GENERAL EDUCATION IN THE 21 ST CENTURY

Transcription

1 GENERAL EDUCATION IN THE 21 ST CENTURY A Report of the Uiversity of Califoria Commissio o Geeral Educatio i the 21 st Cetury

2 GENERAL EDUCATION IN THE 21 ST CENTURY A Report of the Uiversity of Califoria Commissio o Geeral Educatio i the 21 st Cetury April 2007 Ceter for Studies i Higher Educatio Uiversity of Califoria, Berkeley CSHE 2007 All Rights Reserved

3 This report was made possible by fudig from Caregie Corporatio of New York ad the William ad Flora Hewlett Foudatio. Photo Credits: Courtesy of Uiversity of Califoria, Berkeley; Uiversity of Califoria, Los Ageles; Uiversity of Califoria, Riverside; Uiversity of Califoria, Sa Diego; Breda Reheem/Uiversity of Califoria, Sata Barbara; Uiversity of Califoria, Irvie; Jim Mackezie/Uiversity of Califoria Sata Cruz; 2006 Christopher Viey, Ph.D./ Uiversity of Califoria, Merced; Debbie Aldridge/Uiversity of Califoria, Davis ii

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Members of the Commissio...v Preface... vi Executive Summary ad Recommedatios... ix Prologue... xiii SECTION 1: Justificatio... 1 Why Now?... 1 Why Focus o Public Istitutios?... 3 Why Califoria?... 4 SECTION 2: Clearig the Uderbrush: Some Defiitioal ad Historical Reflectios... 6 History... 8 SECTION 3: SECTION 4: SECTION 5: SECTION 6: SECTION 7: SECTION 8: Structure ad Culture of the Academic Disciplies...11 The Structure of Academic Departmets...11 Academic Culture...12 Implicatios for Geeral Educatio...13 Itegratig Geeral Educatio ito the Fabric of the Uiversity...15 Curricular Iovatio...20 Requiremets vs. Alteratives...21 Thikig Through the Civic Dimesio...25 Cotemporary Iterest i Civic Educatio...25 Four Goals of Civic Educatio...27 Civic Educatio: Coclusios...28 Trasfer of Credits ad Trasfer Studets...30 Advaced Placemet...30 Trasfer Studets...31 Special Issues...33 New Techologies ad Geeral Educatio...36 Quality...36 Reducig Costs...38 Wideig Access...38 Coclusios o ICTs ad Geeral Educatio...39 iii

5 SECTION 9: Ecouragig a Culture that Supports Geeral Educatio...41 Faculty...41 Graduate Studets...43 No-Ladder ad Part-Time Faculty...43 Advisig Staff...44 Udergraduates...44 Parets...45 Chacellors ad Presidets...45 Alumi...45 SECTION 10: Evaluatig Geeral Educatio Courses ad Programs...46 Recommedatios of the Commissio...48 Edotes...50 Appedices APPENDIX A: Summary of Udergraduate Geeral Educatio at Uiversity of Califoria Campuses Table A-1: Uiversity of Califoria geeral educatio requiremets, by campus...53 Table A-2: Recet campus-specific geeral educatio iitiatives...55 Table A-3: Freshma ad sophomore semiar status at each UC campus...59 APPENDIX B: Chief Udergraduate Educatio Officers Iterviewed...60 APPENDIX C: Compariso of Geeral Educatio Reforms Amog Istitutios...61 iv

6 MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION ON GENERAL EDUCATION IN THE 21 ST CENTURY Michael Schudso (co-chair) Professor, Commuicatio ad Adjuct Professor, Sociology, UC Sa Diego, ad Professor, Graduate School of Jouralism, Columbia Uiversity Neil J. Smelser (co-chair) Uiversity Professor of Sociology Emeritus, UC Berkeley Jodi Aderso UC Studet Reget, UC Los Ageles Mark Appelbaum Professor, Psychology, ad Associate Vice Chacellor, Udergraduate Educatio, UC Sa Diego Thomas Carew Bre Professor, Departmet of Neurobiology ad Behavior, UC Irvie Pedro Castillo Provost, Oakes College ad Associate Professor, History, UC Sata Cruz Lyda Goff Professor, Biology, UC Sata Cruz Adrew Grosovsky Professor, Cell Biology ad Vice Provost for Udergraduate Educatio, UC Riverside Patricia J. Gumport Vice Provost for Graduate Educatio, Professor, Educatio, ad Director, Staford Istitute for Higher Educatio Research, Staford Uiversity Diae Harley Seior Researcher, Ceter for Studies i Higher Educatio, UC Berkeley Gregg Herke Professor, School of Social Scieces, Humaities, ad Arts, UC Merced Staley Katz Professor, Woodrow Wilso School of Public Policy ad Director, Ceter for Arts ad Cultural Policy Studies, Priceto Uiversity M. Gregory Kedrick Professor, History ad Director, Freshma Cluster Program, UC Los Ageles Aie Kig Professor, Aimal Sciece, UC Davis Joseph Kiskis Professor, Physics, UC Davis Raymod Kapp Professor, Musicology, UC Los Ageles William Ladusaw Vice Provost & Dea of Udergraduate Educatio ad Professor, Liguistics, UC Sata Cruz Roger McWilliams Professor, Physics & Astroomy, ad Director, Campuswide Hoors Program, UC Irvie Yolada Moses Professor, Vice Provost ad Special Assistat to the Chacellor for Excellece ad Diversity, UC Riverside Caroly Porter Professor, Eglish, UC Berkeley Julie Reube Professor, Graduate School of Educatio, Harvard Uiversity Barbara Sawrey Seior Lecturer ad Vice Chair, Chemistry ad Biochemistry, UC Sa Diego Chad R. Viswaatha Distiguished Professor Emeritus, Electrical Egieerig, UC Los Ageles M. Stephe Weatherford Professor, Political Sciece, UC Sata Barbara Muriel Zimmerma Sr. Lecturer Emerita, Writig, UC Sata Barbara v

