Undergraduate Studies Committee
Resolutions Concerning the Report on General Education
Whereas In
considering the report of
Whereas The first area is conceptual, concerning as it does the validity and desirability of the Ten Goals for General Education originally set forth by the Faculty Senate Resolutions of March 2000 and reprinted on page 3 of the October 2003 report; and
Whereas The second area is pragmatic, concerning the effectiveness of current program initiatives and possible expansions of them and alternatives to them in fulfilling these ten goals; and
Whereas The third area is procedural, concerning the structure under which programs falling under the heading of General Education are best created, overseen, and administered; and
Whereas Our purview on the matter of general education does not extend to the question of resources; and
Whereas The decisions the University makes in allocating resources will go far to determine how it wishes to balance the competing and eminently desirable goals of academic specialization and academic generalization, and how it defines undergraduate education; be it therefore
I. Conceptual
1. RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate continue to endorse the Ten Goals of General Education (sc. Recommendation 5 of the General Education Report).
And be it further
2. RESOLVED that programs continue to be developed specifically to foster these goals, and that instructors throughout the University make every attempt to incorporate these goals wherever possible into their courses whether or not these courses operate under the aegis of General Education (sc. Recommendation 6 of the General Education Report).
Given that the University, both
through the General Education initiative and elsewhere, has made far more
concerted efforts to encompass some of these ten goals (numbers 2, 3, 6, and 7,
and the written and oral communication goals of number 1) than others (numbers
4, 5, 8, 9, and 10, and the quantitative reasoning and instructional (correction approved by UGS Chair and Senate President)
informational technology goals of number 1), be
it further
3. RESOLVED that the University make every effort to foster all ten of these goals.
II. Pragmatic
Be it further
1. RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate endorse Recommendations 1, 3, 4, and 7 of the General Education Report.
And be it further
2. RESOLVED that the University require all first-year students to participate in at least one First Year Experience—e.g., LIFE, Pathways, a First Year Seminar, a University Honors Program Colloquium—beginning in September 2005 and that first-year students be given priority for spaces in all such programs.
And be it further
3. RESOLVED that
the University require all undergraduate students entering in September 2004 2005 or later to take at least three credits of
Discovery-Based or Experiential Learning—e.g., an internship, a service
learning course, an independent study, participation in the Undergraduate
Research Program or a Study Abroad program—in fulfillment of their degrees.
And be it further
4. RESOLVED that all departments and academic programs be urged to develop capstone courses wherever appropriate and feasible for their majors, minors, concentrators, and certificate students.
And be it further
5. RESOLVED that
all departments and academic programs make every effort to incorporate the
goals concerning written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, and instructional (correction approved by UGS Chair and Senate President)
informational technology within courses across
the entire range of undergraduate offerings.
III. Procedural
Be it further
1. RESOLVED that the General Education Committee be converted from an ad hoc committee to a standing committee with the charge of working with the Center for Teaching Effectiveness/General Education Initiative and the Office of Undergraduate Studies to develop new General Education initiatives, the responsibility for reviewing on a regular basis the implementation of the General Education Initiative, and the power to bring forward resolutions seeking to improve the ways in which the University fosters the goals of General Education.
And be it further
2. RESOLVED that in conducting its continuing review of the implementation of the General Education Initiative, the General Education Committee, in consultation with the Center for Teaching Effectiveness and the Office of Undergraduate Studies, indicate in the case of each particular program it is reviewing one of the following outcomes in accordance with the best available evidence of the program’s efficacy:
a) endorse expansion;
b) endorse maintenance;
c) suggest modifications or alternatives;
d) request further evaluative information;
e) decline to endorse.
In order to foster closer ties between the General Education Committee and the academic units whose faculty legitimately retain power over individual programs, be it further
3. RESOLVED that each academic unit supervising any area of undergraduate instruction submit to the General Education Committee every three years a statement of its programs’ contributions to the goals of General Education in order to monitor ongoing progress in achieving these goals.