A plan to revise the general education curriculum was mentioned and discussed at the State of the Student forum, hosted by the UVUSA, that has the potential to remove G.E. requirements like ‘Ethics and Values’, and ‘Physical Education.’
Along with other members of the executive council, Jaden Muir, vice president of academics in the UVUSA, made an announcement to those in attendance to the Dec. 1 event where he mentioned the General Education Task Force has created a rough proposal for a revision for G.E. requirements.
“[We’re] really looking at how general education works at UVU,” Muir stated. “Coming to students shortly will be a revision on general education.”
The task force states their goal is, “to ensure that UVU’s general education curriculum meets the needs of UVU students and is consistent with UVU’s Mission as an open enrollment institution.” The focus that Muir had made in his initial statement on the revisions had been that the committee had been working on how to get more transfer credits available at UVU, along with making sure students were getting the education they wanted.
Controversy had arisen about these possible changes due to an idea which was floated during a town hall among faculty members to do away with some sections of the current curriculum, one of the possible cuts would be Ethics and Values (PHIL 2050). This gave rise to a student petition to prevent such a move.
“Ethics and Values has been a general education requirement at [UVU] for years, but now it’s at risk,” the petitions organizer, Madeline Brenchley, writes within the petition. “We are calling on UVU students to sign this petition, telling UVU that Ethics and Values is a valuable course and should be retained as a general education requirement.”
The Review was able to follow up with Muir on how influential the petition has left on the task force on their considerations.
“The petition has helped us see the value that the students have in the process,” Muir assured. “Ethics and Values is a pretty heavy general education that allows a lot of students to go into the philosophy field. So it has really helped to make an impact.”
It should be noted that Muir had said that he feels that at the moment it appears the task force is moving in the direction of removing the Ethics and Values requirement. He stated, “I feel that’s the direction it is going. With that, thats kinda just more the committee based, and so it does need to be approved by four different entities on campus. So if at any point any of them say ‘no,’ we go back to the drawing board.”
Muir had mentioned that the official proposal for changes in G.E. requirements would be publicly announced sometime in January, and that the Faculty Senate would be voting on the proposal sometime after that. These changes, if adopted, would be taking effect in Fall of 2024 according to Muir’s best case scenario.
To view the full ‘State of the Student’ forum, visit the UVUSA instagram page. For more information on the G.E. Task force, visit their website here.