7 PREFACE The seeds of this report date from the years , the active years of the Pe Commissio o Society, Culture ad Commuity, which was coveed by Judith Rodi, the-presidet of the Uiversity of Pesylvaia, ad supported by the Atlatic Philathropies. This Commissio cocered itself with a wide rage of cultural, moral, ad political issues coected to the quality of public discourse ad political culture i our democracy. The results of its work were published i 2003, i a volume etitled Discourse i America: Coversatio ad Commuity i the Twety-First Cetury. 1 We, Michael Schudso ad Neil Smelser, were both members of the Pe Commissio ad cotributors to its summary volume. We had kow oe aother professioally before we were ivited to joi the Commissio, but we grew close durig its work, discussig betwee ourselves issues that arose, ad developig our ow views about the Commissio ad its work. We discovered how similar our thoughts were o may issues of the day. I 2002, we bega a exchage, raisig cocers about the state of geeral educatio i the Uited States ad discussig how we might i some way joi forces to cotribute to ad possibly ifluece the dialogue o that pereial topic. Over the ext moths we refied our ideas ad came to focus o a collective project that would look at geeral educatio at the Uiversity of Califoria (UC), where we had both made our careers. Our hope was to create a commissio which later came to be kow as the Commissio o Geeral Educatio i the 21 st Cetury that would focus o the UC system, but would also raise questios ad develop diagoses ad recommedatios that might apply more geerally. We subsequetly brought these ideas to the Office of the Presidet of the Uiversity of Califoria, to the Systemwide Academic Seate, ad to the Ceter for Studies i Higher Educatio (CSHE) o the Berkeley campus. The Office of the Presidet ad the Academic Seate received our ideas very warmly ad gave official expressios of support. CSHE expressed a willigess to house the hypothetical project. I fact, we received every imagiable form of support except fiacig from the Uiversity of Califoria. The Office of the Presidet provided fuds for a small feasibility meetig, but a budget to support the work of a major commissio could ot be guarateed. The feasibility group met o April 21, 2003, explored issues ad prospects i-depth ad, i the ed, voted its strog support for the evisioed commissio. vi

8 P R E FA C E Buoyed by all of the istitutioal support ad ot overly discouraged by lack of resources, we tured to philathropic foudatios to seek the major fudig. I the ed, we received grats from Caregie Corporatio of New York ad The William ad Flora Hewlett Foudatio of Palo Alto. We give special thaks to Da Fallo of the Caregie Corporatio ad Mike Smith of the Hewlett Foudatio for their persoal iterest ad support. We are grateful for this geerous private support which, amog other thigs, allowed the Commissio a importat degree of autoomy. We repeatedly sought advice from the Office of the Presidet, officers of idividual campuses, ad officials of the Academic Seate, but othig about their advice was madatory, sice we were assured support from other sources. We have thus proceeded idepedetly throughout the etire course of our work. With istitutioal support ad fiacial resources i had, we tured to the formidable task of costitutig the Commissio. This called for extesive cosultatio with uiversity-wide officials, campus admiistrators ad faculty members, ad officers of the Academic Seate. We icluded at least oe represetative from every UC campus, ad added several represetatives from o-uc private istitutios. We strove for discipliary diversity as well as a mix of admiistrative ad faculty persoel. We were gratified that almost all of the idividuals iitially ivited to joi the Commissio o Geeral Educatio i the 21 st Cetury agreed to serve ad we regard this as a measure of commitmet to the geeral educatio process o the Uiversity of Califoria campuses. The members of the Commissio are listed o page v. Our plas for the Commissio s work icluded five collective meetigs, held betwee 2004 ad We were impressed with the itellectual vitality of each of these meetigs. I the itervals betwee meetigs, Diae Harley, Seior Researcher at the Ceter for Studies i Higher Educatio ad a member of the Commissio, coordiated research, dealt assigmets to idividual Commissio members, directed the work ad activities of a series of research assistats hired to work o behalf of the Commissio, provided editorial oversight, ad advised o the sectio coverig ew techologies. I the later phases of the Commissio s work, we drafted materials to reflect the discussios ad poits of cosesus geerated i the meetigs. As co-chairs, we would like to exted our thaks to the Commissio members for their time, work, ad isights, as well as to the uiversity admiistrators ad faculty members who offered strog ad cotiuous support for the project. Chief amog the latter were Julius Zelmaowitz of the UC Office of the Presidet; Gayle Biio of the Academic Assembly; Karl Pister, Director of the Ceter for Studies of Higher Educatio (CSHE) from ; ad C. Judso Kig, Director of CSHE from 2004-preset ad Provost ad Seior Vice Presidet Emeritus, Academic Affairs, UC Office of the Presidet. We are grateful also to Carol Scheider, presidet of the America Associatio of Colleges ad Uiversities, who shared her isights with Commissio members at oe of our meetigs. We record our warmest thaks to Diae Harley, whose work was ivaluable, vii

9 P R E FA C E to several research ad editorial assistats, icludig Deborah Apsel, Meghaa Acharya, Cam Rutter, ad Joatha Heke, ad to the admiistrative staff at CSHE ad UC Sa Diego. Our special thaks to Shao Lawrece for maagig the fial editorial process. Michael Schudso Uiversity of Califoria, Sa Diego Neil J. Smelser Uiversity of Califoria, Berkeley viii

