Motivations for changing focus of the Program:

1. Need for more students
   1. To make major more interesting to (new) students
   2. To make the major more useful

1.      Increase emphasis on language skills. (Berman, 64, “Most students come… for the ability to use the language.” Van Dirke also)

2.      Make students more employable. (McVeigh)

3.      Combat perceptions/misconceptions about the Major (Berman, 62)

4.      Motivation /  Enthusiasm

5.      Being open (to whatever is appropriate for the generation at hand).

“Know your students and what interests them”. (McVeigh, 61)

 “…should enhance employability.” (McVeigh, 59)

Byrnes notes that the expected enrollment surge (as a result of moving to Cultural Studies) “by and large did not materialize” (118)

2. Better reflect our sense of what’s important in “German”

1.      Help students understand an “other” culture and literature.

 Berman suggests, The goal of an undergraduate curriculum is “as a reflective involvement in another culture … “reflective” [means] going beyond an enthusiastic fascination with alterity in order to achieve a cultural literacy with intellectual foundations…also…that students learning about another culture reflect on their own [culture].” (71)

2.      Help students appreciate the beauty of cultural artifacts/art

3.      Be less formalistic/mechanistic (Essif)

4.      Following our particular passions

5.      Focusing on who we are

Submitted by Wendy

Other Pages:

Introduction
Chronology -- From Proposal to New Program  
Proposal to Faculty Committee for Summer Workshops 2005
Interaction Strategies, Action Plans, Meeting Review Forms
Motivations for Changing Our Program Focus
Mission - Vision - Action
Workshop Minutes
Level Three Courses: New Course Descriptions and Goals (Cultural, Literary and Linguistic)
Assessing Literary Interpretation Skills
German Option Form