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Administration
of the General Education Requirements
Overview: Why General Education? Prior to implementing the General Education Requirements, UW-Madison had no common undergraduate requirements with the single exception of an Ethnic Studies requirement. Widespread opinion on campus was that students, particularly at the freshman and sophomore levels, were not being offered the amount or level of focused writing/communication/information literacy skills experience that one would expect of an undergraduate experience at UW-Madison. A lack of General Education requirements in the Quantitative Reasoning area meant that some students never took college level courses that helped to hone skills in this area. There was also wide support among the faculty for general education requirements in breadth areas of natural science, humanities/literature/art, and social studies since previous requirements varied widely across the campus. According to the mission statement articulated by the campus-wide General Education committee, the purpose of the General Education requirements is to ensure that every graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison acquires the essential core of an undergraduate education that establishes the foundations for living a productive life, being a citizen of the world, appreciating aesthetic values, and engaging in life-long learning in a continually changing world. For this reason, these core requirements provide for breadth across the humanities and arts, social studies, biological sciences and physical sciences; competence in communication, critical thinking and analytical skills appropriate for a university-educated person; and investigation of the issues raised by living in a culturally diverse society. In 1994, the 1993-94 Faculty Committee on Undergraduate Education submitted a report on the General Education Requirements to the Faculty Senate. The committee had found that, with the exception of the ethnic studies requirement, UW-Madison had no campus-wide requirements; further, across schools and colleges, there was considerable variation in requirements for basic instruction. As a result, it was feared that some students were graduating without competency in important skill areas. In comparison to the substantial general education requirements of peer universities, the committee considered UW-Madison's requirements "meager". A survey of faculty opinion found considerable support for general education requirements, prompting the committee to propose a number of recommendations which have since become the current UW-Madison General Education Requirements.
Per Wis. Stats. 36.09(4), "The faculty of each institution, subject to the responsibilities and powers of the board, the president and the chancellor of such institution, shall be vested with responsibility for the immediate governance of such institution and shall actively participate in institutional policy development. As such, the faculty shall have the primary responsibility for academic and educational activities and faculty personnel matters. The faculty of each institution shall have the right to determine their own faculty organizational structure and to select representatives to participate in institutional governance." As such, responsibility for creating, implementing, evaluating and revising the General Education Requirements rests upon the shoulders of the faculty, through the university's system of governance. Policies of the UW Board of Regents No policies of the Board of Regents address General Education Requirements, except insofar as they are affected when students transfer between UW System institutions or from the Wisconsin Technical College System. In those cases, the following policies and guidelines have formed the foundation of campus policies:
Students entering with an Associate's Degree are affected by BOR Section 4 Policy 4 (formally 87-9), Minimum Requirements for an Associate Degree Accreditation, Assessment and General Education The Federal Higher Education Act requires that institutions receiving federal funding be evaluated periodically to ensure that they meet high standards of excellence in educating their students. Failure to meet these standards not only leads to the loss of federal funding, but it has an equally negative effect on institutional rankings and many certification programs. The authority to evaluate UW-Madison is delegated to the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA-HLC). At the time of the last institutional accreditation, one among many of the NCA-HLC's requirements was that the university's "undergraduate degree programs include a coherent general education requirement consistent with the institution's mission and designed to ensure breadth of knowledge and to promote intellectual inquiry" (NCA, GIR #16). In April 1999, a team of consultants visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and found that these, and all other, requirements for accreditation were satisfied; the next comprehensive site visit is scheduled for April 27-29, 2009. Furthermore, the NCA-HLC requires its accredited institutions to have programs for assessing student learning; this requirement is endorsed by the UW System Board of Regent Section 7, Policy 1 (formally Policy 92-7) on Academic Quality Program Assessment, which states that "each UW System institution shall continue the assessment of students' verbal and quantitative skills, refine the techniques and report annually on the use of assessment results in the improvement of teaching and learning." As a result of this emphasis, UW-Madison's program in General Education has been the beneficiary of the assessment of verbal and quantitative skills. Faculty and departments will find resources (including the UW-Madison Assessment Manual) related to the evaluation of student learning through the Outcomes Assessment website provided by the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. To assess student learning within the framework of the General Education requirements, the University General Education Committee has developed an ongoing plan consisting of various projects undertaken each year. For more information about assessment and General Education at UW-Madison, please refer to our page on General Education Assessment. Questions regarding the university's accreditation may be sent to:
Oversight and Administration of the General Education Requirements: University Academic Planning Council At its meeting of November 21, 1996 the University Academic Planning Council (UAPC) assigned the overall academic administration of the campus-wide General Education Requirements to the College of Letters and Science to act as trustee on behalf of all schools and colleges. The College of Letters and Science formed an L&S General Education Committee to serve as an advisory body for this purpose. Dr. Nancy Westphal-Johnson (westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu), who serves as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Academic Administration, coordinates General Education efforts for the campus. The College submits a yearly report to the University Academic Planning Council detailing progress on implementing the requirements and highlighting any issues of interest or concern. The University Academic Planning Council must vote on any policy issues that need to be decided. |