by Paul Fix
Staff Writer
“Most institutions examine their general education requirements every 5, 10 or 15 years. Our last review was in 1984 … it’s time to do it again.”
—Dr. John Gingrich
A president-appointed task force was convened last year and has been reviewing current general education requirements to suggest possible changes to take effect for the Fall 1993 school year.
“Right now,” said Committee Co-chair Dr. John Gingrich, dean of Arts and Sciences, “various committee members are submitting their proposals.”
The members’ proposals will consider societal and educational factors, the ULV Mission Statement, and the requirements for membership in the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (W.A.S.C.) in formulating a list of possible changes.
The task force is still fielding ideas for change, but is already considering recommendation of several proposals, including: general education to be spread over four years; a two-year foreign language requirement; a multicultural education requirement; adherence to the “Critical Thinking” ideal; computer literacy and ownership requirements; and interdisciplinary education requirements.
According to Dr. Gingrich, panicking students can rest easy – their requirements will remain unchanged.
“Any of the committee’s recommendations that are actually adopted will not affect current students or their general education requirements, as the changes will not take effect until the Fall 1993 term” he said.
According to Dr. Gingrich, faculty fears of change should be assuaged as well, since the committee has no intention of using the proceedings to facilitate budget or personnel adjustments.
“The faculty usually gets pretty scared by this process,” Dr. Gingrich said. “But everybody’s job is just fine. We aren’t going to use general ed. to restaff this campus.”
Though faculty need not worry about employment, Dr. Gingrich did indicate that some may have to adjust to possible changes.
“Personally, I’d like to see more interdisciplinary courses,” he said. “That could mean professors from entirely different disciplines co-teaching classes. It could be a stretch for the faculty.”
The overall theme of the proposed ideas indicates a move towards a far greater degree of diversity in educational requirements.
Whereas the interdisciplinary education ideal is the committee’s hope for a way to broaden intellectual curricula, the new multicultural requirement is designed to broaden a student’s social and cultural curriculum by requiring all students attend a class that exposes them to a radically different culture than their own.
Another idea stressing diversity is the promotion of a mode of teaching that uses “critical thinking” methods to achieve diversity in thought.
“Instead of mind-stuffing, where a professor opens a student’s head and stuffs the facts in, instead of straight memorization, ‘critical thinking’ says, ‘let’s teach people how to think – critically and analytically – rather than how to memorize and forget,” Dr. Gingrich said.
He was also quite vocal on the committee’s proposals concerning computer literacy requirements.
“I’m not interested in teaching programming,” he said. “It’s just not vital anymore. I want students to be familiar with business computers-to know how to get a program up on the screen and then figure it out if they have to.”
One action being discussed by the committee to help attain computer literacy is a requirement that every student owns a computer. The cost of the requirement would be built into tuition.
The proposed two-year foreign language requirement is another change that is quite popular with the committee, according to Dr. Gingrich.
Students who feel competent in a second language, or those who have attended two or three years of a language in high school1 will be able to test out of the requirement.
The 10-member task force, headed by Dr. Gingrich and Dr. Aghop Der-Karabetian, professor of psychology, includes members representing the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies.
“We spent a lot of time reading and researching articles, trying to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the current general ed. system. We invited input from members of all departments,” Dr. Gingrich said.
“If students have suggestions,” Dr. Gingrich said, “we’d be glad to hear them. Drop us a line, write us a note, invite us to a meeting.”
