9.3 General Education Requirements [CR]

The institution requires the successful completion of a general education component at the undergraduate level that:

(a) is based on a coherent rationale; and

(b) is a substantial component of each undergraduate degree program. For degree completion in associate programs, the component constitutes a minimum of 15 semester hours or the equivalent; for Bachelor’s programs, a minimum of 30 semester hours or the equivalent.

(c) It must also ensure breadth of knowledge. These credit hours include at least one course from each of the following areas: humanities/fine arts, social/ behavioral sciences, and natural science/mathematics. These courses must not narrowly focus on those skills, techniques, and procedures specific to a particular occupation or profession. [CR]

Judgment

x Compliance o Non-Compliance o Partial Compliance

Narrative

The institution requires that all undergraduates complete a 42-hour general education core, which includes a 3-hour Freshman Seminar.

A. Coherent rationale for the general education component

The coherence of the University’s rationale for the General Education Core curriculum is ensured by several factors, including direction from the Louisiana BOR and SACSCOC, alignment with the mission of the University and the curricular structure of undergraduate degree programs, and oversight of the General Education Committee. These factors ensure that undergraduate students in every discipline receive appropriate instruction in a variety of disciplines, beyond the focus of their majors. All undergraduate students acquire breadth of knowledge by completing a 42-hour General Education Core Curriculum as part of their degree requirements. This core is composed of courses in English Composition, Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Natural Sciences, Literature, History, Communication, and Fine Arts, plus a first-year seminar developed as part of the QEP in 2010, and revised as a three-credit general education class in 2014.

Table 9.3 – 1 lists on the left the BOR general education requirements, and on the right the General Education Core with corresponding course options at UL Lafayette.

Table 9.3 – 1: Comparison of BOR and UL Lafayette General Education Cores

Board of Regents Core

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Core

English Composition (6 hours)

Effective written communication skills are essential to prepare students to effectively and intelligently communicate in a variety of contexts.

ENGL 101-ENGL 102 or the equivalent.

English Composition (6 hours)

ENGL 101 and ENGL 102 (or equivalent course)

Mathematics (6 hours)

With permission of the Dean, three hours may be statistics (STAT)

As a cornerstone for the liberal arts, engineering, and sciences, mathematical/analytical reasoning skills are an essential component of all disciplines.

Mathematics (6 hours)

MATH 102*, 103*, 105*, 109*, 110, 143*, 206, 210, STAT 214

*Only one of MATH 102, 103, 105, 107, 109, and 143 may be used to fulfill three of the required six credit hours.

Behavioral Science (6 hours)

Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology

Social and Behavioral Sciences study human behavior and the relationship between individuals and their societies.

Behavioral Science (6 hours*)

ANTH 100, 210, 202, 203, CJUS 101, 203, 205

ECON 201, 202, 300, GEOG 103, 104, 380

POLS 110, 220, 360, 370, PSYC 110, 220, 255, 311, 312, 370, SOCI 100, 241

*with 3 hours at the 200+ level

Natural Sciences (9 hours)

Natural sciences study both life and physical sciences in an approach to understanding the universe by studying objects, phenomena, laws of nature, and the physical world.

Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Microbiology, Physical Science, or Physics (including both biological and physical sciences, with six hours in the same science)

Natural Sciences (9 hours)

Biological Sciences

BIOL 121, 122, 300, 303

ENVS 150

Physical Sciences

ENVS 100, 280

GEOL 105, 106, 110

PHYS 160, 170, 213

CHEM 101, 102

Humanities (9 hours)

Literature, Foreign Language, History, Communications, Philosophy, Interdisciplinary Studies

Humanities offer a broad-based study of cultural traditions and the human condition, including everything from language, literature, and religion to history, philosophy, and communication.

