In the coming weeks, faculty will vote on a plan that would combine CORE 120 (Human Person and Identity) with CORE 220 (Community), reducing the number of Core courses required of all students.

Dr. Gregory Straughn, assistant provost for general education, said the proposal passed the University General Education Council and the University Undergraduate Academic Council and will be considered by the full faculty in the coming weeks.

“Doing so would allow for the topics of identity and community to be considered in a single class, since they are closely related.  It would also reduce the number of CORE-prefix classes needed to be taught by professors, which would provide a budgetary savings,” Straughn said.

Straughn said that the changes reflect both budget concerns as well as concerns related to the topics in some of the Core classes.

Stephanie Smith, administrative coordinator for general education, said that Straughn has been working on making changes to the Core curriculum all semester and that he saw the need for changes after the first full year of the program.

Staughn said that the assessment of the Core curriculum began in Sept. 2010, after the first Cornerstone classes were in place. As the new General Education plan was being crafted several years ago, Straughn said, it included a provision for regular monitoring and assessment of student learning.

Straughn said the current revisions to the Core curriculum are part of this ongoing process. The current revisions were developed during the fall of this year after time was spent conversing with faculty teaching CORE 110, 120 and 220, reviewing student data from the previous semesters, conversing with deans and other administrators, and surveying the faculty at large.

Smith said that some of the proposed changes were promoted by the need to cut the budget to hire faculty.

“The Core, like every other area on campus, has been affected by budget reductions.  The proposed changes reflect both budget concerns as well as pedagogical concerns related to the topics of some of the Core classes,” Straughn said.