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Frequently Asked Questions: Faculty and Staff This is a section of Frequently Asked Questions from a faculty or staff member's perspective. It has been collected over the years, and we encourage you to add to the list. Please send questions and answers to webmasterls@ls.admin.wisc.edu. You can also visit our Advising and Instructional Resources page. What do you have questions about?
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. Who needs to fulfill the General Education requirements? Any undergraduate student whose first college matriculation date is after May 20, 1996 must complete these requirements. Matriculation date is either:
Do students seeking a second undergraduate degree need to fulfill the Gen Ed Requirements? As noted above, any undergraduate student whose first college matriculation date is after May 20, 1996, must complete these requirements. Students who completed the UW-Madison General Education requirements as part of their first undergraduate degree need not complete them again; students whose first undergraduate degree is from another institution and whose matriculation date is after May 20, 1996, will have their previous course work examined to determine what requirements have been fulfilled by comparable courses taken elsewhere. Where do students go to take the Math or English placement test? If they need to take these tests at a time other than SOAR or the spring regional testing, contact the Office of Testing and Evaluation, 262-1747 to obtain information or schedule a testing appointment. The testing itself is coordinated by the UW Center for Placement Testing, which provides explanations of the exams on its website. How is the General Education program assessed at UW-Madison? The University General Education Committee oversees the ongoing assessment of the General Education Requirements. Please refer to our page on assessment for an overview of these efforts, and the General Education Assessment Plan. More information about UW-Madison's assessment efforts may be found online on the Outcomes Assessment website, hosted by the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. This site offers links to all of UW-Madison's documents on assessment, including the continuously updated UW-Madison Assessment Manual. I'm interested in undergraduate General Education. How can I contribute? The University General Education Committee (UGEC) is a campus-wide committee that considers policy and procedural questions about the General Education Requirements; the UGEC also oversees ongoing assessment of student learning in these areas. When necessary, proposals for revising the requirements or aspects of their administration are submitted to the University Academic Planning Council, to which the Faculty Senate has delegated responsibility in this area. For a discussion of course approval contacts, please refer to the New General Education Courses page. While the College of Letters and Science serves as the campus trustee for general education matters, UGEC members are drawn from across all UW-Madison schools and colleges that serve undergraduate students. Approximately nine faculty/academic staff serve rotating three year appointments; they are joined by other faculty and staff who serve as ex officio members due to their particular responsibilities vis-a-vis the General Education requirements. The Committee generally holds two to three meetings per semester, at meeting times established based on members' schedules. Anyone interested in serving on the UGEC can contact the committee chair, Nancy Westphal Johnson (L&S Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education; westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu), or their dean, who can nominate members by contacting Dean Gary Sandefur (sandefur@ls.admin.wisc.edu). What do students say about General Education? In 1999, the students in the Pathways To Excellence Student Organization produced Choose Your Own Adventure: A Guide to the University of Wisconsin-Madison For Students, By Students. From the beginning, these students ask "Why Are We Here?" and, in framing the answer, discuss the need to meet general requirements. As they say, "...after fulfilling these two 'main' requirements [Communication and Quantitative Reasoning], you will know how to communicate and understand the world using both words and mathematical expressions-and that's actually pretty cool!" (For more information about initiatives like Pathways, please visit the Pathways to Excellence Project homepage.) Communication QuestionsWho is required to complete the Communication A requirement? All incoming freshmen and all transfer students without an equivalent Communications course are required to take the UW System English placement exam administered by the Center for Placement Testing, which is part of the Office of Testing and Evaluation Services. In any given year, about 75% of incoming freshmen test at a level that indicates they must complete a Communication A course. (The Center provides a sample of the English Placement Exam online.) What courses fulfill the Communication A requirement? The two largest Communication A courses are English 100 and Communication Arts 100. Engineering Professional