Residential college deans to assume greater role in independent concentrator advising

Starting this year, residential college deans will assume more active role in the application process for independent concentrators.

According to Deputy Dean of the College Elizabeth Colagiuri, students will have to consult their residential college deans before submitting applications for independent concentrations. A faculty subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Course of Study will then evaluate the proposals.

In the past, students did not necessarily have to go through their residential college deans, Colagiuri noted.

“We have seen an increase in the number and variety of proposals in recent years, and we think it's important that we have a degree of faculty oversight in reviewing those proposals,” she said.

Dean of Whitman College Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu explained that this year residential college deans are taking a more active role in the process of pursuing an independent concentration.

“What's different is in fact that the residential college deans are now acting as a kind of departmental representative for the independent concentrators in their college, which means we're just taking a more active role in supporting the students who are granted the opportunity to do an independent concentration as they move through their junior and senior year,” she said.

Graves added that students interested in independent concentrations have often consulted residential college deans and that the students’ faculty advisors for their concentration always remain their main advisors. The deans of the residential colleges will now serve to facilitate and oversee the process for the students in their college, answering questions, making sure deadlines are met and ensuring that students have completed all of their departmental requirements, she noted.

Graves explained that the residential college dean can offer feedback by having conversations with students considering independent concentrations and drafting proposals.

“I can point out where there are issues and help anticipate some of the questions that I know will come up when the Faculty Committee on the Course of Study officially considers their application,” she said.

Shannon Osaka ’17 is pursuing an independent concentration that bridges Environmental Science and Environmental Studies. She said that when she was going through the declaration process last year, the Office of the Dean of the College served as the administrator of independent majors. Osaka added that she did not need any official approval from her residential college dean but found that it was a good step to confer with her residential college’s director of studies and her academic advisor.

Osaka was then notified in September 2015 that her independent concentration would be overseen by her residential college dean. According to Osaka, this change was useful for her and should be useful to other students as well.

“It can be very hard to navigate everything that you need to do,” she said of the independent concentration process.

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However, she added that she believes the most important aspect of the process is to have faculty advisors who are on board with the major.

“If you have a strong idea and you're willing to fight to make it happen, it's possible. You just have to be flexible in adjusting to the different things that they might want you to do and just kind of accept that it's going to be a longer process,” Osaka said.

Brandon Scott ’16 has an independent concentration in Aesthetics, which he said combines art history, philosophy, and comparative literature, and also draws from history and architecture.

“I've just really enjoyed having the flexibility to make a concentration and bring things together that I like and I think hopefully more students will be able to do it,” Scott added.

Like Osaka, Scott went through the Office of the Dean of the College while preparing his proposal for an independent concentration and consulting potential faculty advisors. Now that the residential college deans are acting as additional representatives for students with independent concentrations, Scott explained that he met with the dean of his college this year to discuss the topic of his thesis, important deadlines and his progress in meeting his concentration and general requirements.

He noted that deans may have different opinions about independent concentrations.

“It seems like that might be one of the consequences of spreading it out to the residential colleges; there's a variability in how the deans feel about doing an independent concentration,” he said.

Colagiuri explained that the committee is looking to schedule its meeting some time in April and hopes to offer students feedback by the end of April or early May at the latest.

The A.B. Sophomore Concentration Declaration period runs from April 11 to April 19.

“We always recommend that students go ahead and declare a departmental major if they have not received word on the independent concentration package... if they are selected for the independent concentration, then that is a change we can make in the system on our end,” Colagiuri noted.

Osaka said that last year, her proposal was due in the beginning of April but she was not notified of its acceptance until early May.

“There were a couple problems with my application that I had to sort out with my faculty advisors and I changed it a little bit from what I had originally proposed, so in that intervening time I had to declare a different major, so it was all kind of stressful and agonizing,” she said.

She added that the process was useful in the end because it allowed her to change and adapt her major while writing the proposal and obtaining permission.

Scott said that his proposal, submitted in late March, was approved in April before the sophomore concentration declaration period.

Graves added that while the residential college deans advise students during the application process, the Faculty Committee on the Course of Study will evaluate the applications and make final decisions. She said that if a student is granted the opportunity to pursue an independent concentration, their residential dean will be notified along with the student.

“I think usually we're copied on the letter that comes out saying they have permission to do this major,” she said.

In evaluating the proposals for independent concentrations, Colagiuri said that the committee is looking for the level of rigor and breadth consistent with a Princeton degree.

“We look for proposals that are truly crossing departmental boundaries, that are proposing a course of study that there simply is no other way for a student to do at Princeton, and that are rigorous and will develop sufficient methodological basis for students to complete their independent work,” Colagiuri explained.