Sam Dunaway | News Editor
Most Western students are familiar with the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, or LACC: the set of degree requirements designed to build a solid foundation of knowledge for students as they work toward obtaining their degree. But the LACC course work is facing major changes involving an entire reconstruction of the general education program, effective as soon as fall of 2019.
The LACC guide that outlines categories such as creative arts, literature, social science and laboratory science will be replaced by a framework created by the General Education Task Force. This group, comprised of faculty members from various departments across campus, set out in spring 2017 to reimagine the general education at Western and ensure that students are getting the most out of the classes that they take.
Instead of categorizing each class based on area of study, the new general education framework separates requirements based on the skills obtained from taking the class. For example, students would be required to take a minimum of three credits that satisfies the category of Critical Thinking, three credits in Communication and Language and three credits in Citizenship, Social Responsibility and Global Awareness.
“We took data, we took what WOU is good at, and we tried to make a system that will be a little bit more flexible and a little bit more student-friendly,” explained Dr. Breeann Flesch, co-chair of the General Education Task Force. “We’re also hoping the students have a better understanding of why they’re taking those classes and the general education.”
A new addition to Western’s general education program is the implementation of First Year Seminars, which Flesch explains will help develop skills for traditional first-year students. 72.2 percent of first-year students returned to Western as sophomores in 2017. Flesch also hopes that the class will strengthen connections between students and the university and increase the likelihood that they continue their education at Western.
The general education framework was approved by Faculty Senate on March 13. The next step, Flesch explained, is creating a complete list of classes that satisfy each skill category.
Flesch noted that she hopes this new general education program will increase student success and remove barriers to graduation and retainment, explaining: “We hoped to make it a little more flexible and a little less complicated.”
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
Photo by: Paul F. Davis
