General education classes – some students love them and some students hate them. Emporia State requires all undergraduate students, including transfer students, to complete a minimum of 42 credit hours of GenEd classes, according to the 2022-2023 University Catalog. In Fall 2024 this requirement will decrease to 35 hours.
This change is a push by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) to create continuity between regent institutions and make the transferring process of students from one institution to another more seamless, as outlined in the KBOR’s Systemwide General Education Program policy.
The Office of the Registrar, which is responsible for managing curriculum and student records, has started preparing for the implementation of the Systemwide General Education Program. Sheila Markowitz, the Registrar of ESU, says that this policy change won’t decrease the GenEd requirements for current ESU students, only new students starting in Fall 2024.
“Incoming students are held to that year’s (university) catalog,” Markowitz said. “So if you are coming in Fall of 2023, you are going to be held to the Fall 2023 requirements.”
Like all policies in higher education, there is a caveat to this rule.
“A student is not able to have one catalog for their GenEds, another one for their major, and another one for their minor,” Markowitz explained in an email. “A student can move their catalog forward but not backward. Meaning (a) student who came to ESU Fall 2022 would be able to move their catalog forward to Fall 2024. They would need to meet with their advisor to discuss how this change could impact their entire program…not just their General Education requirements.”
Jorge Ballester, professor of physical science and an instructor of intro to space science, a GenEd course, is concerned that this reduction in GenEd requirements may negatively affect the broadness of the education of college graduates.
“To me, personally, I think that it’s important for students to have a broad education,” Ballester said. “I just think learning is valuable. Broad knowledge is valuable.”
In an attempt to proactively increase the broadness of knowledge of his students, Balester has started inviting experts in various fields to talk to his intro to space science class.
“Something I’m doing is having people I know come in and spend a few minutes of class talking about their area of expertise. It’s sort of my nod to general education being a broad exposure to a lot of ideas. Kevin Rabas came over yesterday and actually recited one of his poems about stars.”
