Academic Senate discusses curriculum and changes for majors

Alex Woolner, Staff Reporter

The De Anza College Academic Senate is considering curriculum review changes and a new way to organize majors.

One change discussed at the Oct. 28 meeting was re-organizing majors into a new Guided Pathways system called meta-majors.

An ongoing issue with the current system is students will pick a major that sounds familiar to them without actually having any interest in it.

Meta-majors would group up similar majors and place them under one category. For example, music, theater and other artistic majors would all be grouped under the “Arts and Humanities” category.

The Academic Senate plans to have subject experts from each department map out the courses that students need to get a certificate.

Additionally, the Curriculum Committee Course Outline Review Process was presented by Erik Woodbury, faculty co-chair of the curriculum committee.

The plan is to make curriculum more equitable, make sure that units are appropriate and to reduce waste by keeping textbooks are up to date.

Currently the committee meets every week. With the changes they will potentially only have to meet two or three times a month.

Erik Woodbury said the curriculum committee changes will have a positive effect for students.

They will be able to make sure that GE classes are valuated consistently guaranteeing students will earn credits by taking a course.