UT will test Signature Course
Class will be taught by two professors,
cover sustainability with 250 students

 

3/24/06
Source: The Daily Texan
Author: Clint Johnson

UT will test the concept of Signature Courses this fall with a new, team-taught class called "Sustaining a Planet."

Two professors from different fields will teach the course, which will be modeled after a recent task force proposal to add two interdisciplinary, or "Signature," courses to the required core curriculum. The proposal is part of a larger effort to revamp UT's core curriculum for the first time in decades.

Like the proposed courses, the new class will have about 250 students, mostly freshmen, who will attend smaller discussion sections taught by teaching assistants. The sustainability course will satisfy three hours of the nine-hour natural sciences requirement.

"There have been a number of campuswide sustainability initiatives," said David Allen, a chemical engineering professor. "So when the idea of the Signature Courses was proposed, it seemed like a logical thing to do an experiment."

Allen and Jay Banner, a geology professor, developed the course and will teach it this fall. Administrators haven't decided whether or not to restrict enrollment to freshmen.

Allen and Banner already teach separate courses on sustainability, and the two will combine some of their existing curricula with guest lecturers from various other fields.

Banner compares sustainability to a triangle with three points.

"One is social equity. Is it fair to everyone? Another is the economy. Is it continuing to grow? And the third is the environment," he said. "The challenge of sustainable development is to keep those three things healthy."

Sustainability was a natural choice for a pilot Signature Course, because the topic is so interdisciplinary, said Paul Woodruff, director of Plan II and task force member.

Woodruff has become a liaison between the administration and professors developing Signature Courses. He said he's seen other "nibbles" of interest in potential Signature Courses, but Allen's and Banner's course is the only one ready for the fall so far.

A task force chaired by President Bill Powers examined the core curriculum last year and issued sweeping recommendations.

The proposals, especially one to create a freshman college to oversee the core curriculum, have sparked an intense debate across campus as UT reviews its core curriculum for the first time in 25 years.

Engineering Dean Ben Streetman called the proposed University College "a complete disaster" last month. Supporters include some of the University's top professors and its president.

The Powers report recommends two mandatory Signature Courses taken during the freshman and sophomore years.

The goal is to connect young students with the University's most engaging professors and to provide a common academic experience for all students.

The task force recommended the new University College approve and administer all Signature Courses.

Since a new college is still only a proposal, Woodruff said the pilot Signature Course will fall under Connexus, an umbrella organization for several programs in the provost's office.

Connexus already oversees interdisciplinary seminar courses for underclassmen and other programs that some argue are very similar to the task force's recommendations.

The sustainability course will likely be cross-listed as both Geology 302P and Chemical Engineering 311, Allen said.

Critics have complained that Signature Courses will be massive lectures with assistants doing much of the teaching in smaller discussion sections.

Banner and Allen said they plan to recruit top graduate students as teaching assistants and provide them further training on sustainability issues.

Woodruff said the discussion sections will function as Freshman Interest Groups, which are small cadres of first-year students taking similar classes.

UT employs a number of experts on sustainability, Banner said, including members of a standing committee on the topic and members of the Campus Environmental Center.

A draft of the course proposal lists five guest instructors from fields such as economics and integrative biology.