Development offers several sections of EPD 155, Professional Development, each semester. The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the School of Human Ecology jointly offer Life Sciences Communication/Family Communication 100 each semester. Students for whom English is not the native language can take English 118 to fulfill the Communication A requirement. The full list of courses that fulfill the Communication A requirement is available online here and in the Schedule of Classes. Can students receive degree credit for more than one Communication A course? No. By action taken at its November 19, 1998 meeting, the UAPC reaffirmed that students should be allowed to receive degree credit for only one Communication A course. All necessary course approvals and changes in course prerequisites have now been approved by the Humanities Divisional Committee. Effective Spring semester, 1999-2000, students may receive degree credit for only one Communication A course, which is reflected in the prerequisite sections of Timetable course listings. What is the difference between Communication A and Communication B? Both Communication A and Communication B courses address the four modes of literacy: writing, speaking, reading, and listening. The courses also include instruction in information literacy. Communication A is an introduction to the writing and speaking students will encounter in their subsequent college courses, as well as to the kind of critical writing that will serve them well beyond the university. Communication B courses are designed to give students more in-depth practice with college writing, particularly as found in their chosen discipline or disciplines in which they have a particular interest. Consult the lists of approved Comm A and Comm B courses for examples. Can students who miss the library component in Comm A make it up somehow? Communication A courses emphasize written and oral communication. They also contain a library instruction component to help students find and use research tools they need. Transfer students and students who satisfy Comm A with AP credit or by placement test exemption may miss this important feature. While transfer students usually have some experience using a college or university library, they may not know as much about the large and complex UW-Madison General Library System, which has over forty libraries. Students can get a useful introduction to the campus library system by doing CLUE ( Computerized Library User Education), an interactive, multimedia tutorial, located at http://clue.library.wisc.edu/. Students should also be encouraged to ask reference librarians in any campus library for help. Instructors who would like to schedule a library instruction session or to discuss the design of a library assignment with an instruction librarian should consult the "Teaching Services for Faculty and Instructors" area of the Library Instruction website (http://www.library.wisc.edu/inst-services/#schedule). Specialists in library instruction are happy to consult with you to design effective library classes and exercises to meet your course goals and assignments. For more information, see the CLUE Website's informational handout for students who are exempted from Comm A. It's posted online at http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Instruction/advisors.htm. What courses fulfill the Communication B requirement? A wide range of courses have been certified as meeting the Communication B requirement. What are the purposes and goals of Communication B courses? Communication B courses are intended to give students a in-depth exposure to writing, communication, and information literacy within an academic content area. The first level Communication course (Communication A) is concerned with developing college-level proficiencies in writing, speaking, reading, and listening. As the second level communication course, Communication B is concerned with further development of these skills as directly applied to a particular discipline or subject matter. What guidelines do I need to follow when developing a Comm B course? The criteria for Communication B courses have been set forth by the Communication Implementation Committee. Instructors interested in creating a new Communication B course or revising a current course to meet the criteria should contact Professor David Zimmerman, the Communication Liaison to the General Education Committee, to discuss any questions they may have about the criteria. They should contact Dr. Nancy Westphal-Johnson (westphal@ls.admin.wisc.edu), Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education (Letters and Science) if they have questions about possible support for such courses. I heard the criteria for Comm B Courses changed recently - do I need to change my course? As a result of the recent assessment of the Communication B requirement, the criteria for Comm B courses were revised (as approved by UAPC action on June 24, 2003). The revisions grant instructors greater flexibility in balancing written and oral components of the Communication B curriculum. It is believed that this change will allow students access to classes that will help them develop greater proficiency in oral communication without creating an excessive burden on