2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsFaculty Senate: Drop GEP from requirements
Sarah Khan
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: News
The GEP 397 capstone course may not be a general education requirement for graduation next semester.
A resolution passed in Faculty Senate Thursday night will drop the class from next year's course catalog if approved by President Michael Nietzel.
The deletion of the course stemmed from a lack of support from both students and faculty.
"Conceptually, it's a great idea with good intentions. It just has not been successful," John Catau, chair of the committee on general education, said. "We simply are not meeting the needs of the students."
It has also become harder to find faculty willing and able to teach the course.
"I was constantly begging people to teach the class and having to tell students they couldn't get into it again," Catau said. "It was a nightmare."
Currently, the total hours of general education required to graduate will not change.
However, changes in other courses are being considered.
"We are working on changes in the IDS 110 course that could include changing it into a two-hour course instead of one hour," Catau said.
In 2007, 32 full-time faculty had classes devoted to the GEP 397 course.
The College of Arts and Letters, which has the most faculty involved in the teaching of this course after University College, will now have 13 classes to devote to alternative courses when the GEP course is deleted.
"When teachers do not have to teach GEP courses any longer, (they) will now have those hours back to teach in their own departments, which will benefit students," Sen. Tom Wyrick said.
If a student graduates in either May or August of 2008, he or she will not be exempt from taking the course.
The changes will not be made in the course catalog until next fall, meaning students that graduate after that time will not be required to take the course to graduate.
A resolution passed in Faculty Senate Thursday night will drop the class from next year's course catalog if approved by President Michael Nietzel.
The deletion of the course stemmed from a lack of support from both students and faculty.
"Conceptually, it's a great idea with good intentions. It just has not been successful," John Catau, chair of the committee on general education, said. "We simply are not meeting the needs of the students."
It has also become harder to find faculty willing and able to teach the course.
"I was constantly begging people to teach the class and having to tell students they couldn't get into it again," Catau said. "It was a nightmare."
Currently, the total hours of general education required to graduate will not change.
However, changes in other courses are being considered.
"We are working on changes in the IDS 110 course that could include changing it into a two-hour course instead of one hour," Catau said.
In 2007, 32 full-time faculty had classes devoted to the GEP 397 course.
The College of Arts and Letters, which has the most faculty involved in the teaching of this course after University College, will now have 13 classes to devote to alternative courses when the GEP course is deleted.
"When teachers do not have to teach GEP courses any longer, (they) will now have those hours back to teach in their own departments, which will benefit students," Sen. Tom Wyrick said.
If a student graduates in either May or August of 2008, he or she will not be exempt from taking the course.
The changes will not be made in the course catalog until next fall, meaning students that graduate after that time will not be required to take the course to graduate.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Floyd Zamarripa
posted 1/18/08 @ 2:34 PM CST
An entire article about the course and not 1 sentence describing what it is or why students and teachers don't like it.
Who allowed you to write?
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