With thirteen schools, each with its own set of core requirements, it can be a baffling experience for students to attempt to plan a career at Saint Louis University. It is also difficult on those faculty members who believe in a single, unified version of a Jesuit education.

The core represents the University’s continuing effort to create a rounded, wholly educated person, a person who thinks and understands thinking. The existence of a core curriculum lets the University present to the rest of the world a consistent level of education, as well as ensure a strong Jesuit tradition through the student body, regardless of their major. People will know what to expect from a SLU graduate.

The Faculty Senate and many faculty members consider these and other aspects of the core’s pressing issues.

The core has become a rather contentious issue. To quote the FS Academic Affairs committee in the survey proposal, “. no consensus is reached, and nothing very fundamental happens.” The survey however, is completely nonbinding and anonymous. The FS lacks the power to enact any changes to the core curriculum, the survey is only to try to create an accurate cross-section of faculty opinion.

“Lots of committees have discussed the core . but there has never been an attempt to see what the whole faculty thinks,” said Ellen Carnegan, Ph.D., head of the FS Academic Affairs committee. “We let [Provost Sandra Johnson] know about the survey and she welcomed it.”

The committee has also sent letters to the deans and departments chairs to try to encourage them and other faculty in their respective schools to fill out the survey.

So far, said Carnegan, there have been more than 100 responses since Monday. The committee will not review the responses until after Sept. 30, the deadline for the surveys.

Around SLU, faculty and administrative responses have been positive.

“I think it is always good for an academic environment to have as broad a discussion as possible,” said Johnson. “I think they may want to include the students.”

However, Johnson did want to reiterate that the FS can not change the core itself and that this is simply a survey in order to facilitate future discussions.

“I think discussion is a good idea, especially about the core curriculum,” said Johnson.

Although he admits he is only speaking for himself, and not for the School of Business and Administration, the Dean Neil E. Seitz expressed exactly what many faculty members have been saying.

“We should be able to define at least what it means to be an educated person,” said Seitz. “One that reflects the Jesuit mission and values of the University.”

“The Business and Administration faculty has probably spent more time debating which Arts and Sciences courses students should take than what Business classes they should take,” said Seitz.

The Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Shirley Dowdy, Ph.D., understands the role of the faculty in making sure that any changes to the core curriculum will reflect the ideas and input of the faculty.

“The curriculum is the responsibility of the faculty,” said Dowdy. “It is important that any change be initiated by the faculty.”

Over the years, the core curriculum has been the basis of many heated debates. These discussions have included the role of the core, the number of hours it should entail and the fairness of the current core curriculum. Currently, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences will spend half their time at SLU on core classes alone, up to 63 credit hours. In comparison, Loyola University of Chicago requires 58, Washington University and Boston College require 45 each and Reed College requires only 32.

This survey is also partly in response to a report published in January by the University Hearing Committee. The report was a draft of five suggested core curriculum models.

Model one posits that each school create its own core curriculum based on a set of common principles. Model two, the Jesuit core curriculum, consists of 18 hours of Jesuit tradition courses (philosophy, theology and other Jesuit tradition courses) as the one university-wide core curriculum. Model three, the Essential Core I, consists of 30-39 hours spread over six fields of knowledge considered essential for all students. Model four, Essential Core II, consists of 39 hours spread over Jesuit/Catholic tradition, liberal education and skills. Model five, the flexible, mission-based core, is similar to the Essential Core II and consists of 36 hours, but with a greater number of classes to choose from in the areas of knowledge, values and skills.

The Academic Affairs committee will begin reviewing the responses in October. The committee hopes to inform future discussions and lead them down productive paths.