UCSB
General Education Reform
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Announcements (old announcements move to bottom)

• May 27, 2010: At UCLA the science requirement has been temporarily reduced from 4 courses to 3 to enable the development of more appropriate lower division course offerings: "Faculty Executive Committee votes to keep undergraduate language requirement and instead reduce science GE course requirements temporarily," UCLA Daily Bruin, 5/27/10
• May 14, 2010: Now that the budget cuts have reduced course offerings as student numbers are increasing, our cumbersome list of GE-approved courses has begun to hinder students from graduating on time, and UCSB has to revisit why some courses are on the GE list, and others not. CUAPP (Committee on Undergraduate Academic Programs & Policy) is considering approving ALL courses for one GE general Area by default, with some special courses excluded upon request by departments. This is the draft sent to departments for comment (9 page pdf). The proposal itself begins on p.4; the final page shows the effects of the drastic budget cuts on seats in the courses the various divisions offer.
  • Analysis by a colleague (who only thinks "core" GE programs are "real" GE programs, disregarding distribution or "cafeteria-style" programs)
  • Good overview of types of GE programs: Newton, Robert R., "Tensions and Models in General Education Planning," in: The Journal of General Education 49:3(2000), 165-181.
• Nov. 19, 2007. The Culture Wars Revisited: in this Nov./Dec. 2007 Forum of the American Federation of Teachers newsletter I found a reference to a Sept. 16, 2007 NY Times essay "Revisiting the Culture Wars." It offers a nice overview of the history of the shift away from "Western Civ" since the 1980s, with many statements by respected figures in the humanities.
• Jan 27, 2007: links to GE requirements of other UC campuses updated.
• Jan. 21, 2007: The LA Times Sunday editorial page ran a column about the conservative "New America Foundation's" list of 12 "most bizarre" courses taught in the US. The following week a teacher of one of those courses, titled "The Phallus," responded. He argues, in a nutshell, that prioritizing the Western Civ canon is exactly what "phallologocentrism" is all about. Archived here in one file: Phallus 101 / List of 'Dirty Dozen' Courses / They Twisted the Phallus.
• 3/29/06: I removed the comment book, since no one ever left any comments!
• 2/24/05: Stanford education professor Sam Wineburg argues in this editorial "A History of Flawed Teaching," that our public schools need history teachers who have studied enough history to have "deep knowledge" of the subject (not just superficial textbook knowledge). Bottom line implication for GE: neither survey nor in-depth Area E courses ALONE are sufficient.
• 2/10/05 & 2/13/05: The L&S advisory ballot on Area E reform yielded something like 145 for the change and 112 against (the overwhelming majority did not vote). The measure itself passed on Jan. 27, 14:4:1. (Exact vote results will be added when the minutes are posted on the Senate meetings page after 3/10/05.)
  • See the UCSB student newspaper's report: Daily Nexus, "G.E. Revisions To Make Area E More Flexible: Changes Add European Traditions Requirement, Eliminate E-1 Sequence, Take Effect This Quarter," by Andrea Bennett, February 9, 2005. [archive copy]
  • Santa Barbara News-Press, "Western Culture takes a hit at UCSB: Mandatory Courses in European Civilization Reduced," by Morgan Green, Feb. 12, 2005 [nice objective headline: "Broader Vision and More Flexibility in General Education"?]
  • Students should check the UCSB Academic Advising Office's News Page for implementation details.
• 1/11/05: read my rebuttal to the con arguments for the L&S advisory ballot on Area E reform.
  (Sorry I can't offer the texts of the pro and con arguments themselves)
• 11/30/04: Our delay in implementing our Western-Civ-optional reform makes it much more difficult for transfer students to fulfill their prerequisite courses. See this Oct. 21, 2004 e-mail from the Intersegmental Major Preparation Articulated Curriculum (IMPAC) project.
• 11/23/04: On Nov. 4 at the Faculty Legislature meeting the diehard defenders of Western Civilization managed to delay the implementation of the May 27th reform once again. Claiming that this issue had not been discussed sufficiently on campus prior to the legislation, and using a dubious legal technicality, they will have the faculty of the college polled about their feelings about reducing Western Civ. Meanwhile, students are unable to benefit from this long overdue reform. To facilitate the discussion process I am making additional material available to the campus community: [coming soon]
  • a draft of an editorial addressed to students that I planned submit to the UCSB Daily Nexus once the polling process is decided upon. (finally added 1/11/05)
  • a memo I wrote in June in response to the first attempt to thwart the implementation of the area E reform. June 2004 memo about sufficient discussion (also added 1/11/05)
• 6/11/04: powerpoint about 5/27/04 Area E legislation available [updated with captions, 6/13] (also as html in frames, and .ppt for download [1.6Mb] or self-playing ppt [1.6Mb])
• 6/9/04: Master departmental syllabus page and History GE syllabus demo page updated

