Integrative Studies Requirements

1. Suppose you had the power of choosing which courses would compose the Houghton College Integrative Studies (IS) requirements.

For each of the following, please indicate how you feel about the course or area of study remaining or being eliminated as an IS requirement.

(Please refer to The Houghton Star issue published on the week of April 30, 2007 for more information.)

				Definitely eliminate <---0---> Definitely keep
			(%)	9	5	3	1	5	6	10	11	9	37	4
	Advanced Bible
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	5	2	5	3	6	7	7	10	13	41	1
	Biblical Literature
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	6	3	4	3	4	6	11	13	11	36	2
	Fine Arts
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	26	12	9	12	10	7	6	4	4	11	1
	First Year Introduction (FYI)
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	8	5	6	6	9	10	9	13	9	26	1
	Foreign Language
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	3	2	2	4	8	12	13	18	14	19	5
	Humanities
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	4	2	3	4	6	5	9	10	14	38	5
	Introduction to Christianity
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	6	4	5	7	13	11	13	9	9	20	3
	Laboratory Science
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	14	6	5	12	9	12	12	8	7	15	1
	Physical Education (Lifetime Wellness + another course)
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	61	13	6	8	5	2	2	1	3	1	1
	Library Research
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	3	3	2	3	10	9	11	13	12	31	5
	Literature of the Western World
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	6	1	4	4	12	15	13	12	10	23	1
	Mathematics
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	2	4	5	6	12	14	12	13	7	23	3
	Oral Communication
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	9	4	4	5	8	10	13	11	9	25	5
	Philosophy ("3M" or History of Phil.)
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	4	1	1	4	7	10	15	17	16	24	2
	Social Science
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	11	4	4	7	4	6	14	14	10	23	3
	Western Civilization
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
			(%)	4	0	1	2	4	6	11	12	14	43	3
	Writing
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	N/A
	Total: 198

5. Any comments, questions, or suggestions regarding this specific topic or about PoLaRiS in general?

(Please refer to The Houghton Star issue published on the week of April 30, 2007 for more information.)


All 50 responses provided by students of Houghton College:

I feel as though the Library staff and the students would be better served by producing a regularly updated pamphlet about the library as opposed to having a course in Library Research.

As a student, I wish that I could focus more on the courses that are specific to my major and not have to take so many courses that don't interest me, that I'll never use, and that I don't enjoy sitting through. I would love to have more time for courses that apply directly to my major and that will benefit my career and my life the most.

Foriegn Languages should be taught diffrently, by immersion, not classroom based. I think forign lang is important, but nearly impossible to learn the current way that it is taught.

We really need a better variety of classes to take as electives, more that explore the fine arts. More Intro classes to more subjects.

When students have the choice to choose their classes, they will atomatically like them more. Instead of deciding which departments every student should participate in - why don't we just let students choose their classes, but their electives have to be comprised of five other departments other than their intended major.

Question 3 is a hard one at answer here at Houghton, simply due to the number of faculty that we have on hand to offer a wide variety of courses. If we were a large institute I would say that more should be offered, but with what ew have available, I think Houghton offers a very good bredth of options for us to pursue.

I sit on a fence on this issue. I agree that, indeed, I have found many connections among various fields. Indeed, I would love to be an expert in every possible field, because I see the connections of all sorts of different fields. However, I feel that seeing these connections are totally dependent upon the student's mindset. Many students will never see the connections, and no amount of teaching or coersion will do so. In that sense, the gen-eds are useless for them. At the same time, I also feel restricted by them. There's so many classes that I want to take, but won't have the opportunity. I want to explore areas deeper - particularly directly related to my major - but I can't, because I've had to focus on getting my gen-eds out of the way. It's rather frustrating.

Students should be able to skip a certain number (perhaps 2 or 3, as a maximum) of IS classes ONLY IF they are taking an upper-level course (perhaps 300 or above) in their major. That way, underclassmen are encouraged to take IS (since they may not get in or may not want in to a 300 course yet), while upperclassmen can focus more on their major, instead of taking a last 1 or 2 IS classes that cause them to miss important classes for their major.

