Students across campus were taken by surprise on Wednesday, October 23 when an email from Dr. Collin Messer, vice president for Academic Affairs, appeared in their mailboxes. This email announced that COR 337: Intercultural Experience, a longstanding course in the Covenant College core curriculum, is being discontinued.
The email said, “The College faculty has voted to discontinue the core requirement—COR 337: Intercultural Experience—at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. All students who graduate on or before May 9, 2026 are still required to take COR 337.”
The email further explained that students graduating after the aforementioned date will still be required to achieve a total of 126 credit hours and must therefore take an extra elective course.
Students’ reactions to the news were mixed. Some expressed regret that current freshmen will be missing out on a vital opportunity to explore other cultures, while others were simply happy they have one less core requirement to complete.
Dr. Sarah Huffines from the English department is faculty moderator. She said she makes sure “everybody is clear on what exactly we’re discussing, making sure the right people are in the room to answer questions or objections, and that everyone’s voice has a chance to be heard.”
Dr. Huffines explained that there are two committees involved in the core: the Core Oversight Committee (which does the “daily committee work of overseeing and implementing the core”) and the Core Revision Team (which is working on the big picture revision that is currently in the works).
When it comes to COR 337 specifically, the discontinuation is primarily because of staffing issues.
Dr. Huffines said, “The major coordinator of experiences for COR 337 was Todd Bridges, who went back overseas to Indonesia. We have this experience that needs to be staffed, and then we have this potentially new core coming up, right? It doesn’t make sense to hire for an old core requirement if we don’t know how the class will look in the new core.”
Students can rest assured that the new core will include opportunities to cultivate cultural empathy in some fashion, though faculty are not yet prepared to announce what that will exactly look like. Dr. Amy Bagby recommends that students seek out these experiences regardless of whether it is required.
She said, “Traveling can expand a person’s world, but don’t just travel to consume. Travel to enjoy God’s creation, and especially His creativity when it comes to the people He created—the cultures and language. Take opportunities to do it on your own because it does so much for the way we think about God’s creation.”