2) What works in our current General Education program? (set 3)

General Education works best with the creation of connections, of a narrative builds connections.  In the Humanities core, students feel like they are having a sequential, sustained experience.  Peer group experiences are important in terms of student development—Humanities is truly a common Gen Ed experience.

Collective teaching—people coming together to teach a content—is important.  This approach revitalizes teaching in the disciplines, reinforcing multidisciplinary approaches in the disciplines, too.  This kind of teaching is role modeling for the students.

The General Education program at UNCA has a balanced distribution and a solid common experience in the core.  The Humanities Program is unique, bringing together different disciplines in a common experience for faculty and students.

A “core” works.  The core is the glue that allows students to bond together, to form a common identity.  There are certain things we can agree are important to know.  We can discuss and agree on this material, and we are capable of teaching it.

The Humanities Program gives faculty the opportunity for increased contact with their colleagues and with students outside their major programs.  It offers faculty an opportunity for intellectual growth. 

A broader contextualization better prepares our students for further study.

The historical focus of the Humanities Program works, although it could be even stronger.  We should not pursue a topical Humanities program, as it would undermine the historical component of general education.  Our holistic, interdisciplinary approach to a core, historically focused experience for the students is also a positive aspect of the general education curriculum.  The discussion focus of the Humanities sections works.  The opportunity to learn from other faculty, when we have the time to do it, is very valuable.   

UNCA's GE program was considered a possible reason why our  majors compare well in their verbal reasoning ability. Another faculty member mentioned that individual components worked well, but the program on a whole lacked the linkages between them.

[We are dissatisfied] with the science component of general education. We feel that the present science General Education courses are watered down versions of the course for the majors. [We are experiencing] frustration at the general attitudes toward the mathematics and the sciences. We feel that UNCA should have higher standards in math and science. A science student takes the same Humanities course as a humanities major, but the humanities major is allowed to take watered down mathematics and science courses. Also we question the wisdom of having non-experts teaching in humanities (i.e. scientists teaching Shakespeare).  One person mentioned that he/she was unclear what the purpose of HUM 414 was.

The amount of hours in the humanities is too high.

The present GE lab-science courses are not viewed as adequate.  They fail in giving the needed broader base of science knowledge. Even science students need more on the context and implications of scientific knowledge.  

There are few links between courses.

Faculty support the concept of a General Education program that extends through all four years.  Many like the idea of a capstone course in the senior year (although they are not sure that the current HUM 414 fits this bill).

Regarding the natural science requirement, most faculty support including a lab course and a nonlab course.  In fact, many of the nonlab courses in Physics predate the current General Education program.  They were created because faculty found these topics interesting and students wanted to study them.  Even if this requirement were dropped, the department would continue to offer the courses. They are part of its commitment to serving the community at large.

The general consensus is that the current program just needs some “tweaking.”  For example, faculty support the Humanities core although most believe that HUM 414 needs significant revision.  Some favor decreasing the number of Humanities courses or the number of hours per course (e.g., making them 3 SH courses).  This could help increase free elective hours for students.