HSS Student-Faculty Conference Presentation April 5 th, 2008

Introduction ► Early in the year, the committee identified possible ways to improve the HSS curriculum. ► These issues were rewritten in the shape of survey questions. ► The conclusions we present today are largely based on this survey. ► There were 378 respondents, more than 40% of Caltech undergraduates.

Freshman Humanities ► Freshman Humanities have two intended goals:  Introducing students to the various core disciplines  Teaching students to become better writers ► In the survey, respondents were asked how strongly they agreed with the claim that these goals were being met effectively.  33% disagreed with the statement that the first goal was being met effectively.  56% disagreed with the statement that the second goal was being met effectively.

Freshman Humanities (cont.) ► This suggests there is a lack of emphasis on writing skills in the freshman humanities. ► Possible solutions:  Assign papers more frequently. There are freshman humanities that assign only 2 papers in a term.  Require students to revise their papers. ► Additional problem: Pass/Fail grading for freshman humanities induces minimal effort in writing papers for the class.

Improving Course Offerings ► In a small school setting, we cannot afford to offer classes in the entire range of areas students are interested in. ► We can, however, try to identify the subject areas which would most benefit Caltech students. ► Borda scores were tallied for the following survey question: “In what area would you most like to take humanities/social science courses?”

Improving Course Offerings (cont.)

► In the humanities, all the subjects that ranked highly are already offered to a certain extent.  Foreign Languages ranked highest, but this is a vague indicator.  The interest for music far outweighs the number of classes currently offered. ► In the social sciences, economics, psychology, and political science ranked highest.  There is also a considerable demand for linguistics and to a lesser extent archaeology, both of which are not currently offered.

Improving Course Offerings (cont.) ► 60% of respondents claimed to agree or strongly agree with the claim that they’d like to see more social sciences offered that are less mathematical in nature. ► These alternatives exist already though. (potential suggestion bias?)

Organizational Issues ► Too many humanities classes are being offered by announcement.  Better scheduling would allow students to plan on taking classes. ► A majority of students (51%) prefer the 2 times a week, 1 hour and a half meetings format for HSS classes.  Against only 19% for 3-hour timeslot evening classes.  Evening classes have been the dominant format because they are easier to schedule.  Suggestion: 2 times a week evening classes.

Other items discussed ► Freshman humanities: are they even necessary? ► It may be hard to keep classes challenging and interesting for HSS majors when there are non- majors in the class. ► Minors in the social sciences: little faculty interest. ► Breadth requirements in the humanities and social sciences: should they exist?

Questions