Faculty Senate’s new proposal will change LERs
November 10, 2005
A new proposal before the Faculty Senate will streamline Kent State’s LER requirements to make it easier for students to transfer to other public universities in Ohio.
The changes in the current proposal include:
ƒ-S Requiring a course in mathematics or formal logic for all students
ƒ-S Requiring a one-credit-hour lab class for all students
ƒ-S Requiring that social science courses must come from at least two different areas
ƒ-S Adding an additional category to accommodate student choice
If the proposal is approved by the senate at its meeting on Monday, it will become university policy in Fall 2006. The changes will only apply to freshmen or students whose calendar year is 2006, said Honors College Dean Larry Andrews, who is co-chair of the University Requirements Curriculum Committee.
The proposal will help Kent State’s LER requirements match more closely with the state transfer module.
The transfer module is a subset of LER courses that can transfer to any of Ohio’s four-year public universities, Associate Provost Gayle Ormiston said.
“Every year we get about 3,000 applications, and we accept about 2,200 of them,” he said. “Of the 2,200 about 1,300 to 1,500 are transfer students. There are also a similar number of students transferring to other universities. It’s a significant advantage for them to be able to transfer courses.”
A state mandate requiring the changes is the immediate reason for the proposal, Andrews said. Kent State was supposed to have the new LER policy in place by this fall, but they were unable to meet the deadline.
Giving students a better grounding in math and science is one of the advantages of the proposal, Andrews said.
“The lab classes will help students experience the scientific method firsthand,” he said. “The math requirements give will increase logical and numerical thinking, which are excellent mental tools for any profession.”
Contact academic affairs reporter Amanda Garrett at [email protected].
| PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS:
I. Composition – six hours The credit hours in this category remain the same. II. Mathematics and Critical Reasoning – three hours The credit hours in this category are reduced from six hours. Under the proposal, all language courses, English Words from Classical Elements and Principles of Thinking, will lose their LER status. III. Humanities and Fine Arts – nine hoursThe credit hours and requirements in this categorywill remain the same. IV. Social Sciences – six hours The credit hours in this category are reduced from nine hours. Students must now take courses from two different requirements V. Basic Sciences – six to seven hoursAll students will be required to have a lab class. VI. Additional – six hoursThis is a new category that will allow students to select either introduction to Human Commuca-tion or the classes of their choice from categories II through V. ƒ-S In addition, one of the classes students take in the Humanities and Fine Arts or Social Sciences must be a diversity course. |
