Paige Wassel
Editor-in-Chief
As early as next fall, students may be able to take elective courses taught by their peers.
According to Academic Dean Mark Matson, discussions are currently taking place to examine the possibility of offering "house courses": one-hour elective courses taught by students with faculty guidance.
"The idea came when I was trying to figure out how to get a better integration of faith and learning so it involves the students more," Matson said.
Matson said he knew a similar system was in place at Duke University, and he began to discuss the concept with the academic committee, as well as some students from the Student Government Association and Alpha Chi honor society.
Students interested in teaching a class would have to propose a course and get a faculty mentor to help them make a syllabus. Ideally, the courses would be taught in the dorms, and the faculty mentor would help assign a pass/fail grade, Matson said. He said the course would include some academic component like writing in a journal, but he wanted the guidelines for the courses to be "sufficiently broad."
"The idea is to open up the area of intellectual discourse to a wider variety of topics," Matson said.
Seniors Andrew Hopper, David Nydegger, Katie Lorencen and Laura Jones and junior Rachel Cunningham provided feedback on the concept.
"I think it's a great opportunity for the students that are going to be teaching," SGA Vice President Rachel Cunningham said. "It's also a really good chance for students to take a class that is outside our regular class schedule in more of a relaxed atmosphere."
Matson said after hearing student feedback, a proposal would have to be brought to the academic committee concerning the courses. Although full faculty approval would not be necessary for this to pass, Matson said that he definitely would look for faculty input on any proposal.
There is the possibility of modest pay for the faculty mentors and student teachers, and Matson said that funding from the Eli Lilly grant may cover expenses.
Alpha Chi President Laura Jones said that house courses would be a good way of getting teaching experience and an asset to have when applying for graduate school. She also thought that, because students are no longer required to have minors, they may have more room for such classes.
"I think it's a really good idea, but obviously it takes student participation for it to work," Jones said. "I hope students in the future take advantage of it."