Humanities (9 hours)

Literature and Humanities (3 hours)

ENGL 201, 202, 205, 206, 210, 211, 212, 215, 216, 312, 319, 320, 371, 332, 333, 341, 342, 350, 370, 380, 381

FREN 302, 322, 311, 392

SPAN 302, 320, 340

GERM 311

HUMN 115, 151, 152, 200

Historical Perspective (3 hours)

HIST 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 221, 222, 223, 224, 307, 330, 355, 343, 351, 352, 321, 322
PHIL 101, 321, 322

Communication and Language (3 hours)

CMCN 100, 212, 202, 203, 302, 310, 345

ENGL 223, 360, 365

THEA 261

FREN 101, 102, 201, 202, 216, 301, 316, 332, 361, 362

SPAN 101, 102, 201, 202, 216, 301, 310, 316, 330, 332

GERM 101, 102, 201, 202, 216, 360

ARAB 101, 102

ASL 101, 102, 201

Fine Arts (3 hours)

The Fine Arts provide an opportunity to explore and to value aesthetic creation and form as an essential means of conceiving and expressing the human experience.

Fine Arts (3 hours)

DANC 101, 102, 113, 114

DSGN 121

MUS 100, 104, 105, 106, 108, 109, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 360, 364

THEA 161, 261

VIAR 120, 121, 122

UNIV 100 First-Year Seminar (3 hours)

Total: 39 hours

Total: 42 hours

The University’s General Education Core is overseen by its General Education Committee, which first formed in 2006 in response to a developing understanding of the need to measure, direct, and improve student learning, and became a standing University committee within Academic Affairs in AY2008-2009. The General Education Committee exists to “…review, develop, and recommend policy regarding general education to the CAAS [Committee on Academic Affairs and Standards], to recommend inclusion or exclusion of courses in the list of acceptable general education courses, and to participate constructively in assessment of the general education goals.” Historically, the membership of the committee has included representatives from most of the core areas, representatives from each college, the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs – Academic Programs, and the Director of Institutional Assessment.

Recent proposals to revise and clarify membership have been a focus of the committee in AY2018-2019. The coherence of the committee and its relation to the General Education program are ensured by its membership, which has been revised to include representatives from each area of the General Education Core, as well as representatives from each academic college, the Director of Institutional Assessment, the Assistant Deans of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and representatives at large from Liberal Arts and Sciences. The committee reports to the Provost through the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs – Academic Programs. Changes to the General Education program are submitted in the Fall to CAAS, then to the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs – Academic Programs for review and inclusion in the Catalog.

The General Education Committee meets monthly to consider, debate, approve, and amend the General Education Core curriculum as new courses are proposed, while maintaining overall compliance with BOR requirements. This programmatic focus and the active debate that results from it are evidenced by the committee’s minutes, and the many policy changes emerging from the committee. The committee has worked to align the University’s General Education curriculum with the requirements of the Board of Regents and benchmark practices at peer institutions in an effort to create a coherent rationale for general education as a whole at UL Lafayette.

The University is committed to maintaining adherence to the underlying rationale and ensuring the expected breadth of knowledge in its general education program. The General Education Committee reviews all general education courses to ensure breadth of focus. When new courses are proposed for inclusion in the General Education curriculum, they are brought to the General Education Committee and reviewed for satisfaction of the standards established by that committee for inclusion. If courses meet those standards, they are approved and submitted to the University Committee on Academic Affairs and Standards (CAAS) for review and subsequent inclusion in the Catalog. One recent example of this process was the submission of Music 106 by the College of the Arts for inclusion in the General Education curriculum. After considering this course and approving it, the General Education Committee sent its recommendation to the CAAS, and then to the Provost for inclusion in the Catalog. Other recent requests include Music Appreciation: Survey of Film and Music and Music 130: Music Theory II.

Between 2016 and 2018, the General Education Committee reviewed the entire general education structure, including all categories and courses. Committees were formed to address each disciplinary area of the core: Math, English, Science, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities, Arts, and UNIV 100. Beginning in August of 2016, each committee was charged with reviewing and revising the existing goals and objectives for the discipline, as well as selecting classes that met the goals. Discipline committees met twice monthly and reported their progress back to the General Education Committee. In some cases such as in Humanities, these revisions were major; in others, such as Mathematics, the fundamental courses, goals, and objectives already in use were judged appropriate, or in need of only minor adjustments. The reformed structure and associated Assessment Matrix were then approved by the General Education Committee, presented to and then approved by CAAS and the Provost, and were adopted in the 2019-2020 Catalog, along with a new procedure for making changes to the General Education Core.

