Hillary Coleman ’14 asked, “What could you say a Conn student is?” Professor Ron Flores wanted to know, “What are the qualities that a ConnColl grad has?” These important questions surfaced last Wednesday at the panel discussion on general education reform at Conn. The first panel speaker was John Nugent, Connecticut College’s Senior Research Analyst. He discussed at length a study conducted in April 2012 about general education. About 35% of Conn’s full-time undergraduate student body took part in the survey, and 28% completed the entire survey.
As most students know, our current general education system requires students to take classes fulfilling seven different distribution requirements prior to graduation. Mr. Nugent stressed that we can move forward by keeping the positive aspects of our current system and minimizing the negative aspects. The three most popular distribution requirements according to the study were philosophy/religion (Area 6), social science (Area 3), and creative arts (Area 5). The two least popular distribution requirements were math (Area 2) and physical/biological science (Area 1). The full results of the study will be available to the student body within the next couple of weeks.
The second panel speaker was Hillary Coleman ’14. She spoke about the importance of diversity and the fact that we do not have a distribution requirement regarding diversity. According to the study last April, about 270 students favored an international or global studies component of general education.
The third speaker was Professor Ron Flores, a professor of sociology here at Conn. He was one of six Conn faculty members who attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities General Education Institute in June 2012. He stressed that our general education requirements will affect who we are as an institution.
Professor Flores also explained that transparency in the process is extremely important. What does this mean for current students? Christina Fogarasi ‘13, SGA Chair of Academic Affairs said, “The process of Gen Ed reform is one of consensus-building. It is essential that we listen to the concerns and ideas from students, faculty and staff in the reform process, so that all parts of campus can eventually ‘own’ and get behind the new Gen Ed system.”
The fourth and final panel speaker was Professor Mab Segrest of the gender & women’s studies department. She explained that Conn currently has a “distribution” model of general education requirements, which means that students take a variety of general education courses that don’t necessarily connect to one another. She also explained a different type of general education, the integrative model. An integrative model would acknowledge the interdisciplinary nature of a liberal arts general education and forge connections between classes.
After the panelists spoke, a question & answer section began. Dean of Student Life Jocelyn Briddell expressed interest in the general education reform. As a college, she hopes we will “create such a synergy that we’ll all learn” from collaborating on this important project.
Changes made in general education requirements will not affect any current students at Conn. The process is expected to take at least two years and the first class to be influenced by general education reform would be the class of 2018. Students, faculty and staff have been discussing general education since last year, and the next step in the process will be a campus-wide general education committee consisting of two students, two staff members, two administrators and six members of the faculty.
“The students will act as a liaison both to SGA and to the student-based Gen Ed taskforce, which has been meeting since last year,” explained Fogarasi. Once the committee has been approved by the faculty, applications will be available for the two student positions on the committee. SGA will select the two committee members, keeping in mind that they must be available to meet with the committee for the next two years.
Although curriculum is technically the responsibility of the faculty, Fogarasi and all four of the panelists on Wednesday stressed the importance of student involvement in the process. “Students have insight into the curriculum in ways no other members of campus do, because we experience it every day!” Fogarasi explained. Additionally, she said that students may serve as an objective group in the midst of a political debate amongst the faculty, who may lose classes and/or students depending on the results of the reform.
Above all, these changes to general education will define who we are as Conn graduates, and what it means to be a student here. “I encourage every student to get this conversation going on campus!” Christina said.
