Editorial - It's About Time.

It’s about time.

High Point University faculty voted in a new four hour curriculum on Jan. 22. that will differ from the current academic structure in four major ways including four-credit-hour classes instead of three, the creation of an in-depth freshman seminar that will help students decide upon a course of study, a May semester that would be used for internships or study abroad opportunities and a complete overhaul of every major.

It’s a change that will put High Point University on the same academic system as Elon University, Davidson College and Greensboro College. According to Dr. Dennis Carroll, vice president of academic affairs, the curriculum will “take us to the next level academically.”

And it’s about time.

That’s because the decision to change the school’s curriculum came almost four years after the university began the initial stages of a $110 million (eventually increased to $225 million) transformation that included single-bedroom dormitories, a Slane Student Center with a swimming pool and a hot tub, and the University Center that includes a steakhouse and a movie theatre under construction on North College Drive.

Five buildings and two stadiums were constructed within two years alone. Construction began on the first new building, a dormitory named Blessing Hall that contains all single bedrooms for freshmen, in spring 2006 and was completed when freshmen arrived in fall 2006. Several more dormitories have also been constructed in a matter of months since then. Numerous new buildings have sprouted up like plants across the university since the transformation began.

But what about academic programs? Unfortunately, they haven’t sprouted as quickly.

While new buildings were being constructed, Dr. Carroll says that the four hour curriculum was first considered two years ago by the administration before it was proposed to faculty in November 2008. Now that it has finally been proposed and accepted, the curriculum won’t be put into effect until fall 2010.

And while it may be true that some of the new curriculum can’t be taught without new buildings like the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication that contains the latest technology, many new classes could have been created long before new buildings began to pop up on campus. Curriculum could have been improved much sooner.

For example, HPU once had a student radio station that broadcasted around the city until the school forgot to renew the station license in spring 2005. This past January – four years later – the school began an online student radio station that is operated in the Hayworth Fine Arts Center. It is broadcasted from a makeshift studio that won’t compare to the facilities offered by the new School of Communication, but it is at least a radio station. It’s giving seniors hands-on experience before they graduate without the opportunity to take classes in the new building. It’s something.

There are other changes that the university could have added sooner as well, like a sports writing class that was taught for the first time in fall 2008 though the journalism program has existed since spring 2005. While this might seem like a small change, the addition of courses that are significant to a student’s education have a greater effect on their lives than any new building.

It’s true that some academic improvements have been made. Dr. Nido Qubein created an entrepreneurship major not long after his arrival on campus, and the Department of Political Science was established. But the amount of new programs only serves as a tiny fragment of the transformation that is dominated by immaculate architectural structures.

That’s not to say that the buildings aren’t important, either. Sure, we need a place to house students. Of course, we need facilities with the latest technology. But academic programs could have been significantly improved before the physical transformation of campus took place. New programs could have been added sooner and the four hour curriculum could have been proposed before swimming pools and steakhouses began to take form.

“It takes due process for faculty to explore, study and approve matters such as this,” said Dr. Nido Qubein, president of High Point University. “I think it took a normal period of time to approve.”

But we disagree. Curriculum should always come before buildings, and those took little time to approve.

After all, this is a university. It’s about time that the administration began to treat it like one.