The 2018-2019 school year is seeing changes to the Hamline Plan. Additions include a global citizenship requirement (G), collaboration requirement (C) and only one of the natural science credits (N) requiring a lab.

The G requirement can be found in a variety of departments including global studies, modern language and political science. Some felt that the G requirement was redundant considering the two existing diversity credits. It can force students in a direction they may not find necessary or relevant to their academic field.

Students will now only have to do two labs for the N credit. The difference between lab and non-lab courses will be marked as N1 and N2 respectively, according to an email sent out by Hamline registration services. The collaboration requirement appears to be a little vague. According to the Hamline website it is supposed to be coursework that develops and strengthens collaborative skills. What would it mean to fulfill this requirement? It does not seem to fall into a particular academic field.

Many students feel fairly positive in regards to the change in lab requirements. A sophomore chemistry major, Lucy/Luca Fisk, felt that the change was overall for the best.

“[It] opens up some options for chemistry professors to do fun classes that aren’t so demanding timewise and require lab equipment the majors need,” Fisk said.

When it came to the global citizenship and collaboration requirement, most students were a little confused. They had heard little information on what a G or C requirement means. According to Piperline so far, there are only five courses offered Spring 2019 that would complete the C requirement.

Some students expressed the want for more knowledge about the new Hamline Plan.

“We have Inside Hamline, which is great,” Frances Verner, sophomore religion and psychology double major, said.  “But it can be hard to sift through. Something that would be really helpful to me would be to have seperate emails sent out, detailing these sorts of academic changes and telling me where to go if I want to learn more.”

If students are uncertain what credits they need they can direct further questions to Academic Advising at advising@hamline.edu.