Dropping Less Essential Courses

Let's agree on several principles. Clearly, we can't teach everything that our students will need to know. Further, we shouldn 't try to teach too much, for experience has shown that we accomplish more if we teach fewer subjects thoroughly. Our general objective in the undergraduate curriculum is to provide depth in one or more areas to provide the student with a marketable skill, and then to provide as much breadth as possible. If we rank-order all subjects in our curriculum as to value to the student, there will surely be some on the bottom of the list. These will be the sacred cows, courses in which professors have vested interests, Dean's courses, courses with outdated material. Progress relates to how rapidly such courses can be eliminated. Some possible mechanisms: outside advisory committees, student advisory committees, cleverness and trickery on the part of chairmen. How can this objective be accomplished more systematically?