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General Education Requirements (GER) Review Task Force

Welcome and Charge

Update: February 4, 2008
The final General Education Plan prepared by the GERTF was submitted to the Provost's Office, June 2007, and was approved by the Provost on February 1, 2008, to be effective Summer II 2009. The GEP Plan can also be found in the Reports Section.

Previous:
The current working document for the Draft Proposal, Dec. 7, 2006, is located in the Reports Section.

The Provost has charged Undergraduate Affairs (UAP) with conducting a complete review of NC State University's General Education Requirements (GER). Since the implementation of the GER in 1994, the Program has been subject to several partial reviews, particularly in regard to assessment of the GER and process issues, by the Council on Undergraduate Education (CUE) and the University Courses and Curricula Committee (UCCC). However, the entire GER, including purpose, structure, function, and assessment, has not been reviewed in a comprehensive manner.

In recent years CUE has modified the GER in a number of ways: redefined the GER objectives, changed the number of required credits (replaced the 6-credit ENG 111/112 with the 4-credit ENG 101), rearranged categories within the GER, and developed an ongoing course-based assessment process for the GER Program. While there have been documented justifications and oversight for each of these changes, there has been little review of the impact of these changes overall on the GER or the impact on the various academic programs regarding required changes to reflect the new or modified requirements.

As we move into the 10th year of GER, it is appropriate that we review the program and its benefits to our students and to the campus. The review should include the following major directives:

1. Describe the impact that the GER will have on an NC State student.
2. Report on GERs at our peer institutions and at other institutions in the UNC system;
3. Recommendation of a GER model (or ranked multiple GER models) for NC State based on these comparisons, best practices, and our institutional mission. The recommended models should
   • identify categories to be included in the GER, such as course- or program-based values (e.g., diversity, service learning, international relations, etc.);
   • provide the total number and distribution of credit hours assigned to the GER including course based and/or program based requirements or initiatives; and
   • identify applicable intersections with other NC State initiatives such as LITRE;
     
4. Determine impact of the best model(s) on other elements of an NC State undergraduate degree, including number of hours required for graduation;
5. Provide an analysis of any additional costs or cost savings associated with the recommended model;
6. Provide an assessment plan and process for an ongoing assessment of the GER; and
7. Recommend an implementation plan including a curriculum review on what to keep, delete, and/or add to the current GER that can be in place by Fall 2005.

Drawing largely from the work and responsibilities of CUE, the task force will be chaired by John Ambrose, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs who has administrative oversight to CUE and UCCC. For their expertise with GER, with University procedures, and with various campus initiatives, members of the task force will include faculty representatives from CUE and UCCC; UAP Assessment; CALS, CHASS, and PAMS (the colleges that provide the majority of the GER courses); the University Registrar; two faculty at-large from the Faculty Senate; and the UAP Academic Standard Coordinator.

In conjunction with the creation of this task force, there will be a moratorium on any significant changes to the GER including changes to categories of courses and the distribution of credit hours within the GER so the task force has a stable set of conditions to review and evaluate. This moratorium will also aid in the ongoing assessment process for the GER and will remain in effect until the Fall 2005 semester, when the GER Plan is confirmed.

The Chair of the task force will ensure that the Associate Deans for Academic Affairs are kept informed of the progress of the GER Review.