10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Diagosis ad uderstadig are prerequisites to soud recommedatio. With this i mid, this report aalyzes the historical, istitutioal, ad cultural cotexts of geeral educatio i the Uited States. We focus maily (but ot exclusively) o large public uiversities, with special referece to the Califoria higher educatio system. We provide a overview of the history of U.S. higher educatio, with special attetio to the emergece of major research istitutios ad the domiace i them of disciplie-based departmets. Reform of geeral educatio must recogize the domiat academic culture i major research istitutios, which gives precedece to recogitio for published research ad other creative activity. This culture exercises a decisive ifluece o the icetives ad motivatios of professioal academics. Istitutioal, orgaizatioal, budgetary, ad cultural cotexts that we idetify costrai the vigorous developmet of courses ad programs i geeral educatio. At the same time, oly if we uderstad these features of higher educatio ca we realistically idetify opportuities for improvig geeral educatio i its uiversity cotext. The first lie of improvemet the Commissio evisios is admiistrative. Our startigpoit is the recet creatio of positios of chief udergraduate educatio officer 2 o the Uiversity of Califoria campuses i the past doze years. The Commissio regards this as a very importat ad positive step toward improvig campuses geeral educatio programs, although we have foud a umber of aomalies ad weakesses that characterize these positios. Correspodigly, we recommed brigig these positios more cetrally ito the admiistrative core of the uiversity, givig high priority to their iovative potetial ad providig the icumbets with a reewable pool of fuds to dedicate to iovatio ad experimetatio. With respect to curricular iovatio i geeral educatio, the Commissio readily ackowledges the obstacles to iovatio that reside i the structure ad culture of the cotemporary uiversity, ad i the orietatios of most faculty, studets, ad admiistrators. As oe alterative to the domiat structure of geeral educatio a sprawl of cafeteria-style breadth requiremets we recommed the creatio of structured iterdiscipliary budles of courses o timely itellectual ad applied issues, made available to studets as discrete, amed sets ad idetified as such o studets trascripts. ix

11 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y A N D R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S We also recommed extesio of ad improvemets i freshma-sophomore semiars, capstoe courses, problem-orieted courses offered by departmets, ad udergraduate ivolvemet i research. The Commissio highlights especially the eed for reewed attetio to civic educatio as part of geeral educatio. We idetify the ew dimesios ad problems of civic educatio i our rapidly chagig world ad the ecessary compoets of good civic educatio i a democracy. I light of this, we advocate that campuses itesify the civic experiece of studets i their collegiate years, specifically i the form of studet activities that combie civic egagemet with research ad reflective aalysis. The Commissio cosiders ext the difficulty for uiversities i goverig geeral educatio requiremets that studets take outside the uiversity from which they will graduate. This icludes two large ad icreasigly importat pheomea: the takig of advaced placemet (AP) courses i high school ad the trasfer of AP credits, ad the process of trasferrig to the uiversity after some experiece i commuity college or state-uiversity settigs. We recommed two strategies: first, that uiversities cotiue ad exted workig cooperatively with high schools ad feeder colleges to coordiate geeral educatio expectatios ad offerigs, ad, secod, that they exted ad improve their geeral educatio offerigs at the upper-divisio level. The Commissio sees implicatios for geeral educatio i the spread of ew techologies i higher educatio. They ca help improve educatioal quality, reduce costs, ad wide access. At the same time, they are o paacea, ad we idetify a umber of limits ad excesses that ucritical applicatio of ew techologies ca geerate. Improvig geeral educatio requires ot oly iitiatig structural chages but sustaiig a campus culture that supports geeral educatio. There is a eed to publicize geeral educatio s value ad, where possible, to reward the costituets ad idividuals ivolved i it. With this i mid, the Commissio addresses methods for iformig, supportig, ad ecouragig faculty, graduate studets, ad temporary faculty, as well as advisig staff, udergraduates, parets, chacellors ad presidets, ad alumi. Fially, while ackowledgig the difficulties of effective educatioal evaluatio, we recommed that campuses build i systematic machiery to evaluate geeral educatio courses ad programs i their various phases of developmet ad executio. x

12 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y A N D R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S The followig recommedatios are directed to the Uiversity of Califoria campuses i particular, but have implicatios for public ad private uiversities atiowide: 1. Campuses should systematize their commitmet to geeral educatio by re-castig ad extedig the role of chief udergraduate educatio officers. I particular, these positios should (a) be assured a cospicuous place, voice, ad role i the cetral admiistratio of campuses; (b) be give ample discretioary, reewable aual budgets ad other resources to promote courses ad programs i geeral educatio; ad (c) be protected, where appropriate, from routie admiistrative chores, i order to ehace opportuities for iitiative ad iovatio. (See Sectio 4: Itegratig Geeral Educatio ito the Fabric of the Uiversity.) 2. Campuses should give high priority to esurig appropriate icetive structures that eable faculty to participate i geeral educatio eterprises, thus easig a pricipal impedimet to faculty ivolvemet i geeral educatio. (See Sectio 4: Itegratig Geeral Educatio ito the Fabric of the Uiversity.) 3. As oe alterative to the cafeteria approach to geeral educatio whe studets choose a set of courses from a uwieldy list of geeral educatio courses campuses should develop a discrete umber of thematic, iterdiscipliary budles or sequeces of courses aroud substative ad timely topics. These packages could be cosidered a substitute for disciplie-based miors ad could receive full academic recogitio, so idicated o studets trascripts. Studets could select ay give thematic package volutarily, but oce selected, all of its costituet parts would be required. (See Sectio 5: Curricular Iovatio.) 4. Campuses should give the highest priority to advacig the civic educatio ad egagemet of their udergraduates. I particular, they should expad ad cosolidate courses ad programs that combie (a) studets voluteer, service, or political work; (b) istructio i the academic sigificace ad importace of that work; ad (c) idividual or group-based studet research related to their commuity ivolvemet. (See Sectio 6: Thikig through the Civic Dimesio.) 5. The Uiversity of Califoria ad its campuses should evaluate the implicatios of advaced placemet credit ad the academic work of trasfer studets for the geeral educatio of its studets. They should cooperate fully ad equally with high schools, commuity colleges, ad state uiversities, i order to safeguard the itegrity ad maximize the quality ad effectiveess of the geeral educatio of studets who sped oly part of their educatioal careers at the Uiversity. (See Sectio 7: Trasfer of Credits ad Trasfer Studets.) xi

