4) What changes in the General Education program would allow it to better serve your department, our students, and the University as a whole? (set 4)
The General Education program at UNCA needs a director with a budget to coordinate its different parts, articulate its goals, and supervise the implementation of these goals. This director could be an advocate for the program and provide enrichment opportunities for students & faculty.
To improve the writing abilities of students all students
Additional suggestions included:
a science course (in lieu of the interdisciplinary course) that covers the major themes of science;
a Library Research component that is part of freshman writing;
a First Year Experience course requirement for all freshman;
the health and fitness course should be improved, and other models considered;
a writing intensive course requirement for each year;
and an explicit set of goals for General Education
Faculty Record should ask about contribution to General Education and not just the interdisciplinary courses
The Humanities courses should be
organized around core concepts rather than historical eras
Faculty teaching Humanities need to
have more latitude within their sections and the flexibility to teach the
material that they feel comfortable with. Do
not compel all faculty to teach the same thing in every section.
Perhaps we ought to transform
Humanities into 8 2-hour Term courses rather than 4 4-hour Semester courses.
Humanities could be taught with groups
of 3-4 faculty team-teaching around particular thematic material.
Humanities and Arts courses should not
be scheduled at 11:00 and 12:15. Why
not later in the afternoon, at 4:00? It makes it difficult for other departments to schedule
classes.
Social Science General Education
courses should not be introductions to the major.
There should be more sections of lab
science courses in disciplines other than Biology.
The freshman writing requirement could
be folded into other core courses rather than fulfilled through a separate set
of classes.
The Arts course should be explicitly
oriented toward Arts Appreciation. Perhaps
it should be integrated within the Humanities sequence to avoid overlap.
Perhaps the Arts requirement is best
fulfilled through a 3-hour Arts Lab; the lab, in which students experience art,
is the most valuable part of the requirement.
There are multiple paths to reducing
the hours in General Education: Humanities could become 4 3-hour courses;
Arts could be rolled into Humanities; Lab Science could be reduced to a 4-hour
course;
Librarians should reconsider making LR a prerequisite to declaring a major, as this sometimes negatively affects transfer students
Bloated majors are indeed a potential problem
More attention should be given toward Library Research collaboration/integration; this is something most UNCA librarians would like to pursue
Suggested changes include: