IUB profs considering core classes

After changing his degree, IU Student Association President Alex Shortle wished there would have been a general education requirement in place at IU before he came. \nInstead, Shortle will spend an extra semester completing his degree as a result of the classes he chose to take outside of the Kelley School of Business. \nAfter 10 years of trying to implement general education requirements, and facing three or four failed attempts, general education is being brought back to the educational drawing board at IU-Bloomington.\nA proposal addressing the issue was brought before the Bloomington Faculty Council Tuesday during a meeting. The proposal is the first draft of many to come before the BFC, the Campus Curriculum Committee and IUB's schools. The plan suggests that these three entities should combine forces during the 2006-2007 school year to finalize the requirements.\n"This proposal doesn't say much," said Shortle, who says he largely supports the plan, even outside of his own circumstances. "But it gets discussion going. And (the faculty) need to talk about handling the issue or someone else will -- (for example) the president."\nThe BFC's Educational Policies Committee drafted the proposal, which contains a series of criteria that would pertain to all undergraduate programs beginning with the graduating class of 2011. \nBill Wheeler and John Carini, co-chairs of the subcommittee, were in charge of the task of finding common ground for general education requirements that would work for all IUB programs. \n"It's difficult to find general education requirements because W131 (Elementary Composition) is the only course that is required in most baccalaureate programs here on campus," Wheeler said.\nStarting from scratch, Wheeler and Carini turned to other Big Ten schools. Four of the 10 public Big Ten institutions have no uniform campus requirements, while five currently have general education requirements in place.\nThe Educational Policies Committee's proposal includes the possibility of 23 to 34 total credit hours of general education courses, similar to the Wisconsin's current requirement of 22 to 30 hours. Most others in the group require near 40 or more credit hours of general education for their undergraduates.\nIncluded in the proposed requirements are: three hours of English/writing, three to four hours of mathematics, six hours of arts and humanities, six hours of social and historical courses, five to six hours of natural sciences, six hours of world languages and cultures and zero to three hours of professional engagement. \nIf approved, IU's general education requirements would be the third in the Big Ten to require world languages and cultures courses as well as the first to require professional engagement studies.\nAlthough a general education plan at IU will not be finalized for approval until next year, the goal of introducing it as early as possible is to collect the opinions of faculty on any pursuit of the project, said BFC President Ted Miller.\n"We are trying to get a sense if the Bloomington campus is ready for this," he said.\nIf approved, the incoming class of 2007 will enter IU programs with uniform general course requirements, something Shortle said will benefit students across campus.\n"Students will receive direction by way of the faculty to get a more substantial college education experience," he said.