By Justin Muszynski

In the midst of a possible general education reform, the Central Connecticut State University Faculty Senate General Education Ad Hoc Committee is now looking at the curriculum of other universities to get an idea of which systems work most efficiently.

Their goal is to see what’s out there and what works best, but to keep the curriculum unique to the campus and students of CCSU.

“We’ve looked at a lot of different models but we have to remember that we’re not other schools,” says Thomas Burkholder, associate professor of chemistry.  “General education has to be a product of the faculty and the students you have in order to make it unique to us.”

The committee is still in the information-gathering phase, but Burkholder said a draft of any proposed changes to the system should be completed by the fall semester. They hope that those approved by the spring 2012 semester will take effect in the new course catalog beginning in the fall of 2013.

As far as the committee’s opinion on what changes should happen to the current general education system, Burkholder said they are trying to remain neutral for the purpose of gathering as much unbiased input as possible from faculty and staff. They are planning on sending out a survey to faculty within the next few weeks that would ask them to rank certain aspects of the current system and to express what they like and what they don’t like. As far as student input, they have several ideas on how to get them involved.

While they are pleased with the turn out of the open meetings they hosted in Founder’s Hall, they say it could have been better. One idea they have would be to host small focus groups that would consist of students and faculty collectively expressing their views and concerns.

They are also in the process of expanding their website in order to allow more places for feedback and opinions about the committee’s ideas. Another thing they are considering is to use Facebook as a tool to gather student input.

Burkholder also warns that any suggestions made should keep in mind the budget deficit that the state is currently facing.

“Any suggestions we come up with should be revenue neutral,” Burkholder said. “Having said that, we can still reorder priorities.”

Burkholder also said the state of Connecticut regulates the minimum amount of credits that have to be a part of general education for a university, and that number is 43. Any new system would have to stay consistent with those state regulations.

Any proposed changes would also have to be approved by the curriculum committee, the Faculty Senate and CCSU President Jack Miller before taking effect. Burkholder said that the committee believes the university would most likely stick with the current general education system they use now should their proposal not make it through the approval process.

A recent survey distributed to 230 faculty members about CCSU’s general education program found that of the 230 members surveyed, 61.3 percent either agree or strongly agree that the program should be redesigned.

The current system was put in place in 1998 and 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.