Ohio University’s General Education Task Force is sticking to its schedule and conducting summer meetings with each college dean to re-evaluate the university’s general education.
The meetings were suggested by the 1804 General Education Task Force report, written in 2012.
The task force will advise college deans on how to gather opinions. From there, each dean will formulate the best method to talk about OU’s general education with faculty.
“The way that (the College of Arts and Sciences) would be approaching this would be much different from a college that’s much smaller,” said Robert Frank, task force chair and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Frank said he plans to first discuss general education with all of his own college’s department chairs and then hold forums.
Ann Fidler, chief of staff to the provost and chief financial planner, said she was unsure whether faculty outside of Faculty Senate and the task force were aware of the movement to modify OU’s general education.
“They’re getting to work and to reassure people that this is an important thing and that faculty feels important and involved,” Fidler said.
OU students can voice their opinions in the fall, but Frank said those comments will matter most if individual colleges create prototype general education courses in preparation for the new plan.
But the project doesn’t have a firm timeline, Frank said.
“Lacking the outcome of the conversation, it is a little hard to know what the pace of the process might look like,” Frank said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
