GENERAL EDUCATION ACADEMY
We invite General Education faculty to attend GE Academy on Friday, June 2, 2023, in the Maeser Building. Our theme this year is “Laying Foundations for Student Success.”
WE ARE DESIGNING A NEW GE Find out what is happening
Because the gospel encourages the pursuit of all truth, students at BYU should receive a broad university education. The arts, letters, and sciences provide the core of such an education, which will help students think clearly, communicate effectively, understand important ideas in their own cultural tradition as well as that of others, and establish clear standards of intellectual integrity.
BYU MISSION STATEMENT
417
FACULTY MEMBERS TEACH GE COURSES IN A GIVEN SEMESTER
486
CURRENT GE COURSES
13
GE REQUIREMENT AREAS
Leslie Hadfield
Africana Studies—Kennedy Center for International Studies
“Africana Studies affiliate faculty—see the ‘Diversity, Equity, and Belonging’ and ‘Language and Culture’ requirements in General Education as crucial … and are ready to support and contribute to these initiatives in any way we can.”
Associate Professor and Africana Studies Coordinator Leslie Hadfield (Kennedy Center for International Studies) provides support to the Diversity, Equity, and Belonging and the Languages and Cultures requirements.
Read the document here
“Africana Studies affiliate faculty—see the ‘Diversity, Equity, and Belonging’ and ‘Language and Culture’ requirements in General Education as crucial … and are ready to support and contribute to these initiatives in any way we can.”
Associate Professor and Africana Studies Coordinator Leslie Hadfield (Kennedy Center for International Studies) provides support to the Diversity, Equity, and Belonging and the Languages and Cultures requirements.
Read the document here
Vince Wilding
Chemical Engineering
“We have the sacred responsibility to provide the best university education for all of our students—whatever their selected major. This best university education includes the best general education.”
Professor and Associate Dean Vince Wilding (College of Engineering) addresses what it means to fix a general education program.
Read the document here
“We have the sacred responsibility to provide the best university education for all of our students—whatever their selected major. This best university education includes the best general education.”
Professor and Associate Dean Vince Wilding (College of Engineering) addresses what it means to fix a general education program.
Read the document here
Rex Nielson
Spanish & Portuguese
“The purpose of the redesign is not to look for a way of cutting out particular classes but rather to restructure our GE program in a way that will help students have a richer and more complete experience at BYU.”
Associate Professor Rex Nielson (Spanish and Portuguese) addresses questions about why now is a good time to redesign GE and how a GE redesign may affect current course offerings.
Read the document here
“The purpose of the redesign is not to look for a way of cutting out particular classes but rather to restructure our GE program in a way that will help students have a richer and more complete experience at BYU.”
Associate Professor Rex Nielson (Spanish and Portuguese) addresses questions about why now is a good time to redesign GE and how a GE redesign may affect current course offerings.
Read the document here
Phillip D. Rash
First-Year Experience
"Designing a new General Education program presents us with a rare opportunity that extends beyond curriculum reform and course recalibration. It is an opportunity to place the entirety of the student experience squarely into focus and to create or revivify structures that lead to student success."
Associate Dean Phillip D. Rash (Director, Office of First-Year Experience) addresses the important role First-Year Seminar will play in the new General Education program.
Read the document here
"Designing a new General Education program presents us with a rare opportunity that extends beyond curriculum reform and course recalibration. It is an opportunity to place the entirety of the student experience squarely into focus and to create or revivify structures that lead to student success."
Associate Dean Phillip D. Rash (Director, Office of First-Year Experience) addresses the important role First-Year Seminar will play in the new General Education program.
Read the document here
Jenny Hale Pulsipher
History
“One of the things I love about the new GE proposal is its expansive approach to citizenship… [T]his theme will prepare students to understand the unequal experiences that have shaped and continue to shape our communities, the Church, and the world and to grow in respect and love for people whose life experiences differ from their own.”
Professor Jenny Hale Pulsipher (Department of History) discusses how the citizenship aspects of the new GE proposal will have a positive influence.
Read the document here
“One of the things I love about the new GE proposal is its expansive approach to citizenship… [T]his theme will prepare students to understand the unequal experiences that have shaped and continue to shape our communities, the Church, and the world and to grow in respect and love for people whose life experiences differ from their own.”
Professor Jenny Hale Pulsipher (Department of History) discusses how the citizenship aspects of the new GE proposal will have a positive influence.
Read the document here
Jennifer Bown
Russian
“The goals of the [Languages and Cultures] requirement go beyond fluency and ability to communicate in another language. Study of a foreign language involves the study of another culture, and thereby learning a new way of thinking.”
Professor Jennifer Bown (Department of Russian and German) discusses how the Language and Culture requirement helps students to think differently and expand their horizons.
Read the document here
“The goals of the [Languages and Cultures] requirement go beyond fluency and ability to communicate in another language. Study of a foreign language involves the study of another culture, and thereby learning a new way of thinking.”
Professor Jennifer Bown (Department of Russian and German) discusses how the Language and Culture requirement helps students to think differently and expand their horizons.
