Standard 4: Programs and Instruction
Dartmouth College offers a rich variety of undergraduate degree programs and a small set of graduate and professional degree programs that together fulfill its dual mission. Dartmouth has a strong system of faculty and administrative review for its degree programs. Over the past decade, every department has had an external review. Internal academic review processes are also well developed. Both undergraduate and graduate programs are characterized by their attention to the highest quality of curriculum and instruction, by their distinguished history, and by the close faculty-student interaction.
General Education Curriculum
Since the last accreditation review, Dartmouth College made substantial changes in its undergraduate general education curriculum, with a comprehensive reform of the degree requirements for the A.B. These requirements, which took effect with the class of 1998, meet the accreditation standards for General Education.
The new curriculum has recently been reviewed by an ad hoc committee for the Committee on Instruction. The review surveyed a wide range of faculty and students. In the review report and in our conversations with students, faculty, and administrators, we found that two areas of the new requirement present issues for further consideration: the Multidisciplinary or Interdisciplinary Course Requirement and the Culminating Experience.
Concerns about the interdisciplinary requirement are well documented in the review report, and center on both practical and theoretical dimensions. Too few courses are certified to meet the requirement, in part because the definition of "interdisciplinary" places severe constraints on the possible courses that could count. The two-year limit on teaching an approved team-taught course also limits the number of available courses. We urge the Committee on Instruction and the Dean of the Faculty to consider broadening the definition of interdisciplinary to include existing courses in the curriculum and to increase the number of times that a new team-taught course may be offered.
In reviewing publications such as the Dartmouth Bulletins, the accreditation committee noted the existence of a wide variety of options for culminating experiences. The review report also describes a "hierarchy between the different options, some more desirable than others." In conversations with students and faculty, we learned that some options for satisfying the requirement are perceived to fall short of goals. Faculty, especially department chairs, tended to cite a lack of resources — both human and financial — as an obstacle to creating consistently excellent culminating experiences. We recommend that the committees charged with evaluating the general education requirements examine this issue. We also recommend that the Dean of the Faculty assess the level of resources allocated to this requirement to ensure they are sufficient.
Grading Policy and Transcripts
Faculty commitment to improving communication to students about their academic achievement is clear from two recent developments. Since the last accreditation visit, revised statements of the meaning of letter grades as indicators of performance have been made available in publications and by the teachers of individual courses. Transcripts now provide the median grade for each course, in addition to the student's own grade.
Off-campus Study
Off campus study quarters are a strong component of Dartmouth's undergraduate education; students participate in the overseas off campus programs in considerable numbers. Faculty support is strong, as evidenced by the practice of regular teaching assignments abroad and by the close association of the off campus curriculum with home departments. Many undergraduates profit from this opportunity for intellectual and personal growth, as do faculty whose research is based on fieldwork or other remote resources.
The Year-Round Schedule
The practical reasons for the Dartmouth Plan continue to be relevant — there are not enough spaces on campus to house the entire undergraduate student body without a year-round schedule or a reduction in the number of students. The plan permeates all aspects of the Dartmouth experience — the curriculum, undergraduate research, housing, and student life. Its impact on the undergraduate experience is both positive and negative. On the positive side, the flexibility of the plan allows students and faculty considerable leeway in developing their schedules. For example, students can arrange for internships outside of the summer months, when competition is most fierce. Faculty can create teaching schedules that give them six months to devote to research — without tapping sabbatical accruals. The Dartmouth plan also helps to build class identity through the Sophomore Summer quarter.
Yet the plan also poses considerable challenges to social and academic life. It disrupts social relationships, as students must continually readjust to campus life. Because most Dartmouth juniors are absent one or two quarters in their junior year, curricular preparation for advanced study may be interrupted. In the junior year, students are expected to move beyond survey courses to use the specific tools of their discipline. Students may — if they are not careful — miss the opportunity to take important foundation courses. To help ensure that this does not happen, departments offer foundation courses on a repeated basis. Yet this duplication reduces the available faculty teaching resources that might be applied to more advanced courses or to the supervision of research projects. The plan may thus interfere with the development of personal mentoring relationships. We recommend that the continuing conversations about the Dartmouth plan consider its impact on mentoring and research opportunities in the junior year.
Advising
A perennial problem area for all undergraduate institutions, advising is particularly difficult at Dartmouth, according to a wide consensus of student, faculty and staff. The need for careful academic planning is acute because students must submit their D-plan — their intentions to be resident or not for all terms through their senior year — by the end of their first year. The first-year students are expected to understand how their plan might affect future academic decisions such as study abroad, the major, or honors.
We recommend that the Dean of the College coordinate with the Dean of the Faculty to rethink the ways that both professional staff and faculty can work together more effectively. As experts in academic regulations, the registrar's office should be a third partner in this enterprise. Using technology to support first-year advising should also be explored. Finally, we encourage Dartmouth to expand the participation of upper-class peer advisors in academic advising.
Sophomore advising also needs significant strengthening. At this time, 1100 students share one professional advisor in the class dean's office. Moreover, faculty advisors do not always work as closely with students in the second year as they do in the first. Because sophomores are often away from campus in winter or spring quarter, it is difficult to provide continuity in advising. However, the sophomore summer presents a unique opportunity to concentrate advising services or workshops, and we recommend this as a possible next step.
Quality of Instruction and Student Body
Attention to the quality of instruction is a prominent value at Dartmouth, and teaching excellence has long been a hallmark of education at the College. The accreditation committee agreed with the self-study that Dartmouth needs to develop more reliable and consistent measures of teaching performance.
The past decade has seen a steady increase in the quality and diversity of the undergraduates at Dartmouth as a result of deliberate admissions and recruitment policies. We are confident that Dartmouth College students have the skills, preparation, and intellectual vitality that will enable them to be creative contributors to the academic community.
Graduate Education
Dartmouth's long and distinguished tradition of professional education in business, medicine, and engineering has remained an important part of the institution. Each of these degree programs — at the Tuck School, the Medical School, and Thayer School — has a clear sense of its mission and its place in the larger Dartmouth community.
Over the past decade, the expansion of graduate education in the sciences has been dramatic, while faculty in the humanities have been less interested in mounting full graduate programs. The result has been an uneven distribution of resources for graduate education across the divisions. The challenge is to manage these resources effectively; for example, the committee learned that faculty in some departments teach graduate courses as an overload in order to cover the full curriculum for both graduate and undergraduate degree programs. We encourage the Dean of the Faculty to work with the associate deans and department chairs to assess the extent of this practice and its desirability.
Undergraduate and graduate/medical students have opportunities to become partners in scholarship when they work together in research labs under faculty supervision. Some graduate students have positions associated with College residences, and interact with undergraduate students in out-of-class settings. We encourage the Dean of the College to explore opportunities for additional ways in which graduate students can become part of the residential community.