(HELENA BOLOGNA/The Daily Campus)

SMU’s curriculum will undergo a monumental redevelopment in just over one year.

Come fall 2012, the current General Education Curriculum (GEC) will be replaced with the new University Curriculum (UC).

Associate Dean for general education Dennis Cordell presented a report on the new curriculum at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday.

The General Education Review Committee crafted the new proposal that focuses on preparing students for graduation in the 21st century.

“The new curriculum really addresses some of the things that have been difficult for students,” said Vicki Hill, director at the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center. “We’re interested more in what did you learn, not where did you learn it.”

The new curriculum will allow students to satisfy general education, electives, majors and minors in a variety of places.

“It will help encourage students to think in an interdisciplinary way so that what [students] learn in one course, can be thought about and applied in another course,” assistant dean for the University Curriculum Shelley Berg said.

There will be a principle of double counting credits as long as the course meets the specified learning outcomes.

“It takes away that wall that’s right now between GEC and your major,” Cordell said.

The student learning outcomes have not yet been approved and are still being drafted.

The Academic Affairs Committee also proposed to move toward change of proposed standing charges and additional charges of Substance Abuse Prevention and Education. Faculty Senate voted in favor of the changes.

Academic Affairs also recommended changes in length of student probationary period.

Currently, students on academic probation are allotted one semester to raise their GPAs to 2.0. This impacts students depending on the semester in which they are put on academic probation.

Professor William Bridge proposed the academic probation period to be extended to one full calendar year. Senate voted all in favor of the change.