General Education Information
for Faculty and Advisors
1.Will students automatically be enrolled in the new general education curriculum?
Only those students who enroll for the first time in FA18 or after will be automatically required to fulfill the new general education curriculum. Continuing students may find it beneficial to switch to the new curriculum. Students who wish to switch to the new curriculum need to fill out the New General Education Change Request form from MyHilltop.
2. When can students declare that they want to switch to the new general education curriculum?
Students can notify their School of their desire to change to the new general education curriculum beginning March 1, 2018. Degree Works will allow students to try “what if” options with the new general education curriculum. Students should evaluate their options and make their decisions as part of their academic advising for FA18. Please note that when students try the “what if” under the 2018-2019 bulletin for general education, Degree Works will act as if they have changed bulletins for their major as well. But see #3 below: Students will be able to change to the new general education curriculum without changing the bulletin for their major.
3. Can students change to the new general education curriculum without changing the bulletin they declare for their major?
Students may switch to the new general education curriculum without switching to a new bulletin for their major.
4. Once students transition to the new general education curriculum, can they change their minds again and go back to the older version?
No, they really cannot change back and forth. In fact, because the new curriculum is significantly smaller than the old one, we can’t see how switching back again to the larger required curriculum would benefit a student. Also, all of the CULF courses will count towards the new curriculum, but it will be harder to use new courses to fulfill the old curriculum if a student changes back again.
5. Should I encourage my advisee to switch to the new curriculum?
Students with less than 60 hours should probably consider switching to the new curriculum as it significantly reduces the number of required general education courses and allows them to use their required 120 hours of course work for double majors or minors instead. Students who have taken many of the old general education courses, such as CULF 2321 or CULF 3331, should proceed more carefully.
6. How will I know which courses count for the new requirements?
All courses that have been approved to fulfill a requirement (for example, Creativity and Making or Quantitative Reasoning) will be listed in Degree Works, as will courses that fulfill the Mission Markers. A student will be able to click on a requirement and see all the courses that fulfill each requirement, listed by various departments and prefixes. If a CULF course will fulfill one of the new requirements, those sections will show up as well. Requirements will also be searchable in the course schedule. A list of courses approved for each requirement is posted on the general education website: https://www.stedwards.edu/undergraduate/ general-education
7. Can courses double count, as courses required for a major and general education?
Yes. Degree Works will show where a single course can fulfill both requirements.
8. What will happen to the CULF and CAPS courses?
We will continue to teach them for several semesters until students under the old general education plan have fulfilled their requirements.
9. Do students finishing SEU under the old general education curriculum need to enroll in Capstone?
Students in the new curriculum will complete a Culminating Experience in their major instead of Capstone, but students graduating under the old curriculum must complete CAPS. We will continue to offer CAPS courses in the regular semesters and summer for a few years.
10. What is the Culminating Experience?
Each major will designate a course as a Culminating Experience in that major. That upper-division course will allow students to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have gained throughout the curriculum. Students who are unable to take the Culminating Experience course in the major will have other options for fulfilling this requirement for the general education curriculum. (In the short term, if students need a Culminating Experience course before the departments are ready to offer them, we will accept a traditional CAPS 4360 course as fulfilling the culminating experience requirement.)
11. What are Mission Markers?
Mission Markers are a subset of the new general education curriculum for which additional credit hours are not required; rather, students choose from Mission Marker designated courses that are also required for a major, minor, or for other general education requirements. Students may be able to fulfill their Mission Marker requirement through significant co-curricular experiences as well.
The Mission Markers develop the skills and knowledge introduced in the required general education curriculum as students proceed through their coursework in the majors and minors. We plan to have Mission Marker designations for courses in every major and for some general education courses so that students can fulfill this requirement without enrolling in additional courses. We are working to have co-curricular activities designated, especially for the Experiential Learning for Social Justice marker; we will publicize those opportunities as soon as we have worked out the mechanism for reporting and assessing them.
To fulfill the Mission Marker requirements, students must choose two courses designated as Writing Rich (one Writing Rich course must be upper-division), one course designated to examine Social Identities, and one designated as Experiential Learning for Social Justice. See the list of approved courses for sections of various courses that fulfill these Mission Markers; some courses fulfill more than one Mission Marker. Degree Works will also provide lists of Mission Markers and will note when students have fulfilled this requirement. We will continue to invite proposals for courses seeking a MM designation and will update the list as designations are approved.
12. How will Mission Markers work for FA17 cohort that are transitioning as sophomores to new curriculum?
The Mission Markers will be in place for general education, for new students, transfer students, and continuing students transitioning to the new curriculum. We are working hard to provide many options so that students can fulfill the MMs in their majors or while fulfilling another part of their general education coursework. In the first couple of years, we expect that we may need to make substitutions and grant waivers for some students. We plan to tighten up the requirement as we go along.
13. Will students who start the new general education curriculum as freshmen or who transition to the new curriculum in 18-19 be responsible for interdisciplinary concentrations?
No. They will not. Interdisciplinary concentrations will be phased in at a later date.
14. Do non-science majors have to take a lab science to fulfill their general education requirements?
No. There will be some three credit-hours courses in a variety of natural sciences that will allow non-science students to fulfill the experiential learning component required by general education without taking a separate lab course. Any science course that is accompanied by a corresponding lab course will also fulfill the general education requirements. (See the list of approved courses linked to this web page.)
15. Can general education courses be taken P/NP rather than for a letter grade?
Most general education courses have to be taken for a letter grade; however, students may take the courses that fulfill the following requirements P/NP as long as they have junior or senior status and adhere to the other policies for P/NP outlined in the Bulletin: Creativity and Making, Exploring Artistic Works, Modern Language, and Studies in Theology and Religion.
16. Do students still have to earn a C or higher in the courses they take to fulfill the Quantitative Reasoning and Writing I and II requirements?
Yes.
17. If students fail a first-year seminar, do they have to retake the course to fulfill that requirement?
Yes. There will be first-year seminar classes offered in the spring semester.
18. How will study abroad courses be evaluated to count for general education credit?
For now, study abroad courses will be evaluated as before. A course that would have counted as CULF 1318, for example, can still be substituted for CULF 1318 which fulfills the Exploring Artistic Works requirement. In the future, study abroad courses may be evaluated by course coordinators for each requirement.
19. Has the current policy for fulfilling the Modern Language requirement changed?
No. The new general education policy is the same as the current one for Modern Languages.
20. Has the policy for transferring in writing course credits changed?
No. It is much the same. Transfer students will be allowed to transfer in credit for Writing I and Writing II from the institution they transfer from. As with the current policy, however, students who enroll at SEU as first-time freshmen can bring in six hours of college writing credit from AP or dual enrollment, but only three hours counts towards the general education writing requirement. A first-time freshman with six hours of AP or dual enrollment writing credit will get credit for Writing I and for WRIT 2323 Research and Argumentation, an elective course. That student will have to enroll in Writing II at St. Edward’s to fulfill the general education writing requirement.