13 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y A N D R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S 6. Admiistrators ad faculty should pursue applicatios of ew iformatio ad commuicatio techologies to ehace teachig ad learig, ad potetially lower costs ad icrease access to their istitutios. At the same time, admiistrators should assure that educatioal quality is ot iadvertetly sacrificed i the process. (See Sectio 8: New Techologies ad Geeral Educatio.) 7. Campus admiistrators ad faculty should actively ad cotiuously strive to educate all of their costituecies o the value, ratioale, ad goals of geeral educatio, ad make clear the opportuities for its pursuit o their campuses. Academic Affairs, as well as Studet Affairs, should egage i efforts to itegrate trasfer studets ito the uiversity, with specific course work desiged for trasfer studets (icludig oeuit courses modeled o freshma semiars). (See Sectio 9: Ecouragig a Culture that Supports Geeral Educatio.) 8. To assure the quality of geeral educatio, campuses should (a) establish machiery i their Academic Seate divisios dedicated to iitiatig, moitorig, ad reviewig geeral educatio courses, programs, ad experimets; ad (b) require desigers ad teachers i geeral educatio to provide statemets of the goals of their efforts, to specify meas of implemetig these goals, ad subject their work to periodic iteral ad exteral evaluatio. (See Sectio 10: Evaluatig Geeral Educatio Courses ad Programs.) xii

14 PROLOGUE Writig i 1867, Joh Stuart Mill oted that educatio was oe of the most iexhaustible of topics. 3 Several years later, he described his age as oe i which educatio, ad its improvemet, are the subject of more, if ot profouder, study tha at ay former period of Eglish history. 4 Mill was referrig to the ever-edig debates about British workig-class educatio shrouded i issues of religio ad class as well as public cocers about the performace of middle class schools ad the role of the historic public schools i the cultivatio of the atio s elite. I the first three-quarters of the cetury, these issues had cosumed more pages i the reports of Parliametary debates tha ay other subject save the Irish Questio. The history of America educatio is similarly wordy. Educators, politicias, ad the geeral public have all placed heavy demads o public educatio. Why should this be? Through its history, America educatio has bee asked to istill the values of republica virtue i the youg people of a youg atio, to assure literacy, to aid i the formatio of a competet ad civil workig class as the coutry idustrialized, to Americaize immigrats, to foster upward social mobility, ad to cotribute to great war efforts. I recet decades, educatio has bee both blessed ad burdeed with ew expectatios: to provide the Uited States with tools to catch up with ad surpass the Soviet Uio i space, to geerate the skills eeded for a ecoomy with a burgeoig service sector, to carry much of the weight of affirmative actio, ad to assure iteratioal ecoomic competitiveess. I effect, the istitutio has bee asked to provide the aswers for a host of social problems that it aloe caot realistically solve. This fact aloe would be sufficiet to breed disappoitmet ad repeated episodes of wordy recrimiatio. If we add particularly at the primary ad secodary levels that educatio ad teachers have ever bee accorded the resources or prestige that such great demads would seem to justify, the stage is fully set for a history of public ambivalece toward the educatioal system i the Uited States. We might exted this discouragig logic to the topic of geeral educatio i the atio s uiversities ad colleges. Later we will ote the multiple defiitios alog with the correspodigly multiple demads that have bee assiged this fuctio. We ote also the pulsatig but, o the whole, icreasig codematios of uiversities ad colleges for failig i their geeral educatio missios. We have see coutless aalyses, reports, ad articles i academic jourals that, i almost ritual repetitio: (a) bemoa the failures ad idetify the crisis of geeral educatio, (b) sig its praises i geeral xiii

15 P R O LO G U E terms, ad (c) call for its revitalizatio alog oe set of lies or aother. 5 We also witess a historical parade of reform efforts, most of which are short-lived, ad oe of which, either idividually or cumulatively, have maaged to stem the torrets of public criticism. Give this apparet compulsio for repetitio, we might legitimately ask: Why add yet aother report at this time? How worthwhile is it to add aother episode to the cycle of diagosis iovatio routiizatio, followed by reewed impatiece? We address this questio i the ext sectio. xiv

16 1 JUSTIFICATION The Commissio believes that there is ot oly justificatio but also urgecy i providig the best diagoses ad recommedatios about geeral educatio. We justify this belief as we respod to three questios: Why ow? Why cocetrate o public istitutios? Why give special saliece to Califoria s system? Why Now? The begiig of the 21 st cetury poses a qualitatively ew challege for geeral educatio ad merits a fudametal ad searchig iquiry. This challege is a complex oe, resultig from may developmets affectig higher educatio, icludig treds i the structure of America higher educatio itself, developmets i the exteral eviromet of higher educatio, chages i the ature of citize participatio, ew iformatio ad commuicatio techologies, ad icreased difficulty i creatig iterdiscipliary offerigs. We metio these five geeral developmets directly below, ad will elarge o some of them i subsequet sectios. 1. Treds i the orgaizatio ad culture of America educatioal istitutios. These treds are partly idepedet but partly coected with oe aother, ad have chaged the face of udergraduate educatio, icludig geeral educatio: i) Log-term cosolidatio of the culture of research i academia, ot oly i major research istitutios but also, to a lesser extet, i o-doctoral state istitutios ad liberal arts colleges. ii) Fifty years of heavy ivolvemet by the federal govermet i sposorig ad supportig large-scale research i uiversities, focusig maily o the atural ad life scieces. iii) Developmets that have led to icreasig vocatioalism of udergraduate educatio. This is reflected i the rise of educatio i egieerig, busiess, ad other techical ad professioal fields, ad the related shrikig of the percetage of liberal arts faculty at may uiversities. After 1970, studets erolled i traditioal arts ad scieces programs at four-year istitutios became out-umbered by studets i egieerig, busiess, computer sciece, commuicatio, ad other pre-professioal fields. Today, uiversities ad colleges also compete with corporatios that do i-house traiig ad with commercial educatioal vetures that udertake to develop occupatioal skills. There is a importat couter-curret: some accreditatio 1

