For 17 years, the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences has offered a community-building, comprehensive educational program to freshmen and sophomores through its Core Curriculum.
Over four semesters, the CAS Core Curriculum offers eight courses for students who do not wish to immediately commit to divisional studies but would rather receive a broad, all-encompassing education in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.
“The core curriculum was designed really in response to student demand,” humanities coordinator and English professor Christopher Martin said. “Many students were saying, ‘I understand the whole divisional studies business. The only trouble is that by the time that I am mature enough to have known what I should’ve taken, I’m already through the program. Can you put together for us a program that really guides us through?'”
The Core Curriculum began in the fall of 1989 with a freshman humanities class of 133 and natural sciences class of 119. This semester, there are 450 and 300 students enrolled in each, about one-fourth of the total CAS freshman class.
“Its mission is at the heart of general education in the college, providing students from many majors a rich common experience through intensive discussion of major works in religion, science, philosophy, literature and social policy,” Core Curriculum Assistant Dean James Johnson said in an email. “For this reason, the Core also fosters a strong sense of community. We sometimes think of it as a college within the college.”
Aside from its broad academic offerings, the Core is well-known for the community created among students and with faculty members.
“That’s unquestionably the first thing that impressed me,” Martin said. “I remember when I gave my first lecture, the Core had only been in place for a year. I went into the classroom, and I was watching all the students file in, and I was really impressed by the way that immediately these students knew one another. They had been together in the program for one year, and right away, there was this wonderful social ambience.
“I remember just watching this from the sidelines and thinking, ‘This is really unique at a university this size,'” he continued.
This sense of community helps drive the intellectual experience by encouraging students to freely voice their thoughts during lectures and discussions, according to Martin, who has been involved with the instruction and development of the Core’s humanities second-year courses since the fall of 1990.
Core students also showcase the strength of their community through many projects outside the classroom.
CAS Senior Associate Dean Susan Jackson said Core students publish a journal, hold annual banquets and talent shows and sponsor film and lecture series, among other activities.
Since its creation, the Core Curriculum has remained structurally intact, but is subject to constant revision.
“We are always making adjustments, both large and small,” Johnson said. “Important recent changes have included retooling one of our social sciences courses to include issues of contemporary importance involving urban studies, race, immigration and international relations.”
Other changes have included added emphasis on environmental issues in the natural sciences courses and on music and visual arts in the humanities courses, Johnson said.
For the humanities’ second year, artists such as Rembrandt, Artemisia Gentileschi, Goya and Van Gogh have been added to curriculum.
“Jane Austen, I believe, was the only woman represented on the syllabus at all during all four semesters for quite some time,” Martin said, emphasizing the importance of greater gender sensitivity. “Having witnessed last year’s changes and getting students’ response, a very positive one, now in the second year we want to see if we keep that momentum.”
Jackson said the Core Curriculum’s broad education prevents students from falling into an overly narrow instructional program. However, he said the Core is not for everyone. Many students enroll straight into the divisional studies program and take a required number of courses in humanities, natural science, social science and mathematics and computer science to fulfill CAS general education requirements.
“The habits of free inquiry, analysis, imagination and hard work that students can acquire in Core — and other substantial general education programs — are increasingly valued by employers and graduate professional schools as a counterweight to narrow specialization and complacency within the professions,” he said in an email.