Dear Faculty and Staff,
When the fall 2023 semester begins in a few days, the new first-time and transfer students will be the first in our new GE 5 general education program. As the undergraduate catalog states, “New Paltz's General Education 5 (GE 5), in keeping with SUNY's system-wide General Education Framework, addresses the fundamental aims of undergraduate education, including proficiency with essential skills and competencies, familiarization with disciplinary and interdisciplinary ways of knowing, and enhancement of the values and disposition of an engaged 21st-century global citizenry.”
Setting GE 5 up in time for our new students this fall is a huge accomplishment. We offer a big thank you to:
- the faculty for revising courses and proposing new courses for GE 5;
- department chairs and program directors for working with colleagues on GE 5 proposals;
- deans and associate deans for assisting their departments and reviewing proposals;
- everyone on the Curriculum Committee for the speed and rigor of their review;
- and everyone in Admissions, Academic Advising, Records and Registration, and Academic Affairs for all their work on everything from recoding Banner to writing new recruitment materials.
The work of putting GE 5 in place is not quite complete. This fall departments and programs will have to determine where their major programs address the two GE 5 Core Competencies, Critical Thinking & Reasoning and Information Literacy. We issued guidance to chairs and directors about this in spring 2023 and look forward to receiving their responses by November 15, 2023.
Finally, we wish to remind you that the streamlined GE 5 Major Course Revision process will conclude later this fall. For courses to be offered with GE 5 status in spring 2024, the streamlined GE 5 Major Course Revision must reach your associate dean no later than September 5, 2023. This will ensure adequate time for review before the spring 2024 schedule of classes is released in October. (If your spring 2024 course has already been approved for GE 5, then you are all set, and nothing more needs to be done.)
For all other courses, the last day that streamlined GE 5 Major Course Revisions will be accepted is October 16, 2023. Your GE 5 Major Course Revision must reach your associate dean by that day.
Laurel M. Garrick Duhaney, co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force
Bruce Milem, co-chair, GE Implementation Task Force
