Shelby Sims, Reporter
Sascha Stryker, Editor
Berry College made several key changes to the foundation requirement for next the semester. In February, faculty dropped a kinesiology requirement and reduced the hours of rhetoric and writing 101 and 102.
Starting immediately, all students will only be required to take one kinesiology (KIN) course, rather than the previous two course requirement. Any student that has already taken at least one KIN course will be able to see that the qualification has been fulfilled on their degree progress worksheet.
In the fall of 2019, rhetoric and writing (RHW) 101 and 102 will both change from four-hour classes to three-hour classes. This will only affect students who have not yet taken an RHW class.
The idea of switching from the requirement of two KIN courses to one came from the kinesiology faculty. Angela Baldwin-Lanier, kinesiology department chair, wanted to make sure that students receive a quality education from their KIN classes. The department also wanted to make KIN classes more accessible in order to ensure students would not fall behind in their graduation requirements.
Lanier explained that the choice was both student and content driven.
“We just hope that it’s beneficial to the student,” Lanier said. “We want these courses to be meaningful, not just another checking off of a box.”
Senior Jack Padgett thinks that the drop from two KIN classes to one will help students get into their required KIN class more easily.
“I wasn’t able to access kinesiology classes until I was a senior and I got to pick my classes before everybody else,” Padgett said. “I think that this should make it easier for people to fulfill those requirements, which is good.”
The change of RHW 101 and 102 to three-hour courses also came from the desire to make things easier for students. Previously, these required RHW classes met four days a week, which included a one-hour writing lab. The lab time sometimes caused class scheduling conflicts.
Bryce Durbin, of the Registrar’s Office, expects students to face less pressure on scheduling with the changes to writing and rhetoric.
“This will allow a little bit more simplifying in terms of your scheduling when you’re going to register for classes,” Durbin said. “It will help with freshman scheduling too.”
According to Dean of the Evans School Tom Kennedy, the KIN and RHW changes have been discussed for a while. Both decisions had several faculty members involved. Furthermore, representatives from SGA were involved in the changes to RHW 101 and RHW 102.
Faculty assured that the changes to the curriculum had nothing to do with the rebranding of Berry College. The Registrar’s Office said that the two changes were not connected to each other. Faculty hopes that these changes are beneficial to everyone at Berry College.