Veronica Sepulveda
Staff Writer
Provost Greg Dewey and Professor of Computer Science Seta Whitby have created a curriculum contest for which students will help the University of La Verne create a new four-year curriculum using existing courses.
Proposed curricula must meet the required 128 units needed to graduate. There are no rules regarding general education classes or prerequisites.
Only students with senior status are able to participate in the contest.
The deadline for submissions is May 14. All curricula will be submitted online and will be open to the rest of the school to vote.
The winner of the contest will win $300, second place will win $200 and third place will win $100.
This idea was presented by Dewey to Whitby last semester. Whitby then had her Management Information Systems class work together to create the guidelines and theories of this contest.
On Monday, Whitby gave her class an invitation to present their curricula to the rest of the class and the provost.
Three curricula were presented.
John Apiafi, senior computer science major, and Leslie Thompson, senior psychology and information science major, presented their curriculum which consisted of merging psychology, e-commerce and computer science together in one.
“Merging all three disciplines will provide a great opportunity (for students),” Apiafi said. “All (three) disciplines play a big role in jobs today.”
“We tried to take what we think is important on a top level to give students a chance to be more marketable.” Thompson said.
The second presentation was by Chris Cardin, a senior business marketing major. His curriculum was for business management.
The third presentation was by Rachel Rivera, senior liberal arts major, on a liberal arts, religion and philosophy curriculum.
Apiafi and Thompson won the mock contest and were both awarded a gift card to the book store.
However, the provost felt that all the presenters did a great job and decided to award all three with gift cards.
Dewey said this is a great opportunity for which the students get to reflect on their four years at the University of La Verne.
“It summarizes their experience.” Dewey said. “And I think it is fun.”
Following the May 14 submission deadline, students will be given the chance to vote from May 15 to May 26. The final decision will be made June 8.
Currently there are only eight curricula submitted. Whitby hopes to see as many student submissions as possible.
For more information, email Whitby at swhitby@laverne.edu.
Veronica Sepulveda can be reached at veronica.sepulveda@laverne.edu.
