URI's New General Education Program: a summary

[For the full report, look on the web at http://www.uri.edu/facsen/UCGE_00-01-1.html]

Over the summer of 2000 the President's commission on General Education undertook the task "to revitalize and refocus our general education program to insure its continued appropriateness as a foundation of University of Rhode Island undergraduate education." It presented its report on October 5th to the President and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. After discussion by the UCGE Committee and the Faculty Senate, the Senate adopted the program on January 25th.

1.The new program retains much of the current program's extant structure. Specifically, the program will still contain seven "core areas" similar to the existing seven divisions:

*Fine Arts and Literature

*Letters

*Social Sciences

*Foreign Language/Cross-cultural Competence

*Mathematics and Quantitative reasoning

*Natural Sciences

*English Communication

and have the same credit hour requirement in each. Where appropriate, the description of these divisions has been updated. Importantly, the introduction of the new program will be "seamless" from the student's point of view.

2. The most significant structural change proposed is the treatment of "skills." While skill areas have been part of the current general education program from its inception, the Commission envisions the integration of at least three skills into all courses approved for General Education credit. As apparent from past discussions of General Education, a larger number of skill areas have been identified than the three that are expressly included in our current General Education program. The approach taken by the Commission is to focus on eight critical skills that are integrated into the program.

*Reading complex texts

*Writing effectively

*Speaking effectively

*Examining human differences

*Using quantitative data

*Using qualitative data

*Using information technology

*Engaging in artistic activity

When each course is considered for general education, its proposer must demonstrate that it fits into one of the seven core areas and incorporates three of eight integrated skills. Because two of these core areas and two of these integrated skills involve writing logically and examining human differences, students will have ample opportunity and high probability of taking courses in these visible and critical areas.

3. A multi-year phased Implementation Plan is provided which presents a timelineand strategy for advancing the proposal. The two critical elements of this plan are

*A procedure to undertake a review and re-approval of all courses in the program by UCGE and the faculty who teach the courses. The length of time since the last formal review of included courses is such that a new review probably is warranted. The new requirement that all courses infuse at least three of the identified skills makes such a review imperative.

*A set of administrative and financial resources to support the program. The Commission believes that the overall administration of our General Education program must be assigned at the Vice Provost level. In addition, effective teaching of General Education courses infused with skills will require instructional support.

The new program respects the structure of the existing requirements while at the same time incorporating an expanded emphasis on knowledge and skills relevant for the contemporary world.