Dean Amy-Jessen Marshall recently hosted several Curriculum Conversations for the general student body, to inform the campus on proposed updates to Sweet Briar’s academic structure.  These meetings were held in combination with the Academic Planning Committee (APC), which is a body comprised of faculty members whose roles are defined in Sweet Briar’s Strategic Plan as “[making] recommendations regarding the allocations, creation, or termination of instructional positions and academic programs in light of long-term academic plans, priorities and directions.”

One of the largest changes being proposed by the Dean’s Office and the APC is a move away from the three credit course system that is currently being offered, to a four credit system.  The intent of this proposed change would be to reduce the overall amount of courses that student’s would be taking in an academic year.

In order to graduate, Sweet Briar currently requires students to take a total of 120 credits during their four years at the College.  The four-credit system would potentially reduce the overall credit requirement, allowing students to take fewer classes a semester.  Essentially, instead of taking an average of five courses a semester, students would be able to take four, while still graduating on time.  A reduction of the total credit hours required is intended to alleviate how spread out student’s are academically and provide them with a better opportunity to focus more in depth on their class subjects.

In addition to reducing the amount of classes per semester, the four credit system would help increase class sizes.  Currently Sweet Briar maintains a 6:1 student to teacher ratio.  The proposed changes would help bring that ratio up to 10:1, which is the present goal of the Strategic Plan and the Dean’s Office.  An increase in class size would be a reflection of an overall boost in student enrollment and an increase in retention.  Thus, the increase in class sizes is intended to help create a greater sense of overall financial stability within the College; however alumna donations and the amount within the endowment fund would still need to be continuously built upon for financial security.

An additional change being proposed is the reduction or combination of some of the academic programs currently offered.  Smaller programs and programs perceived as having less appeal to incoming students have the potential to be removed or combined with an additional department.  While department size will not be the only factor in these decisions, the Dean’s Office and the APC will be looking at the practicality of certain majors in the job market.  As a liberal arts college, Sweet Briar will continue to offer a diverse range of majors and minors, however there is a strong potential that certain departments will be significantly modified or removed as a major.

Academic Affairs Chair Stephanie Prato ’12 made the following comments regarding the potential changes, “I think it’s important to remember that sometimes change is necessary. I have every confidence that the faculty and the Dean will work together to shape a curriculum that both is academically excellent and financially sustainable. We are still very much in the ‘discussion’ stage and I think it’s great that students have been given the opportunity to add their voices to the conversation, before any decisions have been made. I encourage all students to attend future discussions and to use the Academic Affairs Committee as liaison to get their questions answered.”

No changes have been officially been made or decided upon, however Dean Jessen-Marshall and the APC are hoping to get constructive feedback from student’s on the proposed academic changes.  If you have concerns about any of the suggested changes, please contact the student members of the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) at aac@sbc.edu.  For information regarding Sweet Briar’s strategic plan, please visit http://sbc.edu/strategic-plan.

Contact McKinsey Skeens at skeens13@sbc.edu with questions or comments.

By: Imani Dickerson

Since 1967, Sweet Briar College has faced difficulties with a lack of space in its library. The colleges’ 300,000 books have been forced to migrate out of the space over the years, some even winding up in physical plant storage. The college’s Board of Directors is seeking to end such migrations, and make the space more conducive to student use. At their meeting last month, the Board decided to move forward with library expansion plans that would create a more functional space for formal and informal academic use.

Additions will include more quiet study spaces, group study rooms, a vending/self-serve Café, a 30-student classroom and learning studios, three new seminar rooms, space for the Academic Resource Center (ARC), and formal/informal outdoor gathering spaces. The library would also be handicap accessible.

At this point, not all plans have been finalized. According to director of integrated information systems John Jaffe, “…conceptual plans will continue to be refined in the actual construction drawings to ensure we achieve the most effective facilities possible.  It is possible and even likely that spaces within the conceptual drawings will shift as we integrate all the necessary environmental control systems, electrical and mechanical systems, technology infrastructures, etc.”

A more complete picture of the building will emerge over the next few months, as building plans become more detailed. Jaffe also added that students, faculty and staff will be able to comment on rooms and the design of specific areas as these drawings become more developed.

Since the original proposal last year, changes to the plan have occured. One of these is the removal of the automated storage and retrieval system, a system which will be replaced by compact shelving. Such a method provides adequate storage for the existing collection and will allow for future collection growth.

Conceptual designs have been made and reviewed by college architects, and construction specialists to ensure that the extension can be completed within budget and in a way that does not inhibit its use.

Plans are also in keeping with the college’s goal of environmental consciousness ans sustainability. Said Jaffe, “Fortunately, the new facilities have been planned with the end of having both a highly flexible structure capable of responding to changes as needed and also having green and sustainable systems built in that will make the structure serve the college in an environmentally and fiscally sustainable way for years to come.”  The library is expected to remain functional throughout these changes.

Sweet Briar College president Jo Ellen Parker is optimistic. “At the end of construction we are going to have a wonderful new facility, one that honors the centrality of the library in the intellectual life of our community,” said Parker. Current projections suggest the extension will be completed in approximately two years. Site preparation will begin this summer, and construction will begin late summer or early fall 2012.

Contact Imani Dickerson at dickerson15@sbc.edu with any question or comments.

Photo courtesy of sbc.edu

By: Julie Moorhead

I find it hard to believe that in the fall of 1967, my mother only paid $50 for one semester of tuition at the University of Texas at Austin and my aunt only paid $16,000 for all four years at a private college in 1974. Times have changed when it comes to spending money, but higher education as well. Our own experiences as Sweet Briar students with an increasing tuition have sure raised some eyebrows as to why and where these decisions came from. Increasing tuition has become a trend lately among institutions of higher education. In the past two years I have attended school here, the tuition has raised significantly.  My father said that if it rises again he may well have to sell a kidney, more like my kidney for that matter, since I am the reason for all the expenses.

Public colleges and universities across the country are afraid that funding from their state governments is diminishing “As they begin the 2012 academic year, CFO’s of community colleges and other public institutions rank the decline in state support as far and away the most worrisome factor facing their institutions.” Said Goldie Blumenstyk and Jeffrey Brainard of The Chronicle of Higher Education. While many states are in a tight budget for education, they have to decide where their money will go in terms of educational institutions; and this means less money for those public universities, therefore causing them to increase their tuition. The same trend has shown in the private university spectrum as well. “The sticker price of living and studying for a year at a typical private college rose 4.3% to $42,224 this year,” according to Kim Clark of CNN Money. We have all seen this increase personally within our own school.

Last year President Obama and congress made it more affordable for American families to provide higher education for their children. I do believe that no student of college age should be denied higher education because of the economic status of their family. Our generation is full of future leaders and productive members of society. The question that is in the air is where we will get the funding federally, and on the state level. The root of the problem is that we simply do not have enough money to fund all the programs that are imperative to our country’s growth.

The Obama administration has made it easier for students to afford to go to college, but nothing has been done to change to the cost of college itself. It seems that any solution would cause us to have to spend more of our tax dollars and more of the government’s money, but we really have no room to do that. When it comes to education, I feel that this is not a partisan matter, but rather an issue of great importance to everyone. Budget and funding has to be changed in order to preserve affordability of higher education, the question is, how?

Contact Julie Moorhead at moorhead13@sbc.edu with any comments or questions.