I transfered to Houghton as a Sophmore and appreciate the Liberal Arts aspect, however, it is difficult if the student has to transfer to another school to carry over major/minor credits if most of the first two years are solely focused on Integrative Study classes.

While Houghton should continue to require integrative studies, these courses should be among some of the easiest at Houghton, NOT the hardest. I have floundered in a lot of my integrative courses, while flourishing in my actual field of study. Students should have to work harder to succeed in the courses that are actually pertinent to what they are going to do, rather than courses that really do not matter in the long run.

Integrative stidies aren't that bad. People who are annoyed at them can go to another college. They say, "There aren't enough options." There could indeed be more, but there is always the option of not going to a liberal arts institute... My only criticism pertains to the professors who teach IS classes less than half heartedly and in so doing harm the idea of liberal arts and do the students no good.

The three courses that I did not want to "definitely keep" - FYI, Lifetime wellness, and library research - are annoying classes to take. I feel that the goals of each class are beneficial but that the actual working out of those goals could be done better. They need to be revamped and maybe even combine so they are less of a burden.

Without trying to be disrespectfull I think this is a really dumb Polaris. What people say really has any effect on causing change in this area. I think people care very little about what other people think about I.S. requirements.
Better topics might include: SGA use of budget, dorm activities and so on.
thanks,

We should keep to credit based classes.

I have had a wonderful experience drawing out the connections between my classes, but only once or twice have I ever experienced a teacher mention these connections. Also, I know far too many of my peers who don't - some even refuse - to draw such connections.

There is a lack of understanding WHY the IS credits we have are important. While taking Western Civ. I wanted to know how it was going to affect my life. And there isn't much variety in both subjects or skill-level when it comes to IS credits. For example, the highest math I'd taken in high school was Algebra II, and that was in 10th grade. So, Precalc was a BIG struggle for me, especially since I still didn't understand many algebra concepts. Also, there aren't many languages offered, other than the basics that most colleges have. I want to take a language that will be useful to me in my life and career, and the languages that are offered don't fulfill that. And, many people do choir to fulfill their Fine Arts requirement, because most of the Art classes are geared toward majors, or those that have already taken art classes. There are some IS requirements that are important. One of my favorite IS classes was Intro to Christ. I learned so much about the variety of beliefs in the Christian faith, and many questions I'd had were answered, and I grew in my faith. I spent a good portion of my schooling in Bible classes, so it's not like just the basics were covered. It was really interesting class, and I knew it had an affect on the rest of my education and my life.

Recently I haven't been able to see the combined responses online, just my own response.

many of the requirements are seen as just that, requirements. They are classes which must be taken, and to often these classes are items which students put very little effort into and become a waste of time. Very often it seems even the professors are not a fan of many of the required classes which everyone must take. An understanding which was mixed with practicality may bring a better response from students who are trying to seek a purpose for these classes. (Such as a math major taking a literature class)

Keeping Mathematics as a mandatory requirement only serves to hold back those who are not "numbers-minded" and should be eliminated, since many of the non-mathematically-inclined are able to function in everyday life and do not need to sit for hours at a table and labor mentally over whether x=y or whether it equals the exact number of harebrained ideas that IS professors often espouse in order to keep their places in teaching courses that are useless in everyday life.

Of all the topics available for integrative studies, there is no government or political science option. Even a course on the American government system would be helpful- it is absolutely appalling the amount of information people don't know about our government.

I am a transfer so I didn't have to take many of the IS courses here; hence my several N/A responses.

I think that the some classes should not be eliminated, but rather updated, changed, made better, or more options. More fine art options for people who are not technically good at art, the teaching of western civ and bib lit were very poor in my experience, and I think with a better instructor I would have gotten more from them. They are important subjects that were poorly taught.

I don't understand why it is necessary to have Bib lit, introduction to christianity and an advanced bible. My intro to christ course covered everything bib lit did and the same can be said for my advanced bible. I feel like I wasted 6 credits on what could have been done in 3. Those 6 credits could have been applied to my major, something I am actually interested in. In addition to what feels like a waste of time while actually at houghton, I considered transferring out, only to find that the upper level bible and intro to christ courses would count for nothing. Thanks alot houghton, way to go.

