The proposed General Education Curriculum has jumped a hurdle. Fulltime SMU faculty members voted 194 to 74 in favor of the new plan.
Electronic voting took place on March 18 and 19, after the university-wide forum took place on March 17 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. The forum was designed to answer any remaining questions or concerns faculty members had.
Fredrick Olness, president of the Faculty Senate, said he does not know specifically why 74 faculty members voted against the plan. He said that at the forum and during other discussions two main concerns kept resurfacing.
“The general concerns that have come up during the discussions were whether there were sufficient resources to implement the plan and if the new language requirement would be difficult for some students,” Olness said, “particularly in majors where they had a high number of required courses.”
He said although the proposal was passed, work is not finished. Various faculty committees will be formed to implement the changes.
“The GEC proposal that passed was a roadmap to the new curriculum,” he said. “It is important to note, this curriculum is determined by the faculty, voted on by the faculty, and it will be implemented by the faculty.”
According to Olness, although the new GEC is expected to go into effect fall 2012, implementing the changes will occur over time.
“We have two more academic years before the plan goes fully into effect,” he said. “The next year is more of a planning and transition year as some classes have to be adapted and others will have to be created. It takes time to do that, and we don’t want rush the process and do a poor job.”
Olness said the new curriculum is ‘exciting.’
“This curriculum will be applied to everyone across campus, which is different to what we have now,” he said. “These are a set of courses that all of us agreed are fundamental to becoming a well-rounded citizen no matter what your future is.”
He said the foreign language requirement reflects that the “world is becoming flat, more things are going global and we have to interact internationally, so it is essential that we know the language and culture so we can carry on collaboration and business with other people.”
Dennis Cordell, associate dean for general education, said the foreign language requirement came after meeting with Student Senate members. Senators asked for a foreign language proficiency requirement as well as a personal finance class.
Cordell said both are in the new plan. Besides these requirements Cordell said the new curriculum, also called the University Curriculum, has other benefits.
“The UC will offer students greater opportunities for creating closer links between their UC coursework and experiences and their majors,” he said. “It will foster undergraduate research by exposing students to the research approaches of different disciplines early in their undergraduate careers in their Nature of Scholarship courses. These courses will also help students to choose the most appropriate major for them.”
Cordell said, “The UC will ask students to demonstrate proficiencies in Community Engagement and Global Engagement, which may be met by experiences (such as internships) as well as courses. It will also recognize the legitimacy of learning through reflective experience as well as course work.”
Cordell said the university administration has to present the UC to the Board of Trustees for approval, which is the final step to approval. He said through the UC professors, students and staff have the opportunity to shape the campus community.”