instructors. A list of suggestions and resources for increasing opportunities for oral instruction has been provided by the Verbal Assessment Project. No changes to existing courses are required; however, instructors who wish to revise existing courses - or propose development of new courses - may do so to meet the revised criteria. What is a Bascom course? At the time the General Education Requirements were first implemented departments were given the opportunity to propose "Bascom" courses. Many of the original Bascom courses have the course number 236 since that number was set aside by the divisional committees specifically for this purpose. They are generally are small (20 students or fewer) faculty or academic staff taught courses designed specifically to meet Comm B criteria. Many other courses, both large and small, have now been approved as Comm B courses, but the term "Bascom" course is still often used to denote a small, faculty or academic staff taught Communication B course. Does a whole course have to offered as Communication B? Does a course have to be offered as a Communication B course each semester after it is approved? There are many different models of Communication B courses. A whole course may be offered as a Communication B course each time it is offered. Many courses routinely offer a mix of discussion sections, some of which are Communication B sections and some of which are not. Departments may also decide to offer an approved course as a Communication B course in one semester and as a non-Communication B course in another. It is important that departments mark courses appropriately in the Timetable each semester and coordinate any changes with the Timetable and Course Scheduling Office. What are the enrollment guidelines for a Comm B course? How many students are we (faculty, lecturers, teaching assistants) expected to teach per lecture or discussion section? There are no standard or published enrollment guidelines for Comm B courses since each course is structured differently and is seen in the context of various academic fields. Comm B courses may be small faculty taught courses or large courses with sections taught by teaching assistants. They may have a grader/reader or Writing Fellow attached to them or they may not. That being said, it is true that stand alone faculty Comm B courses will tend to be small --perhaps around 20 students -- and that teaching assistant sections in Comm B courses will either be smaller than in otherwise comparable courses and/or the teaching assistant's appointment level will be larger than in otherwise comparable courses to recognize the special demands in these courses. Is there any special training for instructors and teaching assistants of Communication B courses? The Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum program offer eight hours of training for teaching assistants of Communication B courses during Welcome Week of each semester; all Communication B teaching assistant work duties provide for this time. Faculty members and lecturers new to teaching Communication B courses are also encouraged to attend the training. Brad Hughes (Director of the Writing Center and of the Writing Across the Curriculum program) and his staff are also available for consultation with any instructor about teaching Communication B and Writing Intensive courses. (Dr. Hughes may be reached by email or by telephone at 263-3823.) If my department has a "Topics" course that has been approved as Comm B, do I need to go back to the Communication Implementation Committee for approval of each new topic? No, a department that has offered a "Bascom" course or other "Topics" course that satisfies the criteria for Communication B courses may offer the same course again on another topic as a Communication B course without coming back to the Communication Implementation Committee for separate approval of each topic. What are Writing Intensive courses and how do they fit in the General Education Requirements? Although they are not part of the General Education requirements, Writing Intensive courses serve as the single most important way in which the University provides additional writing instruction and experience beyond the Communication A and Communication B requirements. Individual instructors can elect to offer any course or section as Writing Intensive in any given semester. Such courses are footnoted in the Timetable as "Writing Intensive." Instructors interested in learning more about teaching Writing Intensive courses should contact Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum, by email or by telephone at 3-3823. Quantitative Reasoning QuestionsWho is required to complete the Quantitative Reasoning A requirement? Incoming freshmen and transfer students who have not already completed the equivalent of a Quantitative Reasoning A course must take the UW System Math Placement exam. Students who achieve a score high enough for placement in Math 114 or above are exempt from the requirement. Some students may need to complete prerequisite course work before being able to register in a QR A course. Credit granted on the basis of AP scores or college level credit earned while the student is in high school may also be presented to fulfill or be exempted from QR A. Are Math