Students debated over the core curriculum in the first-ever student debate sponsored by the Great Issues Committee last Thursday, Oct. 24. Three students presented the views on the core followed by an open forum where audience members could voice their opinions and suggestions.
Nathan Byrd, an Arts and Sciences freshman and Brian Carl, Arts and Sciences sophomore, spoke in favor of the core.
Mark Emanuel was unable to attend the debate, but his ideas about the current core at Saint Louis University were presented.
SLU is defined as an institute of “higher learning (and) such an institute should teach one about God and life … yourself and your life,” Byrd said. History teaches us about the world long ago, math and sciences helps one discover how things work, and students are enlightened by fine arts, Byrd said.
“The purpose of a liberal education is not just to make a person well-informed but rather to free one’s mind,” Carl said.
“The core allows student to discover what fields of study they are interested in, allowing students to examine and question their education” Byrd said. “By taking away the core, students are depriving themselves of their self-discovery.”
According to Carl, the core curriculum at SLU has a proper place with a two-fold purpose for a Catholic, Jesuit university: 1) to provide a solid base and foundation, and 2) provide students with a mythological view of life.
Emanuel thinks the core needs to be refined to better suit students’ majors. If a student is in the sciences he should be required to take more sciences than humanities and if a student is in arts his core should include more humanities than sciences.
“I like the core curriculum,” said Rachael Betty, an Arts and Sciences junior, “but I would love the opportunity to take a Native American history course.”
Eric Immel, a sophomore, said, “SLU needs to expand the diversity of classes offered to better fill the students interest. The core curriculum needs to be regulated at the 100 levels, with the same syllabus and even the same textbooks.”
The Student Government Association wants students to voice their opinions about the core by taking a survey on their Web site, sga.slu.edu.
