Dean Cyrus C. Taylor. Photo by Daniel Milner.

All of us at Case Western Reserve are proud of the advances we have made during the past 15 years in attracting exceptionally qualified and engaged students to our campus. But we also recognize our responsibility to build on our progress and continue exploring ways of enhancing the undergraduate experience.

This is the goal of a university-wide initiative in which faculty members from the college, beginning with Associate Professor Kimberly Emmons (English), have assumed leadership roles. The Provost’s Commission on the Undergraduate Experience, along with five “thinking groups,” has devoted the past year to information gathering, discussion and deliberation. The first fruits of their efforts appeared in a report this fall with a set of preliminary recommendations.

I emphasize the word “preliminary.” The report is intended to spark further dialogue about how to define and achieve our vision of the undergraduate experience at Case Western Reserve. In recent weeks, the commission has launched a series of forums in which students, faculty members and staff members are helping to shape the final recommendations, which will be issued next year. At that point, the college and all the schools that confer undergraduate degrees at CWRU will consider the recommendations through appropriate faculty governance processes.

Although I cannot summarize the entire report, let me mention two areas to which the commission has devoted significant attention.

Curriculum. Since 2004, all CWRU undergraduates have completed a general education curriculum built around a series of discussion-based SAGES seminars. In addition, they have fulfilled other general education requirements that vary depending on whether they are pursuing majors in the college, the Case School of Engineering, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.

The commission has called for a new general education curriculum, focusing on “what different forms of disciplinary knowledge can reveal about the world.” It has also proposed creating a single set of general education requirements for all CWRU students, regardless of their major or degree program. The latter change would allow students greater flexibility in choosing courses and make it easier for them to chart a pathway toward graduation.

Advising. In our current system, SAGES First Seminar leaders serve as academic advisors to the entering students in their courses. Once the students declare a major, they are matched with a departmental advisor.

The commission has proposed the creation of collaborative advising teams to guide and support every student at Case Western Reserve from the time they accept admission until they walk across the stage at Commencement. Led by Undergraduate Experience Coordinators working in concert with faculty advisors and student support staff, the teams would provide comprehensive advising to each student on everything from course selection to experiential learning opportunities to post-college planning.

If you would like to learn more about the commission’s preliminary recommendations and its ongoing work, please send a query to PCUE@cwru.edu. We welcome your ideas about how we can best educate, guide and inspire our remarkable students.

Cyrus C. Taylor
Dean and
Albert A. Michelsen Professor in Physics