courses the only courses that meet the QR A and QR B requirements? While most QR A courses are offered through the Math Department, students may also choose to complete Philosophy 210 (Reason in Communication) to fulfill the QR A requirement. Additionally, one of the Math courses that fulfills the QR A requirement, Math 141, is intended for students who do not plan to complete any further college level mathematics courses. QR B courses are offered by a wide range of departments. LINK to list. Criteria and guidelines for both QR A and QR B courses are outlined in the QR course criteria. What guidelines do I need to follow when developing a QR B course? The criteria for Quantitative Reasoning courses was originally set forth by the Quantitative Reasoning Implementation Committee. Instructors interested in creating a new QR B course or revising a current course to meet the criteria should contact Professor Gloria Mari-Beffa of the Mathematics Department who serves as the liaison for Quantitative Reasoning to discuss any questions they may have about the criteria. Can you clarify the QR transfer policy? At its meeting of December 18, 1997, the UAPC approved several recommendations made by Richard Brualdi, Chair of the QR Implementation Committee. These included the explanation of the QR transfer policy summarized below:
Special note: Because there was some confusion about QR-A and B policy for transfer students, those who were admitted between Summer 1996 and Semester II, 1997-98 were informed that they were exempt from QR-A based on completion of a non-math QR-B course. These exemptions were honored. After that time, transfer students who are given credit for a QR-B certified non-Math course but not a QR-B certified Math course no longer receive QR-A exemption. If students complete a QR B course, are they automatically exempt from QR A? A student who is given transfer credit (or AP credit or credit based on a departmental exam) for a MATH course that equates to a UW-Madison QR B Math course is presumed to have also satisfied the QR A requirement. Completing or receiving transfer credit for any other QR B course does NOT mean that the student has completed or been exempted from the QR-A requirement. Ethnic Studies QuestionsWhy do we have this requirement? The history of the Ethnic Studies Requirement (ESR) is documented in the Report of the Ethnic Studies Review Committee (July 18, 2002), which noted that the establishment of the ESR "grew out of concerns symbolized by an incident in May 1987, in which the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity (known as the "Fijis") put up a large caricature of an "island native" as part of their "Fiji Island" theme party." This caricature drew criticism from a number of student groups: the Black Student Union denounced it as racist, and demanded that the University take action to prevent such behavior from recurring. The BSO, the Pacific and Asian Women's Alliance, the Chicano Graduate Student Organization, and the Union Puertorriquena formed the Minority Coalition in June 1987. The Vice Chancellor for Human Resources convened a Steering Committee on Minority Affairs (consisting of representatives from the faculty, staff and students, and including representatives of the Minority Coalition). One recommendation arising from this committee's inquiries was that there be a mandatory six-credit ethnic studies course requirement, and that a variety of Ethnic Studies Programs be developed. This recommendation, although it was later reduced to three-credits, was eventually endorsed as part of "The Madison Plan". It was first implemented in the College of Letters and Science in 1989 and in time, was adopted by all UW-Madison undergraduate colleges. It became a campus-wide requirement in 1994, when a three-credit ethnic studies requirement was adopted by the Faculty Senate as part of the university's General Education Requirements. As with other General Education Requirements, the ESR is implemented via a list of courses that have been reviewed by a committee of faculty who determine whether the courses proposed meet a specific set of criteria. Courses that meet the criteria are designated in the Catalog and Timetable with an "e". Why was the ESR reviewed and revised? The ESR review was prompted by the university’s Plan 2008. That review addressed the efficacy with which the ethnic studies course array (as it stood ca. 2000-02) met the stated goals of the requirement. The Ethnic Studies Review Committee determined that substantial changes were required to achieve those goals, and its report included several recommendations addressing implementation of the requirement. The requirement states:
