Resolutions written to guide the conversion of the curriculum from quarters to semesters hit the floor of Faculty Senate for their first reading last night.
The first resolution debated on the floor sought to define the requirement for the new, semester-based general education requirements.
Among its mandates, the resolution described how many hours should be allocated to each of six general-education disciplines. It also requires that the purpose of the conversion is to keep general education requirements in line with where they currently stand under quarters.
Jeff Giesey, co-coordinator of the transition, said during the meeting that the resolution aimed to keep departments from using the transition as an opportunity to increase general education requirements, which he referred to as a general education creep.
Joe McLaughlin, chairman of the English department, said he found it very discouraging that faculty valued the major far in excess of general education.
You talk about general education 'creep' as if it is some sort of
monster
he said.
The other two resolutions sought to define the minimum number of hours required for graduation under semesters as 120 and that the majority of courses under the semester system would be three lecture credit hours.
Reducing the number of credit hours required for graduation from the level under the quarter system didn't sit well with some senators.
I think that the basic premise of all of this was that there wasn't going to be any degradation of the educational mission said Joe Bernt, a professor of journalism who favors the switch to semesters. Well we've already dropped the number of hours for graduation to 120 from what should be 128
so I guess that doesn't really pull.
Giesey said that he welcomed the feedback he heard in the meeting and looked forward to hearing more as debate spread across campus.
The senate decided during the meeting that, even if 120 hours is the minimum required for graduation, programs should be allowed to require additional coursework for completion of their respective degrees.
The resolutions will be voted on at the next Faculty Senate meeting in April.
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Frank Thomas
