EPPC reviewing credit system

The Educational Plans and Policies Committee is discussing whether to reduce the number of credit hours required to graduate.

At the September EPPC meeting, Bob Geitz, associate dean of the college of arts and sciences and chair of the EPPC, distributed documents which described the graduation requirements at various schools similar to Oberlin. At most of these schools, the graduation requirements are 32 courses over eight semesters. A study by the EPPC several years ago showed that Oberlin students take an average of 36 courses over eight semesters. This prompted Geitz to consider changing Oberlin's graduation requirements.

"When EPPC looked at student course loads, I wasn't aware of how far out of line we were from other schools. When I looked into the matter I thought it became a more serious issue," said Geitz.

Speaking on the current graduation requirements, Associate Professor of English Scott McMillin said, "In the current system, it is frequently the case that students will be required to do an overload semester or have their intellectual attentions pulled in too many different directions. By considering graduation requirements, we're hoping to make course loads more standard and deepen students' educational experiences."

Associate Professor of History Carol Lasser expressed similar sentiments.

"I think we ask students to spread themselves too thin. They would have a better educational experience if they could focus more intensely on fewer classes," said Lasser.

Students also have expressed discontent with the present system. Commenting on the present graduation requirements, senior Carole Baden said, "The way credits are distributed now, students are forced into a situation where they have to take more classes than they think they can handle. I've had friends who have been in that situation, and they didn't have enough time to properly devote themselves to each class."

Reflecting upon a semester in which she took five classes, senior Karalee Poschman said, "I didn't feel like I could put the necessary time to do well in each class."

If the College decided to change the required number of credits for graduation, the would have to re-work the present system. One such possibility would be counting all courses as one credit, and requiring students to take four credits per semester for eight semesters. So instead of needing 112 credits for graduation, students would need to take 32 courses. Furthermore, the College would have to figure out how a reduction in the number of required courses to graduate would affect the distribution and major requirements.

As of now, the EPPC is only discussing changing the number of credits required for graduation. No official decisions have been made. At the earliest, the EPPC could make a decision by the end of this year, whereupon it would go to the General Faculty for approval. However, the process, if a change were to occur, would take a couple years before it could be implemented.

As Neuroscience professor Janice Thornton said, "Now we're in an exploratory phase. If we did this, we want to know what this will do to the existing system and what the ramifications will be."