• First column of Area E handout from the 5/27/04 Legislature meeting.

  The versions below offer higher resolution: medium res for printing, 257K hi-resolution for printing, 924K (some browsers may not print properly: download & print with imaging software) Compare also the 03-04 UCSB General Catalog page 115 on area E: "special note for transfer students" column on Area E-1, K screen size of entire page (Areas EFG) hi-res. print version of entire page

  6/5/04: I am making the handout and powerpoint presentation (not shown there because of technical failure) for the 5/27 Legislature meeting available. Click on the various forms of the graphic at right for the handout; the powerpoint will soon be is available in a separate file (added 6/11).
• 6/3/04: Although the original proposal passed handily (14:9) at the Faculty Legislature meeting on 5/28, a number of HFA faculty challenged that vote by requesting that the entire faculty of the College of Letters and Science vote on it. Such a ballot will delay approval and implementation until next Fall at the earliest, and keep hundreds of incoming students, especially transfer students, in limbo. No significant substantive reasons were put forward against the change. Voices against the change objected because they felt they had not had enough time to think and consult about it. I note that point six of the 10/30/03 discussion document, which was discussed formally and at length by at least 10 HFA departments, asked specifically about the following proposal (link):
  ' 6. Western Civilization. The GE work group discussed the GE task force's recommendation that the core "Western civilization" area E-1 be transformed into a special requirement. The GE work group recommends that this requirement should be made symmetrical to the present "non-Western culture" special subject requirement. Because of the problematic nature of the term "Western," we recommend renaming this requirement "European traditions."'
  Oh well. Students, I apologize that you won't be able to benefit from this change yet.
• 5/27/04: Because of concerns voiced by HFA chairs that the proposed definition of "European Traditions" would incorporate courses with a narrower focus on one or a few European countries, as a friendly amendment the following might alleviate their concerns:
  "European Traditions
  At least one course that provides a broad historical and intellectual perspective on European culture or the traditions that comprise it, including philosophy, history, literature, arts, religion, and social structures and institutions."
  This indicates that only broad survey courses could receive the "ET" designation.
• 5/26/04: I suggested the following summary text for the "current topics" area of the Academic Senate's website (link): After four years of data collection, analysis, deliberation and consultation, a key first step in updating UCSB's General Education (GE) will come before the Faculty Legislature on Thursday, May 27. During the last update in 1994, mandatory subdivisions in the GE Areas C (Science and Mathematics), D (Social Science) and F (Arts) were removed. That change recognized the greater intellectual maturity of UCSB's ever-improving student body, in that it allows students greater flexibility to choose courses suited to their needs, interests, and learning styles. The present proposal removes the subdivision from Area E (Civilization and Thought), and changes the wording of the Area's name and description to correct a bias between "Western civilization" and "non-Western culture." The proposed new names are "European Traditions" and "World Cultures." At the same time, the two requirements will be brought into structural and numerical parity at one course each. Currently students seeking a B.A. degree in the College of Letters and Science have to take two "Western" but only one "non-Western" course.
• 5/20/04: the Western Civ. background document has been updated with original texts from various minutes and documents, so that less hyperlinking is necessary.
• 5/17/04: The 5/10 draft legislation (see 5/10, below), was withdrawn at the request of the L&S Faculty Executive Committee on 5/13 and replaced by a minimalist version affecting only Area E (final proposal; background document for 5/17 HFA chairs meeting, final distribution memo--coming soon)
• 5/14/04: As CUAPP starts implementing the publication of GE course syllabi, I've created some pilot pages for the GE course syllabus site: Departmental Index Page, History Dept example 1 (by enrollment); Hist example 2 (by faculty).
• 5/10/04: 5/10 draft of legislation ("Area Definition Table" now available [postponed 5/13/04 at request of L&S Faculty Executive Committee]; see also 5/2 draft distribution cover memo -- never sent.
• 5/9/04: The Undergraduate Council is introducing legislation to improve the GE 'General Subject Area' definitions at the 5/27/04 Faculty Legislature meeting. On 5/10 we will release a draft of the proposal, which needs to be submitted to the Executive Council on 5/12 in order to be placed on the agenda.

