Rhodes is the chair of the GE Governance Committee.
By David Rhodes
Thinking about undergraduate education is both a delight and an
obligation for a faculty member, but teachers can easily become the
proverbial “mad scientist” when they don’t
consult widely with other instructors and with the students who are
both the purpose and subjects of these intellectual designs.
As a longtime teacher in the Department of English, I still
devote inordinate amounts of time to adjusting my course syllabus,
thinking that by making it “perfect” I can make the
course “perfect” as well. But the best syllabus in the
world can’t make a great class ““ only a teacher and
students working together with joy and dedication can create a
largely non-replicable experience that will change our lives
““ teacher and students ““ for the better.
The program for a “new GE” in the College of Letters
and Science is like a syllabus negotiated by a number of dedicated
students, staff and faculty. We’ll only know later if it
created an exciting, improved environment for learning at UCLA. I
hope so ““ and I know the work needed doing.
With the exception of the inventive, interdisciplinary new
freshman “Cluster Courses,” General Education has not
been thought about in holistic terms at UCLA in over 20 years. The
committee chair was created four years ago to nurture and evaluate
the new clusters and to recommend new GE courses to the
Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate, which has authority
over all undergraduate courses at UCLA.
For the past two years, the GE Governance Committee has been
exploring far-reaching and fundamental ways to improve GE in the
College, where some 90 percent of UCLA students pursue their
undergraduate education. We undertook our discussions in the
knowledge that the College was moving many of its undergraduate
courses from four units to five and that exit surveys expressed
students’ dissatisfaction with the lack of coherence in their
lower-division course work.
With much assistance from all areas of the college, and looking
at GE across the UC system and the nation, we came up with three
principles for a new College GE:
That it would respond to clearly defined intellectual goals and
prepare students both for upper division work at a great research
university and to be citizens of an increasingly diverse and
demanding world.
That the new system would allow us to review, evaluate and
improve GE courses in every department and program of the College
and to foster the development of exciting new and newly renovated
courses taught according to “best practices” in the
development of academic and intellectual skills.
That the new GE would occupy somewhat less space in the academic
program of students in the College, so that they could devote more
time to pursuing majors and minors or choosing electives.
We think the “New GE” meets all of these goals, and
the faculty of the College and the Legislative Assembly have
formally approved our plans. Now the hard work of re-evaluation and
recertification begins, handled by three distinguished
faculty-student workgroups. Their work must be done by May 1, so
that these courses can be described in the catalogue and ready for
entering College freshmen by Fall Quarter.
The new College GE will be divided into three
“foundational” areas: “Foundations of the Arts
and Humanities”; “Foundations of Society and
Culture”; and “Foundations of Scientific
Inquiry.”
In the first two, students will take three courses of five units
each; with four courses at a minimum of 18 units in the area of
scientific inquiry. Among the principles we hope to encourage are
“general knowledge” and “integrative
learning,” as well as the thoughtful exploration of
“ethical implications” and “cultural
diversity.” These courses will, in their various ways, foster
the fundamental intellectual skills of critical thinking and
communication, problem solving and research.
So much for the plan, its goals and our fervent hopes for its
success. That success can only be measured in the doing and can
only happen if faculty and students teach and learn with good will,
mutual commitment and vibrant curiosity.