Student-Initiated Seminars

In 1976 the Executive Committee of the Faculty voted to introduce a system of student-initiated seminars.

Students may propose to the Faculty Committee on Instruction seminars on special topics. Student initiators solicit the sponsorship of one or more faculty members and develop a syllabus and formal structure for the proposed course in consultation with the sponsor(s). In sponsoring a student-initiated seminar, a faculty member commits to regular participation in the seminar and assumes responsibility for assigning grades in the course. After the course has been approved by the appropriate Divisional Council, the Committee on Instruction may then approve, for a single offering, a student-initiated seminar which will be carried as a regular course. This seminar may serve in partial fulfillment of the Distributive or World Culture Requirements by prior approval of the Divisional Council and the Committee on Instruction, and in potential partial satisfaction of major requirements when previously authorized by the department or program concerned. Preliminary proposals should be directed by the initiators to the Chair of the Committee on Instruction at least two terms in advance of the proposed term of offering.

Before considering approval of a seminar the Committee on Instruction will require a full account of the nature of the requested seminar, justification for offering it, and assurance of active faculty support, availability, and time. The maximum enrollment shall be sixteen and the minimum, six. At the end of a seminar the faculty member assigns grades in normal fashion.