BY JEORGIA JAHUMPA
The elimination of 8 a.m. classes, more online classes, designated mealtimes, and a revised cornerstone program are all part of the revamped curriculum for Fall 2024.
Peter Ubertaccio, the vice president of Academic Affairs, said Stonehill will be changing the curriculum by Fall 2024 to provide incoming and current students with more options during their academic careers.
Ubertaccio said that they will be changing the definition of credit hours to accommodate in-person and online learning.
“The credit-hour definition based on the amount of time a student was sitting in a seat in a classroom,” Ubertaccio said, “In a hybrid online world that definition doesn’t really work.”
While Stonehill offers online courses for their graduate programs and throughout the undergraduate year, students can now attend online and hybrid classes.
Students said they have enjoyed the ease and flexibility of taking online courses.
“To be honest, I should have taken all online courses,” said first-year Angel Sor.
Alongside the new credit hour definition, Stonehill will introduce a new course schedule that will provide more breaks throughout the day.
Notable improvements to the course schedule include the removal of 8 a.m. classes, fewer classes that take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., classes that take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and designated lunch and dinner times.
Some students said they have trouble scheduling meetings, while others said they missed out on campus activities they wanted to attend because of their class schedules.
“I have three classes in a row now because there were so many afternoon classes available,” sophomore Gus Lage said.
First-year student Elijah Byrd said the space between his classes is tight with little downtime before going back to classes and a high chance of missing out on club activities.
Ubertaccio said the new course schedule will make it easier for student leaders and student-athletes to schedule their classes while also making time for practices and meetings.
“The most important thing you do in college is academics, but there is more to it than that. By adding more free time during the day, we hope that student groups have more opportunities to get together.” Ubertaccio said.
Starting in Fall 2024, the cornerstone program will be revised with new academic requirements, including 12 credits of languages, arts, and humanities courses, six credits of history and social science courses, a natural science course, a statistical reasoning course, a writing in the disciplines course, an ethical reasoning course and a catholic thought and action course.
The class of 2028 will be introduced to the revised general education program and will be required to take a first-year writing seminar, a diversity power, and resistance course, and a global perspectives course. Current students will follow the current cornerstone requirements.
The new program was announced last spring and added new requirements meant to provide more choices for students.
Academic Affairs will provide more information closer to the beginning of Fall 2024.
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