17 S E C T I O N 1 orgaizatios, otably i egieerig, have grow isistet that professioal schools require more, ot less, geeral educatio. This is a rhetorical resource for advocates of geeral educatio that has ot yet received the attetio it deserves. iv) A subtle but profoud chage i curricular emphasis, with a eroded cosesus o (ad discomfort with) settig priorities for what costitutes ecessary geeral kowledge for udergraduates. Oe facet of this chage is the cotiued domiace of the cafeteria-izatio of course selectio. Aother facet of this chage is reflected i the cultural cotroversies over curricula of the 1980s, which geerated dissatisfactio with log-stadig priorities for geeral educatio ad disputes as to what should be regarded as the coutry s shared heritage. 2. Exceptioal chages i the eviromet of higher educatio. Several sigificat social chages have altered the eviromet for curriculum i higher educatio. These iclude otably: i) The cotiuig diversificatio of studets alog the lies of age, geder, social class, ethicity, race, religio, ad culture. ii) The cotiuig iterdepedece of the world icludig globalizatio with a icreased iteratioal flow of ideas, goods, capital, ad people. This icludes positive exchages that lead to collaboratio ad iovatio, as well as egative oes, such as the proliferatio of disease. iii) The ucertai future of the atio-state ad political democracy aroud the world. iv) Chagig forms of warfare, with the threat of iteratioal terrorism extedig idefiitely ito the future. v) Chagig ad icreasig demads for accoutability from legislatures ad accreditig orgaizatios, with a growig emphasis o measurable educatioal outcomes. Take together, these forces pose serious questios for colleges ad uiversities. How should a educated perso cofrot the radically altered circumstaces of the 21st cetury? What are the obligatios of these istitutios of higher educatio to prepare educated citizes through geeral educatio? 3. Chages i the ature of citizeship ad citize participatio. I recet decades, this coutry has see a declie i deferece to traditioal cultural authorities or, to put this more positively, a icrease i critical thought ad iquiry. This stems i part from the rapid expasio of higher educatio itself ad the reflective habits of mid that it is meat to ispire. It derives also from the civil rights movemet ad the may other movemets it ispired for advocatig a more iclusive, pluralistic, democratic society. A growig recogitio that the persoal is political has stretched covetioal otios of what the political is ad where ad how civic egagemet ca be practiced. A shift of may political issues from local to global referece has 2

18 S E C T I O N 1 also challeged a traditioal uderstadig of citizeship as primarily a matter of participatio i local ad atioal electios. If geeral educatio is regarded as a preparatio for civic egagemet, that egagemet ow makes ew ad differet demads o those istitutios that prepare the youg. 4. Chages i the delivery of educatio via ew iformatio ad commuicatio techologies. These chages offer both ew opportuities for teachig ad learig, efficiecy, ad access to iformatio, as well as challeges ad limitatios for istructio i colleges ad uiversities. 5. Cosolidatio of some structural ad orgaizatioal impedimets to iterdiscipliary educatio ad programs of geeral educatio. These iclude the orgaizatioal domiace of disciplie-based departmets, decetralizatio of curricular resposibility, budgetary traditios, ad the structure cetives. The cumulative weight of these developmets offers a compellig aswer to the questio of Why ow? ad calls out for a fudametal assessmet of collegiate geeral educatio. Why Focus o Public Istitutios? The questio Why public istitutios? deotes the focus of our report, but the word public is uavoidably imprecise ad demads clarificatio. We focus o the public sector for the reasos outlied below, but we believe that our diagoses ad recommedatios apply more widely. The mai types of istitutios we have i mid fall ito two categories: The discrete umber of public uiversities that have grow i size, selectivity, commitmet to excellece i research ad graduate traiig, ad saliece of professioal schools as well as some public uiversities that are strivig to grow i such a fashio. Some large, selective private uiversities that have also developed those characteristics, ad other private istitutios icludig some liberal arts colleges that strive to develop research ad creative activity by their faculties. Despite this public/private covergece, commitmet to liberal educatio i the Uited States remais more vital ad evidet i private uiversities. Over time, most of the oted geeral educatio iitiatives have bee implemeted i private istitutios, icludig the Harvard elective system as well as its Red Book geeral educatio iovatios, the core curriculum at the Uiversity of Chicago developed i the 1930s ad 1940s, ad the cotemporary civilizatio program at Columbia, which bega i The relative stregth of liberal educatio at private uiversities ca also be partially attributed to differig fiacial situatios faced by public ad private istitutios. Both private ad public istitutios have had their fiacial ups ad dows but, i geeral, 3

