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General Education Process Narrative, 2003 - 2005

UHH Home > Faculty & Staff > General Education for Program

Colleges Invited to Propose General Education Programs

In February 2005, the GE Committee invited the faculty senates and deans or directors of the four colleges to design and propose a General Education program that is consistent with the distinctive mission and learning goals of their own colleges.

The GE Committee explains in its letter of invitation that this is the first step in the process of "developing a common set of UH Hilo General Education goals, a common set of hallmarks, a common core of courses, and eventually a review and assessment process. We also hope to identify a core set of GE courses which can be guaranteed to every qualified UH Hilo freshman."  

The committee adds that "representatives from the four colleges will participate in discussions and decision-making. We anticipate that there will be considerable negotiation and mutual edification along the way. " Click here for the complete text of the letter to the director of the College of Business and Economics and the chair of the CoBEfaculty senate; the same letter was sent to all college deans/directors and senate chairs.

From the WASC accrediting site team report, June 2004:

The General Education (GE) Committee has worked hard to establish the "hallmarks" ("makia") for the UH Hilo graduate and has attempted to align these descriptors with course features and learning outcomes. While no faculty body will ever have complete agreement with the decisions on curricular mandates, the time to move forward and make choices is upon the University.  The vision of what should distinguish a graduate of UH Hilo can be made clear by campus discussions, and a program that is both unique in design and contour as well as consistent over time in its effectiveness will give substance to the idea of a collective vision of UH Hilo education.

The process for developing agreement on General Education makia, using them for course input criteria, and then developing courses and syllabi with the support of the Congress Assessment Support   Committee seems well-conceived and, if successful, may provide a   model for other campuses in the region who are also striving to develop a collective vision of educational attainment.   It is encouraging to see that the plan includes systematic assessment, feedback, and program improvement and the structures to achieve them (e.g., syllabus review).   A key indicator will be the campus's ability to come to agreement on the hallmarks and the syllabus review process within a reasonable period of time (12).

Revisions proposed by the GE Committee in Spring 2004

Our current GE program does not focus on what our students are learning in GE courses and does not provide a basis for documenting their learning or for improving the conditions of that learning. Nor does it meet the criteria and guidelines for General Education by which our accrediting commission reviews institutions. The Congress GE committee is proposing revisions that will address those deficiencies.

• Courses to be applied towards the Basic, Area, Hawai`i-Asia-Pacific, and Writing Intensive requirements will meet hallmarks or criteria that specify course content consistent with the UH Hilo General Education goals.
• Course syllabi for such courses will include statements of assessable student learning objectives reflecting these hallmarks and other clear indications of what students can expect to learn and of how assignments and tasks relate to those objectives.
• Upper-division as well as lower-division courses may be applied towards the Area requirements. Two of the three required Writing Intensive courses will be at the upper division. One of two required Hawai`i-Asia-Pacific courses will be at the upper division.
• Course proposals will be submitted by departments or by individual faculty through departments. They will be reviewed by Basic, Area, Hawaii-Asia-Pacific, and Writing Intensive committees comprised of representative faculty with appropriate academic expertise who have been designated by the senates of the colleges. The review process will be coordinated by the congress GE committee.
• Included under the "General Education" rubric will be the Basic, Area, Writing Intensive, Hawaii-Asia-Pacific requirements, and senior capstone/seminar courses. The Writing Intensive, Hawaii-Asia-Pacific, and capstone/seminar courses will form the "Integrative requirements." All four colleges will share the Basic and Area requirements and at least one component of the Integrative requirements.
• The hallmarks will be referred to as "makia" (with a macron over the first "a") or criteria.

Click here to see the proposed General Education hallmarks and GE review process.

Where are we in the GE revision process?

In December 2003, the UH Hilo Congress General Education Committee submitted proposed GE revisions to the Congress, which transmitted the proposal to the senates of the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management; the College of Arts and Sciences; and Ka Haka `Ula O Ke`elikolani College of Hawaiian Language. In January, the proposal also went to the newly reorganized College of Business and Economics.

During December 2003 and January 2004, the senates of the four colleges, or their representatives, provided input on the proposal to the GE Committee. In February, the GE committee revised the proposal, responding to this input.

On February 27, 2004 the proposal was emailed to the UH Hilo community and posted on this webpage. Comments and alternative or counter-proposals are invited. On March 12, 2004, UCB 111, 2pm to 4pm, and on March 16, UCC 312, 9:30am to 10:45 am, the General Education Committee is hosting meetings on GE revision, to which all interested persons are invited.

The WASC site team's summer 2004 report praised the proposed changes, stating that once implemented it could become a model for other institutions. This assessment has encouraged the GE committee to continue its efforts to make the GE program a more meaningful one.

In 2004-2005, the committee will address three related issues: (1) whether all four UH Hilo colleges should share all GE requirements or whether a minimum core GE should be established, with colleges free to add requirements to that core; (2)how to engage many more faculty positively in the review and revision of the GE program; (3) how UH Hilo will respond to the UH Manoa articulation policy that to qualify for UHM GE requirements, courses transferred from other UH system campuses must meet UHM hallmarks, or the home campus must have a common foundations program that meets UHM criteria.

In 2005-2006, the current General Education Commitee, building on previous work by the 2004 Committee, (2004 Proposal), is focusing on more specific issues and structure and implementations. View the latest General Education Committee meeting minutes.