Political Science Dept. Modifies Major Requirements

Major requirements for Columbia College political science students will be lessened by 12 points starting this semester, the Columbia political science department announced.

After a University-wide review of undergraduate curriculum last year, the political science department’s Undergraduate Reform Committee met last spring to discuss modifications to the undergraduate political science program. As a result, the department will expand advising for political science majors and eliminate the major requirement for 12 points in courses of related fields such as sociology, anthropology, and history.

“Students had plenty of requirements as it was, and we wanted to give the students more freedom,” said Jack Snyder, Ph.D. ’81 and director of undergraduate studies for the political science department. Snyder added that he suspects most students take courses in related fields already and that the change in requirement may not dramatically change the classes students choose.

Political science professor Robert Shapiro, who was on the Undergraduate Reform Committee, pointed out that before this semester, the political science department had a high number of requirements compared to other social science departments. Shapiro said that the decision, which was made in collaboration with the dean’s office, was made because “it was a very loose requirement and there wasn’t any clear value added” by the existence of the requirement.

Although Shapiro doubted that upperclassmen who already fulfilled the requirement would be upset at the change, he acknowledged that when the decision was made, “there were jaws dropping that we were eliminating something that students traumatized over. And when I say traumatized, I mean students were trying to figure out how to double major, and that it [the requirement] was an impediment for them.”

Jacob Grumbach, CC ’10 and a double major in history and political science, said that although the requirement might have prevented him from taking some courses he would have liked to take, its elimination affects him only minimally.

“I don’t think it’s that bad,” he said. “I would have liked them [the requirements] not to randomly change, but if you’re taking poli-sci, you better be taking a history class, a sociology class, a philosophy class anyway.”

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