Weiss, Ferguson to chair education task force

Weiss

Ferguson

David Weiss, associate professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Jeff Ferguson, professor, College of Business, will co-chair a University of Colorado Colorado Springs General Education Goals implementation task force.

The two will be tasked with helping implement a plan to have a 24 credit hour across-campus curriculum that supports student learning goals under the categories of “evaluate and create,” “know and explore” and “act and interact.”

On Nov. 30, campus faculty voted overwhelmingly to implement the UCCS General Education Goals. Andrea Hutchins, president, Faculty Assembly, and associate professor, Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said 84 percent of the faculty who cast online ballots on the curriculum model supported it. About 47 percent of the faculty who were eligible to vote participated.

The remaining members of the implementation task force will be recruited and in place soon.  The co-chairs plan to include many additional faculty in formulating plans for the separate parts of the curriculum as it was approved.  For example, faculty from across campus will join a sub-group from the implementation team to determine how the new advanced core course, a junior-level course that emphasizes the application of knowledge and collaborative learning, will function.  The sub-group will bring those ideas back to the full implementation team to become part of the overall structure of the new curriculum.

Ferguson and Christina Jimenez, associate professor, Department of History, co-chaired a faculty general education task force and developed the proposal to the faculty. More information is available at http://www.uccs.edu/provost/general-education.html.