Monday, September 22, 1997 Reform group finally carves up
general education menu CHANGES: Educators believe new requirements
are more cohesive and comprehensive
By George Sweeney
Daily Bruin Contributor
Imagine a buffet at the Stardust hotel: the vast quantities of
different food are mind boggling. How can anyone choose a balanced
meal from all of the different items that the glass, ice and heat
lamps offer? Or you can picture a menu at the Beverly Hills Hotel
and Bungaloos Polo Lounge? Each dish is carefully crafted for a
full eating experience. Such are the two options that the General
Education (GE) Reform Group considered when deciding on a new
curriculum.
They opted for the balance of the Polo Lounge. The new proposal
for the GE requirements integrates different departments and
pedagogical resources to create one, harmonized, first-year
curriculum.
After three years, the group finally hammered out a plan to make
UCLA’s GE requirements fuller.
A restaurant changes its selection because it is not suiting the
needs of the customers. General education is being changed because
it lacked a cohesive balance.
"Our current general education system is very narrowly defined
and very disjointed. There are so many courses that a student could
use to fulfill GE requirements. There isn’t a cohesive nature to
how students learn during their first few years at UCLA," said Max
Espinoza, the Academic Affairs commissioner.
The biggest problem with a buffet is that inevitably you eat too
much. The current GE system is stuffing students so full of
information and quarter courses that they are not enjoying the more
nourishing aspects of a full-bodied education.
As a result, the committee decided to limit the choices and
amount of classes required to create a more balanced menu.
For example, current general education requires the average
biology student to take 17 courses. The new GE requires only 13
quarter courses.
Menus, however, are not created out of thin air.
Two separate general education systems were cited as examples of
opposite views: Brown University and Columbia University.
"Brown has no general education requirements at all," said
Edward Berenson, the chair of education. "This did not seem to make
sense to us at all."
In critiquing Brown’s program, Berenson said that "there should
be some set of general courses, or some wider approach to
education, that UCLA has now. So the Brown model did not work at
all."
Columbia, on the other hand, is more like a campground cafeteria
in that its students have no choice in determining their own
curriculum. The first two years of education at Columbia are
virtually the same for all students. However, this rigid structure
does not cater to UCLA’s pursuit of diversity in knowledge. "It did
not suit the wide range of faculty that UCLA has," Berenson
continued. Students should have some control over their GE
subjects, Berenson argues.
Neither of these options were satisfactory to the committee, so
UCLA had to create its own variation.
Restaurants choose between serving between California cuisine,
Italian food, Chinese food or fast food. Similarly, UCLA had to
create a general education system that would suit the needs of its
clientele – the students.
Goals for the GEs are multi-faceted. According to committee
documents, the vague goals include: general knowledge, integrative
learning, citizenship, cultural diversity, primary works and
intellectual skills.
"We’re trying to provide a more integrated experience for
students that is more comprehensive. We want more accountability,
more continuity and more content planning," said World Arts and
Cultures professor Judy Mitoma, a member of the committee.
After the goals for the general education plan were chosen, a
menu of ways to accomplish this full-service general education had
to be created.
The main entree for the general education committee is the
cluster system.
The cluster is a three quarter set of classes, two lectures and
one seminar, that would encompass one third of an entering
student’s GE course load. The classes would deal with an
interdisciplinary theme. They would all work in conjunction to
create a year-long approach to a single topic.
One example of a good cluster would be the creation and
integration of democracy throughout history. The courses would
include classical Greek democracy and thought, American democratic
ideals, the political structure and theory of American democracy,
and the sociology of a democratic society.
Hopefully, this would give the student the balanced diet
promised by the GE’s goals.
But any good dinner is not just made up of a main entree. It
includes side dishes, salad, hors d’ouvres, and a dessert. The new
GE system wants to supply a complete meal. Thus, there has to be
complementary general education courses as well.
These courses would be as balanced and interdisciplinary as the
cluster courses.
"Early on we thought that the thematic way to general education
would make sense. And once you have a thematic approach it draws
from there to work in an interdisciplinary way," Berenson said.
Courses will be recommended by the faculty based upon a
cross-curricular discipline. Since most cutting edge research is on
these fringes, the student would get a more current view of
university learning.
Some things, however, are going to be continued from the
original buffet of general education we have now.
For example, the foreign language requirement will continue to
foster a greater view of other cultures. The quantitative reasoning
requirement will be maintained as well.
Often times it is the ambience that creates the full
satisfaction of a fine dining experience. UCLA is not a
paper-napkin-and-plastic-cup university, and our general education
should reflect the class that UCLA has.
The venue for the new GE is the dormitory experience.
"A large percentage of the freshman class lives in the residence
halls. Because of that, there is a shared first-year learning
experience," Espinoza said.
The dormitories are going to be used as a collaborative effort,
in conjunction with the university, to get students to interact
with each other.
"Students will be able to come out knowing each other, teachers,
graduate students and tutors, creating a community of learners,"
Espinoza continued.
The hope of the new general education is to make the fine dining
of general education a lasting and nourishing experience that will
last the few hours they grace the UCLA campus.
"Students will be given avenues," Espinoza concluded, "to reach
a fuller potential."
The new GE proposal is available for review on the College of
Letters & Science Web page, http://www.college.ucla.edu/.