Students might not begrudge taking general education courses if they have relevance to their majors, which is one of the goals of a new Ohio University committee.
Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit created a general education task force Jan. 14 to reevaluate the current general education requirements for OU students.
The initiative is a result of the 1804 Task Force convened to consider general education reform, published in March 2012, Robert Frank said, co-chair of the task force and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Frank said that students do not always choose classes that are relevant to their majors’ skill set. His goal is to create a set of requirements, which teach skills relevant to students’ majors.
“I strongly believe that for most things the way you truly come too understand (something) is through repeated exposure,” he said.
The assessment process will take one and a half years, allowing the implementation of the new general education schedule by the end of spring 2014.
All of the prospective implementation costs will come from the general education budget, and they are not hoping to go over the already-allotted resources. However, Frank said that further into the implementation process, the task force might have some extra start-up costs.
“(The new general education) will start paying for itself if it’s done properly,” said Greg Kremer, co-chair of the task force and chair of the department of mechanical engineering.
After the first meeting, the task force will begin surveying students and faculty as to what they believe should stay or be changed within their general requirements. The task force will then hold focus groups for each college in which students and faculty can provide input.
“The job of this group is to bring the community into the conversation as to what this thing might look like,” Frank said.
Being an adviser as well as a professor, Kremer heard some students’ complaints about general education classes, but he believes that some of these concerns arise from an inability to perceive a relevance to a student’s major.
“There’s not enough of a connection to make it something (students) value,” Kremer said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
