UW-Platteville’s General Education Task Force held open forums last week to discuss possible changes to general education class requirements.

The Academic Affairs Council first recommended that a General Education Task Force be formed to review general education in October 2007, Shane Drefcinski, General Education Task Force chair, said.

“Having gone through general education classes, there were things I saw to be shortcomings,” Andy Rankin, senior computer science major and Segregated University Fee Allocation Commission representative for the General Education Task Force, said. “I do feel it’s a good idea to at least critique what we currently have.”

It has been about 20 years since the last review took place, Drefcinski said. There was also a recommendation made by the 2006 Higher Learning Commission Accreditation team to try and tie general education classes to specific degrees and help students to understand the importance of them.

“Many students do not value the general education program,” Drefcinski said. “The current ‘cafeteria’ approach to general education lacks coherence and integrity.”

The committee is looking at the concept of general education and the purpose of it, Carol Sue Butts, provost and vice chancellor, said. The committee is not getting into any classes or the outcomes yet.

“It’s a very big project and this will continue on through next year,” Butts said.

The goal is to get the purpose and goals of general education established before the academic year is over, Butts said. Next to be looked at will be the student learning outcomes.

“Many people don’t know the mission of general education classes,” Rankin said. “Before changes are made we have to have a statement everyone can stand behind.”

Students often complain that they don’t see the point of many of the general education requirements, Drefcinski said. There seems to be a disconnect between the students’ interests and goals and the goals of the UW-Platteville general education curriculum.

“A lot of students don’t understand why we have to take the specific courses we have to take,” Rankin said. “I would like to see a change, but it’s probably going to happen in small steps. There are going to be hardships with anything we come up with.”

A problem with some general education classes is some professors don’t want to be teaching them, Rankin said. If a student can tell that the professor doesn’t want to be there, it’s hard for the students to want to be there either.

“In the end, we may be rewriting how general education classes work, but we don’t know that for sure right now,” Rankin said. “If people don’t get involved, nothing will change.”

The committee members were appointed by the Faculty Senate, Rankin said.

Any General Education Task Force proposal must be approved by the University Undergraduate Curriculum Commission and the Faculty Senate, Drefcinski said.