The ethnic studies requirement is intended to increase understanding of the culture and contributions of persistently marginalized racial or ethnic groups in the United States, and to equip students to respond constructively to issues connected with our pluralistic society and global community. The review committee's recommendations were approved (with one amendment) by the University Academic Planning Council (UAPC), which is empowered in FPP 6.52 with the responsibility for addressing academic issues crossing school and college lines. Since the College of Letters and Science houses most of the courses and faculty responsible for fielding the requirement, the UAPC also charged the Dean of L&S to implement the recommendations on its behalf. Dean Certain convened the Ethnic Studies Implementation Committee (ESIC), which undertook the review of the ethnic studies course array. The Final Report of the Ethnic Studies Implementation Committee was submitted to the University Academic Planning Council for consideration in Spring 2005. In that report, the committee presented the results of its review of the courses that, as of September 2003, carried the ESR or "e" designation. Many of these courses continue to carry that course attribute; several courses had the attribute removed (either because the course no longer met the criteria, or at department or faculty request). In addition, many new courses are now designated as ESR courses. In the course of conducting its work, the ESIC found it useful to articulate a set of descriptive guidelines that are founded on the ESR criteria discussed above. These guidelines were developed to help reviewers evaluate those few courses that may fall on the borderlines between being acceptable as ESR courses, and those that are not. The UAPC accepted the committee's conclusions, and endorsed the use of these descriptive guidelines. Per the ESIC's recommendation, the administration and review of ESR courses has now been delegated formally to the University General Education Committee, which oversees all of the other university wide requirements undergraduate students must complete. Who reviews courses to see if they should carry ESR credit? How can I get my course reviewed? As with all courses and curricula at UW-Madison, the faculty bear responsibility for the Ethnic Studies course array, so a faculty committee must review all courses proposed to carry ESR or "e" designation. At this time (Spring semester, 04-05), we are making a transition from reviews conducted by the Ethnic Studies Implementation Committee to reviews conducted by a subcommittee of the General Education Committee. Instructions for seeking review of potential ethnic studies courses are available on this website at the New General Education Courses webpage. The process adds one additional layer of review to the usual process for creating new or changing existing courses: once a course addition/change is approved by the department, the next step is to submit the appropriate New Course or Course Change form (accompanied by a syllabus) to their school/college curriculum committee. Proposals will be sent directly to the General Education Committee for consideration by the L&S Curriculum Committee (for courses proposed in L&S) or by the Divisional Executive Committee Office (for courses proposed by schools or colleges other than L&S). The committee will communicate its determination to Dr. Nancy Westphal-Johnson (Chair, General Education Committee), as well as to the department, Divisional Executive Committee, and Registrar's Office. If you have questions about the process, please feel free to contact Dr. Elaine M. Klein at kleine@ls.admin.wisc.edu. My course used to carry Ethnic Studies Designation; now it does not. Can I apply for reconsideration? Yes. Please follow your department and college procedure for requesting a course change (forms are available online through the Divisional Committee office - http://www.secfac.wisc.edu/divcomm/courses/CourseProposals.htm). Please include a syllabus that clearly delineates the content appropriate to Ethnic Studies courses; we recommend that individuals seeking ESR designation for their courses refer to the descriptive guidelines as they prepare the materials for the course change proposal. If you need assistance in interpreting the criteria or the guidelines, please feel free to contact Dr. Elaine M. Klein at kleine@ls.admin.wisc.edu. If a student took an Ethnic Studies course before Fall 2005, and that course has since been removed from the list; will s/he still get ESR credit for it? Yes. Do students need three credits of Ethnic Studies? or just one Ethnic Studies course? The revisions to the ESR go into effect in Fall 2005.
Can "Topics" courses carry Ethnic Studies Designation? In most cases, no. The "topics" course mechanism allows departments and programs to offer a variety of courses under a standard number, usually with the title, "Topics in [Subject]"; often, these course listings are used to test and refine new courses as they're being developed, or to provide members of the faculty a chance to teach in an area of specialty not usually found among the regular course listings. Since the content of topics courses varies from offering to offering, it is usually inappropriate for such courses to carry the Ethnic Studies designation, since there is no way for the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) to discriminate between when the designation is appropriate and when it is not. A few departments and programs that focus much of their attention on issues related to ethnic studies and often develop new courses in those areas have been granted permission to create "Ethnic Studies Topics" courses, with the understanding that only topics that meet the criteria for ethnic studies courses will be allowed to be taught under those numbers. BreadthIn progress! |