To put end to rumors, faculty on the General Education committee held a student forum to discuss the potential changes to the GE program on Wednesday, April 6. Held in McKay 180, about 20 students attended to provide their opinions on the changes and eat pizza.
The proposal would substitute the current GE system with the option to take three minors. Dr. David Beus, assistant professor of the International Cultural Studies department and member of the GE committee, led the discussion saying GE programs are meant to provide students with breadth and depth in their education. With this new program, “we would lose a little bit of the breadth, but would get more of an in-depth education,” said Beus.
All majors and minors fall under four categories: humanities, social sciences, sciences, and professional. If a student’s major falls under the professional category, the student would have to get a minor in each of the other categories. Beus gave an example: if a student majored in a social science like communications, they would also choose one minor from each of the three other categories (sciences, humanities, and professional). He said the system allows students to customize their degrees.
“The more you take charge of your own education,” said Beus, “the better you tend to perform.” Beus told students he is highly biased in favor of this new program. He said some of the faculty oppose the change because they believe the system in place now is fine.
“I think [the new program] would be easier because of greater flexibility,” said Dr. Russel Carlson, assistant professor of the Math department and member of the GE committee. “It also requires students to take more ownership of their own education.”
Beus said statistics show 50 percent of college graduates acquire a job in a field outside of their major, and he believes the in depth study of various fields would allow students to be more capable of acquiring diverse jobs. “We always emphasize a transformative education here at BYU–Hawaii,” said Beus.
Having minors in a variety of fields would also help prepare the students against radical changes and transformations in certain fields. The College of Idaho already has this same GE program in place. Some of the members of BYU–Hawaii’s GE committee recently visited the College of Idaho and found favorable results.
Carlson said his favorite part of the program was that someone could easily switch majors without losing semesters by converting one of their minors into their major.
After Beus’ presentation, students asked questions about how the changes would affect transfer students, double majors, and incoming freshman lacking concrete career plans. Beus and Carlson both reiterated that the proposed program is still a prototype and not perfect.
Most students who attended the discussion said they were in favor of the changes, while a few said they weren’t sure.
On one hand, “We have students from Kiribati who are not as acquitted to the systems of higher education and nonetheless are giving their fullest to gain a good education,” said Esther Candari, a senior from Kaneohe majoring in art.
On the other hand, some students from Asia have studied at higher levels already having lived in China and Singapore. She said, “I have seen first-hand how challenging even middle and high school can be in Asia.”
Beus reminded students that the change is not officially approved and would not affect any students currently attending BYUH. He said the current idea for the program is to launch a pilot project with a few new students.