Core Curriculum at Butler University

And our congratulations continue. Chris Forhan from the Department of English has been promoted to Full Professor!

He responds:

"I like best how common it is for Butler students to be truly engaged and curious. Some students bring to the classroom a passion for knowledge, melded with a humble openness to recognizing how much they don’t yet understand, that makes watching them learn intensely gratifying and invigorating. I love seeing students care enough about a subject to take hold of it fully, personally, with their intellect and imagination, and let it change them.

Although the coronavirus crisis has put my upcoming sabbatical on hold, I am still ready to delve deeply into the writing of a new book of poems. I like that I have no idea what kind of poems they will be; I look forward to discovering who I am as a poet these days. I also just finished the manuscript of a new prose book—a hybrid of memoir, meditation, and intepretation concerning the effect on our imaginations of popular songs—and am excited to polish it and try to find it a home.

When I was an undergraduate, it took me a couple of years to figure this out: College isn’t about just checking off boxes, taking the classes required of you and doing the work you are told to do in order to earn the necessary grade. College isn’t preparation for life—it IS life, right here, right now. Give yourself fully to any course or activity you’re in; you never know what might depend on it. Never lose sight of what you are passionate about, of what brings you joy, and figure out how to make the life you create at Butler honor and nurture that part of you."

‘The Core Curriculum covers a broad student educational experience, which includes getting STEM students into art classes and vice versa. Analytical Reasoning has been especially effective, says James McGrath, Faculty Director of the Core Curriculum. He has seen positive results when students are taken outside of their comfort zones.

“Lots of students think they’re not good at math, music, or writing,” McGrath says. “One of the purposes of the Core is to foster students to be well-rounded, no matter their focus of study. In these classes, they’re actually approaching the subject in ways not thought of. They may find they’re good at something they didn't know. They’re using a whole other part of their brains.”

Linos says programming drones would be a natural next step for the course, but whether they fly or dance, the robots are making some former Analytical Reasoning students change majors to Computer Science or Software Engineering. The class gave them the confidence that they can—and should—code.

“It was very gratifying to me—as an educator, as a facilitator of their learning—to see them learning how to write code in a fun way,” Linos says.’

Robots Enhance Coding Prowess, Passion in the Core Curriculum | Butler Stories Getting Butler University Dance majors to learn computer coding was as easy as a plié in first position, thanks to robots.