Student Union

The Undergraduate Council

As an Olin Senator I serve as an Olin representative on the Undergraduate Council (membership attached below), which meets about four times per year to discuss issues and concerns relevant to the undergraduate experience at WashU.

This past Tuesday we had our first meeting of the year and discussed, among other things, the upcoming overhaul of the ArtSci Cluster System and the looming Tobacco Ban that starts in July 2010.  These both had really good presentations and I wanted to update you all on some of the more important changes and ideas presented.

I will also post the agenda before the next meeting occurs to get some feedback on the issues presented.

Attachments:

Undergraduate Council Roster

Tobacco Ban Presentation

Cluster Reform Presentation

Tobacco Ban

Presented by Dr. Alan Glass, Assistant Vice Chancellor & Director of the Habif Health & Wellness Center

Contact: Alan Glass aglass@wustl.edu

The main points that I got from this presentation are two-fold.  First, this decision, which as you may know was made by the Chancellor, was a public health decision.  There have been instances in the past where WashU has taken stances on public health initiatives, and this is not the first one. Additionally, the rationale for promoting this ban is sort of a natural progression, as the Medical Campus went tobacco-free in 2007 – having the rest of WUSTL take that route was just a matter of time.  As you can see on the attached list, we are one of many, many schools who have gone tobacco-free in just the last two years – this is not a new idea.

The second portion that Dr. Glass’s presentation addressed was the implementation of the policy.  As of now, the community will enforce the policy.  This means that, as of now, there aren’t plans to have WUPD Officers patrolling around looking for smokers.  Interestingly enough, the University has collected data that indicate that a majority of smokers on our campus (about 17% of our population) begin the habit when they arrive on campus.  The hope is that by not allowing smoking, incoming students will have less of an opportunity to start smoking, bettering our collective health.  I was surprised to learn that this was also the case for many international students.

However, the implementation is still up for discussion, as opposed to the ban itself, which will start on July 1, 2010.  There is a committee of students forming under the direction of Jill Carnaghi, Vice Chancellor for Students, and leadership of Amy Heard the Chair of the Senate University Initiatives Committee. 

***This is still not a set committee, and you can have your voice heard!!***

 If you are interested in being a part of this committee, please send an email to initiatives@su.wustl.edu with your name, major, year, major student groups that you belong to, and why you are interested in the committee.

Clusters

Presented by Professor Mark Rollins, Professor of Philosophy

Contact: Mark Rollins mark@wustl.edu

This presentation was focused on the work his committee has done recently in overhauling the Arts & Sciences curriculum to a new system.

Key Aspects of Old Curriculum:

-Cluster System

-QA and Writing 1 Requirement

-Distribution Areas: LA, TH, NS, SS

-Small Group Focus: FOCUS Programs, Writing 1, Research

New System:

-Integrated Learning Model

-NA and Writing 1 Requirement

-Distribution Areas: LC, HUM, NS, SS

-MORE Small Group Focus: FOCUS Programs, Writing 1, Research

-LC = Language & Culture – removes the need for a separate Culture/Diversity requirement

-Adding the Humanities to include performing and creative arts

-AN = Applied Numeracy à classes about probability and numeric reasoning

So What’s the Integrated Learning Model?

-The ILM includes 6 units in two of the following: second majors, minors, FOCUS programs and some remaining clusters.

-Should make it easier for students to complete while achieving the same learning goals

Please take a look at the presentation, which is attached, for more concrete information and feel free to email Professor Rollins or myself with any further questions or ideas.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any comments or questions, leave them below and I will try to answer them or point you to someone who can. 

Good luck on midterms!