Good afternoon Kitos and everybody in the Forum,
Both the reading passage and the listening passage are about the two required courses which the faculty of the Sociology has added them in its program. While the reading passage indicates that this change should affect all students in the department, the listening passage mentions that the state university has a policy to make any change affect just new students.
The reading passage mentions that the Sociology Department has been receiving compliant from employers about their graduates of its department and says that they are not prepared well for jobs. Therefore, they decided to protect their reputation by changing in the curriculum; they increase the number of the required courses from three to five, and decrease the number of elective courses from five to three. The listening passage does not mention anything to oppose with the reading passage about the changes in the curriculum which says about increasing the number of the required courses and decreasing the number of elective courses.
The reading passage states that the change in the curriculum should affect all students in the department. However, the listening passage mentions that the university has a policy which says that students who have already started the program will not be affected by the change. Therefore, it should affect just the new students without forcing the old and the current students to take them, and they could just give a strong recommandation to make students to take the requird courses.
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a student and a campus patrolman