The Office of Undergraduate Studies in Biological Sciences has announced plans to reinstate the microbiology program for Fall 2004.
The curriculum, which was cancelled in 2001, has undergone constant revision by the Department of Basic Sciences faculty committee to strengthen it for majors, said Richard Bruch, director of Undergraduate Studies for Basic Sciences.
“There have been many considerations about which courses should be part of the curriculum for students,” Bruch said.
Bruch said the faculty committee also has discussed whether classes should be added or dropped for the curriculum, but decisions concerning the curriculum have yet to be finalized.
The only courses most faculty members agree are essential to students are microbial physiology and microbial genetics, Brush said.
The two classes provide students with fundamental knowledge to advance their study of microbiology, Bruch said.
Jana Kloss, administrative specialist for Undergraduate Studies in Life Sciences, said changes in faculty positions made it difficult to reinstate the curriculum.
Kloss said losing Ron Siebeling, a professor who passed away in spring 2003, was a huge blow to the microbiology program.
Siebeling taught pathogenics and immunology-classes that were required in the microbiology curriculum.
The old curriculum, available in Fall 2000, was suspended in 2001, Kloss said. The curriculum had been a degree program for only one year.
The curriculum required students to take courses such as marine microbiology, prokaryotic microbiology and soil microbiology.
In 2001, the Department of Biological Sciences released a notice to all biology majors stating the effective suspension of the microbiology curriculum.
The notice said no additional students would be permitted to enter the program until it was revised.
The program was to be reinstated 18 to 24 months after its suspension.
Kloss said a number of issues contributed to the suspension of the program.
Bruch said one problem was finding qualified faculty members to teach classes in the curriculum.
“An insufficient number of staff members and a high number of majors attributed to the suspension of the program,” Bruch said.
According to Bruch, it is estimated about 500 students were trying to get into a typical lecture class which held 150 to 200 seats.
Bruch said the problem intensified when students began to approach teachers asking to be put in their classes.
In order to accommodate for this problem, Bruch said the faculty committee has hired two to three new teaching faculty members for the Fall 2003 semester.
Bruch refused to release their names because he did not want students to contact them.
Because some courses offer only one section, the faculty hopes to offer at least two or three sections in the fall, Bruch said.
Bruch said he hopes the committee will approve the curriculum early this fall.
Bruch said the faculty would vote to decide if the curriculum were acceptable before presenting it to the University.
“The curriculum will be reinstated if it is approved by the University,” Kloss said.
The faculty committee, University Department Curriculum and the provost must approve the curriculum.