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Associate Professor of History Julian Bourg has been appointed as the inaugural associate dean for the core in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, one of several recent developments in Boston College’s initiative to renew and strengthen its undergraduate core curriculum.
Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley and MCA&S Interim Dean Gregory Kalscheur, SJ, also announced the creation of a newly constituted University Core Renewal Committee to succeed the University Core Development Committee – created in 1991 – to provide governance for the core.
In addition to Bourg, members of the UCRC will include newly-appointed Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Akua Sarr [see separate story]; Center for Teaching Excellence Executive Director John Rakestraw; Institute for the Liberal Arts Director Mary Crane; MCA&S faculty members Robert Bartlett (Political Science), Jeffrey Bloechl (Philosophy), Dawei Chen (Mathematics), Brian Gareau (Sociology), Gail Kineke (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Franco Mormando (Romance Languages and Literature), Virginia Reinburg (History) and Cynthia Simmons (Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literature); and faculty members Sean Clarke (Connell School of Nursing), Audrey Friedman (Lynch School of Education) and Richard McGowan, SJ (Carroll School of Management).
A student member will be appointed this fall, Quigley and Fr. Kalscheur added.
The core renewal effort began in the fall of 2012 when the Core Renewal Committee met with groups of faculty, administrators, staff, students and other stakeholders in the University community to address concerns and hear views regarding the core curriculum, last revised in 1991. By the following spring, the committee had formulated a proposal with an emphasis on intellectual engagement with enduring questions, interdisciplinary approaches to complex problems, student formation and personal discernment.
University President William P. Leahy, SJ, established the Core Foundations Task Force in the spring of 2014, with Fr. Kalscheur as chair, to continue the core renewal project. After inviting faculty members to submit proposals for interdisciplinary core courses, the task force approved several pilot courses to be introduced this coming academic year. [Read a Chronicle story about the new core courses at http://bit.ly/1LX0PDm.]