direction to take NU academically and institutionally, Bienen said.
Called the “Highest Order of Excellence Two,” the initiative will revisit the goals of the Highest Order of Excellence — a committee administrators reinstated last year to scrutinize and update NU’s programs.
Although more shared academic experiences for all students could help build a greater sense of community — something both student leaders and administrators have been pushing in recent years — the more important factor is whether it makes good teaching sense, Bienen said.
“Is it a good thing pedagogically?” he said. “This is the question.”
NU’s educational programs are strikingly decentralized compared to other universities, Bienen said.
Although majors often include courses that reach across multiple schools, each of NU’s six undergraduate schools develops its own curriculum and requirements. There is no universal academic experience for NU undergraduates.
Last summer, at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., all incoming freshman were assigned to read the book “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser. It was the first time a book was assigned to students over the summer, according to the school’s Web site.
At Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., freshmen are asked to read a book for the fall and then attend a lecture by the author.
“The idea that the committee talked about was to create some kind of experiences that people grow though and that they connect with Northwestern as a whole — not just with a department or major of their career choice,” said Rich Gordon, a Medill associate professor who has served on the Highest Order of Excellence committee since it was founded.
One idea, Gordon said, is to assign an “immersive project” in which students take time off from NU to pursue a major enterprise that relates back to their area of study.
“I know that there are some people on the committee that look very favorably on Medill’s Teaching Media as an example,” Gordon said.
Bienen declined to elaborate further on what experiences the Highest Order of Excellence Two would recommend until the draft is published.
However, he said the initiative will address other NU programs and how best to allocate other university resources.
“We proliferate a lot of centers and institutes here,” Bienen said. “Which ones might we do in the future? What new ones? Should we sunset old ones? That’s a very important question.”
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