For the past three years a selected group of faculty members have been working on creating a new core curriculum to replace the current general education program.
The curriculum will be voted on in Nov. of this year in Faculty Senate, and if approved, will be voted on by the Board of Visitors in Dec. of this year. Once then, the curriculum will be slowly phased in, according to Wade Edwards, professor of French Culture and Department Chair.
“In fall of 2018, all incoming freshmen will be in this program; everyone else will be in the current general education program,” said Dr. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell, professor of Mathematics, “In fall 2019, all freshmen will be in this new program, but transfer students are going to decide based off their major,”
According to Emerson-Stonnell, all students entering Longwood in the fall of 2020 will be in the new program.
“We (the committee) started three years ago (fall 2013) with a charge from the president (W. Taylor Reveley IV), who basically said that he wanted our general education program to be a signature program at Longwood University,” said Lee Bidwell, Professor of Sociology.
The committee included Dr. David Locascio, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Education and Human Services; Sharon M. Menegoni, Associate Professor in the College of Education & Human Services; Dr. Cheryl Atkins, Professor of Management; Dr. David Lehr, Associate Professor, Economics Associate Provost for Academic Innovation and ; Dr. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell, Professor of Mathematics; Dr. Larissa Smith Fergeson, Professor, 20th-century American history, African-American history, History of the U.S. South, Virginia History; Dr. David W. Shoenthal, Professor of Mathematics and Department Chair; Dr. Melissa C. Rhoten, Professor of Analytical Chemistry; Dr. Lee Bidwell, Professor of Sociology; Dr. Heather Lettner-Rust, Assistant Professor, Rhetoric and Composition; Dr. Sarai Blincoe, Assistant Professor and Pamela McDermott, Assistant Professor; Conducting, Aural Skills, Choral Methods
“We (the committee) studied national trends in general education and what general education is even for,” said Edwards.
Emerson-Stonnell disclosed that Student Affairs have also played a key role more welcoming to undeclared students.
“The very first thing we did was that spring semester (2014) we went into every English 400 level class and we surveyed every student in every one of those sections and we found out that they did not see the connection between our current general education courses and their major,” said Emerson-Stonnell.
The core curriculum is composed of three levels, with the foundation levels being 100-200 level courses that do not require any prerequisites. In this level there are two courses that are required for all students to take, ‘Writing & Rhetoric’ and ‘Inquiry to Citizenship’, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
“If you have find a major you like you do not have to retake a course, the course will count towards your major and the core curriculum at the same time,” said Emerson-Stonnell.
In this new core curriculum there will be six other courses, along the lines of general education courses that will give students the opportunity to try different things and ultimately have tried seven different majors if students choose to take an extra course. These courses will make up 21-22 credit hours for students, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
“We have built into this program with every single course they take is either going to be speaking infused or writing infused with 10 percent to 15 percent of their grade is either going to be speaking or writing,” said Emerson-Stonnell.
The new set of courses will include the foreign language component required of students at a maximum of two semesters for all students. In the original general education program, some majors required students to take three semesters of a foreign language, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
Emerson-Stonnell explained students will test into language courses, but if they do not place into a lower level language course then they will have the option of taking a course on global citizenship. If a student places into a higher-level language course then the student will take a different course for global citizenship. The language course is built into the foundation level of the curriculum. The second language course is world perspective, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
When students completed the survey in English 400, the committee found that students felt the in-state tuition 125% rule was an issue when it came to changing their major within the general education program, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
All students in addition to the two required courses for students to take as freshman all students will also be required to complete ‘Symposium on the Common Good’. This course will host one broad theme but each major will have an aspect of the theme, according to Emerson-Stonnell.
“We are proposing that general education classes are capped at much smaller numbers than they currently are for some departments. We are proposing a cap of 25 in classes that don’t have a cap right now,” said Bidwell.
The committee is talking to Reveley and other administrators about funding the new curriculum and have come in agreement that it is going to require a lot of resources, according to Bidwell.
