Time to change course

On Tuesday, the Bloomington Faculty Council met to review a proposed standard general education curriculum for all the schools in the IU system -- a measure intended to help undergraduate students transfer between the regional campuses. Included with the more conventional requirements -- English, math, humanities, sciences, etc. -- is a plan to have all students take six credits in second-year foreign language courses, six credits in cultural diversity courses (with one course coming from an area of the world beyond the United States and Western Europe) or a semester abroad. The proposed curriculum is still in the discussion stage (although the BFC is optimistic that it will pass with some modifications) and is not due to go into effect until the arrival of the freshman class of 2011.\n Here at la casa del editorial board, we're quite enthusiastic about these plans. Standardizing the general education curriculum will not only make things smoother for students transferring from one campus to another but we hope it will also make a high-quality education more easily accessible for students with limited means. And it is particularly good for IU-Bloomington, as it will likely be a net recipient of students in this scheme. It is easy to imagine that many students will save money by taking their general education courses at one of the regional campuses for their first two years and then transferring to IUB for more advanced or specialized courses (not to mention a more prestigious diploma).\n Even more exciting is the proposed curriculum's emphasis on broadening students' perspectives by including requirements that will expose them to foreign languages and cultures. To quote Thomas Friedman's famous examination of globalization, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," while the emergence of telegraphs, transoceanic liners and airplanes "shrank the world from a size 'large' to a size 'medium,'" modern telecommunications and information technology "is shrinking the world from a size 'medium' to a size 'small.'" Our politics, economics, culture and individual lives are increasingly bound to events and people a world away -- both for better and for worse (mostly better, we hope). And helping students adapt to this fact will be one of the most critically important tasks facing 21st-century higher education. Regarding life at IUB, we hardly have to emphasize this point -- Bloomington has no less than two Tibetan restaurants, after all -- but carrying this requirement over to the other schools in the IU system will help expand the horizons of many other students who otherwise might never have bothered (not that there aren't a fair number of students here who never take full advantage of Bloomington's global resources).\n In short, while we are sure that the curriculum will see further amendment and debate, it certainly seems to be a step in the right direction -- both for the post-2011 transfer students who will immediately benefit and for all the IU students who will be better prepared for life after graduation.