Starting in fall 2023, incoming students will be participating in a new General Education plan.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Tim Hengst said this new plan will take up to 44 credits to complete instead of the 40-67 credits for  Core-21 curriculum so that students can focus their remaining credits on their major or other classes they are interested in. 

“It wasn’t intended to be a checklist. Students tend to, instead of looking at what they are gaining educationally from taking these courses, they’re a lot of times looking at it like ‘OK, what do I have to do to check this box,’” Hengst said. 

Hengst said that one requirement that will be added to this new curriculum will be experiential learning, which can be anything from an internship to study abroad.

“We haven’t really defined exactly what meets that category of experiential learning but it will be pretty inclusive, so each department can kind of tailor that, and that part of it is not going to be a set list of classes, it’s going to be embedded in your major,” Hengst said.

Associate Vice President of Academic Services and Registrar Maria Kohnke said the new plan will be beneficial to transfer students because they will have fewer courses to fulfill after transferring.

Kohnke said there will still be specific classes required in General Education, such as three humanities classes, English 110 and 111, a language class and one religion class.