A-to-Z Index

General Education: The Human Community - Guiding Principles

  1. The underlying principles of General Education: The Human Community are described in its Philosophy and Mission statements. The Philosophy and Mission statements, printed in the undergraduate catalog, are the foundation of The Human Community.
  2. General Education: The Human Community is described by its goals stated in terms of knowledge, skills, and experience. These goals describe the broad areas of knowledge, skills, and experiences that every educated person should have. Each cluster is responsible for providing students with opportunities to learn in all three areas.
  3. General Education: The Human Community is effected in the classroom through the learning objectives specified for each cluster. The objectives for each cluster bring the program to life within the classroom. Since the objectives represent the careful work of many faculty members, the General Education Council will approve changes to these objectives only after the consideration and recommendation by the appropriate Cluster Committee.
  4. Each approved structure that fulfills the requirements of a cluster must meet all the objectives of the cluster. Since the program is effected through its learning objectives, each path through the program must address all the objectives.
  5. Coursework in each cluster must introduce students to a broad area of human knowledge, with specific attention paid to interrelationships, not just to specific disciplines or bodies of knowledge. Our students need to function responsibly in a complex world with many competing messages. They need a level of social, cultural, and scientific literacy that will help them sift through information to determine the value, strength, relevance and credibility of various positions.
  6. Cluster One provides fundamental skills, which must be reinforced in all clusters. The important skills that make up Cluster One—writing, speaking, information retrieval and technology, and critical thinking—are essential and foundational skills for success in college and in life. Each cluster is responsible for ensuring that students develop and refine these necessary skills.
  7. With rare exceptions, all approved structures that fulfill cluster requirements must be appropriate for and available to all general education students, not restricted to or designed only for certain majors or professional programs. All courses will be judged and approved according to their appropriateness to general education. The general rule for inclusion of first courses in the major is that their approach be available for all students in General Education: The Human Community.
  8. Major and professional programs may choose to require courses that are part of the General Education: The Human Community, so long as they are clearly listed in the catalog as major requirements. In other words, double counting between majors and general education is acceptable. However, no major may create “hidden requirements” in general education by making a general education course a prerequisite to courses in the major but not listing the prerequisite as a major requirement.
  9. Each cluster must have a stated plan for integrating the courses.
  10. There will be agreed-upon areas of consistency across all sections of a particular course. The integration of courses within a Cluster must be consistent from section to section. In addition, students deserve consistent requirements across sections of the same course.
  11. The number of courses and pathways through a cluster shall be limited, The main reason is practical—the sequencing and scheduling of sections will become increasingly difficult as the number of course offerings increases.
  12. No course for general education credit will be approved which depends upon the skills of only one or two faculty members. Again, this principle is an issue of practicality. Planning for the number of seats and sections within a cluster is difficult if courses are not offered every semester or if a student does not have several sections to choose from each semester. Furthermore, courses in a cross-disciplinary curriculum should be designed so that they are broad-based enough that a number of faculty members should be able to teach the material.
  13. Each cluster will have a single assessment procedure. These will not be differentiated by individual courses or the structure of the cluster. Since each cluster has its own specific learning objectives common to all, students will be assessed by the common cluster objectives.
  14. The evaluation and development of the program will be ongoing. Assessment data and other evaluation procedures will be used to promote continuous development and strengthening of the program.
  15. Curriculum reviews for each Cluster will occur on a five year rotation
  16. In general, the participation of part-time faculty and graduate students in courses within the General Education: The Human Community should be limited. The strength and success of the General Education program depend on the strength of the faculty. We expect the best qualified and most experienced full-time teachers to participate in the program for stability and academic excellence. The program, however, welcomes other fully qualified, committed, and excellent teachers

Adopted 1996
Revisions Approved GEC: October 30, 1998
Proposed editorial revisions presented to GEC 1/24/02