Gen. Ed. requirements revamped

The first meeting of 2010 for the Academic Senate at Youngstown State University resulted in the passing of three motions actively changing policy on general education intensive requirements, the full refund withdrawal period and the credit requirements for students pursuing multiple majors.With the passing of a motion by the Senate's General Education Committee, the intensive requirements of writing, speaking and critical thinking have been removed from the general education program effective immediately. In addition, intensive designations will now be removed from courses.

Dr. Julia Gergits, chair of the GEC, proposed the motion and said after 10 years of existence, the intensive requirements haven't been working and needed to be reformed.

"It's a substantial change to the model," she said. "The majority of the problems plaguing have been intensives."

According to the motion, only about 68 percent of YSU graduates complete all of their general education requirements, with the intensives being cited as the primary reason for students failing to entirely complete the general education category.

Gergits mentioned that some departments on campus were not fulfilling the students' needs of intensive courses, leaving many looking outside of their department for intensive designated courses.

Dr. Matt O'Mansky, assistant professor of Anthropology agreed with Gergits and said he often finds students from other departments taking his intensive courses and that they shouldn't have to look elsewhere to meet the requirements.

"This should already be happening within [their own department]," he said.

Gergits explained that the learning objectives of the intensive courses are not being removed completely, but instead departments will be responsible for assuring that writing, speaking and critical thinking are sufficiently covered in each major's already required coursework.

"We want the departments to take ownership and engage in this seriously," she said.

Dr. L. J. Tessier, professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, expressed her concerns over the proposed change and said she would rather see the committees work to solve the current problems instead of just abandoning the system altogether.

"I hate to see us make a move to make something stop because we don't want to do it," she said. "I would really regret taking the easy way out."

Tessier said she's afraid that the departments falling short on intensives will respond with an overall sigh of relief because they won't have to deal with it anymore.

Gergits stressed that departments will continue to assess their current coursework to prove they are meeting the learning objectives of writing, speaking and critical thinking and submit reports to an assessment council for review.

Despite some concern the motion passed overwhelmingly with 55 yay and 13 nay votes. Two voters abstained.

The first of two motions proposed by the Academic Standards Committee to pass involved the changing of credit requirements for students pursuing multiple degrees and multiple majors.

Under the new guidelines, when a student completes more than one major in a given degree program, a minimum of 50 percent of the credits counted toward a major must be specific to that major and cannot be shared with by any other major the student may be pursuing.

The same 50 percent requirement also applies to students pursuing two majors in two separate degree programs.

The final motion to pass effectively shortened the length of time students will have to add and drop classes at the beginning of a term.

The last day for students to withdraw from a class with a full refund will be eight calendar days from the beginning of the term with the last day to add a class being nine calendar days from the start of the term. This means students must withdraw from all classes by the eighth calendar day of the term to receive a full refund.

Dr. Gary Walker, professor of Biological Sciences, said often students register for more classes than they need and wait until after the deadline for adding a class to withdraw. He said shortening the time period will make students put more emphasis on withdrawing from unwanted classes early and open up seats for students waiting to register for courses that would otherwise remain closed.

"This would give students the opportunity to make an important decision that will affect other students," he said.