Campus advisors in each department or discipline, using degree planner documents available in the Catalog, ensure that students complete the General Education core in timely fashion for graduation, and each Dean’s office verifies that all general education requirements were completed before the student is cleared for graduation. An advising sheet is provided for all General Education advisors outlining the best choices for students, and individual credit distribution documents for degree planning purposes may be found in the Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Catalog under each program’s description. They allow students to assess their progress towards a degree, gauge their completion of general education hours, and plan their schedule from semester to semester. The implementation of the advising software Degree Works in 2018 also allows students and advisors to monitor progress toward completion of general education degree requirements. A Degree Works audit provides a complete review of all previous, current, and in-progress coursework, displaying information on which requirements are completed, and which are outstanding and necessary to complete a particular degree, major, minor, and/or concentration, as well as alerting students to gaps in their general education requirements. (Examples show a Degree Works audit with no general education credit earned and one with some general education credit earned.)

B. Substantial component of each undergraduate degree program

General Education at the institution is a substantial set of courses required for undergraduate students by all colleges, programs, and majors for degree completion. A minimum of 42 General Education credit hours are required of all students, exceeding the 30-hour minimum required by the SACSCOC standard and the 39 hours required by the BOR. Nearly all undergraduate programs are based on 120 credit hours, making General Education courses 35% of these undergraduate degrees. Several exceptions, including Engineering, Education, and Communication, require between 121 and 131 hours; for these, General Education courses comprise at least 32% of the degree programs.

General education requirements apply in full to transfer students. Until 2018, each college was responsible for evaluating transfer students’ transcripts and awarding them credit for general education classes. Currently, the Registrar’s Office evaluates general education credit using the Transfer Evaluation System (TES) to search catalogs from across the country in order to establish course equivalencies. This system is supported, as appropriate, by a qualitative course assessment performed by the academic departments that deliver general education courses. Once the student’s transcript has been processed through the TES evaluation, credit for general education classes is shown on the UL Lafayette transcript. A record of this information is maintained on Degree Works, where it is possible to see the original name of the course and course number, and the school that granted the credit.

Students who are pursuing online or distance education degrees must complete the same general education requirements as students in traditional, face-to-face degree programs.

C. Breadth of knowledge

In BOR Academic Affairs Policy 2.16, the BOR “recognizes that all undergraduate academic credentials should contain a broad-based common educational experience that enhances students’ ability to describe, interpret, and analyze their world.” The same policy requires institutions’ general education courses to “provide an introduction to a discipline, as in a survey course that covers a wide range of material within a specific discipline or area of inquiry and acquaints students with a broad section of the information or skills available in that area, or an appreciation course that introduces students to a creative field and leads to a general understanding and appreciation of work by others.” UL Lafayette states that “[General Education] courses in the core curriculum ensure broad learning across the humanities, arts, social studies, and biological and physical sciences, while teaching competence in technology, communication, critical thinking and analytical skills.”

The General Education Core Curriculum is “designed to ensure that our graduates acquire the knowledge and skills to live productive lives as responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world, capable of working effectively with others while displaying openness to different viewpoints and understanding the diversity of human values.” To this end, courses in the core curriculum ensure broad learning across the disciplines while teaching competencies in writing, communication, empirical and quantitative reasoning, personal and social responsibility, critical thinking, and quantitative and analytical skills.

The University’s General Education Matrix lists the areas of study, learning objectives, and courses for the entire General Education Core required of all undergraduates, and demonstrates that the institution follows these principles, offering General Education courses that are broad and introductory, and not specialized or focused on specific skills or techniques pertaining to the student’s intended major or profession. Students are required to take courses from the different areas comprising the fundamental disciplines of a liberal arts education, including humanities and fine arts, social and behavioral sciences, and natural sciences and mathematics. UL Lafayette’s general education requirement exceeds the BOR requirement for breadth by requiring humanities courses in three separate discipline areas (Literature, History, and Communication). Students may satisfy one third of their humanities requirement with a three-hour course in foreign language study, but are still required to take two additional humanities classes with choices in history, literature, philosophy, and communication.

Through these policies, procedures, and initiatives, the University ensures that all of its students take a broad and substantial core of general education courses that are based on a coherent rationale, and do not narrowly focus on skills, techniques, and procedures specific to a particular major or profession.