 "Photo: Heather Myers")
About a dozen staff and faculty members met Friday in the Meriam Library in order to discuss one of many possible ideas to reform general education classes as early as fall 2011.
One of the proposed ideas that will be brought to the Academic Senate is the idea of State Career Pathways, said Bill Loker, dean of undergraduate studies.
A pathway, similar to a theme, connects courses that are intellectually cohesive and also explore an issue or area from a broad viewpoint, according the G.E. redesign Web site. A pathway would include 27 units, nine of which would be upper-division.
The proposal also includes having students take four writing intensive courses.
An easy way of becoming more effective in creating a good proposal is collaboration between faculty members, Loker said. Having faculty work with one another allows the group to form a strong proposition.
“One of the most exciting things about redoing G.E. is the opportunity that creates intellectual teamwork with one another,” he said.
One aspect of the pathway proposal that has some students excited is under the pathway proposal, if they stick to a particular theme and take nine lower-division units and nine upper-division units, it could count toward their minor, Loker said.
Lowering G.E. requirements would help students in the long-term, said freshman Kevin Viegas, an accounting major.
“I think we should have less G.E. classes in order to take more classes for your major,” he said. “Last semester I was a part of Course Link. It was pretty cool.”
If students already have their major classes, the university should make some of the G.E. classes optional, said freshman business major Solomon Gibson.
“I should only have to take some G.E. classes, like math and English, because they pertain to my major,” Gibson said. “However, some classes, like fitness, only get in the way.”
August Walsh can be reached at
awalsh@theorion.com
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