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Laurie E. McNeil, professor of physics and astronomy and of applied and
materials sciences, has been named chair of the undergraduate curriculum
review, a three-year process to reexamine Carolina's general education
curriculum.
"We welcome Professor McNeil's leadership of this vitally important review
process," said Chancellor James Moeser. "This marks an expansion of our ongoing
efforts to ensure that our students are getting the kind of liberal arts
education they need to take their places as informed citizens of the 21st
century.
"Her innovative teaching and research model the best aspects of a liberal arts
education, and her prior service on the university's intellectual climate task
force demonstrate her understanding of the issues and challenges at hand,"
Moeser said.
McNeil, a physicist and Carolina faculty member for 16 years, served on the
Chancellor's Task Force on Intellectual Climate, which was completed in 1997
and already has resulted in several wide-ranging efforts to improve
undergraduate education, including the call for reviewing the general
curriculum.
Other initiatives resulting from task force recommendations included
improvements to the advising system, the opening of the James M. Johnston
Center for Undergraduate Excellence and development of first-year seminars, an
Office of Undergraduate Research, a summer reading program and living-learning
communities.
The curriculum review extends efforts by the College of Arts and Sciences to
provide the kind of liberal arts and sciences education that teaches students
to think clearly and to have control of a certain body of knowledge, McNeil
said.
"In many ways, the students graduating today face a different world, with
different challenges, than did students who graduated 20 years ago," she said.
"We need to be sure that the education they get here prepares them to face
these challenges, while retaining the enduring qualities that have
characterized an educated person through the University's history."
The curriculum review process began this fall with two public discussions in
which students and faculty expressed their views about what it means to be an
educated person.
"We want all members of the Carolina community to have a chance to voice an
opinion on which skills, values and habits of mind an educated person needs in
today's world," McNeil said. "As the review process progresses, we will also
want to hear their views about the current curriculum -- what are we doing well
and what could be better?"
McNeil will work closely with Thomas Tweed, associate dean for undergraduate
curriculum, and a steering committee that will be appointed soon by Risa Palm,
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Together, they will solicit the views
of faculty, staff, alumni and students through means including surveys,
interviews, discussions with guest speakers and public forums. The web site for
the curriculum review -- http://www.unc.edu/curriculumrevision -- will serve as a central communication node for activities
related to the review process. Carolina's general education curriculum was last
revised in 1980.
McNeil, the first woman to hold a tenure-track position in the department of
physics and astronomy, has been recognized for excellence in teaching and
research. A member of the University's Academy of Distinguished Teaching
Scholars, she held a Bowman and Gordon Gray distinguished professorship for
"excellence in inspirational teaching of undergraduate students" from 1996 to
1999. Her research focuses on optical spectroscopy of semiconductors and
insulators.
McNeil is assistant chair of departmental development for physics and
astronomy, a position she will relinquish as she takes over chairing the
undergraduate curriculum review.
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