{"id":580,"date":"2015-10-02T15:28:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/?p=580"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:28:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:28:35","slug":"sga-discusses-potential-changes-to-general-education-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/?p=580","title":{"rendered":"SGA Discusses Potential Changes to General Education Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SGA<\/a>
SGA members look on during the general education discussion. Pictured clockwise from bottom left: SGA Secretary Paige Berschet, Senior Rep. Aaron Dillon, Freshman Rep. Matthew Johnson, SGA Treasurer Daley Buckwell. Photo by Matt Peters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matt Peters<\/strong>
\nmap006@marietta.edu<\/p>\n

The Student Government Association (SGA) met on Monday, September Sept. 28, to discuss how the current general education curriculum can be improved upon. Spearheading the \u201cGeneral Education Task Force Committee,\u201d Provost Dr. Janet Bland and business and economics department chair Dr. Jacqueline Khorassani were also in attendance to hear from the body.<\/p>\n

Khorassani opened the discussion with the question, \u201cWhat is general education to you personally; when you think of general education, what comes to mind?\u201d<\/p>\n

Several students stressed the value of being academically \u2018well-rounded,\u2019 asserting that general education courses provide students with a wide range of knowledge and skills while also broadening their perspectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have these opportunities to learn things you wouldn\u2019t necessarily have the opportunity to learn inside your own major,\u201d senior SGA Rep. Erin McNulty said.<\/p>\n

Junior Rep. Paul Bieniek*, who additionally serves as editor-in-chief of this publication, also emphasized the importance of taking classes outside of your prospective major.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does it help you with your job,\u201d he said, \u201cit makes you appreciate different aspects of life even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bieniek explained that, while his major is Political Science, he has enjoyed the experiences he has had with other departments such as Biology and Theatre \u2013 experiences he would not have had if he not taken biology and acting classes to fulfill various general education requirements.<\/p>\n

Others emphasized the important role general education plays in developing applicable career skills such as writing, communication and critical thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to provide skills that can be used in any profession,\u201d sophomore Rep. Cody Alderman said.<\/p>\n

Khorassani\u2019s second question followed; \u201cWhat don\u2019t you like about the current general education program?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some students pointed out that course offerings are distributed unevenly and disproportionately across general education subjects. For example, there are plenty of classes to fulfill the required eight Scientific Inquiry (\u201cB\u201d) credits. Yet, there are only a handful of courses to fulfill the six required Social Analysis (\u201cY\u201d) credits.<\/p>\n

Others called into question the validity of the classification system for general education courses. With some classes falling into as many as four different letter categories, many feel that the current system is too flexible and, for some classes, a misrepresentation of the actual content.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you truly want to pursue this idea of a general education\u2026 then we need to be promoting the diversity of the class, not just that it checks something off of your list,\u201d Senior Rep. Dillon said.<\/p>\n

Still, others enjoy the flexibility of the classification system, arguing that many courses do, in fact, deserve the multiple letter designations.<\/p>\n

Provost Bland commented, \u201cI taught Concepts of Gender and it was a Writing Proficiency [\u2018W\u2019] because I made you write multiple papers. It was an \u2018L\u2019 [Literature] because we read five books and discussed them\u2026 and it was gender and we covered every possible aspect of that\u2026 So that class happened to be very evenly weighted. Each one of them was hitting you as hard as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a faculty member presents a proposal to the curriculum committee to have General Education designations assigned to a specific course, they have to present the rationale to the curriculum committee about why they feel that course fits whichever Gen Ed designation they\u2019re seeking,\u201d said Vice President for Student Life Dr. Richard Danford, also in attendance.<\/p>\n

Khorassani\u2019s third question was, \u201cWhat do you like about the current General Education program?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bieniek said he believes that the \u201cgeneral education aspect\u201d of Marietta College is one of its hallmarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what instructors do a really good job of doing is showing the connections between different disciplines\u2026 As we\u2019re moving forward, looking at reworking the Gen Ed program, I hope that we work to improve upon it where there\u2019s need for improvement, but I hope we also preserve [what needs to be preserved],\u201d Bieniek said.<\/p>\n

Several students praised the system\u2019s flexibility and variety of course offerings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally like having that flexibility of choosing what [a class] is going to count for. To me, it makes me feel that I have more of an impact on my own education and I can work to my interests or to my weaknesses to know what personally will work for me,\u201d said SGA Vice President Emily Drabeck.<\/p>\n

McNulty agrees that the flexibility of general education requirements is beneficial for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had a problem fulfilling any of the general education requirements lowercase and I think it\u2019s because of the way it\u2019s set up currently,\u201d McNulty said.<\/p>\n

Others appreciate the freedom it offers. For instance, rather than being forced into taking specific science courses, Marietta students have a wide range of sciences
\nto choose from; everything from dinosaurs to physics.<\/p>\n

Khorassani then asked, \u201cWhat changes would you like to see?<\/p>\n

Student Body President Kennedy Clyde said she\u2019d like to see advisers play a larger role in assisting students throughout their four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate in having such a close relationship with my adviser\u2026 We\u2019ve sat down every semester and worked for about a half an hour on which courses I need in order to graduate on time\u2026 I would like to see a larger emphasis on that adviser role,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Clyde added that, while her adviser has been extremely helpful, many professors do not take their advising role very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just like to see that guidance and that mentorship across the board,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The fifth discussion question was, \u201cWhat should an MC grad know, do, be and understand?\u201d<\/p>\n

Neill said, \u201cFour things I came up with for Marietta College that I feel like we\u2019re prepared for\u2026 I think we need to be able to write, communicate, problem-solve, and think critically. And, I think, if we can articulate that we know how to do those four things and we know how to do them well\u2026 then we\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students unanimously agreed that good communication skills are essential for Marietta College graduates, and that communication should remain a major focus of general education.<\/p>\n

Khorassani said the general education task force would continue collecting feedback from the student body through early October. They will then place comments in different categories into a data collecting system to see which themes recur. A proposal for new general education requirements could be recommended by the end of October. Khorassani emphasized that students would be informed about each step of the process.<\/p>\n

*Note: Views expressed by Mr. Bieniek do not necessarily reflect the those of The Marcolian, its staff, or its adviser. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Peters map006@marietta.edu The Student Government Association (SGA) met on Monday, September Sept. 28, to discuss how the current general education curriculum can be improved upon. Spearheading the \u201cGeneral Education Task Force Committee,\u201d Provost Dr. Janet Bland and business and economics department chair Dr. Jacqueline Khorassani were also in attendance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[233,286,30],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-news","tag-curriculum","tag-gen-ed","tag-sga",""],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.marcolian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/DSC_8428.jpg?fit=3872%2C2592&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcolian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}