GE Implementation Task Force Update

The GE Implementation Task Force has disbanded with the approval of Provost McClure. The GE Task force was appointed in February 2022 to aid New Paltz in transitioning from GE 3 and GE 4 to GE 5.

In fall 2023, first-time students and transfer students at SUNY New Paltz were the first to engage in General Education 5 (GE 5). The undergraduate catalog states that GE 5 “addresses the fundamental aims of undergraduate education, including proficiency with essential skills and competencies, familiarization with disciplinary and interdisciplinary ways of knowing, and enhancement of the values and disposition of an engaged 21st-century global citizenry.”

Since its inception, the GE Task Force carried out the following actions:

• Designed a process of recertification for departments to transition courses with Knowledge and Skills areas that were similar for both GE 4 and GE 5.
• Created a streamlined GE major course revision process for departments for courses with Knowledge and Skills areas that were different from GE 4 or had different student learning outcomes (SLOs). (The campus has pivoted back to our regular course approval process from this streamlined revision process that required less documentation and review than our normal major course revision process.)
• Encouraged major course revisions and new course proposals for GE 5 along with Academic Affairs with a $150 “token of gratitude” for course revisions and proposals submitted before September 1, 2022.
• Held workshops for faculty.
• Collaborated with the GE Board to use their website to post Frequently Asked Questions and examples of major course revisions and new course proposals.
• Provided advice for course proposals and clarifying SLOs.
• Designed a spreadsheet for department use to designate courses in their majors that address required GE 5 Core Competencies at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.
• Facilitated communication between administrative offices.

Implementation of GE 5 involved the work of the GE Task Force as well as the campus community from faculty who revised and proposed new courses; to the Curriculum Committee that reviewed all course revisions; to staff in Admissions, Academic Advising, Records and Registration, and Academic Affairs whose work ranged from recoding information in Banner to writing new recruitment materials to approving courses.

During spring 2024, the campus continues GE 5 implementation activities as departments and programs examine how their majors address the GE 5 Core Competencies of Critical Thinking & Reasoning and Information Literacy. In addition:

• The GE Board will address SUNY’s requirement that assessment of Core Competencies take place within the first 60 credits of students’ undergraduate education.
• Records and Registration is monitoring issues related to the Knowledge and Skills area of Communication – Written and Oral and will report findings to Associate Provost Garrick Duhaney and Academic Affairs. For this Knowledge and Skills area, New Paltz decided to incorporate both Written and Oral Communication into one course, ENG160, instead of two. This presents a problem for students coming to New Paltz who have satisfied only one requirement. New Paltz is currently waiving the Oral Communication requirement for such students because the SUNY Board of Trustees requires that students be held “harmless” during the transition to GE 5. However, a more permanent solution will be sought.

SUNY campuses will continue to transition to GE 5 over the next few years in order to accommodate students who are still completing requirements for GE 4 so that their graduation is not delayed.

Laurel M. Garrick Duhaney, Associate Provost for Institutional Strategic Planning, Assessment, & Accreditation coordinated New Paltz’s GE 5 Implementation activities. She and Associate Professor Bruce Milem co-chaired the GE Implementation Task Force. Task Force members included Karl Bryant, Anne Deutsch, Nancy Johnson, Lisa Jones, Valerie McAllister, Shala Mills, Laurie Orr, Sarah Roberson, Stella Turk, and Jennifer Wawrzonek. The GE Implementation Task Force sent our campus numerous communications, which are available on the GE website.