General Education Implementation Task Force Update

SUNY New Paltz continues to transition from GE 4 to GE 5. Although we are transitioning to a new GE program, GE 4 courses will still be offered for continuing students. Many GE 4 courses are also being recertified for GE 5. Recertifications are almost complete for the GE 5 Knowledge and Skills areas of The Arts, Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Sciences and Scientific Reasoning, Social Sciences, and World Languages. Faculty have also submitted courses for the GE 5 Knowledge and Skills areas of Communication – Written and Oral; Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice; Humanities; US History and Civic Engagement; and World History and Global Awareness. Although the University still needs additional GE 5 courses for new and transfer students matriculating in fall 2023, in a campus email of October 2022 Provost Lyman noted that “excellent progress [has been] made towards implementing the new SUNY General Education (GE) 5 Framework.”

The GE Implementation Task Force has sent the campus numerous emails which are available on the Communications page of the GE website. These emails cover a variety of topics as follows.

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Social Justice (DEISJ): Examines three required SLOs for GE 5 and SUNY’s expectations about SLOs, and provides links to SUNY’s guidance about DEISJ.
• Faculty Support: Discusses workshops held by the Faculty Development Center and the creation of a section on the GE website for the GE Implementation Task Force that provides helpful information such as communications, forms, sample syllabi, and FAQs.
• Distribution of Courses in Knowledge and Skills Area: Examines how GE 5 preserves most of the Knowledge and Skills areas in GE 4 as well as discussing changes such as SLOs, the combined categories of World History and Global Awareness, and the new category of Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. Provides guidance as to how departments should select which areas into which their GE courses should be placed.
• Major Course Revisions: Presents the timeline and process for major course revisions and guidance for adapting GE 3, GE 4, and Diversity courses to GE 5.
• Update and Call for New Course Proposals: Calls for new GE courses to meet the fall 2023 deadline for GE 5. Presents a process of recertification to have GE 4 courses approved for the same areas in GE 5 and steps to revise GE 4 courses for GE 5.
• Overview of Work and Guidance for Recertification: Introduces the GE Implementation Task Force and its charge to assist SUNY New Paltz in transitioning from GE 3 and GE 4 to GE 5, which must be in place by fall 2023. Identifies the following processes for transitioning to GE 5: recertification, major revision, course proposal, and curricular map revision. Focuses on recertification and provides steps for chairs.

Faculty who wish to submit a new GE 5 course or course revision can find the GE 5 major course revision form, examples of courses revised for GE 5, and FAQs on the GE Board’s website. Questions to the GE Implementation Task Force can be emailed to GEimplementation@newpaltz.edu.

The GE Implementation Task Force is co-chaired by Laurel M. Garrick Duhaney and Bruce Milem. Members include Karl Bryant, Anne Deutsch, Nancy Johnson, Lisa Jones, Valerie McAllister, Shala Mills, Laurie Orr, Sarah Roberson, Stella Turk, and Jennifer Wawrzonek.