As society constantly changes and evolves, education does as well. A university’s curriculum is ever-changing and adapting to provide and encourage new opportunities—AU is doing just that.
After installing a new strategic plan, the AU curriculum also began to be altered slightly, adding new opportunities for growth and development.
This past June, the Board of Trustees accepted the new five-year strategic plan for the university that focuses primarily on the students, prioritizing enrollment and the importance of a good student experience.
Developing the plan and integrating the student body allows the university to focus on creating a community that is encouraging, allowing the learning experiences to flourish.
The four main themes of the institutional strategic plan include outstanding student experience, forward thinking, fiscal strength and an outstanding place to work.
This plan was formulated within campus-wide discussions. Provost Dr. Marie Morris says that the plan “recognizes that our core business is educating students.”
With students as the focal point, having a theme focused on student experience is extremely important. In order to provide applicable education, the forward thinking and fiscal strength are necessary to obtain resources. These themes also aim to support the academic programs and students in general.
As AU embodies community and positive contributions made by staff, the final theme of an outstanding place to work was included.
Morris says that part of attaining these themes is to have programs that “not only attract students, but that also prepare them well for a lifetime of employment and engagement.”
In this sense, the curriculum is continuously reviewed and subject to change in order to create the best present and future experiences for students.
A new curriculum change is occurring and will create new possibilities in offering and promoting professional and educational developments.
The new curriculum proposal additions will allow students the opportunity to minor in history of Christianity, minor in visual communication design, a bachelor of science major in mathematics and a bachelor of science major in biology.
“Each of the four proposals provides an additional avenue for students to be prepared well for employment,” says Morris. “Both of the minors help to complement other majors, and by having a track for students to earn a Bachelor of Science in either biology or mathematics, give them an added advantage for graduate study.”
The proposals were voted on last week in a special faculty meeting. The results were as follows:
The minor in history of christianity and the major in mathematics each received 94 percent “yes” votes.
The minor in visual communication design received 96 percent “yes” votes.
The major in biology received 86 percent “yes” votes.
Faculty and staff believe that these additions will allow students more prevalent opportunity for future involvement and education.
Although these majors and minors are being added to the curriculum, there are no anticipated cuts of study as of late.
These fields not only provide AU the chance to open its doors to a wider range of students; they also allow current students to have a leg up and prepare themselves for future means of education and study.
As plans change and transform, it is important to have a vision of what is to come. AU’s vision statement regarding the strategic plan is “Real Life. Transformed.”
The addition of the new fields of study, and surely those to come in the future, embrace this statement, providing for and encouraging students within education and within community.