19 S E C T I O N 1 the privates have bee able to maitai more favorable studet-faculty ratios tha large public istitutios. I additio, because public uiversities rely o state fiacig, sustaied ad resource-rich programs of geeral educatio have proved more vulerable to vicissitudes i state budgets. I the secod half of the twetieth cetury, most public istitutios ad may large, research-orieted privates were trasformed by the burgeoig of graduate programs ad exterally fuded research. This has overshadowed the commitmet to udergraduate educatio at both public ad private uiversities. Four-year liberal arts colleges retai a geeral educatio emphasis i its purest form, ad state colleges ad uiversities (a historical outgrowth of the ormal schools) still regard themselves primarily as teachig istitutios; however, the values of scietific ad scholarly productivity ad the competitio for academic prestige (via research) have filtered ito both. Emphasis o udergraduate educatio over the last fifty years has dimiished most at large private ad public istitutios. By virtue of their ivolvemet i mass educatio, public istitutios are characterized by a larger proportio of studets who are ot residetial, by a larger proportio of studets who trasfer from commuity colleges ad four-year colleges, ad by higher rates of drop-out ad stop-out, ad lower graduatio rates tha private istitutios. Sequetial geeral educatio programs that assume the regular freshma-through-seior experiece are, accordigly, less viable i the publics tha i the privates. O all couts historical commitmet, massificatio of educatio, level of wealth, fiacial vicissitudes, distractio by competig missios, ad cotiuity of udergraduate experiece geeral educatio programs have faced, ad do face, much greater obstacles i the publics tha i the privates, ad their istitutioal health is correspodigly more fragile. Why Califoria? Withi this scope of idetified istitutios, we give greater emphasis to the Uiversity of Califoria system. Califoria has istitutioalized the largest, richest, ad arguably the most successful system of public higher educatio i the Uited States. Its istitutioal arragemets amog the commuity colleges, Califoria State Uiversities, ad the Uiversity of Califoria, embodied i the Master Pla of 1960, 6 have served as a model to be cosulted, if ot fully emulated, by other state ad atioal educatioal systems. As a system, the Uiversity of Califoria has bee remarkable for its level of idividual campus experimetatio i geeral educatio programs, as documeted i appedix A of this report. For these reasos, a systematic ad thorough assessmet of Califoria s uique situatio offers particular saliece ad ifluece. 4

20 S E C T I O N 1 For better or for worse, Califoria represets a dramatic case, oe i which the forces affectig higher educatio icludig geeral educatio programs are likely to be extreme i the comig decades. We refer to the crisis occasioed by the explosive icrease i college-age studets, ad the state s capacity to accommodate these umbers withi the cotext of the Master Pla. We refer also to Califoria s budgetary ups ad dows occasioed by treds i the state s ecoomy, fluctuatios that are likely to cotiue. Fially, we refer to the fact that Califoria is amog the leadig states i the presece ad growth of ethic ad racial miorities, ad i the resultat political complexities occasioed for higher educatio. I sum, Califoria s higher educatio system presets great potetial for iovatio ad leadership i educatioal programs. The system leds itself well to systematic assessmet of its educatioal missios ad will have relevace for the issues faced by systems of higher educatio atiowide. 5

21 2 CLEARING THE UNDERBRUSH: SOME DEFINITIONAL AND HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS The terms geeral educatio ad liberal educatio evoke a family of meaigs rather tha a sigle uiversal oe. For purposes of this report, the two terms will be used more or less iterchageably, although we will use liberal educatio to refer to a historic ideal to which a whole collegiate educatio should aspire. Geeral educatio will refer to a specific set of programs i America educatio iteded to offer a couter-balace to what is provided by a discipliary major. I this sese, liberal educatio refers to a educatioal ideal with roots i a traiig i classical laguages ad a getlemaly educatio offered i Europea ad America uiversities for ceturies, while geeral educatio refers specifically to aspiratios istitutioalized i 20th cetury America uiversities to preserve elemets of a liberal educatio i the face of the declie of a commo collegiate curriculum. I the cotext of the cotemporary America uiversity, the idea of geeral educatio represets a variety of overlappig emphases. It may refer to the importace of a set of commo texts or commo experieces i a world of icreasigly splitered, multiple, ad idividualized educatioal offerigs. Sometimes it emphasizes basic educatio a umber ad variety of courses that comprise a miimum field of kowledge ecessary for advaced work i may academic disciplies, as well as more geeral areas such as fudametals of writig, critical thikig, mathematics, ad courses related to civic resposibility. At other times, geeral educatio emphasizes breadth ad diversity as opposed to the specializatio for a discipliary major. I this regard, geeral educatio may be specifically iteded to itroduce studets to ways of thikig i a variety of disciplies. I additio, geeral educatio is ofte coflated with iterdiscipliary educatio, particularly whe a college or uiversity has a admiistrative structure that offers some autoomy to a set of courses ot offered by ay idividual departmet, but desiged explicitly to cross discipliary borders. Geeral educatio may also refer to the kowledge ad thikig required for civic ad social resposibility. Fially, propoets of geeral educatio avow that their aims caot be attaied by ay particular cotet of courses take, but oly by habits of mid that studets acquire regardless of course cotet. I a cotet-cetered model of geeral educatio, it may be more importat to read Shakespeare tha sciece fictio for a host of reasos. I additio to becomig acquaited with oe of the giats of the Wester literary cao, uderstadig Shakespeare requires kowledge of historical cotext ad a appreciatio 6

