Lisa Friedenberg, Chair
Rebecca Bruce
Til Dohse
Ellen Perry

The Resource Team of the General Education Review Task Force (GERTF) was asked to investigate and respond to a set of seven issues.

Issue #1: The NC Articulation Agreement

Study the NC Articulation agreement to see how it will impact a revision. Study how other UNC-system schools are working within the Articulation Agreement in their general education programs, particularly the NC School of the Arts. Study how universities and colleges have handled similar agreements in states that also have such agreements (e.g. Texas) with particular emphasis on liberal arts institutions (e.g. COPLAC and UNCA peer-institutions).

Issue #2: Transfer students outside the NC Articulation Agreement

Study how we accommodate transfer students who are not coming in under the Articulation Agreement. What are the numbers, policies, etc for fulfilling general education requirements?

Issue #3: Administrative oversight

Identify administrative structures for the oversight and development of general education programs at COPLAC, UNCA peer and "aspirational peer" institutions. Study the financial ramifications of these structures at UNCA.

Issue #4: Enrollment Services concerns

Identify concerns and issues for Enrollment Services arising from revision of the curriculum. What information does this office need in order to assist us in implementing a revision? What can this office provide us to help us in our work?

Issue #5: Costs of general education

Study how much we currently spend on general education, breaking it down into departments if possible.

Issue #6: Space arrangements

Study what space arrangements there are for our present general education structure. How many rooms are devoted to general education?

Issue #7: Relative size of general education curricula

What is the relative size of the general education programs among BA liberal arts institutions? For example, what percent have requirements in excess of 60 hours? Between 40 and 60 hours?

This first draft covers issues 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Issue #1: The NC Articulation Agreement

In the course of a year more students enter UNCA as transfers than as new freshmen. In 2001/2002 there were approximately 450 new freshman (47%) and 500 (53%) transfer students. Of the transfer students 40% came from North Carolina Community Colleges while the rest came mainly from 4-year institutions. The amount of course credit they brought to UNCA ranged from a few courses to more than 90 hours and had an average of 50 credit hours.

Table I: Amount of transfer credit

At graduation roughly half of the 500 students receiving degrees from UNCA did not start their college training at UNCA. These numbers imply that approximate 55% of incoming freshmen complete their degree at this University. The average number of credits received by transfer students from UNCA by the time they graduate is over 80 hours.

Among UNCA’s private peer institutions the number of transfer students is unusual. Schools that were investigated had no instructions for admission for transfer students. Those schools with public records stating their admission statistics had less than 5% of their new students transfer into the college.

North Carolinas School of the Arts did have a significant group of students transferring to that school. Of the 225 new students, 53 (20%) were transfers. However, only 7 of these students came from the community college system. It is unlikely therefore, that North Carolina Articulation Agreement has a significant impact on their curriculum.

Among other COPLAC schools UNCA did not stand out. Most schools investigated have similar policies toward accepting transfer credit from Community Colleges. Typically a student who passes a "College level" 2 year program at a 2-year community college in the same state can expect to transfer 60 hours of college credit. Most schools have 25% or more of their new students come in as transfers, with Evergreen State College having the highest rate; 67% of all new students are not new freshmen.

1. Transfer students are a significant component of the UNCA student body, representing half of our new students and half of our graduates last year.

2. Although these statistics are not unusual for COPLAC schools, they are unusual compared to private peer institutions and to the one other UNC institution with a specialized mission (NC School for the Arts).

Issue #4: Enrollment Services concerns

Information to address these issues was obtained through interviews with several key people. All have expressed interest in meeting with GERTF to discuss matters in more depth.

* Rebecca Sensabaugh, Registrar
* Marilyn Lonon and Linda Rhymes, Student Data Services
* Debbie Race, Coordinator of Academic Advising and Retention
* Scot Schaeffer, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

A. Class scheduling

Individuals in Student Data Services emphasized their concern about how revisions to general education would fit with existing classroom space and the current "class scheduling grid." In spite of planned construction, it is unlikely we will have additional classrooms in less than five years. Changes in our general education program may make it harder for us to schedule the classes that students need without a significant overhaul of the existing "grid," particularly if the credit hours linked to specific general education courses change (e.g. a requirement that currently is three-hour general education class being transformed into a four, etc.).

The issues here are complex. From one perspective, revisions in general education will not impact classroom space needs unless we reduce (or increase) the number of hours required for graduation at UNCA. For example, if we were to reduce the social science requirement to from 6 to 3 hours, students would be required to complete one more elective course for graduation, an introduction of flexibility into the system. However, we encounter serious classroom space/grid problems when general education requirements function to block a time-slot, problems that are exacerbated when the course is more than 3 hours. For example, general education courses "block" course scheduling at both 11:00 and 12:15 during Spring semesters, seriously reducing the time slots and classrooms available for scheduling other courses. This type of scheduling restriction should be avoided.

Fall 2002 demonstrated another aspect of this problem. Fall schedules had been prepared using the grid format, prior to the news about budget cuts, adjunct lay-offs and the need to add courses taught by full-time faculty. When class schedules were changed, many departments were unable to schedule an appropriate full-time faculty member to teach at the time of a canceled course. Departments often found themselves without suitably sized rooms for the added courses.

