Preparing for Life Outside the Bubble: Why Bucknell Must Reform Its Curriculum

Bucknell graduates should be prepared to be the leaders of tomorrow. It's that simple. And to accomplish that in our increasingly competitive world, we--alumni and friends--have to do our part to make sure they get the best education possible.

Namely, they need (and deserve) a broad, liberal education. Unfortunately, that's not what Bucknell's current curriculum provides. As a result, students' educational experiences often lack vital components.

The Problem

Bucknell's current curriculum, dubbed the Common Learning Agenda, does not ensure that graduates will be given grounding in many critical topics, including American History, economics, foreign language, and literature. Instead, the system relies on distribution requirements, where students can select a course from many alternatives.

For example: Bucknell students must take four courses in "the humanities." But this semester alone, over 200 courses satisfy this requirement--many of them quite narrow and specialized. This means that even if students themselves choose to take a course in history, foreign language, or literature, they aren't getting a true "general education." They are as likely as not simply to learn about one small area of knowledge. The two-course "social science" requirement is similarly broad, and it doesn't include an economics course.

The Common Learning Agenda has fairly strong requirements for math, science, and writing. But that does not ensure a complete education. A university as great as Bucknell should have higher aspirations than this.

The Solution

Bucknell can and must transform its undergraduate curriculum. Unfortunately, the University just missed an excellent chance to do so, namely a multi-year curricular review. After dozens of alumni joined ABB in calling for real general-education requirements in American history, economics, and other key areas--the kind of knowledge Bucknell graduates need to learn and succeed--the faculty proposed, and the Board of Trustees approved, a new curriculum that does not make the necessary improvements. While the new curriculum is a start (it adds a one-semester requirement in foreign langauge, which is not enough to learn much of a language, but is better than nothing) there is much more to do.