" ... the workgroup will discuss, consulting with faculty and students as necessary, the major issues that need to be resolved in order to implement as many of the taskforce recommendations as possible. We hope that the work group will be able to incorporate the task force report's larger campus vision of GE within the final proposal that it submits to the Undergraduate Council."
(full memo)

Please note ("disclaimer"):

This site is a repository of official and unofficial documents detailing the GE work group's work, so that the UCSB community can follow our deliberations and participate in them.
Chair Harold Marcuse's notes and the meeting minutes published here contain information about an ongoing discussion. We explore ideas that may later be modified or abandoned. We welcome your feedback on these issues. It is an essential part of the exploration and policy formation process.
(You are welcome to leave your thoughts in the comment book, below.)
A few of the official documents are also available on the UCSB Senate's ge page.

Work Group meeting agendas, notes, handouts and minutes
[back to top]

As of Jan. 30, 2004, the work group has ceased to meet regularly.
Until further notice, the work group's regular meeting time is Fridays, 1pm to 2:30pm in Girvetz 1245. (meetings ended in Feb. 2004)
Please contact Harold Marcuse (marcuse@history.ucsb.edu) if you would like to attend a meeting.

1. Jan. 24, 2003: learn about the present program, its problems, and possible solutions;
   identify issues that this group should deal with. Marcuse's presentation outline and notes; official 1/24/03 minutes.
2. Jan. 31, 2003: plan meetings and determine consultants for key issues.
   Agenda, Marcuse's notes, official minutes.
3. Feb. 7, 2003: set "cookbook" description of GE courses. minutes, Dan Montello's draft on 3/11/03.
4. Feb. 14, 2003, UCEN Harbor Room: Meeting with MLPS dean, chairs, advisors to discuss GE science requirement, uniformity of GE for BA and BS, writing requirement in science courses. minutes
5. Feb. 21, 2003: discussion of MLPS mtg, good implementation ideas, US-ETH meeting report, INT area suggested. Marcuse's notes, minutes
6. Feb. 28, 2003: meeting on ethnicity requirement, non-Western requirement, interdisciplinarity (INT discussion document, 10/20/03 version; Rethinking Interdisciplinarity site w/ paper "Why Rethink Interdisciplinarity?"). draft agenda, minutes, May 2, 2003 data report w/ e-mail clarification.
7. March 3, 2003: first meeting with HFA dean and chairs, 1105 HSSB, noon. HM notes (4 pages) See also narrative about follow-up until next meeting on Nov. 3.
8. March 7: Meeting on writing requirement (AP again discussed, also petition process and prerequisites). draft agenda, minutes (6 pages), definitions of WRT requirement (from a book by Townsend)
9. March 10: Meeting with dean and chairs of Division of Social Sciences (see 3/14 minutes for discussion)
10. March 14, 2003: 8th regular meeting: report on Soc. Sci meeting, stock-taking to date. draft agenda, HM notes inserted into updated agenda, minutes

