Around every five to six years, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reviews the General Education (GE) CLAS Core requirements. A central goal of such reviews is to align the CLAS Core with the strategic goals of the College and the University of Iowa.

A new review is now underway, with the first meeting held in mid-September. Members of the GE CLAS Core Review Committee can be found at this link: https://clas.uiowa.edu/faculty/faculty-oversight.

We anticipate meeting through April 2020. Meetings will also held with the Undergraduate Educational Policy Committee (UEPCC) and the General Education Curriculum Committee (GECC), with these followed by open forums.

In past years, transformations of the GE requirements from these periodic reviews have helped to ensure that the requirements reflect the skills and knowledge needed by today’s undergraduates. Changes made in the past, for example, have included the removal of the Distributed requirement. Faculty at the time noted the importance of the arts to students’ lives, and the requirement of Literary, Visual and Performing Arts was designed. Faculty members also decided knowledge of international issues and the global community was especially needed by entering students, with the International and Global Issues requirement implemented.

More recently, the Diversity and Inclusion area was added as a signature experience for CLAS students. Because of the importance of this requirement, the UI Student Government supported the requirement even though it added the 3 semester hours to the GE CLAS Core. As a signature CLAS experience, this requirement must be completed at UI.

We are excited about once again taking an in-depth look at the GE CLAS Core, and your ideas and suggestions are vital to our study.  Please send your ideas and concerns to me, and I will be sure to share them with the committee.

Thank you for your help and for you interest in the GE CLAS Core.