GENERAL EDUCATION REFORM HISTORY AT CUYAMACA COLLEGE

General Education Program is a comprehensive group of courses taken primarily in the first two years of college-level studies. The purpose of these courses is to provide students with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will allow them to function more fully and effectively in an increasingly complex world.

HISTORY

During the 1996-1997 academic year the Cuyamaca College faculty engaged in wide ranging discussions of the goals and outcomes for our general education program.

Based discussions, open forums, and debates in the Senate, the College chose to review the general education program's overall structure rather than to focus on specific course content.

During the 1996/1997 academic year, the Curriculum Committee formed a GE Taskforce to investigate General Education reforms in California.  In May 9, 1997, the GE Taskforce proposed and the Academic Senate adopted a new GE philosophy to include the following core values:

A.  Academic excellence                       E. Information competencies

B.  Innovation and creativity                  F. Writing across the curriculum

C.  Social responsibility                         G. Diversity

D.  Interdisciplinary linkages                  H. Workplace skills

In Fall 1997, the GE Taskforce and Curriculum Committee proceeded to address the issue of whether the College should revise its GE pattern. Both the Academic Senate and the Curriculum committee held a series of meetings to get department and faculty opinion on each GE Area A, B, C, D, and E. Discussion of the GE framework is an arduous task.  The debate over what courses an educated person should take is intense because all faculty have a deeply felt interest in the outcome.  Even though the atmosphere seemed collegial, the faculty is split on the issue of whether to adopt a new GE pattern or retain the existing one.

In May, 1999, the Academic Senate adopted the new general education program.

This was a signature moment in the life of Cuyamaca College. In a nutshell, General Education now requires students complete 22 units of General Education, plus a PE graduation requirement.  In addition to reducing the number of units, the new GE program contains Areas A, B, C, D, and a P.E. graduation requirement. This alone is not unique. The uniqueness of the new General Education program arises from the manner in which courses become a part of the General Education program.

The uniqueness of the new GE program arises from the manner in which the new GE philosophy is implemented. Under the new GE program, all GE courses must include the following six core competencies:

1. Writing across the curriculum            4. Workplace skills

2. GE outcomes                                    5. Diversity

3. Information Competency                   6. Linkages

These six competencies do not specify the content of all GE courses; that responsibility should lie with the faculty who will design and teach General Education courses. Instead, the purpose is to advance an overall framework for the program and a set of intellectual principles that faculty can keep in mind as they conceptualize their courses.

These competencies are meant to help faculty formulate readings, writing assignments, problem sets, creative exercises, and methods of instruction in ways that will give students a firm foundation of Cuyamca’s philosophy for academic excellence.

At the end of Spring 1997, however, the Curriculum Committee had not attended to the concrete task of how to implement the new General Education competencies. 

The General Education Taskforce was again asked to develop a practical implementation method and tool.

The entire GE reform process took two years (1997-1999) and as a result, Cuyamaca College has a solid GE philosophy.  The College, however, is not prepared to fully anticipate the implementation issues that are crucial to a successful GE program.

Jeri Resto's FSS grant title, " Using the Web to Integrate Information Competency into the General Education Curriculum" was designed to bridge that gap between philosophy and reality.