Inclusive Excellence and the Curriculum Documents

External Core Review: Final Report

An external team visited campus November 13-15, 2017, to meet with all college constituencies and gather first-hand information about our Core. The team’s findings, insights, and recommendations regarding the Core are detailed in the report.

External Core Review: Final Report (PDF)

May 12 Educational Planning Committee Meeting

A copy of the presentation to the HMC Board of Trustees Educational Planning Committee (PDF) that outlines the timeline for curricular review.

April 20 Dinner with Students

Notes from dinner discussion of Cabinet Proposal related to additional health, wellness and inclusion resources.

College Policy on Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual Misconduct and Retaliation

See: College Policy on Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual Misconduct and Retaliation (PDF)

Division of Student Affairs 5-Year Budget Information

See: DSA 5-Year Budget (Google Sheet)

Parents and alumni may request a copy of this document by emailing Kim Nykanen ([email]knykanen@hmc.edu[/email]).

Wabash Report

Learning at Mudd: Insight into the Student Academic Experience (PDF)

At the request of the 2015-2016 HMC Teaching and Learning Committee, consultants from the Center for Inquiry of Liberal Arts visit HMC with the intent of answering the question, “What can the TLC do, both as faculty themselves and for the larger HMC community, to support a true sense of achievement among students?”. Below are the original goals as well as the questions TLC shared with the consultants:

Please list two or three primary goals of this visit in order of their priority.

  1. Understand the complex connections between challenges students face in our curriculum, the way self-worth is tied to academic performance, and the rise of honor code infractions.
  2. Refine and develop programming/strategies for TLC committee (and others) to support faculty as they engage with these issues.

What questions do you have about your students?

  1. We are particularly interested in aspects of the HMC culture that encourage students to develop or maintain a mindset where they self-report low achievement despite having very high achievement.  A corollary to this is the extent to which the pressure students place on themselves to be extraordinary and to achieve leads to increasing pressure to engage in activities that violate our honor code, if not in practice, then in spirit.
  2. We are also interested in why first year students “eliminate” some fields as potential majors. This appears to be based on a feeling of “already not being good at” certain fields, rather than a lack of interest or ability.  Again, we believe this is tied to the issue of academic self-confidence and self-worth, if first year students struggle in a Core course (and especially when they see other students excelling in that course), do they conclude that they are “not fit” for the field and rule it out as a major, even though they entered HMC expressing interest in the field?

Learning at Mudd Action Document

To protect the confidentiality of the participants, the TLC originally shared a summary of the Wabash Report with the HMC community.

Wabash Report Summary—March 7, 2017 (PDF)

Spring 2017 External Evaluation Report

An external evaluation of the Core Curriculum—April 6, 2017 (PDF)

The College hired external consultants to talk to faculty, students and alumni regarding perceptions of the Core goals and the current Core implementation. The consultants were asked to inquire along the seven questions below, and the conversations took place on Monday, March 6. We have recently received the consultants’ report and are sharing it with you now to help inform campus conversations regarding the Core moving forward.

Questions

  1. From an external perspective, what would you say are our goals as a college for the Core?
  2. How well does the Core currently achieve these goals?
  3. How well does the current Core address the College Mission Statement?
  4. How well does the current Core meet the needs and interests of our students?
  5. What effect does the Core have on faculty?
  6. Given the goals and constraints, what are some pathways we could explore to improve our Core?
  7. What is our vision for the Core Curriculum moving forward?