LISA RICHMOND
Assistant News Editor
PLYMOUTH, N.H.-On Wednesday, April 2, the faculty of Plymouth State College adopted a new proposal made by the General Education Task Force in order to make the General Education program a better academic experience for the students. Defined by the faculty, the General Education Program consists of courses based on a common set of knowledge that each student should have in order to obtain a bachelor degree.
PSC’s current program was adopted in May of 1985 and implemented in the fall of 1986. In February of 2000, a motion was approved by the faculty that the Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Virginia Barry was charged with “appointing a General Education program and make recommendations for what changes…to make the program a better academic experience,” states Mary Campbell, Assistant Manger for Academic Affairs. The Executive Council approved a motion that encouraged the Task Force to “address directly the issue of transferability of credits among System institutions” and to “consider as a primary goal to make the General Education program more general, less prescriptive, fewer credits, and independent of any major.”
The Task Force collected data by surveying students and faculty about the current General Education Program. Some members also took a trip to Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio to learn about their program. After the Task Force collected data, they concluded that the new program should follow certain principles. The courses should be relative to students’ lives while helping them to develop skills for lifelong learning and success. The program should also help the students appreciate the various ways scholars understand the human experience. Another principle considered is that the program will be easy to understand, administer, and should not present problems to transfer students or students that change their majors. The new General Education Program will also continue to change to keep it up to date. The Task Force is also mindful of the goals trying to be reached.
One goal in the proposal states, “Courses taken to ensure breadth of knowledge should emphasize the relevance and application of methods of inquiry and content to students’ lives.” One example is the replacement of the IAC (Introduction to the Academic Community) course by First-Year Seminar. “IAC tends not to have an academic focus,” says Patricia Cantor, the Chair of the Education Department and Task Force member. First-Year Seminar, a “cornerstone course,” where students will build intellectual skills that are needed for college-level work. The course will also help students “draw connections between fields of knowledge and to consider the importance of considering multiple discipline points of view in resolving problems,” according to the proposed course description. The IAC course was only a one-credit course. This new course will be appointed three credits and implemented in the fall of 2004. The group’s goals led them to the design of the program.
Basic skills courses will include Composition, Math Foundations (from the current program), and the three-credit First-Year Seminar to provide a foundation for the first year. After surveying to find input from students, faculty, and alumni, a list was put together for the design of the program. A list of skills has been compiled by the Task Force that are to be introduced for the first year experience including: critical thinking, reading, quantitative reasoning, writing, speaking and listening, conducting research, working with information technology, and collaborating with others. The Task Force also feels that “unlike courses in the present program, they should not double count as part of the major.”
The Force contends that it will help to correct problems with “double counting” that have caused concern in the past. These courses will carry discipline codes and also “belong” to departments, while being taught by departments. The committee also decided that “basic skills and breadth courses should be separate from the major and common to all, however, more advanced skills, approaches to inquiry, and appreciation of differences could, and perhaps should, be integrated into the major.”
This program will not be effective until the fall of 2005. Patricia Cantor “is excited about the new program”. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email her at pcantor@mail.plymouth.edu.