Read the document here
David-James Gonzales
History
“As faculty that already devote a considerable amount of time and effort to teaching diversity, equity, and belonging in our classes, we have seen firsthand how eager our students are to learn from the unique perspectives, subjectivities, and contributions of underrepresented individuals and communities. Learning from diverse voices empowers our students with empathy, charity, and humility”
Assistant professor David-James Gonzales (Department of History) and Assistant professor Lori Spruance (Department of Public Health) explain how the diversity, equity, and belonging components of the new GE program will help students become more engaged citizens.
Read the document here
“As faculty that already devote a considerable amount of time and effort to teaching diversity, equity, and belonging in our classes, we have seen firsthand how eager our students are to learn from the unique perspectives, subjectivities, and contributions of underrepresented individuals and communities. Learning from diverse voices empowers our students with empathy, charity, and humility”
Assistant professor David-James Gonzales (Department of History) and Assistant professor Lori Spruance (Department of Public Health) explain how the diversity, equity, and belonging components of the new GE program will help students become more engaged citizens.
Read the document here
Lori Spruance
Public Health
“As faculty that already devote a considerable amount of time and effort to teaching diversity, equity, and belonging in our classes, we have seen firsthand how eager our students are to learn from the unique perspectives, subjectivities, and contributions of underrepresented individuals and communities. Learning from diverse voices empowers our students with empathy, charity, and humility”
Assistant professor Lori Spruance (Department of Public Health) and Assistant professor David-James Gonzales (Department of History) explain how the diversity, equity, and belonging components of the new GE program will help students become more engaged citizens.
Read the document here
“As faculty that already devote a considerable amount of time and effort to teaching diversity, equity, and belonging in our classes, we have seen firsthand how eager our students are to learn from the unique perspectives, subjectivities, and contributions of underrepresented individuals and communities. Learning from diverse voices empowers our students with empathy, charity, and humility”
Assistant professor Lori Spruance (Department of Public Health) and Assistant professor David-James Gonzales (Department of History) explain how the diversity, equity, and belonging components of the new GE program will help students become more engaged citizens.
Read the document here
Brian Jackson
English and University Writing
“To work effectively in unpredictable, dynamic learning environments, our students need more than narrow critical competence: They need range. They need to be able to solve messy problems, abstract from cases to overarching principles, communicate effectively with and across human difference, transfer and transform what was learned in previous settings to new ones, vary their approaches, integrate ways of knowing for new contexts ... They need to learn how to learn.”
Professor Brian Jackson (English and University Writing) addresses how GE helps students learn how to learn, a necessary skill for learning and work environments that are increasingly unpredictable and dynamic.
Read the document here
“To work effectively in unpredictable, dynamic learning environments, our students need more than narrow critical competence: They need range. They need to be able to solve messy problems, abstract from cases to overarching principles, communicate effectively with and across human difference, transfer and transform what was learned in previous settings to new ones, vary their approaches, integrate ways of knowing for new contexts ... They need to learn how to learn.”
Professor Brian Jackson (English and University Writing) addresses how GE helps students learn how to learn, a necessary skill for learning and work environments that are increasingly unpredictable and dynamic.
Read the document here
BYU Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging
Report and Recommendations
“We were very encouraged by the thoughtful approach that the Curricular Reform Committee is taking to incorporate cross-cultural competency education as part of the university’s core requirements. We support changes to the general education requirements that promote opportunities to examine systemic racial and ethnic inequities in the United States. ”
The Report and Recommendations of the BYU Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging applauds the efforts of the GE redesign committee to incorporate cross-cultural competency into General Education.
Read the document here
“We were very encouraged by the thoughtful approach that the Curricular Reform Committee is taking to incorporate cross-cultural competency education as part of the university’s core requirements. We support changes to the general education requirements that promote opportunities to examine systemic racial and ethnic inequities in the United States. ”
The Report and Recommendations of the BYU Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging applauds the efforts of the GE redesign committee to incorporate cross-cultural competency into General Education.
Read the document here
BYU Faculty Advisory Council Diversity & Inclusion Committee
Letter of Recommendations and Suggestions
“As the University Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging counsels, 'Building bridges of understanding is the responsibility of every member of the BYU community.' To that end, we offer two main recommendations with supporting suggestions to achieve these goals. Our suggestions involve multiple campus entities and layers of transition, training, resources, and support for faculty to teach DEB and LC courses.”
Members of the BYU Faculty Advisory Council Diversity & Inclusion Committee provide two recommendations with supporting suggestions
on ways to improve the Diversity, Equity, & Belonging and the Languages
& Cultures requirements.
Read the document here
“As the University Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging counsels, 'Building bridges of understanding is the responsibility of every member of the BYU community.' To that end, we offer two main recommendations with supporting suggestions to achieve these goals. Our suggestions involve multiple campus entities and layers of transition, training, resources, and support for faculty to teach DEB and LC courses.”
Members of the BYU Faculty Advisory Council Diversity & Inclusion Committee provide two recommendations with supporting suggestions
on ways to improve the Diversity, Equity, & Belonging and the Languages
& Cultures requirements.
Read the document here