Last week, Student Senate met with Ohio University administrators to discuss Tier III classes, the widely criticized final component of OU's general education requirements. Those meetings should continue, as not enough pressure can be put on that poorly facilitated requirement.
There are rarely enough seats to accommodate the number of seniors needing to take a Tier III course to graduate, a problem that has yet to be addressed satisfactorily and that leads to a yearly ritual of departmental scrambling. Projections indicate 1,300 seats will be available for 2,163 students this year. Proposed solutions have included replacing Tier III with departmental capstone courses - comprehensive senior courses with departmental focuses - or doing away with Tier III altogether. Because many departments already require capstone courses, and the others should be free to decide their inclusion, the best choice is simply to eliminate Tier III completely, as nearly happened last year during a Faculty Senate vote last school year.
The failure to salvage Tier III in its current form casts a serious shadow over any effort to replace the requirement with an alternative. The idea of replacing the requirement with capstones sounds appealing at first. However, any replacement for Tier III could be susceptible to the same problems that have doomed it already, including availability of seats and professors to teach them. The infeasibility of requiring one course for all seniors, many who are more than ready to graduate, should be recognized.
Because of the criticisms and resistance to that final requirement, student organizations and faculty groups should push for removal of the Tier III requirement. Student Senate leadership already has begun to consider alternatives to the Tier III requirement and seems to favor endorsing its removal.
The Faculty Senate also needs to join that cause. The Tier III requirement is flawed both in its practical application and its worth to a college student's education. The classes, ranging from courses called Biology Thru Biography to Mediterranean Food and Culture
might be interesting, but oftentimes have little to do with students' majors. The ultimate value of the subject matter covered by many Tier IIIs is questionable. When one combines that with the consistent lack of seats, it is clear that Tier III is ripe for removal. The sooner that is acknowledged, the better. 17
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Final requirement far too flawed
