The proposal for learning objectives and outcomes for a common undergraduate curriculum at CU Boulder, submitted to Provost Russell Moore in October by the Common Curriculum Planning Committee, won approval at the end of the fall 2022 semester in nearly all faculty governance groups in the schools and colleges, the Libraries and the Program in Environmental Design, as well as in the Boulder Faculty Assembly.Ìý
The vote was strongly in favor of the common curriculum proposal in all of these groups except for the Leeds School of Business, which held two all-faculty votes on the matter. In the first vote, 22 Leeds faculty voted in favor of and 24 against the proposal, with 31 abstentions. In the second vote, which was two ballots short of a quorum as defined by Leeds bylaws, 31 faculty voted in favor of and 17 against the proposal, with 16 abstentions.Ìý
On Feb. 1, Moore directed BFA Chair Tiffany Beechy, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Assessment Katherine Eggert, and Dean and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Daryl Maeda to proceed toward implementing the proposal, beginning with developing a set of implementation principles in concert with the BFA.
Eggert, Maeda and their staff teams will also begin working with colleges, schools and the Division of Student Affairs to map the common curriculum goals and learning outcomes onto existing degree programs and the First-Year Experience program.
In fall 2023, a campuswide faculty curriculum committee will be formed to evaluate the map and to work with colleges, schools and Student Affairs to identify opportunities to fill any gaps in order to achieve the common curriculum’s goals. The committee will ultimately be responsible for maintaining the common curriculum after it has been fully implemented.
Beechy, Eggert and Maeda urge all those with feedback about the common curriculum’s implementation to contact them at commoncurriculum@colorado.edu. Learn more about the at CU Boulder.
