The burden of teaching 80 percent of the university’s general education classes will shift away from the university’s three biggest colleges, but Provost Nariman Farvardin has promised their deans a drop in course load won’t come with a drop in funding.
The new general education program, which the University Senate passed 67-9 earlier this month, seeks to engage every college across the university in the program by asking all of them to offer general education courses. In the current CORE program, three colleges — arts and humanities, behavioral and social sciences, and chemical and life sciences — teach the overwhelming majority of the large lectures that end up defining the general education experience for most students.
History professor Ira Berlin, the chair of the General Education Task Force, met with the three deans at the beginning of the semester. Each had major concerns over how funding would change after the courses were spread out among the university’s 13 colleges. But Farvardin reassured them funds would not decrease.
“With any change, people are concerned,” Berlin said. “[The deans] want to be reassured the resources are there, and that’s been a concern. I think they’ve been reassured, and they seem to be very supportive. All the deans have spoken in pretty much one voice in favor of the program.”
While all the schools — even ones such as public policy and information studies, which currently offer mostly graduate courses — will engage in the new plan, arts and humanities Dean James Harris said the three main colleges, along with the computer, mathematical and physical sciences college, will continue to house the bulk of the classes.
“Those colleges offer so many seats already that the momentum is there,” he said. “You can’t change that totally. It’s such a big iceberg; it can’t be whittled away easily. Other colleges will do some; others will do a lot. Any increase that is done will take some of the burden off the core colleges and enrich the student experience.”
For Harris, making sure funding was readily available in the tough economic climate was a priority.
“My question [to Farvardin] was very basic: If ARHU is expected to teach more students and more credit hours, will we be given more money?” he said. “And the answer was yes, but it will probably be phased in over time. With the current budget, there’s no way this college can handle any significant increase without diminishing the quality of what we do. We can’t do that.”
Farvardin said redistributing courses is a necessary change under the new plan and external funding will help make the transition manageable.
“The course load will become much more reasonable,” he said. “It will take some of the load off colleges who are carrying too heavy a weight and will put a very modest load on a large number of colleges that are not involved. Whatever implication it may have, we’ll make sure it’s very transitional and smooth. Hopefully by securing additional outside resources, we can make sure this won’t be a burden on any colleges.”
The plan engages other colleges by requiring that each one offers an “I”-Series course, the staple of the new plan that focuses on answering real-world questions in small class settings. Berlin and other deans said the wider distribution would be beneficial to the three colleges that have carried the weight of the CORE courses by offering more flexibility in the kinds of courses they offer.
“I think the committee did a great job and the plan is very forward-thinking,” said Norma Allewell, dean of the chemical and life science college, noting that her college will not change significantly because students will still have to fulfill science courses under the new plan. “We’ve been doing well under the previous program, and I think we’ll be doing even better in terms of offering more courses that are exciting.”
An implementation committee chaired by Dean of Undergraduate Studies Donna Hamilton will be established this semester to work out issues such as how many courses each college will be responsible for teaching. Transitioning the programs will begin in 2011 and will most likely be phased in over four years.
Because implementation specifics are still unclear, some deans couldn’t comment on how the plan would affect their colleges but offered support for it in general.
“I will say that, as one who has been calling for some time for a replacement of the CORE program, I am very pleased to see this new gen-ed program which, I believe, offers a significant improvement in the experience we offer our undergraduates over the present program,” wrote Steve Halperin, dean of the computer, mathematical and physical sciences college, in an e-mail.
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