| Gallatin School of Individualized Study | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1972 |
| Type | Private |
| Dean | Susanne Wofford |
| Academic staff | 42 Full Time[1] 100 Part Time[2] |
| Students | 1,331 Undergraduates[3] 180 Graduates |
| Location | New York, New York, U.S. |
| Website | www.nyu.edu/gallatin/ |
The Gallatin School of Individualized Study (commonly known as Gallatin) is a small interdisciplinary college within New York University. Gallatin aims to provide a "small college" feel, while being located within one of the largest private universities in the United States. Students design their own interdisciplinary program that meets their specific interests and career goals. Coursework can be undertaken at any of the schools that comprise NYU in addition to the school's own offerings.
Contents |
Founded in 1972 as the "University Without Walls", the school is named after Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, and the founder of NYU. Gallatin believed that the place for a university was not in "the seclusion of cloistered halls but in the throbbing heart of a great city."
Herbert London was the school's first dean through 1992.
The Gallatin building is situated within the Campus of New York University just east of Washington Square Park at 1 Washington Place.
The Gallatin School's facilities on the corner of Washington Place and Broadway underwent a redesign from 2007-2008. It was the first renovation project at NYU to achieve LEED certification. The project earned a LEED Gold certification for the renovation of five floors (approximately 32,000 square feet) of the existing building, including the construction of a theater, art gallery, classrooms, studios, and offices.[4]
Rather than declare a major in a particular academic department, Gallatin students develop a concentration that is individualized to suit their interests and goals. There are no official requirements for the concentration. Instead, Gallatin students and their advisors decide together what courses and non-classroom activities will best prepare them for further study in graduate school or for a particular career path. Usually the concentration involves combining work in two or more academic disciplines and taking courses in several departments and schools of the University.
While Gallatin students usually take about half of their courses in the other schools of the University, Gallatin also offers its own curriculum including writing and arts workshops, interdisciplinary seminars reaching across the liberal arts, and independent studies. As a requirement, each student must complete several liberal arts courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and expository writing. The entire academic experience at Gallatin culminates in a final examination known as a Colloquium, in which students engage with a panel of three faculty for approximately two hours about their concentration and concomitant literature. The Colloquium is an integral part of every Gallatin student's educational program, and students are required to complete their Colloquium their penultimate semester at the university in order to graduate.
Because Gallatin focuses intensely on students at the individual level, advising is a major component of the program. Each student is assigned two advisors: a class advisor who serves the needs of a full grade level (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors) and an academic advisor, who is more involved at the individual level with helping students shape their concentrations. The academic advisors, who not only help identify the interests of their advisees, but who also approve class schedules and attends advisee Colloquiums, serve as the primary source of advising. Academic advisors are usually faculty members at Gallatin who share similar interests with advisee students, but advisors can come from any of the schools within NYU across several disciplines. Students can also request to change academic advisors if another is more suitable.
In order to qualify for graduation, all students in the Gallatin undergraduate program must successfully complete a final oral examination called the Colloquium. The Colloquium is an intellectual conversation among four people: the student, the student's adviser, and two other members of the faculty about a selection of books representing several academic disciplines and historical periods. The Colloquium provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their Gallatin concentration and to synthesize various experiences studying books, taking courses, doing independent studies and internships into an integrated discussion about several books and themes. In preparing for the Colloquium, each student creates a book list of twenty to twenty-five works and writes a brief paper known as the Rationale which describes the themes the student plans to discuss in the Colloquium.
There are a variety of student-run organizations at Gallatin that span a vast array of interests for both undergraduate and graduate students of the school: