Gen-ed curriculum to be extended

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The highly touted general-education curriculum that most students entering UB as freshmen and majoring in the arts and sciences have been following since 1992 will be extended to all freshmen-although without the language requirement for some-beginning with those entering the university this fall.

Officials charged with overseeing undergraduate education say that with the creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the university now can complete a plan that has been in the works since the mid-1980s-that is, to offer one general-education curriculum to all of its students.

Nicolas Goodman, vice provost for undergraduate education, stressed that UB's general-education curriculum meets the new, SUNY-wide general-education requirements recently adopted by the SUNY Board of Trustees. Although the trustees' plan at this point is vague and gives faculty on the individual campuses the authority to implement the general-education curriculum, "I would argue that UB's curriculum is close, and even better, than what the trustees have in mind," he said.

"This is really a significant improvement in the education we're offering to our students," said Goodman, pointing out that the general-education curriculum offered in the arts and sciences has received favorable national attention. He noted that it has been frustrating for administrators to have spent so much time over the years planning and achieving a consensus on the new, core curriculum and then not being able to implement the curriculum for the entire university. (See accompanying box at the end of this story for details on the general-education requirements.)

Goodman said there are numerous benefits in providing "a common educational experience" for all undergraduates, including making it easier for students to switch from one program of study to another within the university, improving advisement for students and simplifying the curriculum. It also will provide the "general foundation for expressing the values of the institution"-a representation of the UB consensus as to what all undergraduates should be taught, he said.

Peter Gold, associate dean for general education and student services in the College of Arts and Sciences who played an integral role in developing the curriculum as associate dean of the former Undergraduate College, agreed that it is a much stronger program than the knowledge-based curriculum that now is followed by all transfer students, as well as those outside the arts and sciences.

"I'm so pleased this is finished; it was part of the original plan, to have one general-education program for all students," Gold said. "It was the direction we always intended to go, the direction we always expected to go."

When the revamped, general-education curriculum was implemented with great fanfare in Fall 1992, it was required only of freshmen pursuing bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees in the arts and sciences. The Undergraduate College, which designed the curriculum under the leadership of former Dean John Thorpe, did not have the resources to implement the plan effectively, Goodman recalled. Although the curriculum finally was implemented fully in the arts and sciences faculties by the Council of Arts and Sciences Deans in the mid-1990s, it could not be extended to the entire university because the deans' council lacked the formal structure, resources or authority to do so, he said. Students in the professional schools, as well as transfer students, continued to follow the knowledge-area curriculum in which they took courses in six "knowledge areas" that were intended to serve as introductions to the subject areas, featuring strong writing or quantitative components.

Now, with the College of Arts and Sciences in place and a dean-Kerry Grant-who is staunchly "committed" to the curriculum-it can be required of all freshmen entering the university, Goodman said, noting that almost all of the components of the curriculum, with the possible exception of some upper-division science courses, fall under the auspices of the college.

Moreover, the great success of the curriculum in the arts and sciences, and the "credibility" the program has achieved over the years has helped to pave the way for agreement from the professional schools on extending the core curriculum to those units, he said.

Although improvement of undergraduate education was not the sole reason for the creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, it was perhaps the most important reason, Goodman said.

"General education is a fundamental part of the responsibilities of any university," he said. "It's the desire to do that right that has driven us inexorably to creating the College of Arts and Sciences."

While all students entering UB as freshmen this fall will be required to follow the core curriculum-students who already are matriculated will not be affected-those majoring in areas other than the arts and sciences will be able to drop the foreign-language requirement. Fulfilling that requirement would pose a "very significant additional load" on students whose coursework already is heavy in science and math requirements, Goodman said, adding there also is a resource problem in providing language instruction to all freshmen.

The university plans to phase in the core curriculum to transfer students over the next few years, he said.

Providing a common, core curriculum for undergraduates will simplify advisement and make it easier for students to change from one program to another-and possibly speed progress toward degree-since they will not have to retake general-education requirements if they move, for example, from a professional school, where they would follow a knowledge-area curriculum, to the arts and sciences, where they would follow the core curriculum, he noted.

He said that many students take general-education courses during their first years at UB to build a foundation, then take more specialized courses during the last two years.

But that strategy won't work if general-education requirements vary from school to school, and students don't know which general-education courses to take until they choose a major.

A common, general-education curriculum "makes for a better way of organizing undergraduate education," he said. "At least students are confident of getting their general-education requirements out of the way" before pursuing courses in their major course of study, he said.