Dear Faculty and Staff:
As you probably know, the proposal to revise General Education to align with the SUNY General Education Framework was approved by the Faculty Senate on March 2. You may have noticed that the new General Education (GE) Program – now officially named GE 5 – preserves most of the Knowledge and Skills areas in GE 4, but there are some changes:
- Eight categories in GE 4 carry over to GE 5, though in some cases the student learning outcomes (SLOs) change. These categories are Communication - Written and Oral, Mathematics (and Quantitative Reasoning), Natural Sciences (and Scientific Reasoning), Humanities, Social Sciences, The Arts, US History and Civic Engagement, and World Languages.
- Two categories in GE 4, Western Civilization and World Civilizations, are combined in one GE 5 area, World History and Global Awareness.
- There is a new area in GE 5, titled Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. This area replaces the SUNY New Paltz graduation requirement of one Diversity course. It is a return to our campus’ GE 3 curriculum, which included a Diversity Knowledge and Skills area.
Every department participating in the GE Program has a different mix of courses in different areas of GE and Diversity. Departments may be wondering whether they should change this mix, by reducing the number of courses in some areas and increasing the number in others. In this document, we write to provide some strategic guidance to departments considering such changes. We do not provide any guidance about how many GE courses or seats a department should offer. That is for departments to discuss with their Deans and Associate Deans.
1. Trust your judgment
You know your academic field the best. You know the GE areas to which your department’s courses align and which ones are not a good fit. If you think your courses are well placed in their current GE areas, then keep them there. If you think a course should be in a different GE area, then consider submitting a proposal to change it. If you have an existing or new course that you think would work well in GE or should be in GE, then please propose it.
2. Be guided by history
We expect that demand for GE 5 courses will track past demand for courses in GE 3 and GE 4. This demand follows trends in enrollment. When we admit large classes of first-year students, that increases the demand for GE courses. In general, we anticipate that demand will not change dramatically in the new GE.
3. Western Civilization, World Civilizations, and the GE 5 World History and Global Awareness area
Departments that offer many courses in the GE 4 Western Civilization and World Civilizations areas may be reluctant to propose them for the GE 5 World History and Global Awareness area. The fear is that there will be too many courses in this area, and that enrollments will drop. However, conversations with colleagues in Records & Registration and Academic Advising suggest that there are not enough courses in the GE 4 Western Civilization and World Civilizations areas. It is therefore doubtful that transferring all GE 4 West and World courses into World History and Global Awareness would lead to an oversupply of courses in this area.
Some GE 4 Western Civilization and World Civilizations courses may be eligible for inclusion in other GE 5 areas such as Humanities; Social Sciences; US History and Civic Engagement; and Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. These areas seem to have a better match between supply and demand than West and World do, though seats sometimes run short in the Humanities and GE 4 United States Studies areas toward the end of registration. The bottom line is that you should think about putting your GE 4 West and World courses in the GE 5 areas that fit them the best. If that means World History and Global Awareness, don’t allow concerns about oversupply and under-enrollment stop you from doing so. If you think your course would work better in a different area, then go ahead and propose this change.
4. Diversity courses and the GE 5 Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice area
When GE 4 was adopted, Diversity was taken out of our local General Education Program and made a graduation requirement at New Paltz. Now, in GE 5, it is going back into the GE Program. We expect that this change will slightly reduce the demand for Diversity courses at New Paltz. With the current requirement, every student at New Paltz has to take a Diversity course to graduate. In the new GE 5 structure, some students who transfer to New Paltz will have fulfilled the Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement with coursework at their previous institution.
5. Departments seeking visibility
If your department wants to attract majors and houses a discipline that high school students do not study, then a good strategy to maximize your visibility and draw students into your major(s) is to put courses into several GE areas. Follow your judgment as to whether a particular GE area is a good fit for your discipline.
6. Contributing to other initiatives
Departments seeking additional student enrollments may also want to consider how courses may serve other campus initiatives in addition to GE 5. For example, the new BA General Studies program has seven focus areas that are readily served by many GE 5 courses (Literature & Writing, Social Science, Global Studies, United States Studies, Fine & Performing Arts, Environmental Literacy, and General Business). Students in that program especially need upper-division and asynchronous online courses. Thus, upper-division online versions of courses offered or developed for GE 5 may also attract BA General Studies student enrollments.
As we prepare for GE 5, departments have to decide the areas into which their GE courses will go. After we gain some experience with GE 5, departments may want to make changes to their GE courses. They will be able to do so using the standard course revision process.
Thank you.
Laurel M. Garrick Duhaney
Associate Provost and Co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force
Bruce Milem
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force
