The result of the first student-led initiative of its kind, a major in Global Development now is in its final stage of approval from the College to accept students this fall, said Richard Handler, associate dean of academic programs. The major will combine courses from the departments of economics, politics, history, environmental science, sociology and anthropology and will create new classes about the emerging concept of global development.
The program will aim to give “a sense for practical application of the theories of global development,” said fourth-year College student Kendall Wallace, chair of the student-led Development Major Committee, which spearheaded the effort to create the major in October 2006.
Interested students may apply in the spring of their second year for acceptance in the fall semester of their third year. Students will then take a year-long course in their third year focusing on case studies, which provide an analytical framework upon which to test and apply theories of how the world develops, Wallace said. During the spring semester of their fourth year, students in the program will write a 30-page research paper about a self-selected topic, incorporating the ideas and theories they have learned up to that point.
“Development, global or otherwise, is a change process that involves technology, social institutions, social values and culture,” said Economics Prof. Bruce Reynolds, a member of the faculty advisory board that aided students in developing the major. The major’s interdisciplinary approach to the topic is essential, Reynolds said, as each department in the College “looks at global development from its own perspective.”
The program has already drawn interest from a number of students across the University. First-year College student Molly Tansey said she already has expressed interest in applying to the program, and she agreed that the program’s interdisciplinary approach to global development is vital.
“In order to be able to go out and look at developing nations and try to provide aid in any way you can, you have to have all of the perspectives,” Tansey said.
Fourth-year College student Pat Casey, president of the Global Development Organization at the University, also helped lead the effort to create the major.
“No one discipline has claimed a perfectly accurate view of the world,” Casey said. “You want to have all good ideas on the table that you have access to. You don’t want to attack a problem from the lens of just one discipline.”
Casey was not alone in having this desire, Wallace said, because the major was almost entirely student-initiated. He said the Development Major Committee formulated a curriculum and a funding plan suited to the needs of the College. The Development Major Committee collaborated with a number of faculty, including former College Dean Edward Ayers to create the major. Ayers encouraged the students to seek the support of faculty across a wide array of departments, Wallace said, adding that the Development Major Committee created a faculty advisory board, comprised of eight faculty members, who also helped construct the program.
Handler, who led the faculty advisory board, said the process of creating the major was quite complex. Students had to find faculty willing and interested in supporting the major and had to create curricula for classes that would become the cornerstones for the program, he said. Reynolds, though, noted that those interested in the program were supported along the way, because this type of initiative “has a big cheering section among the faculty, who always welcome student-initiated proposals.”
In regards to funding for the new program, Handler confirmed that one alumnus already pledged financial support. He also said he expects the program will draw more donations from other alumni as well as foundations and corporations seeking a foothold in the University.
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