*Updated: 2:33 p.m. on Sept. 25.*

[Plans to chart a new path for Map of the Modern World](https://www.thehoya.com/news/sfs-approves-changes-map-course-syllabus/), a cornerstone undergraduate course in the School of Foreign Service, drew criticism from students and alumni after the director of the SFS undergraduate program presented a revised syllabus to the Curriculum Committee last Friday.

embers of the SFS Academic Council expressed concerns with changes to International Affairs 008 in a meeting on Wednesday with James Reardon-Anderson, director of the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service program. Over 600 Facebook users have joined [a group protesting the revisions](https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=283447210202&ref=search&sid=1239960152.324479924..1).

Reardon-Anderson will begin teaching the course, a required class for SFS undergraduate students who do not pass an exemption test, in the spring. According to SFS Academic Council President Caitlin Ryan (SFS ’10), Reardon-Anderson showed his syllabus for Map of the Modern World to the SFS Curriculum Committee as a courtesy on Friday, Sept. 18.

The syllabus de-emphasizes modern political boundaries and heavily incorporates the study of physical geography and its effects on human behavior.

Reardon-Anderson, the former dean of the School of Foreign Service in Qatar, taught this version of the course in Qatar from 2006 to 2009.

On Wednesday, the Academic Council met with Reardon-Anderson in his capacity as BSFS director as part of a series of regular meetings. Ryan said members of the SFS Academic Council voiced reservations regarding the new syllabus in the meeting. Student representatives expressed concerns with the perceived “loss of the political and cultural elements of the course,”`dumbing down’ of the course” and “loss of an SFS and Georgetown tradition.”

embers of the Academic Council recommended alternatives, Ryan said, including the creation of a separate course emphasizing physical geography and the arrangement of guest lectures or workshops by Keith Hrebenak, who most recently taught Map of the Modern World.

“I have read all of the comments sent to me . and am considering how to improve the course in some of the ways suggested,” Reardon-Anderson said. “It is always a good thing for students to show an interest in the curriculum. . It is even better when they share these views with their classmates and faculty. I would have been disappointed if a modification of an important part of the SFS curriculum had gone unnoticed.”

Josh Mogil (SFS ’11), vice president of the Academic Council and an Academic Council representative on the Curriculum Committee, objected to the lack of student involvement in the syllabus revision. “We [the Curriculum Committee] were never allowed to vote on this change,” Mogil said. “We object to that. Teachers are allowed to decide their own curriculum when students have the choice to take the class or not, but this is a special program with its own special history.”

Charles King, a professor in the SFS and the chair of the Curriculum Committee, said the committee is not responsible for approval of syllabus revisions, but rather of broad curriculum changes. “From the Curriculum Committee’s view, there was not much to settle in the first place,” King said. “This was a conversation professor Reardon-Anderson had with the committee in the first place because this is such an important course.”

“We want to take student concerns very seriously,” King said. “Professor Reardon-Anderson has made a serious effort to do so.”

“From my interactions with members of the Academic Council, I can tell you that no students are pleased with the way [Reardon-Anderson] is handling his interactions with students, nor are they supportive of his changes,” Tom Zuzelo (SFS ’11) said. Zuzelo created the Facebook group “Take Back Map of the Modern World,” which currently has 617 members.

“I was surprised at the engagement of students in the discussion of the changes,” SFS Interim Dean Carol Lancaster said. “It seems to me the changes make a lot of sense from what I understand, and do not undercut the Map of the Modern World experience.”

King and Lancaster said the degree of student influence over syllabuses is limited. “At the end of the day, students don’t actually get to determine the content of the course,” King said. “We’re all convinced that this is going to improve the course overall and make it, in fact, something that current and future generations of students at Georgetown will be satisfied with.”

“Ultimately, the professor is who decides on the content of a course,” Lancaster said.

Some dissatisfied students plan to continue expressing their disapproval, however. Zuzelo said he and other SFS students who are dissatisfied with Reardon-Anderson’s syllabus plan to discuss the matter with alumni during Homecoming weekend and table in Red Square from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

ogil said he would attempt to use student representation on the Curriculum Committee and the SFS School Council – a body composed of SFS students, faculty and administrators – to continue discussion of the revisions to the Map of the Modern World syllabus.

“Changes that large to a one-credit program with only one professor that is required ought to be discussed at length and not decided on the whims of one man,” Mogil said.

*- Adam Casella contributed to this report.*”