The last systemic overhaul of Macalester’s curriculum was in 1981. Two years ago, the Curriculum Implementation Committee (CIC), composed of both elected and appointed faculty, staff and students, was created to update the college’s General Education requirements. These changes will only affect incoming students the year after the new model is finalized and voted on by the faculty.
On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Professors Dan Trudeau and Beth Severy-Hoden led a CIC Student Town Hall in the Leonard Center Hall of Fame Room to share and receive input on the committee’s progress.
Last year, the CIC conducted surveys and facilitated focus groups to gauge what students, faculty and staff wanted out of required courses. They then distilled these results into several guiding goals, including integrating the liberal arts, preparing students for the world outside of college and avoiding the “checklist effect,” where students view requirements as tedious and lacking a clear purpose.
According to Trudeau, the CIC is focused on making the new system transparent so that the purpose of each requirement is clear.
“We’ve not put a great deal of effort into changing the requirements or suggesting that we change the requirements, but rather really redesigning the structure and the terms we use so that we can have more transparency in what it is that we’re asking every student to do,” Trudeau said. “We’ve also tried to create more connections between the curriculum, the courses that you take, and the co-curriculum, [which are] the non-credit-bearing activities that support your learning.”
Trudeau stressed that the model presented is only a draft, and that the CIC is still making changes.
“We’ve come to this proposed model to get feedback,” he said. “No decisions have been made. We’re looking to get your ideas.”
Under the current system, students must be exposed to each of the academic disciplines: fine arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences and mathematics. They must also achieve second language proficiency, take a First Year Course, and take courses involving writing, quantitative thinking, internationalism, and US identities and differences.
In the proposed model, the quantitative thinking and distribution requirements have been altered and grouped under “Ways of thinking and doing.” As part of engaging with the liberal arts, students must still take at least one course in each division, but also one course falling into each of the section’s five categories: (1) express yourself creatively, (2) analyze human history, culture, and thought, (3) explore scientific reasoning and hypotheses, (4) examine social theories and/or policies and (5) form and evaluate quantitative arguments. “We are open to these being fulfilled in a variety of ways, or more flexible ways,” Trudeau said. “At the same time, we also want to make sure that students have exposure to different academic divisions.”
He also noted that this new structure requires fewer courses compared to the current system.
The committee plans to keep the required fall semester first year seminar, but wants them to focus more on introducing students to the liberal arts rather than serving as gateways to specific majors. In addition, they’re proposing an optional two-credit spring semester course that could “provide additional support to students… so they can thrive in the rest of their time at Mac,” according to Trudeau.
Trudeau then moved from the “liberal arts learning” requirements to the “Mac core” requirements, which connect to Macalester’s mission of preparing students “to engage ethically with the world.”
In this section, the current Internationalism and U.S. Identities and Differences requirements have been renamed to Global Contexts, and U.S. Contexts respectively.
The CIC is also proposing a sophomore retreat and a required long term experience with a community engaged learning component, which many students already achieve through study away, internships, research and certain courses. The CIC is still weighing if and how to make these retreats mandatory, a prospect that concerned many students in attendance.
Trudeau acknowledged this concern as a major sticking point of the proposal. The CIC Progress Report pamphlet, distributed during the town hall, lists the problem of accommodating many sophomores’ busy schedules — in particular, athletes and working students — as one of its questions on co-curricular programming.
Another controversial change was the proposed Communication requirement. Currently, students must take three writing courses and achieve second language proficiency equivalent to four semesters of college-level study. Students who are already proficient in a second language often enter Macalester with that requirement already fulfilled, while incoming students proficient only in English need to complete four semesters of courses in a language other than English.
The proposed model still requires second language proficiency and one course in argumentative writing, but creates a broader category of “communication intensive courses,” and requires students to take a combination of six total communication or second language courses, regardless of their existing language proficiency.
Under this model, an incoming student proficient only in English would need to take four second language courses and two communication courses, while an incoming student already proficient in a second language would need to take six communication courses.
“One concern that has come up is a question around fairness,” Trudeau said. “Some students come in having met [the second language proficiency] requirement already…some have to start fresh… So we’re thinking about how we might address some of those concerns of fairness, but also maintain flexibility.”
He explained that Communication courses would encompass a variety of genres, including public speaking, visual communication, digital literacy and creative writing. He also noted that departments would be asked to embed major-specific communication strategies into their curriculum to provide ample opportunity for students to take communication courses within their major track.
Trudeau flagged this particular proposal as something the committee is seeking student feedback on and stressed that it’s still just a possibility being considered, not set in stone. Natalia Morales ’26 expressed concerns, noting that many international students, like herself, start with second language proficiency but have to catch up in other courses due to their coming from different schooling systems.
Pardis Roham ’28 and Philomena Shuffelton-Sobe ’26 had similar reservations about the burden of the six communication course requirement for students proficient in a language other than English. Shuffelton-Sobe also suggested that certain activities outside of class, like participation in forensics and The Mac Weekly, should potentially also count towards communication.
Trudeau concluded the town hall by encouraging students to submit any additional questions and feedback via the anonymous form on the CIC Website.