11. Whiteboard with draft texts for proposed INT and EGQ requirements, May 2, 2003

    Whiteboard with straw vote results on areas I, E, and F+G, May 9, 2003

    April 4, 2003: Focus on item 7 of Mar. 14 meeting agenda, namely areas (D), E, F, G, and possible new synthetic area X. draft GE plan discussed at meeting, minutes
12. April 11, 2003: Implementation issues (see bottom of Mar. 7 and 14 agendas). agenda w/ texts proposed for Area X, minutes
13. April 18, 2003: minutes
14. April 25, 2003: Marcuse's first draft interim report presented (7 page "long" version 4/28/03) minutes
15. May 2, 2003: Meeting to discuss draft interim report, and possible new requirements of Interdisciplinary (INT) and Ethnic, Gender, Queer studies (EGQ), AP, reducing area D from 3 to 2. Harold's brief e-mail summary, Jim's report on course data for area INT with e-mail clarification. minutes
16. May 9, 2003: Marathon meeting 12:30-5pm, lunch supplied. MINUTES WITH STRAW VOTE RESULTS
17. May 16, 2003: data on viability of new core INT and special EGQ should be available [no meeting/minutes?]
18. May 23, 2003: Discussion of Harold's May 19, 2003 "summary" interim report draft (2 page "short" version, incorporating the straw vote results) minutes.
19. May 30, 2003: minutes; May 13 version of May 29 report to Faculty Legislature regarding formal course criteria
20. June 6, 2003: minutes
21. Sept. 19, 2003: minutes (added 10/22/03)
22. Sept. 26, 2003:
23. Oct. 3, 2003: minutes (posted 4/26/04)
24. Oct. 10, 2003:
25. Oct. 17, 2003: discussion of Marcuse's 7pp. draft "GE Proposal for Discussion." Meeting attended by HFA liason/rep. Elizabeth Cook. (see Oct. e-mails)
26. Oct. 24, 2003: report by HFA convener Davies King, discussion of INT core area description (INT discussion document), and QGE special requirement document
27. Nov. 3, 2003: meeting with HFA chairs (Marcuse's undistributed e-mail summary)
28. Nov. 7, 2003:
29. Dec. 5, 2003:
30. Dec. 8, 2003: meeting with Letters & Sciences Faculty Executive Committee
31. Dec. 12, 2003:
32. Dec. 16, 2003: meeting with Acting Dean and chairs of Division of Social Sciences
33. Dec. 17, 2003:
34. Jan. 30, 2004:
35. Feb. 7, 2004:

UCR (link)
breadth requirement, number of units unclear (different for different colleges).
4 areas:
Natural sciences and mathematics,
Humanities
Social Sciences,
Ethnicity
only certain majors CAN use courses in major towards specific GE req.

UCSD has 6 colleges, each with its own GE

Revelle College
14 total
C=5
D=3
EG=5
F=1
John Muir
12 total (all=3q. seq.)
C=3
D=3
HFA+Lang=6
Thurgood Marshall
15 total (if no doubling)
C=3+QNT=2
E/Diversity=3
E/Lit=2
F=1
non-major=4
El. Roosevelt College
15 total
C+QNT=2+2
E=6
F=2
"regional"= 2
1 from E must include "cultural diversity," one each in F Western and non-Western

Illinois (link)
C: 6 hours
D: 6 hours
E: 6 hours
(3NWC/ETH, and 3Western)
F+G: 6 hours

Web site has detailed guidelines and policies, including guidelines on defining Western Civ courses [web archive version; see 1989 and 2001 guideline links at top; #7 of "current" has WCiv)])

North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
C=3
D=2
E (west,non-west)= 2
E (philo.)=1
"cultural diversity": 1 double-dip-able

Penn State
(presuming semester)
Natural Sciences=3
Soc&Behav. Sci.=2
Humanities (G,E)=2
Arts=2
"Intercultural and International competence"=double dip

Kansas State
has a very detailed website (link)

GE at other institutions

• University of Cinncinati's GE program combines a distribution system with skills and a depth requirement, whereby the latter is left to the student's major. program description, diagram
• There is a very interesting Journal of General Education that is published by Penn State Univ. Press. Project Muse makes issues from 1999 on available on-line to subscribing libraries (including UC--access via Melvyl or Pegasus from on campus or through proxy server). The UCSB call number for 1946-1996 is: L1 .J65. (publisher's page)
• In February 2005 the American Association of Colleges and Universities convened a conference in Atlanta to discuss its report about assessing GE in accreditation. conference program, 5 thematic "pathways" at the conference, general info.
• USC has a hybrid program
• North Carolina State University, program description page
• Indiana Univ./Purdue-Indianapolis has a 1997 document about its core program, and includes mission statement, resources page with bibliography and links.
• American University has a slick website for its program of in-depth core courses in several areas. They lay on the Western Civ.
• University of Washington has a standard distribution program with 3 "Areas of Knowledge"
• News report on Stanford University's reform, to be implemented for 2005-06. Their 10 required courses include a core humanities sequence (3), 5 distribution requirements, and 2 skills/content.
• Washington State has a mission statement
• New Mexico State has a hybrid system, like UCSB's. Its GE page links to its mission statements, a faculty course proposal form, and lists of approved courses.

