General Education Council

General Education Council Charge

The committee is charged with accomplishing the following:

1. The General Education Council shall provide advice to the Faculty Senate as well as to the Provost/Vice Chancellor, Associate Deans, and Deans on all aspects related to the general education curriculum.
2. The General Education Council will establish and manage the model for assessment and review of the general education curriculum.
3. The General Education Council may establish sub-committees for each General Education program component without an otherwise established governance or administrative structure. Such sub-committees will have delegated responsibilities as determined by the GEC.
4. Changes in General Education requirements may be initiated by the General Education Council, after consultation with the faculty groups and sub-committees affected, and are subject to approval by the Faculty Senate.

General Education Realignment Timeline

Graduation Requirements

Core Curriculum Requirements

Common Learning Outcomes for all Core Curriculum courses

Critical Thinking

CLO 1 – CT: Students will clearly posit a contextualized position, evaluate evidence, acknowledge multiple perspectives and analyze and/or synthesize information to an informed conclusion.

Problem Solving

CLO 2 – PS: Students will clearly articulate a problem statement, identify strategies for solving the problem, evaluate potential solutions and implement an appropriate solution while evaluating outcomes.

Textual Comprehension

CLO 3 – TC: Students will identify textual features and employ genre conventions and/or rhetorical strategies to engage a readerly voice that analyzes and interprets information while building a knowledge base about the topic.

Domain-Specific Learning Outcomes

First Year Seminar  
FYS 1: Students will draw on diverse disciplinary perspectives and reflect on the value of interdisciplinary problem solving.   
FYS 2: Students will demonstrate effective communication through the development, interpretation, and expression of ideas through written, oral, and visual communication.   
FYS 3: Students will critically evaluate information sources in various formats, recognizing the contextual nature of authority and its relation to credibility.   

Creative and Artistic Inquiry   (Note: Courses must satisfy 2 of the 3 LO’s below for this category)
CAI 1: Students will demonstrate artistic technical skills and domain-specific knowledge necessary to create, execute, or interpret works of art.   
CAI 2: Students will apply historical, stylistic, cultural, or aesthetic knowledge to a creative process or performance using domain-appropriate criteria.   
CAI 3: Students will synthesize ideas across disciplines to generate contemporary artistic responses or make fresh observations addressing the human condition.   

Human Cultures and Values 
HCV 1: Students will identify and evaluate human values and ethical perspectives in their contemporary and historical contexts.   
HCV 2: Students will examine a range of historical, literary, philosophical, and other cultural texts produced in a variety of cultures.  
HCV 3: Students will articulate individual and social values within cultures and the implications of decisions made on the basis of those values.   

Human Society and Behavior     
HSB 1: Students will demonstrate a scientific understanding of human behaviors and thoughts on both individual and societal levels, integrating the insights gained from their academic disciplines into their social and civic engagement.    
HSB 2: Students will articulate their responsibilities to society- locally, nationally, and globally.  
HSB 3: Students will apply empathetic communication strategies to effectively express, listen, and adapt to others to establish relationships, to work collaboratively, or to take civic action.   

Global Perspectives   
GP 1: Students will identify and explain multiple perspectives (such as cultural, disciplinary, and ethical) when exploring subjects within natural and human systems.   
GP 2: Students will analyze the ethical, social and environmental consequences of human actions and decisions on the natural and human world and global systems.   
GP 3: Students will explain and connect multiple cultures historically or in contemporary contexts, demonstrating respectful interaction with varied cultures and worldviews.   

Ethnic Studies   
ES 1: Students will articulate insights into their own cultural rules and biases and engage respectfully with multiple perspectives/cultures.   
ES 2: Students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in relation to its history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, or beliefs and practices.   
ES 3: Students will interpret intercultural experience from the perspectives of their own and multiple worldviews and demonstrate ability to act in a supportive manner that recognizes the feelings of another cultural group.   