22 S E C T I O N 2 of how aesthetic stadards chage or remai the same over time. Moreover, eve a itroductory acquaitace with the classics puts the studet i touch with a culture shared broadly by educated members of society, thus brigig the studet ito that circle. I a habits-of-mid geeral educatio model, however, there is limited value i kowig eough Shakespeare to recogize that Bugs Buy is referrig to Hamlet whe he says, To be or ot to be, that is the questio. I this model, it is much more importat for a studet to acquire i literary studies whether studyig Shakespeare or J.K. Rowlig a ability to read critically, to read betwee the lies, to recogize how rhetoric ad argumet are deployed, ad to appreciate but also to resist the power of arrative or a tale well-told. What faculty hope to istill is the ability to geeralize from oe course or topic to the ext, to write fluetly ad critically, to master a body of material, ad to take a step beyod. They also hope to teach studets to commuicate logically about a commo body of evidece ad commo rules of iferece orally ad i writig, ad to lik scietific or humaistic materials that seem remote from oe aother ad from cotemporary civic ad social issues. 7 Faced with such a variety of meaigs, do we have to settle o oe? A egative defiitio is ot difficult: geeral educatio is the catch-all phrase that educators i higher educatio use to refer to those educatioal aspiratios of their istitutios that are ot claimed by departmets ad disciplies. A ecompassig positive defiitio may be more tetatively vetured: geeral educatio is the vehicle i higher educatio specifically focused o itroducig studets to ways of kowig, itegrative kowledge, appreciatio of historical cotext ad commo themes of huma experiece, social resposibility, civic (global ad local) egagemet, ad the developmet of practical skills ad reflective habits of mid. The aspiratios of higher educatio are by o meas cofied to educatio trasmitted by faculty i classroom settigs. For a cetury (ad with growig sophisticatio ad professioalizatio sice World War II), college educatio, particularly i, but ot restricted to, residetial colleges, has bee directed by both academic faculty ad by studet affairs persoel. These leaders coach sports teams; advise fraterities, sororities, ad a plethora of studet orgaizatios; orgaize ad supervise whether for academic credit or ot off-campus iterships; atted to studets religious, spiritual, ad psychological eeds; maitai residece halls as educatioal ceters i themselves; ad work with studets o, or pla for studets, a wide variety of o-credit educatioal activities whether lectures, moutai climbig trips, or film festivals. Fially, we caot forget the educatioal sigificace of iformal iteractio amog studets themselves outside formal academic settigs. Thus, while the particular cocer of this report is o the classroom side of geeral educatio, we ackowledge that liberal educatio expresses a ideal about educatig the whole perso, ad uiversities do ot etrust that resposibility exclusively to their academic faculty. 7

23 S E C T I O N 2 Historia Sheldo Rothblatt has suggested that the greatest sigificace about the history of the idea of a uiversity is that there has bee such a log search for a sigle pure ad edurig purpose for higher educatio. As Rothblatt observes, however, colleges ad uiversities over time have served a multiplicity of purposes, cotradictory, cofusig ad ambiguous. 8 Robert Hutchis described the uiversity as a set of schools ad departmets held together by a cetral heatig system ad Clark Kerr cosidered it a series of idividual faculty etrepreeurs held together by a commo grievace over parkig. 9 It should be clear that, like the idea of the uiversity itself, the defiitios ad goals of geeral educatio are ofte ambiguous ad difficult to pi dow. History As idicated, may curret educatioal scholars lamet what they see as the collapse of collegiate geeral educatio for private ad public istitutios alike. The Commissio subscribes either to this extreme diagosis or to its opposite that we have o cause for cocer. Throughout this report we will attempt to idetify both the stregths ad vulerabilities of geeral educatio as it exists i the 21st cetury. Although cotemporary images ad ideals of what colleges should be are derived from practices goig back hudreds of years, the specific cocer with geeral educatio programs dates oly to the late 19th cetury. Before that time, i the America traditio, colleges were desiged to cultivate a elite class, both for those reared i wealthy families ad for those from various raks i society who would take o leadership roles i the clergy ad other professios. Early colleges, goig back to Harvard i 1636, were hierarchical, udemocratic, ad faithful to a cocept of the uity of kowledge uder priciples of Christia morality. This view of the character of kowledge did ot chage radically util the ed of the 19th cetury. Vocatioal traiig, apart from preparatio for the clergy, did ot play a importat role. Egieerig, law, ad medicie were taught through appreticeship rather tha classroom istructio. Where there was classroom istructio, it was frequetly i idepedet, proprietary schools uaffiliated with o-profit colleges. Early America colleges rarely lived up to their liberal billig or provided a educatio to deepe ad refie the capacity for sigificace respose, i Raymod Williams defiitio of liberal educatio. 10 Richard Hofstadter s portrait of the old college is probably o the mark: it was sectaria; pateralistic; uder-fuded; iterested i character at the expese of itellect; resistat to teachig sciece, social sciece, or moder laguages ad literatures; ad edlessly devoted to recitatio as a method of teachig that could deade the most iterestig subjects ad covert faculty me of geuie itellectual ad scholarly distictio ito drillmasters. 11 Util the middle of the ieteeth cetury, most istitutios of higher educatio, whether religious or secular, were private, although the distictio betwee private ad public istitutios was less clear-cut tha it is today. Harvard ad Yale received state subsidies 8

24 S E C T I O N 2 ad icluded govermet officials o their goverig boards while early state uiversities, begiig i the South at the ed of the 18th cetury, had self-perpetuatig goverig boards ad istalled classical curricula that resembled those of private istitutios. All catered to the elite ad well-to-do, ad may had the missio of cultivatig future political ad commuity leaders. Istructio was domiated by the humaities, classics, philosophy, ad history, though mathematics ad sciece had roles as well. All of this chaged dramatically i the late 19th cetury. Oe vital developmet still ot fully assimilated ito leadig histories of higher educatio was the expasio of public higher educatio after the Morrill Act of Public higher educatio from that time forward embraced the goals of vocatioal educatio ad service to the practical eeds of society. Educatio i agriculture, techology, egieerig, ad teacher traiig became importat elemets of the public uiversity. State uiversities established or icorporated law schools, medical schools ad, somewhat later, busiess schools, jouralism schools, ad others. I the meatime, chages i the 1870s ad after were also rapid ad far-reachig i the leadig private istitutios. With the explosio of scietific kowledge ad challeges to a religio-based cocept of the world, there was a shift from a view that educatio trasmits specific cotet to a view that schoolig teaches a set of processes, methods, ad attitudes i the acquisitio of kowledge. This shift i view resulted i a radical chage i the curriculum, from a emphasis o a prescribed set of courses capped with a fial course i Christia ethics to a sese that kowledge of the world was growig, chagig, ad pluralistic. With the establishmet of Johs Hopkis Uiversity i 1876, this ew coceptio of kowledge was coupled with a growig idetificatio of uiversities with research. At the udergraduate level, i the same era, Harvard iitiated ad other uiversities quickly adopted the elective system as a basic curricular priciple. Early i the 20th cetury, i reactio to the shapelessess of the elective system, most colleges adopted a bled of cocetratio (or a major ) ad distributio i the curriculum. Eve so, the elective priciple was by the well established, ad held that the faculty should have the freedom to teach what it wated ad studets should have the freedom to take the classes they preferred. The elective system made sese i a world of growig religious skepticism, growig prestige for scietific research, ad growig iterest i the Germa model of a research uiversity that The Johs Hopkis Uiversity imported. I this ew world, where Christia-based moral philosophy o loger was a urivaled claimat for defiig the college experiece, differet areas of kowledge each made bids to be the cetral moral elemet i college educatio. The scieces claimed that a ew moral disciplie emerged i the acquisitio of scietific kowledge a critical mid, a skeptical itellect, ad a itesely difficult set of cocepts ad accumulatio of facts that required metal ad 9