ETHnicity

QGE

• sexuality.org's definition of transgender

Non-Western Culture

• George Mason: "global understanding" and "non-western culture"
  

• UCSB discussion document about INT requirement (by Jim Proctor, 10/20/03)
• George Mason: synthesis req. (UD only)

WRiTing

• 8 Guidlines for Writing Intensive Courses (Univ. of Missouri)
• Writing across the Curriculum (see esp. the .pdf of chap. 6)
  

• History of GE reform at UCSB [back to top]
  • 1985 GE reform committee chair's report. VERY interesting document. (highlights: previously writing was required in all core humanities and socsci courses, thus 11 papers of 2500 words; arts and literature were ONE core area)
  • 1993 Report and Recommendation, with Feb. 1994 mail ballot, including attachments (departmental responses, L&S Exec assessment, amendment w/ pro & con, pro and con statements)
• 2000-2002 GE Task Force (and related) Documents [back to top]
  • Notes taken at GE Task Force meetings, and documents:

Wint/Spr. 2001
1/19/01
5/9/01
5/17/01: draft 1st report
6/6/01: GE committee endorsement
6/12/01: first final task force report

[9/19/02 GE committee annual report describes interim activity]

Articles about GE (back to top)

• Peer Review, the journal of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, devoted its Summer 2003 issue to General education (link)

Old Announcements [back to top]

• 10/23/03: work group minutes Apr. 4, 2003 to Sept. 19, 2003 added
• 10/25/03: summary table of GE at comparison schools added (jump)
• 10/26/03: many documents from our predecessor, the GE Task Force (Jan. 2000-May 2002) added (jump)
• 11/1/03 additions: Oct. 30, 2003 discusssion document, BS/BFA/BM suggestions, QGE document; e-mail distribution memo for Oct. 30 document
• 11/13/03: May 2001 minority report (re: Western Civilization req.) to first GE Task Force report added (link)
• 11/15/03: June 2001 majority response to minority report added (link)
• 11/16/03: material from the 1993-94 GE reform (jump down), and Western Civ pro & con arguments (link) added
• 11/16/03: colleagues in history have given me very thoughtful responses on WCiv and QGE, so I have begun a separate (anonymized) document (link)
• 1/25/04: we considering modifing the WRT requirement to make it more flexible. A link to guidelines for writing-intensive courses had been added below.
• 1/25/04 (some additions 2/18/04): some of the departmental responses to the discussion document are now available on-line: Classics, Dramatic Art, English, Film Studies (with clarification), French & Italian, Linguistics, Music, Philosophy. History's informal discussion/response was posted earlier.
• 2/18/04: the new GE course proposal form is now available for submissions to CUAPP (4 page pdf)
• 4/24/04: At the end of January the workgroup ceased to meet regularly. It has made some recommendations to the Undergraduate Council. See the Feb. 18, 2004 draft final report, and the minutes of the 2/18/04 UgC meeting at which they were discussed, as well as a 2/19/04 memo with recommendations for immediate action that Marcuse drew up after that meeting. (They were on the UgC's 4/29/04 agenda.)
• 4/24/04: Workgroup chair Marcuse has begun adding responses to the points raised by departments. Please see the following departmental responses with boxed sidebar comments: Linguistics, French & Italian, added 5/8: Dramatic Art, 5/9 Film Studies,
• 5/8/04: As I prepare my responses to the departmental responses, I (Marcuse) have been trying to make sense of the HFA division's extremely negative responses to the 10/30/03 discussion document. To that end I've assembled a documention of the GE workgroup's official meetings with the division's chairs, and e-mail comments about our published reports. These are the documents: HFA-Workgroup 03-04 master narrative, which ends with Davies King's March 2004 suggested amendments to the Workgroup report to the Undergraduate Council. It also links to Mar-Oct. 2003 "Anatomy of a Delay", retracing what went wrong with soliciting feedback from the HFA division.

[back to top]

Page created:
January 23, 2003
by H. Marcuse

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