By Justin Muszynski

A recent survey conducted by the Faculty Senate general education ad-hoc committee shows that a majority of CCSU faculty believe the general education program should be reformed.

The survey results that were presented during the body’s meeting last week found that of the 230 surveyed, more than 60 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that a redesign is necessary.

Robert Wolff, chair of the ad hoc committee, says the committee has been given the responsibility of making recommendations for any changes to the general education program by the spring of 2012.

That may sound like a long time, but Wolff assures that “it is a long process.” Much of this process will involve several surveys directed toward students and faculty. Any changes would have to go through several committees, the Faculty Senate as a whole and ultimately be approved by CCSU President Jack Miller.

Wolff, who is also an associate professor of history, feels that the consensus among faculty is that the current system has become too complex. One major issue to be examined is that of students relocating to CCSU that are unable to transfer all of the credits they’ve accumulated at other institutions of higher learning.

“We have to be mindful that students transfer from one [Connecticut state university] to the other, they come from the community colleges…we can’t design something that makes it impossible to transfer,” said Wolff.

The current system requires a minimum of 44 to 46 credits in general education studies, not including the foreign language department, and has four study areas and four skill areas.

The general education program that is currently in effect at CCSU was put in place in 1998 and “was under discussion for a few years before that,” Wolff says.

“Any program we put in place would probably not affect any student who’s here now,” Wolff added.

In other words, current students don’t have to worry about the curriculum being changed in the middle of their education as they will be ‘grandfathered’ in and would most likely follow their original course of study.

Wolff says that the newly created Board of Regents would more than likely have no affect on any changes the university chooses to make to their curriculum.

Wolff said this is a good chance to step back and look at the curriculum closer and decide what it should mean to be a CCSU graduate.

The discussion about general education reform comes at a time when higher education reorganization at the state level and shrinking budget could affect future plans.

Jason Jones, president of the CSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, believes that the higher education system restructuring could negatively influence plans for general education changes.

“One of the things we have heard is that they want to have the [proposed] Board of Regents identify the general education standards for the CSU schools,” Jones said.  “Then the different institutions would be allowed to pick what classes fulfill those gen ed requirements that are determined by this bureaucracy that the governor would be appointing.”

“I think that the reorganization could possibly trump our hopes for reorganizing general education,” Jones added.  “It’s possible that there would be no meaningful campus control over curriculum.”

The Faculty Senate general education ad hoc committee will meet Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. to discuss the next step in this process.