As Barnard re-evaluates its mission in the midst of the reaccreditation process, it is also revisiting a key component of its curriculum—the Nine Ways of Knowing—in an effort to address student concerns and ensure consistency with its goals.
The Nine Ways of Knowing requires students to take courses in distinct academic fields, three of which—Cultures in Comparison, Reason and Value, and Social Analysis—are currently being reviewed by three working groups comprised of faculty members.
“They’re ad hoc working groups. It’s a onetime thing,” explained Assistant Provost Angela Haddad. “They’ve been asked to study these three requirements. Those working groups are just faculty talking about what they want students to learn.” The changes have not been confirmed or made public yet.
The Nine Ways are regularly reviewed on a broader scale by the Committee on Instruction, which is chaired by Haddad and meets each week. SGA representative for academic affairs Zeest Haider,
BC ’10 serves on the committee to represent students, along with four other students who are appointed by a special committee on SGA. This is “a pretty continual process,” she said, explaining that the curriculum undergoes review in response to individual concerns raised about the requirements.
In addition to the three requirements currently being reviewed, the laboratory science requirement—which requires students to take two semesters of any science course along with a lab section—has been contested by many students.
“It’s time-consuming and often very challenging for students who are very strong in the Englishes and social sciences, so I think that a lot of it comes from the time invested in it and some people are not comfortable with science and math,” SGA president Katie Palillo, BC ’10, said. “I think just because we’ve been hearing a lot about the science requirement that we wanted to address that.”
Next semester, SGA will be holding a town hall on the science requirement, which Palillo said would be an opportunity for professors and students to discuss the this dissatisfaction.
“We want to try and provide a forum to give people the opportunity to address their concerns and suggestions,” Palillo explained.
Another requirement in question calls for two years of foreign language, which Nana Ankamah, BC ’12, described as “too long,” adding, “It conflicts with everything else you want to take. Not everyone is good at taking language. ...If they make it into a year and it’s very intensive in that year, it will be good.”
But Sumati Rajput, BC ’11 stressed the necessity of a balanced set of courses in order to obtain a well-rounded education.
“The Nine Ways of Knowing definitely allows students to get a glimpse of various fields of study, which is the purpose of a liberal arts education,” Rajput said. “While I can understand that most people resent taking requirements which they have no interest in, in order to have a well-rounded college education, having a taste of different fields of study is essential.”
She added that while the curriculum helps cultivate well-rounded students, it does not have as much of an effect on choice of major. “This is primarily because most students decide as freshmen what they want to major in, which makes their major classes a priority in comparison to the college requirements,” she said.
Because the curriculum is separated into nine areas, it is sometimes difficult to see the underlying thread that links each requirement together. Nonetheless, students and faculty alike agree that students can direct the course of their own Nine Ways experience.
“As students select these courses, the hope is that students would pick a theme,” Haddad said.
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