BU wants general education to last four years

What will Engineering, English, Business, and Art Majors have in common if BU’s proposed overhaul of General Education becomes a reality?

The same set of requirements across the entire University.

The BU Task Force on General Education has quietly proposed new universal guidelines for Gen Eds that would last four years. The “requirements” the Task Force is proposing consist of 12 skills they want all undergrads to have, such as Critical Thinking, Research Skills, and Scientific, Ethical, and Quantitative Reasoning.

Broad? Ambiguous? Insubstantial? Seems like a solid plan to me.

If these puffy, buzz-word skills sound mostly like what you learn from your major anyway, that is because they are just that. (Isn’t the point of a major that it is specific to you?) Since the Task Force is not in charge of implementation, we’re all in the dark about how this fits into our majors and what will overlap. CGS and the CAS Core Curriculum are nowhere to be found in their guidelines, and say goodbye to graduating in three years; not to mention problems with study abroad, double-majoring, minoring, five year programs, etc. They also proposed the “Cross-College Challenge,” a vaguely defined project in which students from all colleges will work in groups together to create something during their junior year. If you know about Questrom Core or CGS Capstone, this looks like another version of that.

“Gen Ed requirements impede my ability to study my concentration by nature, so adding further requirements and stretching Gen Eds to all four years makes it harder for me to focus on not only my major, but to pursue electives that I find interesting,”A sophomore in the Questrom School of Business said, “This proposal only makes it worse. If I can’t pick my classes, how is this even different from highschool?”

The task force is interested in creating “one BU,” yet simultaneously believes students should seek generic virtues such as “intrepid and humble,” and “resilience, self-sufficiency, and nimbleness,” while encouraging “desirable habits of mind.” This language is infantilizing. We chose BU because of its diverse identity, not because of conformity.  

Seriously, what does this even mean?

You probably don’t know about any of this. The committee has been exceptionally poor at effectively reaching out to the student body: at a meeting last month, nine students were in attendance. We believe that more than nine out of the over 15,000 undergraduates at this University care about this issue. A BU Today article this week discussed the changes, but the majority of students are still in the dark about the mere existence of new plans, and especially of their future implementation.

This program, despite its many flaws, has potential to be implemented in a way that does not derail students from pursuing their true interests. However, the student body has been kept in the dark on this important matter by the poor approach to communication the Task Force has taken. We want the student body to be more involved in not just voicing their opinions about these proposals, but actually having a hand in shaping their implementation. It’s very easy to hold meetings and simply disregard dissenting opinions. The Task Force was created by the Provost, but they have a responsibility to faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and us, the student body. In the future, we want to see General Education integrate as seamlessly as possible to students’ majors, allow for flexibility with graduation times and study abroad, and integrate with CGS, KHC, and CAS Core in a substantive capacity.

Something is wrong when the academic future of BU is met by an empty room.

We want you to know what’s happening at your school. We’re the Student Curriculum Committee, and we want students, faculty, and staff to know how BU is being run, which is why you need to talk about this to your friends, professors, and family.

Looks non-threatening, right?

If you don’t like the sound of four years of Gen Eds, you can help by leaving your own comments. If you would like to send an email to Professors Loizeaux and Schulman, who lead the Task Force, email them your comments directly at [email protected]and [email protected].

Follow us on Twitter at @theBUscc.