There is no educationally sound reason for forcing us to drop to 120 hours for graduation - it's a bad decision but is being forced on us from the outside by people who have less interest in real education than those of us whose job it is to educate. 

 

But dropping the university graduation requirements of Intensive Writing, Oral Communication, and Computer Literacy by our own choice strikes me as collaboration with the enemies of education in the state of Tennessee and will damage our students now and after they graduate. What is the educationally sound rationale for dropping these requirements? I understand that dropping these requirements makes it easier for some departments to meet the undesirable but required 120-hour maximum, but where is the educational value in that decision?  

 

There is another question that requires an answer if we vote to drop these requirements. How do we demonstrate that we satisfy the following SACS criteria? "The institution must demonstrate that its graduates of degree programs are competent in reading, writing, oral communication, fundamental mathematical skills and the basic use of computers."  (The italics are mine, but the bold must is from SACS.)  Surely we don't believe that our students come to us with these skills and therefore we have no need to teach them. Nor should we believe that two courses in freshman composition are sufficient, regardless of how well these courses are taught.

 

When we approved the current General Education program we made a bold and intelligent decision to include these requirements because we believed that they were critical for the functioning of every college graduate. Are we now saying that we no longer believe this?  If so what has changed in the world that makes these skills no longer necessary?  

 

I suggest that we keep these three requirements as they are and strongly encourage, instead of simply allow, departments to integrate them into their major programs in ways that are appropriate for their own majors. In the long run this path may very well be better for the students and our programs than having them take several separate courses in other departments. 

 

I urge all faculty members to vote against the proposed elimination of these three university graduation requirements.