The current scheduling grid is more of a problem source than a solution. The primary problem is that it assumes all classes meet 3 hours a week on MWF or TR. This assumption is false, particularly in reference to general education courses. Alternative scheduling models should be explored.

Several handouts summarizing these issues have been distributed to the Resource Team, and Marilyn Lonon would like to address the issues on these handouts at either a small- or large-group meeting.

B. Registration and advising software

The Office of the Registrar and the Office of Advising and Retention share several concerns about registration and graduation software. Two long-awaited additions to Web for Faculty and Web for Students are the automated prerequisite checking and degree audit modules. Both of these will require significant adjustment prior to the introduction of new general education requirements, which in turn translates into additional time and money for these offices. The more significant the revisions to general education, the more significant the need for changes to these elements. More complex issues are raised relative to students who are in the middle of sequenced courses that change, and students who return to UNCA after having completed a portion of their general education under the "old" requirements (see next section).

C. The need for additional special academic policies

Changes to general education require a variety of new academic policies to handle special situations, and these policies must be in place prior to the onset of the new requirements. For example, continuing students obviously will treated to some "grandfathering" provision, but what about students returning to UNCA after years of absence? The Registrar reports that we regularly see students returning from the 1980s. These students may have completed general education requirements two iterations behind where we will be upon their return.

What happens, too, with students in the middle of sequenced courses that are changed in the general education revision? Will we continue offering "old" and "new" requirements to accommodate them? Will we phase in requirement changes over time or make an abrupt shift to the new curriculum? What about our "repeat course" policy? What will we do if students earn D or F grades and want to retake classes that are no longer offered due to general education changes? Note that these issues also have implications for course scheduling and faculty workloads.

D. Communication with students

All individuals stressed the necessity of providing students with timely information about general education changes and their current statuses given these changes. The Office of Admission emphasized the need to know about general education changes far in advance of their taking effect. They start sending material to Fall freshman prospects no later than the month of February, and they will need time to incorporate information about general education changes into all their publications/mailings. Time clearly is of the essence--Admissions has to meet these mailing deadlines no matter what, so publications (e.g. Fact Sheets, viewbooks) may be inaccurate if changes to the general education curriculum are made after the February mailings.

The same dynamic affects production of the UNCA Catalog, which functions as a "contract" and needs to be accurate as possible. Because general education changes have critical impact on transfer students, accuracy is of the utmost importance to this group.

The Office of Academic Advising and Retention echoed these concerns. Advisor handbooks and freshman advisor training sessions are designed early on, and it is critical to convey accurate information about the curriculum to all faculty advisors. Continuing students would benefit from special advising sessions designed to discuss the impact of the general education revision on their progress toward graduation and long-term plans.

The Registrar also voiced concern about how UNCA will communicate with students about the general education changes. Who will be responsible for doing mass mailings to students regarding curriculum revision? Who will be paying for revision of all paperwork (e.g. checksheets, mailings, Articulation Agreement fine-tuning). The existing personnel and budget cannot accommodate the anticipated necessary time and cost.

1. It is imperative that time is available between the enactment of general education revision and the effective date for new requirements. All varieties of tracking and communication mechanisms will need to be revised to ensure that students are well informed about the new curriculum.

2. It will be necessary for the Academic Policies Committee and the Faculty Senate to consider a variety of special circumstances created by general education revisions, and to enact policies to accommodate those circumstances. This, too, will require time between enactment of the revision and its effective date.

3. Revision of general education will create significant time and person-hour costs for offices in the former Enrollment Services division. It will be difficult to handle the necessary activities with their current staff and level of funding.

Issue #5: Costs of general education

The amount of funds dedicated to general education at UNCA in the 2001/2002 academic year was $4,400,000 according to the Office of Institutional Research. This amount is approximately 40% of the total departmental operating expenditures and faculty salaries. This value is based on the operating cost of a department multiplied by the proportion of student credit hours generated by general education courses.

The amount of $4,400,000 is misleading, since general education courses tend to be more economical to teach than course for the major. The actual value is probably much lower. General education classes tend to be larger, they often do not require specialized classrooms or equipment, and they are more likely to have an adjunct instructor. (If an adjunct is hired he/she usually is assigned a general education class.) A rough estimate of the relative cost based on a small sample of departments yielded that a general education course cost less than half as much as a departmental course. Since students must take 120 credit hours to graduate and UNCA is funded by a formula based on student credit hours, it is safe to say that general education classes generate funds.

Another resource to consider is faculty time. This too is a value difficult to estimate and impossible to determine precisely. The problem was approached from two angles: percent of faculty time devoted to teaching general education courses and percent of student credit hours generated by general education courses. Percentage values are estimates based on data from UNCA’s Office of Institutional Research.

Out of the 120 hours needed to graduate a student of UNCA has 49 hours of general education. This is about 41% of his/her college course work. Not counting the one-hour of Library Research, the student has 8 hours in the Social Sciences (including Health and Fitness), 12 hours in the Natural Sciences (and Mathematics), and 28 hours in the Humanities (including Writing and Foreign Language). Since the bulk of general education requirements is in Humanities, it is to be expected that most of the instruction comes from that group.

Table I: Faculty commitment to general education. (Faculty load is 24 semester hours per year)