5 minute read

SAGES from page 4

How this change exactly plays out remains to be seen, but CWRU has committed to ensuring that no school is budgetarily worse off due to the new UGER.

Other changes outside of SAGES include the physical education (PE) requirement being transitioned into a general “Wellness” requirement. Students will be able to take cooking, psychological wellness and financial wellness classes to fulfill the requirement rather than strictly PE courses. The SAGES Departmental Seminars and Capstone Seminars will mostly remain the same but will be renamed to “Disciplinary Seminars” and “Capstone Project Courses,” though CWRU notes that some departments may alter their offerings for these courses. A writing portfolio will still be required, though the requirements will be adjusted for the new curriculum. Students will also be participating in an “Explore” program to help them find out more about other academic departments, university resources and Cleveland’s cultural institutions they might not otherwise have exposure to. The exact details of this program have not yet been determined, though.

Advertisement

Also unclear are the exact class sizes of these courses. SAGES First Seminar courses were capped at 17 students, and similarly Academic Inquiry Seminars will be capped at 16 students. The amount of students per Communication Intensive class still remains unclear as the university tries to find the “optimal equilibrium,” but generally these classes may be larger than current SAGES courses if they can be broken down into smaller sections of 18 or so.

Students currently enrolled at

CWRU will not have the new UGER but rather will continue under the current system. However, as SAGES courses will no longer exist, continuing students will have to supplement their requirements with the new equivalents. Students needing a SAGES Natural World (USNA) course must take a Communication Intensive course under a STEM department, students needing a SAGES Social World (USSO) course must take a Communication Intensive course under a Social Science or Management department and students needing a SAGES Symbolic World (USSY) course must take a Communication Intensive course under a humanities or arts department. These new SAGES substitutes notably cannot be used to fulfill breadth requirements for returning students as they can under the new system that incoming students will use. The newer broader Wellness courses, however, can be used to fulfill existing PE requirements.

Another major change is that First Seminar professors will no longer act as pre-major academic advisors. Students under the new UGER will now be matched with a faculty member “with whom they share some academic interest (potential major, minor, or field of interest).” How this matching process works is not entirely clear but incoming students will meet with their Navigator to choose their first-semester courses, after which they will be paired with an advisor who they will keep until they receive a major advisor.

SAGES was first created in order for CWRU students to have introductory classes with small class sizes and to create a universal curriculum across campus. At the time, profes-

ANITA HILL from page 1

Hill took the stage shortly after, offering short remarks and thanks to those sponsoring the event. Quickly, Hill introduces the purpose of her talk, stating “And I know that somebody out there is saying, but didn’t you lose?” She continued, “After all, you know, he won, he’s there. You’re not. And so tonight, what I have tasked myself to do is to show you that I didn’t lose. And to explain why I didn’t lose.” Here, she refutes rumors that she “lost” her battle against sexual assault when Justice Thomas joined the Supreme Court, despite her brave testimony in front of the Senate.

After discussing the aftermath of her testimony, Hill took the stage to educate others on how to approach and handle women who come forward and speak of their trauma, stating it is important to “treat them as full human beings. We are more than plaintiffs. We’re more than witnesses and dramas created by others. And we are certainly more than victims. We must be treated with dignity and respect. And our stories and our narratives of our own experiences need to be honored.”

The rest of Hill’s talk combined inspirational messaging with personal stories, both about herself and her associates. In addition, Hill also acknowledged the strides that have been made since her initial testimony in 1991, as well as the importance of speaking out and how that can positively impact so many others.

“You have to be able to tell your story to someone,” Hill said, “And we are [doing just that] today. Those telling the stories can change lives, not only your life, but the lives of others. I’ve heard countless of those individual stories that have been told around the kitchen table, especially in 1991, that have changed the way people look at the problems that women and girls face when they go out into sors complained of excessively large class sizes for their introductory courses within their departments’ course sequences, leading to teaching not being as effective for essential skills. While the new UGER will be moving essential writing courses under various departments, CWRU hopes to build off of the SAGES program’s values while adding flexibility.

Peter Shulman, associate professor of history, and past chair of the Faculty Senate and Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education, was involved in the development of the new curriculum and commented on the need to adjust our current educational requirements.

“One intention in designing this new [UGER] has been to try to prevent problematic unintended consequences like excessively large classes,” Shulman said. “In part, that involved careful consideration of how these changes would actually look for students and for the institution, and this involved a considerable amount of enrollment and budgetary modeling—we wanted the program to be driven by data and evidence. Still, it’s inevitable that some unexpected results might happen, which is why we built in regular reviews of how things are running as well as clear mechanisms for the faculty to adjust the program if the need arises.”

CWRU began planning these changes in January 2016, though planning has continued until this day. First, a commission was formed by the Office of the Provost to reevaluate the undergraduate experience, which identified potential areas of improvement for two years before giving their recommendations. After handing in their report to the provost and faculty in May 2018, plans for implementation began as the Faculty Senate created another committee to develop more specific recommendations. Work continued through 2019 as the committee started communicating with faculty members and an undergraduate representative of the Undergraduate Student Government to develop a final proposal. In early 2020 the committee revealed the proposal to the general university public, with plans to implement it at the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted CWRU’s operations, delaying endorsements from university faculty and final implementation. Following a vote by the entire university faculty and approval by the Faculty Senate in late 2021, the formal creation of the new UGER was set in motion with a three-semester timeline for enactment.

With that timeline coming to a close and the program set to phase in next semester, the CWRU community will soon discover the benefits and drawbacks of getting rid of the current SAGES structure and embracing more thorough breadth requirements.

“Every set of general education requirements at most universities have about a twenty year lifespan, before changing needs, interests, circumstances, and priorities lead faculty to develop new curricula,” Shulman said. “We think the new [UGER] will be a very positive change for students and we’re excited it’s finally about to arrive.” the world...especially when they’re out in the world on their own.”

Her transparency and honesty in speaking on her sexual assault experience publicly has been instrumental in driving a conversation around gender disparities that only continues to grow more relevant.

In her words, “We have moved forward, we are continuing to grow. The conversation is not over. For those of us who hear the question all the time ‘Has any progress really been made since 1991?’ I hope that all of us here will think back on all of the developments that have happened since 1991. And understand and say and answer that question by saying, yes, there has been change, and there will continue to be change.”

This article is from: