Structural Reform Proposal: Go Big for Student Completion and

Retention
President Huftalin has emphasized the importance of student completion and
retention. In addition, the Colleges mission includes Access and Success as a
Core Theme. A Go Big proposal for General Education should help fulfill that
mission and the Presidents goals by equipping underrepresented and
underprepared students with the skills they will need for success at the College.
Research shows that students who define and reflect upon their academic goals
substantially improve their grade point averages.
What would change with this proposal?
1. Eliminate the existing Student Choice (Depth or IN) and Interdisciplinary (ID)
requirements.
2. Create a 3-credit Wicked Problems (WP) requirement. Wicked Problems would
be a category of no more than 8-10 courses. Students would need to take one. A
Wicked Problems course would have the following characteristics:
a. Must address a societally important challenge that has national as well as
local impacts.
Examples might include: Energy and the Human Condition; Illiteracy and
Innumeracy; Food Insecurity; Sustainability as a Personal and Social
Challenge, etc. Faculty and administrators would collaboratively decide on
the actual course titles.
b. Must employ one of the following HIPs: Service-Learning or Community
Based-Learning; Undergraduate Research; Collaborative Projects; or
Learning Community (i.e., must be linked to another course)
c. Be collaboratively designed by interested faculty, with the Assistant
Provost for Learning Advancement taking administrative responsibility for
the courses.
d. Be open to any faculty to teach.
e. Must address these learning outcomes: effective communication,
quantitative literacy, critical thinking, civic engagement, and information
literacy.
3. Create a 3-credit First Year Exploration (EX)/First Year Experience (FY)
requirement, with separate paths for students in pre-majors and students in General
Studies.
a. First Year Exploration Criteria & Requirements: This path would be
taken by students who have declared a pre-major. Again, a category
of no more than 8-10 courses that would match what we define as metamajors. The First Year Exploration courses would have the following
characteristics:
1. Must devote 1/3 of the course to key student success strategies and
resources. The strategies should be practiced in the context of
meta-major assignments and readings.

2. Must devote 2/3 of the course to a preliminary exploration that gets

students excited about the opportunities, big questions, and ways
of knowing/habits of mind encompassed by a particular meta-major.
3. Be collaboratively designed by interested academic administrators
and the faculty who teach in particular meta-majors.
4. Be taught by any faculty located within a meta-major who has
completed training in college success strategies and resources.
b. First Year Experience Criteria & Requirements: This path would be
taken by students in General Studies. A category of no more than 3-4
courses that would be defined by Life and College Success Proficiencies.
The First Year Experience courses would have the following characteristics:
1. Must be devoted to the development of key student success
strategies and resources. The strategies should be practiced in the
context of achieving a broad liberal arts education. Courses should
include elements or concepts from motivation theory, resource
management, listening, writing, speaking, critical thinking, problem
solving, adult learning theory and other pertinent models.
2. Require students to plan their academic pursuits and priorities.
3. Be collaboratively designed by interested faculty, First Year
Experience Staff and the Education Department.
4. Be taught by any faculty member who has completed training in
college success strategies and resources.
4. Reboot the Diversity (DV) requirement to center it on American
Institutions (AI) courses.
a. Reformulate AI courses so that they address the following as they introduce
students to U.S. history, politics, or economics:
i.
Focus on topics of diversity in the context of U.S. history, politics, or
economics.
ii.
Define and analyze events, policies, and social structures that
caused and perpetuate power and resource imbalances,
discrimination, and oppression in the United States.
iii.
Explore the dynamics of discrimination, oppression, and violence
broadly defined.
iv.
Investigate the problems and benefits of a multicultural society.
b. Existing DV courses would remain in the curriculum, but students would no
longer need to look for double-dip opportunities.
Why Make These Changes?
Wicked Problems:
It is widely arguedsee Paul Handstedts General Education Essentials; the
AAC&Us General Education Maps and Markers; and R470s emphasis on big
questions, complex problems, and real-world challengesthat students
in General Education ought to address wicked problems.
Wicked problems are inherently integrative in nature, and give students
opportunities to apply knowledge and create signature work. We should
anchor WP courses in the curriculum so that student exposure to them is not
accidental.

WP courses as designed here would be an excellent way to ensure that all

students experience at least one High Impact Practice.

First Year Exploration:

Many of our students are uncertain of their direction, and the EX courses
would give them a penalty-free way to explore a meta-major.
The EX courses would allow schools to devise on-ramps to meta-majors.
The EX courses would also serve to provide all students with college success
skills and resources.

First Year Experience:

Many of our students are undecided. A First Year Experience would give students an
initial introduction to various Liberal Arts Education contexts.
The FY courses would help students who are not academically or culturally
prepared for the college experience.
The FY courses would allow students to gain vital success proficiencies while
also fulfilling a General Education requirement.
Reboot the Diversity Requirement:
As currently conceived, the DV requirement is a burden on students because
it complicates their course selection and scheduling processes.
As currently conceived, the DV requirement is an outdated, overly siloed
artifice that has been grafted onto our Gen Ed program.
Anchoring DV in the AI requirement solves the above problems and reinforces
an important point: one cannot fully understand the American political,
historical and economic experience without an appreciation for power
differentials, discrimination, and oppression.
From the student perspective, how does the General Education program
change?
Current Gen Ed Structure for AS
Degrees

Proposed Gen Ed Structure for AS

Degrees

Core

Core

Skills (12-13 credits)

Composition (EN)
Quantitative Literacy (QL)
American Institutions (AI)

USHE Distribution Areas (15 credits)

(Take one class from each area)
Fine Arts (FA)
Humanities (HU)
Life Sciences (LS)
Physical Sciences (PS)
Social Sciences (SS)

Skills (12-13 credits)

Composition (EN)
Quantitative Literacy (QL)
American Institutions (AI)

USHE Distribution Areas (15 credits)

(Take one class from each area)
Fine Arts (FA)
Humanities (HU)
Life Sciences (LS)
Physical Sciences (PS)
Social Sciences (SS)

Institutional Requirements (7
credits)
Student Choice (Take an IN
course or a
Depth course)
Interdisciplinary (ID)
Lifetime Wellness (LW)

Institutional Requirements (7
credits)
Wicked Problems (WP)
First Year Exploration (EX)/First
Year Experience (FY)
Lifetime Wellness (LW)

Total Credits=34-35

Total Credits=34-35