Course names to be reworked

Wilfrid Laurier University is in the process of renaming some of their English courses to increase their appeal to prospective and current students.

According to Ute Lischke, chair of the English department, a department meeting will be held on Monday to discuss proposals of potential titles.

The renaming of courses will not only help in building attractiveness to students, but it will also better indicate what the course is about.

Two first-year English courses were renamed from introduction to literature titles, to titles such as “Literature and Catastrophe” and “Literature and the Environment.”

As for upper-year courses, those changes will be discussed at the department meeting.

“I think one of the reasons [to change course titles] is simply so that we can indicate to students much better the content of the courses … if you can define it specifically with a title, then people are much more aware of what it is they are taking,” said Lischke.

Along with renaming course titles, Michael Carroll, dean of the faculty of arts, has asked all departments to consider developing new courses that are appealing and will continue to contribute to that department’s learning outcomes.

The process of making any changes to course titles is systematic, as the changes are first sent to the department and then to the faculty of arts curriculum committee.

Forms are filled out and rationales must be given, which explains the need for renaming.

After rationales are presented, the new course names will need to be approved by Senate.

The offer to change course titles was also put out to the entire faculty of arts, Carroll confirmed in an e-mail.

New titles will appear on the academic calendar when the process is completed, which could take up to a year.

Updates on these changes will be available on Monday, Nov. 3 following the department meeting.