EPPC examines changing graduation requirements

The Educational Plans and Policies Committee met this week to discuss an innovative plan to restructure Oberlin's course credit system.

Composed of students and faculty, the EPPC is investigating the development of a plan in which students could graduate in four years while taking only four courses a semester. Most other small colleges require that their students take only four courses.

Led by Assistant Dean of the College and Associate Professor of Computer Science Bob Geitz, the EPPC held a luncheon on Wednesday with students from various departments who offered their opinions regarding the bold idea. Geitz stressed that at this point, it is only that: an idea that the College will not implement before giving it careful scrutiny.

The EPPC is a board that gives the administration recommendations on improving the College. Before a plan this sweeping is put into effect, it must be approved by many other administrators, meaning that the plan will not be adopted for several years, if ever.

As it stands, most humanities and social sciences students must take five courses in some semesters in order to meet the current graduation requirements because the majority of courses offered in these disciplines only count for three hours of credit. Natural science students do not have the same problem since most science classes are worth four hours of credit.

Students and faculty alike have objected to the current schedules, arguing that students spread themselves too thin trying to juggle all of their courses and that the system is not in touch with today's philosophies of liberal arts education. Coupled with heavy extracurricular involvement, many students are faced with overwhelming workloads.

The proposed plan would change the number of credits required of students each semester. According to the outline distributed by the EPPC, their goal is to "try to make the accounting for courses more uniform, so that most semester-long academic courses will carry the same number of credits and modify the requirements so that students will take four courses per term."

Essentially, the group wants most courses to be worth four hours of credit and require that students take 16 "units" of classes per semester. A regular class would be worth four units. The hope is that students will not only be able to focus better on each course, but will choose classes that fit in their curriculum, rather than classes that offer a desirable number of credits. The 9-9-9 requirement would have to be changed as well, but that is a much simpler matter.

The plan would not eliminate one- and two-hour courses that are now offered, nor would it disrupt the ExCo system. Such classes would also have their credit values adjusted to fit the new requirements.

Students expressed a number of concerns about the proposal, and no clear consensus on its merit was reached.

Many detractors fear that such a system would inhibit the flexibility that they enjoy under the current rules. Now, students can take as few as 12 hours one semester, and compensate later with a 16-hour schedule in another term. Under the new guidelines, it would be difficult, they claim, to take fewer than four classes in a semester.

Similarly, some students wondered what would happen if they failed a course - worrying that it might be difficult to get back on track. Others asked how it would affect double-major students, who might not be able to take many courses outside of their majors.

Geitz addressed his last concern, saying, "I don't really think this would prevent people from double-majoring the way they think it would."

Before any outcomes are decided, there will be more discussion and thought devoted to the plan, and it will no doubt be several years before any changes are made.