I think it would be more beneficial to have Lifetime Wellness be a pass/fail class. Most of the information is common knowledge, so having it set to Houghton's grading scale does not make much sense. b

The only area of study I feel strongly about changing is mathematics. Pre-calculus is not essential to many careers, such as those in art, writing, English, music, etc. I wish Houghton would offer a lower-level introductory math course that would be more helpful to students' everyday life and future careers. Some students would benefit from the option of a lower-level course just as others benefit from the option of taking either Principles of Writing or Advanced Composition, or an introductory Drawing class rather than Painting III (to some of us, taking Pre-calculus is the equivalent of a non-artist taking Painting III). I'm not saying Houghton should abolish the math course; just offer a lower level for those of us who struggle with and don't need such advanced mathematics.

Our modern society is BASED on science and mathematics. There is an unfortunate disparity between the number of humanities requirements and science requirements. If Houghton is to produce graduates with the capacity for problem solving and informed decision making, the number of science and math requirements ought to be increased and the number of humanities decreased so as to maintain the current number of requirements.

I think it would be great if there were more options for filling the Philosophy requirement, such as Aesthetics (especially for Art and Music majors).

I would like to have the opportunity to take some more IS classes but as an ICE major I can't. Therefore it's hard narrowing it down to just one course in fine arts and physical ed. among others.

I think that the IS classes do allow students to see connections, but more connections would be seen by students if professors focused more on this and stressed how they connected.

Also, some of the courses are important for a liberal arts education, but I think they should be set up differently. For example, I rated lab sciences low because I don't think a lab is necessary. Also I don't think there needs to be an additional math/science class after the first two--two is plenty for me and anyone else who came to college and doesn't like science and math.

I think the two .5 credit gym classes that accompany lifetime wellness aren't needed. I can see the validity of making Lifetime Wellness mandatory--it teaches us how to take care of ourselves--but I really don't think there's a reason for the other two .5 credit classes.

I think library research is a useful class for people to take because it's important for them to know how to use all the resources in the library, but the way that it's currently being taught makes it a waste of time because everyone just goes to class and goofs off or sleeps anyway. It is a useful class, and if students were learning it would be beneficial for them, but as it stands right now it's just a waste of time.

So all that to say, some of my answers are reflective of the way the IS classes are taught here at Houghton. I think that the majority of them are very important if we are to receive a liberal arts education, but I think more work could be done at making them relevant or effective so we are actually being educated. Also the courses should be structured the same way among different teachers who teach them. For example, when I took org comm and talked to someone who took it from a different professor we discovered we were learning the same things and had many of the same assignments, but when I took both Bib Lit and Intro to Christ I was learning things that were totally different than others taking the course with different professors and I didn't really feel like I was learning all that I wanted to or would have with a different professor.

I was very excited about how they're integrating some of the IS requirements into one course, like the 5-credit course combining lit and philosophy. If I wouldn't have already taken both of those classes, I would sign up for this class because it would be exciting to take a class where they were integrated and you could see the connections between the two subjects.

I think that people should be able to choose a bit more with what they want to have as their integrative requirements. Also, one thing that I have found quite irritating is that there do not seem to be many choices to choose from. I wish that there was a wider scope of courses, courses that are unique, more specific courses...

Being an ICE major I have an extremely difficult time fitting in all of my integrative studies requirements. Either a reduction in the upper level mathematics/science or more 3 credit fine arts courses need to be offered when we can take them. It's really nearly impossible.

I think that in today's day and age, it is important to not only learn about Christianity and its past.. but also other religions. What good is it to know one, but not be able to defend it against others - or at least understand whether Muslims, etc. are coming from?

I don't think having three math/sciences is important today, many jobs have to do with knowing how to interact with people - having more courses on socail sciences or humanities seems like it would produce better results and help people transition after graduation.

