Friday, August 24, 2007
A task force of faculty and students recommended a decrease in the number of required general education hours for undergraduates.
Currently, students have to complete 72 general education hours, but with the new recommendations, the task force is targeting about 60 required hours.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph Steimnetz appointed the members of the task force.
“I think 60 is about average for most state institutions around here and around the country,” Steinmetz said. “We would like to see more flexibility for students by having the ability to pursue minors and double majors easier.”
The task force decided on this number last spring. It could still change because the proposal still has to pass through two levels before becoming final.
“We require more general education hours than all of our peers,” said Chris Crandall, a task force member and psychology professor. “The school has grown with no one to say that we can grow, but we also need to trim.”
Crandall said the structure of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will still be the same, but requiring fewer hours would hopefully help more students graduate in four years. He said requirement of 124 total credit hours would likely remain in place.
“These are small tweaks to make things smoother, faster and easier,” Crandall said. “We don’t want people hanging around here over four years, because it was hard to get their required hours in, or because they didn’t take enough required hours freshman year.”
A method for going about reducing the number of required hours has not been decided yet.
“There are a lot of different ways that this can be done,” Steinmetz said. “We have to figure out what is the best way, and still deliver a rounded education.”
Crandall said the important thing is to make the system more efficient without sacrificing quality.
“These kind of changes are fairly small,” Crandall said. “But they could be enough to get a good percentage of students done in four years instead of four and a half or five, and that would be great.”
— Edited by Kyle Carter
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