By John Tivenan
Originally published in Dog Street Journal's May 2019 issue.
There’s a lot of negative opinions that swirl around the COLL system that replaced the GRE
system four years ago. Many wonder why the system was replaced and whether it’s improved the school. It might be worth it to ask one of the founders of the COLL system about the underlying reasons COLL was created and how it has fared so far.
When you walk into Blair Hall there are pale and grim teal colored walls that reminds you of the school’s history. It can give a stale feeling at times, especially on a dreary day. You climb up two staircases and enter a brightly mustard colored office that contains an upbeat professor who is the head of the history of History department named Dr. Frederick Corney. Dr. Corney’s specialty is Russian History which can be deduced in a quick glance when you go into his office. The first thing you notice is there are yellow Minion Russian nesting dolls lined up in order from tallest to shortest on the shelves. The room has the pleasant smell of old books written about Trotsky. Behind Dr. Corney’s desk, you can see a calming view of a giant oak tree with statute of James Blair looking sternly away from Blair and Tyler hall. Dr. Corney appears to be frustrated with the computer screen as a PDF won’t change to Microsoft Word. I tell him I wish I could help, but I’m a history major and technology is not my specialty to which he jokes, “ahh so you are totally useless then.” He then goes on to explain the genesis of the COLL system. “I was contacted by the Dean for Educational Policy and Dean for the Curriculum Review, Teresa Longo. I felt a renewed sense of excitement about the committee for the new curriculum. After serving in previous committees, I’d felt exhausted, but I just felt something different and promising about this committee.”
JT: “What was it like to create a whole new curriculum? To me it sounds overwhelming.”
Dr. Corney: “It was exciting as you had basically were starting from scratch with a blank sheet of paper. At first we listed things that we liked and disliked about the college. The GER system was something we didn’t like. We felt the classes in the system were treated like checking something off a box. There was no underlying reason for why you would take these classes besides fulfilling a requirement. A lot of times you had classes being offered that were offered
the year before. As a result the GER system felt ossified. One of the main ideas behind the COLL system is we wanted to challenge students and give them a curriculum that makes them go against the grain. Furthermore, we wanted to challenge professors and get them outside their comfort zone.”
JT: “What did you do to create the curriculum?”
Dr. Corney: “We decided to do research other schools’ curricula. We then brought in people who allowed us to hone in more on the goal of what our project would be like. Once it was settled, a bunch of us went in pairs to different departments. Arthur Knight and I went over to the Biology department and Language department to tell them about the new curriculum system.”
JT: “Sounds intimidating.”
Dr. Corney: “Haha, it was. I was nervous to explain to professors their curriculum. Especially when these professors were in different fields. Naturally we had some some sceptics.”
JT: “Who, exactly?”
Dr. Corney: “Professors are naturally skeptical especially about how much work would be required. They eventually came around at the end and realized it was a good idea.”
JT: “What have you heard from students about this plan?”
Dr. Corney:“I don’t know. I haven’t heard much feedback from the students. I would say that I’m pleasantly surprised to see it doing pretty well.”
JT:“ Honestly, some people believe that the system was created to get students to stay longer in school and not graduate early.”
Dr. Corney: “Haha. I’ve never heard that before. I’ll tell you right now if the Dean came in here right now and said, ‘We need to get students to stay a little longer,’ I’d say I don’t want to be on the committee. I’d say to the students who believe that this curriculum was created to get the students to stay longer and spend more money that sometimes there are misunderstandings and sometimes you’re just wrong.”
JT: “The new COLL 199 class requirement for diversity in race and gender appears to have been controversial. I even had a philosophy professor who thought the making the new COLL class 199 a requirement was just a waste of time. The philosophy professor believes that if you go to William and Mary, chances are that you already know about diversity and you’re a socially acceptable person. Furthermore, he argues if you disagree with some of the stances on diversity, chances are you won’t participate in class. Therefore the class would just be an echo chamber of ideas. What would you say to that?”
Dr. Corney:“I’ve heard that before. I’d say we can’t assume that everyone knows what diversity is nor can we assume that you won’t learn something new about diversity. Women’s history eventually became a feminist class and discussed gender in the frame of female and male. So you can get a lot out of classes like that.”
JT : “ Some students why senior seminars were not independent of the COLL system?"
Dr. Corney: “Our committee saw the senior seminars as largely separate, but later subcommittees brought in the COLL 400. I wasn’t part of those discussions, but I think the later subcommittee wanted to make the COL 400 more integrative of a student’s entire experience than just a major capstone experience. But I wasn’t part of those debates.”
Having heard Dr. Corney, I wanted to hear how other students would respond. I decided I
would withhold Dr. Corney thoughts to get a baseline for what the students believed and then I would express why Dr. Corney and other faculty changed the GRE system from the COLL system.
JT: “What do you think of the setup of the COLL system?”
Student A: “Annoying. BLM (Black Lives Matter) asked Reveley for classes that incorporated more classes about race and gender and so far [the system] has failed to incorporate it. Also I think that the COLL system is not evenly distributed as there are more COLL classes available in the Philosophy department than English, Physics, and Chemistry. It’s just an asymmetrical distribution.”
Student B. “I think the COLL system encourages more exploration and allows you seek more options.”
JT: “Just to let you know, the COLL system next year will be adding COLL requirement 199 to
address some of the problems that BLM requested.”
Student A: “That’s great!”
JT: “Why did you think they created the COLL system in the first place?”
Student A: “AP scores. Cut and dry. They wanted to cut the GRE system so they could get people to stay longer because the COLL system is incompatible with the AP scores.”
Student B: “They seemed to be crafting a William and Mary curriculum that only William and Mary people could meet. As a result, they were making a unique system that made students take more classes before transferring over.
JT: “ I talked to one of the creators of the COLL system and he said they created this system because the GRE did not have any underlying reasons behind the classes. The idea behind creating the COLL system was to make students think outside the box and go against the grain. Do you think that the creators were successful?”
Student A: “No, I don’t think they were successful. The GREs was just curriculum requirements controlled by the departments. Now [the current system] simply has more requirements to it a new curriculum and it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has led to us thinking more outside the box.”
Student B: “The COLL system has put some interesting things in play. Replacing the GRE may
not matter. As I said before it has provided more choices, which is good. However, it’s hard to say whether it’s successful though, as it may not have been necessary.”
The COLL system is relatively new, and it still appears to be on trial. From Dr. Corney’s
perspective, the GRE system was like the first floor of Blair on a damp day when you feel a sense of the staleness and mold that exists in the age and tradition at William and Mary. The “ossified” system was needed to be cleaned up and revamped. On the other hand, the COLL system, could be like the Minion Russian nesting dolls in Dr. Corney’s office. Not a single doll but a system with layers of multiple dolls beneath the surface. As students, we’ve had to deal with the “big doll” and the big concepts of the COLL 100 and 150 to uncover more and more levels before arriving at the core of a senior seminar. However, from talking to the students, while the Minion Russian doll looks new and shiny, they regard it as still something that looks nice but still has that old feeling and may be redundant. After all, Russian nesting dolls date to 1890s and one doesn't really need multiple dolls to play with if the first doll confounds you. Despite this, I think it’s encouraging to see that the COLL system is growing. Adding the
student diversity class, COLL 199, also reveals what may be at the core of the system: “good intentions.”