Changes in ISU Education Requirements
The switch from general education goals to objectives caused some confusion for Idaho State University students. Central Academic Advising Director JoAnn Hertz spoke on the new changes.
“Students need to figure out which catalog year is going to be most beneficial to them, and how to do that is work with an adviser,” said Hertz.
The catalog year system works by letting the student and his or her adviser choose any catalog from the time they’ve started college, or eight years before the student graduates. This means that if it takes a student nine years to graduate, the student cannot choose the catalog from their first year.
“Students always think they have to get a new catalog every year, but they don’t,” said Hertz.
The new objective system consists of nine objectives. The areas included are written English, spoken English, mathematics, humanities, natural science, behavioral science, critical thinking, information literacy and cultural diversity. Students have a choice between the critical thinking and information literacy goals.
To complete the general education requirements, a student must have 36 general education credits. If a student has completed all the goals but does not have 36 credits, he or she can choose classes from any of the objectives.
In the objectives, the science requirement is now that students must have two lecture sciences and one lab, whereas under the older goals system students needed a biological science and a physical science and both of the respective labs.
Under the new system, if a student takes Structure of Arithmetic for Elementary school teachers, MATH 2256, or Structure of Geometry and Probability for Elementary School Teachers, MATH 2257, which are designed for Elementary Education majors, but then the student changes to a history major, or fine arts major that don’t require math, those classes will still count toward the mathematics general education requirements.
Under the new changes there are no Bachelors of Science or Bachelors of Arts there are only bachelor’s degrees. If a department wants to make their program a Bachelors of Art or Science those extra classes must be included in the major-specific requirements.
