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Created
in order to share and enrich
academic offerings for the students of
the five institutions, the Associated
Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC)
continues to promote student exchange
and to share academic programs.
The opportunity for cross-registration
makes possible a range and depth of
course offerings and majors entirely
unimaginable for any single
institution.
A
recent alumna from The College of St.
Catherine graduated with honors and
a double major - in geology from
Macalester College and in geography
from the University of St.
Thomas. Consortial opportunities
had attracted her to transfer to St.
Catherine from a college on the west
coast, and she was successful in taking
full advantage of the academic and
cultural opportunities offered because
of the consortium.
A
number of combined administrative
efforts
facilitate cross-registration,
including the coordination of common academic calendars, and a daily
bus service (with no charge to board)
that permits students, faculty and
staff to travel easily among the
campuses.
In
the past thirty years,
ACTC has developed a number of
consortial majors and interdisciplinary
area study programs, including a major
and a minor in East Asian Studies; a
major in Russian, Central and East
European Studies; and a minor in Middle
East Studies. A committee
of faculty specialists in American
Indian Studies is seeking to develop
cohesive ACTC-wide curricular standards
for a possible major. Through the
consortium also, classes in elementary
and intermediate Chinese and elementary
and intermediate Italian are made
available to students from all the
campuses.
Three
additional consortial academic programs
enrich the curricula of the
benefiting institutions while achieving
economies for individual
colleges. The Women's Studies
Program, which offers both a major and
a minor, enrolled 1,350 students across
four institutions last year and
directed 40 majors and 43 minors.
A Teacher Education Committee monitors
the need for specific licensure courses
each year and structures the curriculum
on the five campuses to avoid
duplications while serving students'
needs. The Writer-in-Residence
Program, sponsored by the ACTC Creative
Writing Committee, annually brings five
published authors representing various
genres for a one- to two-week residency
on the Twin Cities' campuses. The
residency is structured so that each
writer is shared between at least two
colleges, where he/she presents craft
talks, seminars and public
lectures.
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