25 S E C T I O N 2 moral disciplie to master. As college educators saw studets fall away from orgaized religio refusig to atted daily chapel, for istace the appeal of sciece as moral disciplie, liked to democracy ad to the absece of prejudice, grew stroger. 12 The social scieces claimed ot oly to iform studets of the social world aroud them, but also to equip them with tools to determie how society s problems might be solved. I this way, the social scieces also offered to reitegrate academic kowledge aroud a priciple of morality, a loosely Christia priciple of social reform o behalf of the people least advataged i a society. Fially, the humaities made claim by the 1910s ad 1920s that i a world where both sciece ad social sciece isisted o the eutrality of fact ad the detachmet of the ivestigator s ow values ad prefereces from the cotet of ivestigative work oly the humaities cotiued a educatio of character through a direct examiatio of ad growig sophisticatio about the moral life of the huma beig. As historia Julie Reube argues, the developig idetity of the humaities was closely related to the efforts to fid a secular substitute for religiously-based moral educatio ad to the adoptio of the idea that sciece was morally eutral. 13 Elemets of all of these claims survive. They compete with a variety of other claims that urge a set of specific requiremets o the cotemporary studet ad like the claims of the scieces, social scieces, ad humaities are justified implicitly or explicitly as moral obligatios. There are requiremets desiged to prepare studets for life i a globalizig world, or for life i a multi-ethic, pluralistic America society, or for life i a world where scietific ad techological developmets are uusually ifluetial. Early 20th cetury curricular reform sought to curb the excesses of elective educatio. It did ot seek to restore a stadardized curriculum but, as Reube explais, to modify the elective system to reduce the arbitrariess of the average studet s educatio. It idetified the college as a distict etity withi the uiversity ad brought back otios of character formatio as a key goal of college educatio. 14 Rarely did this lead to a core curriculum or a strog otio of geeral educatio. Faculty by the 1920s were fully committed to specializatio i their disciplies ad did ot wat to teach geeral educatio courses. But, i the 1910s ad 1920s, reformers settled o cocetratio ad distributio requiremets as a brake o the elective priciple. This tured out to be a edurig reform that remais at the heart of the curriculum i most America colleges ad uiversities to this day. 15 More dramatic efforts to create a core curriculum or a commo body of study for all studets achieved partial success at Columbia Uiversity, the Uiversity of Chicago ad, after World War II, Harvard. But these efforts teded to become distictive ad very partial features of a few istitutios rather tha iovatios that were widely adopted across higher educatio. At the preset time, the domiat picture at public ad private uiversities throughout the Uited States is oe that focuses o the major alog with some requiremets for breadth. 10

26 3 STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF THE ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES We cotiue our diagosis of the decisive features of the eviromet for geeral educatio by turig to the cotemporary structure of higher educatio. We cocetrate o major research istitutios, where the forces we idetify are i clearest evidece. The Structure of Academic Departmets For more tha a cetury, the disciplie-based academic departmet has bee the backboe of the America uiversity ad college system. It is the primary uit of Colleges of Letters ad Scieces (or Arts ad Scieces), which are, i tur, the largest ad most pivotal uits for udergraduate educatio. Typically, departmets are amed after academic disciplies such as physics, psychology, or history, ad are ihabited by faculty members who idetify themselves by those disciplies, callig themselves ot college professors but physicists, psychologists, ad historias. The departmetal structure has proved remarkably stable, though ew departmets (for example, biophysics) are added whe ew ad viable areas of kowledge emerge, ad sometimes wholesale realigmets are made (as i the recet history of the biological scieces). Icreasigly, iterdiscipliary ad group majors have come to supplemet the academic disciplies, but these are ofte composites of departmetal offerigs ad have ot replaced disciplie-based departmets as the core structural uits of the college ad uiversity system. Academic departmets are cetral to the itellectual, orgaizatioal, budgetary, ad curricular structure of colleges ad uiversities. Each departmet has a iteral admiistratio of its ow, comprised of graduate ad udergraduate curriculum committees, persoel committees, admissios committees, ad others. These departmets are the career homes for their costituet faculty members, i that the departmet is the poit of iitiatio for recommedatios to appoit, promote, ad advace faculty. (These recommedatios are reviewed ad made fial or reversed at higher admiistrative levels.) I major research istitutios, the departmet divides its teachig betwee graduate ad udergraduate istructio, ad the departmet chair oversees each ad arrages maily through persuasio the teachig schedules of his or her colleagues. Through the graduate degree programs, the departmet trais future professioals of their ow desig. 11