Scientific Methods & Inquiry   
SMI 1: Students will cultivate scientific information of the appropriate depth from a variety of relevant sources.   
SMI 2: Students will properly demonstrate their use of the scientific method and theoretical framework.   
SMI 3: Students will skillfully evaluate and organize scientific evidence and formulate logical conclusions while discussing any relevant limitations.   

Environmental Sustainability   
EnvST 1: Students will learn and demonstrate the ethical principles of environmental sustainability.   
EnvST 2: Students will articulate an understanding of the scientific principles of environmental sustainability (that may include Traditional Ecological Knowledge) and their interrelation with the natural world through multiple disciplines, systems and diverse sources of information and inquiry.
EnvST 3: Students will demonstrate the ability to discuss environmental sustainability within the context of ethical decision-making and engage in informed judgments about environmental problems as socially responsible citizens.   

Quantitative Reasoning   
QR 1: Students will develop competency in working with numerical data.   
QR 2: Students will develop the ability to solve quantitative problems in different contexts.   
QR 3: Students will understand, create, and communicate arguments supported by quantitative evidence.   

Information Literacy   
IL 1: Students will use appropriate search strategies and tools to locate information relevant to their information need, refining strategies based on search results.   
IL 2: Students will critically evaluate sources of information, considering both the expertise and credibility of the creators and the contextual factors that influence the information’s creation, dissemination, and purpose.   
IL 3: Students will give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation and contribute to the scholarly conversation at an appropriate level.   

Core Curriculum Purpose Statement

Purpose:
UWGB’s Core Curriculum supports the University’s Select Mission by providing a problem-focused educational experience that promotes critical thinking and student success and reflects a deep commitment to diversity, inclusion, social justice, civic engagement, and educational opportunity at all levels. 

The Core Curriculum:

• Introduces students to interdisciplinary education,
• Provides students with disciplinary knowledge,
• Helps students to develop an understanding of critical social problems, and
• Supports students in developing important academic skills including communication, critical thinking, and problem solving.

The purpose of UWGB’s Core Curriculum is to prepare students to succeed and to excel in an uncertain and ever-changing world, to help students to learn, to adapt, and to change to meet the challenges the world presents.

Revised by the General Education Realignment Working Group, July 2023.

*The General Education Council (GEC), in their purview, will assume responsibility for the implementation and adherence to these criteria as well as assume responsibility for any changes and updates as needed in the future. *

Criteria for Course Inclusion in the General Education Program:

• The course must meet all of the Learning Outcomes of the proposed category.
  1. Courses in the Creative and Artistic Inquiry (CAI) category must meet 2 of the 3 learning outcomes.  
• The course must be introductory courses that any student could take.  No prior knowledge beyond what might reasonably be expected from a senior in high school should be required. 
• The course must be 100- or 200-level courses.  (Upper-level courses are expected to be focused courses for major requirements.) 
• The course must not have any prerequisites. 
• Each course may be included in only one category. 
• First-year Seminar courses must meet the High-impact Practice guidelines for FYS courses. 
• Information Literacy courses must demonstrate a substantial proportion of the pedagogy is dedicated to information literacy.
• Programs and faculty must be willing and able to assess Learning Outcomes on a regular basis, at least once every three years as determined by the GEC. 

Exceptions

Exceptions to these rules may be requested.  Any such request must be accompanied by a written justification for the exception, to be uploaded into Courseleaf at the same time that the course is being considered for inclusion in the General Education Program, that includes relevant data and/or evidence that clearly demonstrates the need for the exception.

Further Considerations

• We ask that all chairs look at the data provided by our IR about which courses are used to meet the General Education requirements and retain GE designation only for the highest-enrolled courses. Students may still ask for a substitution if the higher-enrolled courses are unavailable to them.  
• We ask chairs to limit the amount of General Education courses offered each semester.  
• We ask that chairs consider creating an “Introduction to XXX course” that will acquaint students with all aspects of the discipline and not just one specific area.  

Approved by UW-Green Bay Senate on January 24, 2024.

Feedback

Please contact Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier at  or Breeyawn Lybbert.

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