Ohio State is reviewing the large number of GEC courses that every undergraduate student must complete in hopes of improving the four-year graduation rate and decreasing the total number hours needed for graduation.
A USG Town Hall meeting took place Wednesday to discuss the possible revisions to the GEC requirements.
“Our charge is to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the present GEC program and prepare suggested modifications that are appropriate for the curriculum at OSU and to study these factors that may impact the retention of students,” said Marilyn Blackwell, chairwoman of the Ad Hoc Undergraduate Curriculum Review Committee.
The committee has set a timeline to evaluate the GEC requirements at OSU and to compare the program to top schools across the country, Blackwell said.
“A review of the GEC program was conducted in 1995 and concluded that the GEC program at OSU was too complicated, too extensive and fostered uncertainty,” Blackwell said. “After the study, changes were made, and now we are going back to see if those problems had been solved and if new problems exist.”
Students were able to ask questions and voice concerns about GEC requirements, some of which included: the bulk of hours spent on GECs, four-year graduation rates, transfer credit and the foreign language requirement for some colleges.
“Everyone who earns a degree from OSU should have a breadth of knowledge and also a depth of knowledge, and the GEC serves as the breadth of knowledge,” said OSU President William “Brit” Kirwan.
According to Blackwell, statistics show that 55 percent of college graduates will switch jobs at least once in their lives.
“If the career a student has prepared for fails them, a strong general education knowledge will give the student something to fall back on,” Blackwell said.
USG president Eddie Pauline addressed the four-year graduation rate.
“I think it takes people too long to graduate because we have too many credit hours. We need to start working right now to reduce the total hours back to 180 hours, which every other quarter school has and make it more mathematically possible to graduate in four years,” Pauline said.
“The committee will look at the entire curriculum in every major and evaluate whether the GEC requirement is too big or too small,” said Edward Ray, executive vice president and provost. “We want people to be able to graduate in about 180 hours.”
The committee will also evaluate transfer credits because transfer students have found it difficult get GEC credit at OSU for the courses they have taken at other universities, Blackwell said.
Blackwell said it is a “virtual certainty” that no other college besides the College of Arts and Sciences will have a foreign language requirement.
The meeting also included a discussion of the stars, dots and diamonds that appear on the GEC requirement sheet.
“After looking at the GEC requirements, it seemed to me that it looked too much like an IRS tax form. There are too many categories, restrictions and academic advising that is put into navigating your way through the curriculum,” Ray said. “The committee will take into consideration the number of categories and the number of different areas a student needs to have some course preparation for their major so that OSU students hit the right balance to be exposed to the kind of knowledge and methodology that we think every educated person should have.”
Research and evaluation will continue through Spring 2002. At that time, OSU will initiate steps to pass and to implement the new GEC requirements, Blackwell said.
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