Curriculum Meeting

*I attended the Curriculum discussion on Monday (Feb. 4th) with 2 other students and 3 faculty. It was a small discussion and we got TONS of great ideas out there.

We are planning to have another discussion soon with hopefully MORE PARTICIPATION! I know you have opinions about the program - here is your chance to really share them and create REAL CHANGE!

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

• How to create the feeling of a "cohort" in our program?
• Cohorts create lasting relationships that can be a great help in our future professional careers
• Cohorts can create support groups for our class work and scholarship/research
  
• Social events on other nights of the week?
• Social events during weeknight class breaks
• In the past they have had small socials during breaks in evening classes so that people get a chance to see their friends who are not in the same classes
• Each class responsible for food & each shares about their class
• Require weekend retreat before starting first class?
  
• Some programs require cohorts to continue meeting once or twice a year to develop lasting relationships
• Could be fun community event; Habitat for Humanity? Other volunteer/cohort-building activities?
• Curriculum grant is 3 year grant to revamp curriculum now that we are no longer following Dominican's schedule
• 1st phase: reviewing CORE classes (701, 703, 704, 770)
  
• How to prevent overlap?
• Should these be required before taking advanced courses?
• Should these be taken with the same group of people (to create cohort feeling?)
• Introduce THREADS then build on those more as student progresses through program
• Introduce THREADS
• Threads include:
• Ethics
• Leadership
• Critical Inquiry
• Technological Fluency
• Research Methods
• Diversity
• These will be introduced in modules in the beginning of program;
  
• first: basic, background knowledge of subject
  
• second: practical application of threads, specifically as it relates to the class topic (ie diversity in children's literature)
• third: develop own understanding of topic; own vocabulary; refine understanding (ie ethical analysis)
• More class topics we want?
• There was a lot of discussion on other classes we want and other focuses for classes
• If we switch our academic calender to include a J-term we could possibly have classes that look at more specific topics, more in depth discussions
• Some other classes we wanted:
• Grant writing
• Non-profit management (not specifically related to libraries)
• Advocacy (public policy)
• Consulting
• More corporate library classes
• Technology (J-term internet basics, rather than entire semester)
• Library theory (reading and analyzing classic library theorists)
  
• OTHERS??
• I will let you know when the next meeting will be and I hope to see you all there. Otherwise, let me know your thoughts, ideas, etc and I can bring them to the larger group.

THANK YOU!