major area of study and the total traditional liberal arts curriculum of courses. The work exnerience of the student is effectively supervised and coordinated with hislher classroom exoerience bv a facultv member of histher maior deoartment who is specifically designated by the chairman as Co-op Coordinator. The learning gained while out on a semester of Co-op Experience is evaluated by this academic faculty member and earns for the student three college credits which become part of the total 128 credit hours reqiired for graduation from Thomas More. Although career counseling is a part of the Co-op student's preparation for his joh, and a course in Professional Development accompanies it, the Cooperative Education Office a t Thomas More is quite different from a placement office. The personnel assisting the Co-op student are all bona fide academic faculty members. The Director of the C.E. Department ranks on the level of a department chairman and participates in the Academic Affairs Committee, the highest academic bodv a t the college. Each of the denartmental coordinators is an active teaching faculty member of the department in which his Co-op students are maiorina. This structure was deliberately established to insure the academic nature of the Co-op Program a t Thomas More. The Co-op Experience courses (work sessions for the students) are maintained by the faculty a t the same level as any of the college laboratory courses with attendant assignments, reports, seminar meetings, etc., and are evaluated and graded hy the Coordinator. T o maintain the proper balance for the program, there is an external Advisory Board of the Cooperative Education De~ a r t m e n comnrised t of men and women of experience and position in industry, business, and government agencies who Durnose have volunteered their services for this . . and who meet quarterly. Although Thomas More Colleae operates on the semester system, the summer sessions of abut fourteen weeks provide a pseudo-third semester for either WORK or STLIDY as required by the co-op student's program. These alternating work and study sessions present very few problems with curricula unless sequential courses are required in the last two years of a department program. With this arrangement an employer always has someone on the job since the two students hired for one position will continue to alternate a t work until their graduation two vears later. The three work sessions of the student constitute one full year of employment. Each Co-op session affords the student the u u ~ o r t u n i t vto earn a salarv a t the same time as helshe meri&college &edits for the as". signments, reports, etc., submitted to the de~artment.In this W.IY the ~ I ~ I ~ , I I J . ~..t.rwIII t l ~ ee n ~ p l lcjr ~ ~.A ~ h m r t\~wogh ~ I , , I,c 1.r111111\11 i - n t . 1 awi~yr n m hi-: her I , t d ; ,ro hmg pcri
