TIME AND CHANGE:

1
TIME AND CHANGE THE YEARS KEY ACADEMIC
PRIORITIES
2
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• Essentials of the McHale Committee Charge
• Although curricula change over time, the guiding
  questions remain essentially the same.
• What body of knowledge should all of our
  undergraduate students be expected to master
  before graduation?
• How can Ohio State best prepare undergraduate
  students in all of our colleges for a lifetime
  of learning and citizenship?

3
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• Essentials of the McHale Committee Charge (cont)
• During the course of your review, I would like
  you to consider the following aspects of
  undergraduate education
• the General Education Curriculum
• the number of credit hours required for
  graduation
• the appropriate role of freshman seminars
• the staffing of undergraduate courses and
  faculty-student interaction and
• the degree to which undergraduate education
  reflects university priorities such as diversity,
  interdisciplinarity, research, and outreach.

4
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• McHale Committee Findings
• GEC is out of step with todays better prepared
  student body
• GEC doesnt lead to a coherent educational
  experience
• Guiding Principles for GEC reform
• Coherence
• Flexibility
• Oversight
• Transparency

5
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• Recommendations
• Coherence
• Encourage minors and double majors
• Institute Freshman Clusters
• Flexibility
• Provide more scope for student choice
• Allow minors, double majors, alternative
  experience to help satisfy non-major
  requirements
• Decrease the number of credit hours in GEC

6
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• Oversight
• Establish a university-wide committee to
  oversee the quality of general education
  courses
• Transparency
• Redesign GEC website
• Reorganize current category structure
• Additional recommendations
• Reduce the minimum credit hours for
  graduation from 191 to 181

7
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

8
Time and Change The Years Key Academic
Priorities

• NEXT STEPS
• By October, 2006 Review/Action by the Council
  on Academic Affairs (CAA)
• Provost transmits campus-wide and college
  responses to CAA
• CAA develops its response/action
• By October 30, 2006 Discussion of CAA Action
• CAA action shared/discussed with Senate Steering
  Committee, Faculty Council, Arts and Sciences
  Senate, Council on Student Affairs, Undergraduate
  Student Government.
• By November 2006
• Review of/action on CAA recommendations by the
  University Senate.
• By Autumn 2007
• New curricular requirements take effect for
  incoming class.  Schedule for transition of
  already-enrolled students to be determined