The First Year Introduction program gets changed every year, and yet every year all the students I talk to find it completely useless. I really think we should consider eliminating it, or consider eliminating the lectures and instead having discussions twice a week for 5 weeks or so.

I think that the real question should be, should self defense be offered for integrative studies and as a subject?

I think it is important for there to be a wide range of integrative studies, I just wish there were more options as far selecting integrative studies. For example, i think there should be more choice on selecting a math course, I'm terriable at pre-calc, but i know i would be able to get through an algebra course or something of that nature. Also, I think it is good to have foregin language requirment, however, i think 2 semesters would be fine, the third level i think should be optional and not a requirment. There is a decent amount of selection for phys edu courses, but i wish that there would some sort of self-defense course. As a woman it would be nice to know how to defend myself if i ever needed to. Also, i think for non-religion/philisophy majors, the philosophy requirment could be lowered from 4 credits.

One class that should be added to the Integrative Studies requirements list is a personal finance course. That would have been incredibly helpful and I wish it had been required of me.

I believe that with some of the Integrative studies requirement classes it is all dependent upon which teachers you end up having that actually develop and appreciation for the course material being taught.

I think that 3M and other integrative studies classes should either be three credits or less (except for the lab sciences). I also feel that varsity athletes should be exempt from Lifetime Wellness. I feel it is unfair for certain majors to be exempt from integrative studies recquirements while others with busy schedules or knowledge in those areas are recquired to take them.

I think there should be a specific number of requrements in a certain field that the student should be able to choose from. The number of choices is very limited.

Integrative Studies requirements would be much less painful if it weren't for professors that are too old to care about their jobs

I think a semester of foreign language and the library research requirement should be replaced with college study methods and personal finance. i think upper bible should be removed so that students can have another elective to either get more training in their field or a class that just looks appealing that they want to take. I know personally that i have 2 maybe 3 classes to take as electives and if i could i would take non-required classes. HOUGHTON SHOULD OFFER MORE MULTI-FIELD CLASSES (i.e. music therapy, political philosophy, art and workplace productivity or history of currency)

personally, the classes I marked as tens should be mandatory, library research I guess oculd be an option, but all the rest could be options, such as pick 3 that you want to do or something like that. But I do agree with the whole integrative studies idea

they should make the requirements not as complicated, like choose 8 out of ten classes or something like that.

For Western civ, why don't we change that to a World civilizations class, which I took before I transfered here. Most american students are already much more aware of American and European history than they are of the rest of the world, and since we now live in a global society, Houghton students need to have at least a basic understanding of the history of the rest of the world. Or offer a world civilizations and a western civilizations course and let students choose. American students in the public education system only learn about a few hundred years of American history from elementary school through middle school, then repeat another year in High school. Only one year is spend on world history in High school. A year of world civilizations, covering the thousands of years of history of dozens of cultures would only begin to balance that out. Also, in high school and in lit of the western world, we just covered stuff from english and american authors, and I think just adding a few readings from other countries could improve the class.

Western Civ does not need to be 2 semesters, it could be one 4 credit class, like philosophy.

Stefan Schiavone (who works in the campus store) should get a raise.

FYI began to be a waste of time ofter meeting for more than 4 sessions. Lifetime wellness was too much work for a one credit class. All it is, is a beefed up health class. I strongly believe that the two years of obligation free ROTC class should count towards the gym requirement. I believe that the leadership skill acquired will help in "acquiring an appreciation of the connections among the various areas of learning,
and between the various academic disciplines and the world of experience." As our mission statement so aptly stated. Who are we to discriminate against such a good institution. We need to up our numbers of cadets and show the real world how "scholar servants" can lead.

I would appreciate having the option of taking an advanced Bible course OR an advanced theology course. I don't understand why students can only fulfill the IS requirement with Bible. Any upper-level religion class should count.

I think it would be more productive to reduce the amount in certain areas such as foreign language and Bible classes

I believe that it is good to have a breadth of knowledge in the various areas; however, in some areas (such as history and Bible) we are required to go in depth rather than just touch on the subject area...one course in each area should be sufficient rather than 2 or 3 in some and 1 in others.