Academic Senate rescinds GE seminar requirement

The UCLA Academic Senate voted Thursday to permanently repeal the UCLA College General Education seminar requirement.

This decision, voted by the Senate 14-0 with no abstentions, will go into effect during fall quarter for incoming first-year students.

The requirement was previously temporarily suspended during winter quarter 2009 for current students, said Dorothy Wiley, chair of the undergraduate council of the Academic Senate.

The College Faculty Executive Committee initially voted to temporarily suspend the GE seminar requirement at its October 2008 meeting. The requirement was formally rescinded by the committee at the final Legislative Assembly meeting of the year, held Thursday in Charles E. Young Grand Salon.

Despite the repeal of this requirement, the 10 course GE requirement will still be in effect, according to the College Academic Counseling Web site. Any GE seminar or Writing II course taken prior to this decision will still apply to the appropriate GE foundation area.

The General Education seminar requirement was installed in 2002 to provide a more intimate learning experience for students, Wiley said. However, over time, the gap between supply and demand for these seminars increased.

When it became apparent that many students were in danger of not completing the requirement prior to graduation, the university allowed GE-approved Writing II classes to be used as substitutes, according to a memorandum released by the UCLA College Faculty Executive Committee.

Despite this move, there were still not enough classes to meet the demand or enough faculty interest to teach the seminars, according to the memorandum.

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