At the end of each academic year, all faculty meet to determine the following years syllabus. Despite our almost daily concern with devising, revising and teaching our syllabus, at the end of the academic year we spend several additional days of intensive curriculum discussion before the following year's syllabi are prepared. These deliberations are informed by a systematic review process that begins by soliciting student views on the texts they have now completed, what worked, where there were difficulties, what they would drop or add, how much time should be allocated to each of the readings. These questions are far more involved and informative than simply reviewing teaching questionnaires and evaluations, as useful as they may be. Faculty then bring forward these concerns to a meeting of all instructors in the course, and they draft a new syllabus in light of their own experiences and that of their students.
All meetings are open to faculty regardless of their specific course responsibility.
That negotiation among faculty takes place is unavoidable because we always have differing perspectives on which course would best cover a particular text, who has more available class time, and so on. In our experience, students are very reluctant to suggest that we drop anything they have read, and this affects the basic continuity of texts and structures, even as some changes are annually considered and implemented. Finally, all syllabi are forwarded to the College Curriculum Coordinating Committee, consisting of students and faculty, which addresses intellectual disputes over where a text belongs, how courses connect, overlap, and unfold, and the nature and extent of student assignments and the coordination of due dates, so that the reasonable and timely completion of work is assured. Student Advising Careful advising is also integral to the College's self-definition. This allows us the opportunity to review the general status of the student, detect any specific difficulties that they may encounter and to try to resolve them.