Chapter 2
Accreditation History

 

General Education

The 1994 accreditation report described SVSU’s General Education program then in place thus: “The University has not clearly articulated what general education is at SVSU: what are its overarching principles and goals, how will it assess student learning outcomes, and who is responsible for monitoring, supporting, and promoting the program” (p. 35); furthermore, “The General Education program lacks focus. As a relatively loose confederation of courses, the program needs direction and must be integrated into the assessment plan. The faculty and administration must consider the overarching principles and goals of general education and subsequently integrate them into the culture of the academic program” (p. 41).

In response both to these concerns and to institutional needs, SVSU developed a completely new General Education program, which responds fully to all concerns expressed by the 1994 evaluation team. The General Education program as it existed in 1993-94 lacked alignment between program goals and curriculum; the curriculum had evolved without a clear sense of direction and lacked a governing structure. It no longer served students well.

As a follow-up to the interim report, the faculty and Academic Affairs office in 1996 undertook a two-year process to assess the existing General Education curriculum. Based on that assessment, it became clear that without more careful alignment between the curriculum and the goals and objectives defined for General Education, students would not consistently achieve the three goals of the program: critical thinking, effective communication, and logical reasoning.

The faculty, after much deliberation, determined that the logical way to proceed was to develop an entirely new curriculum based on defined programmatic principles. A contractually defined governing body, the General Education Committee, was proposed, with new courses to be submitted to this Committee, which would also be responsible for monitoring the assessment of the new program.

After an initial proposal was narrowly voted down by the faculty at the end of fall term, 1999, a revised proposal for a new General Education curriculum and structure were unanimously ratified at a meeting of the full faculty in winter semester 2000. (See Chapter 5 for a full discussion of the new program.) Although this lengthy and complex process involved considerable debate and revision, it resulted in a new General Education program to which the faculty is committed. All courses now have a 5-year sunset clause, are aligned with program goals, include measurable objectives appropriate to the category, and are assessed on the basis of program objectives. Although the program and its assessment have not been in place long enough to allow for definitive conclusions about program effectiveness, the structures are in place, the governing body has been carrying out its responsibilities, and assessment measures have been undertaken.

The General Education program is assessed in three ways:

Thus, all aspects identified by the evaluation team have been addressed.