UF officials are proposing a plan to change general education requirements starting in 2018.
Students in their second year will be limited to selecting one of eight three-credit courses in either the social sciences or natural sciences category as a continuation of What is the Good Life, which is already required for freshmen. Students will also have to maintain a journal, possibly on Canvas about their experience in the class.
An implementation of the new general education plan, UF Quest, is planned for Spring 2018, with a full launch in Fall 2018, according to a report authored by Angela Lindner, the UF associate provost for Undergraduate Affairs.
On Friday, a conference in the Reitz Union Rion Ballroom at 7:30 a.m. will offer faculty members and students the opportunity to give input, Lindner said.
UF Quest is proposing “to equip students with a meaningful and interconnected series of general education experiences that guide them toward ... a better understanding of their place in the greater world,” according to the report.
Clay Hurdle, a member of the student advisory council for Undergraduate Affairs, said the conference is a chance for students to learn about UF Quest.
“UF Quest will be launching and applied to UF students in the Fall of 2018,” Hurdle said, adding that it’s a “big topic.”
Kevin Knudson, the associate chair of the department of mathematics, said while he thinks a discussion about UF’s general education requirements is long overdue, he’s not sure UF Quest will benefit students.
“My interactions with students give me anecdotal evidence that the Good Life is vastly unpopular — which the provost’s office has acknowledged — so I’m dubious about rolling out additional required courses on the same model,” Knudson said.
What UF Quest is proposing to change for 2018:
- Students in their second year will select one three-credit course from eight courses in either the social sciences or natural sciences category
- Requiring students to maintain an “e-portfolio” to record “descriptions of their transformation in perceptions of themselves and the world throughout each stage of the Core experience”
