The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) has recently instituted a new General Education Program (Gen Ed) for first-year students admitted for the fall of 2004. The new program was crafted over the summer by a committee that included members from HSS and other colleges. Dr. Kristina Straub, associate dean of HSS, headed the committee.

The Gen Ed program is a series of classes required of all HSS students designed to expose them to the diverse courses of study available within the University. The old Gen Ed program was in effect for ten years, but for the past two years, administrators had discussed updating it. They chose this time to update it to coincide with the institution of the University's new course catalog.

HSS Associate Dean Joseph Devine said, "We did not think that it was broken; it's just a good thing to periodically evaluate it."

According to Devine, the old Gen Ed program was geared toward the existing strengths of HSS, while the new requirements include more interdisciplinary courses. The new system is not radically different in principle from the old one, butis structured differently. Devine feels the new requirements will provide a more diverse cross-section of the colleges and will better suggest the interdisciplinary feel that Carnegie Mellon advertises. For example, the Communicating: Language and Interpretations category features English, philosophy, and language courses. The language courses were moved from the Creative Production and Reflection category of the former Gen Ed requirements.

Under the old Gen Ed program, students were required to take courses in each of six categories: Cognition, Choice, and Behavior; Economic, Political, and Social Institutions; Creative Production and Reflection; Cultural Analysis; Mathematical Reasoning; and Science and Technology. In addition to these Distributional Course Requirements (DCRs), students also had to fulfill three Common Course Requirements (CCRs): Introduction to World History, Statistical Reasoning and Practice, and Interpretation and Argument.

The new Gen Ed Program has a similar purpose, but goes further in its attempt to expose students to disciplines outside HSS. Students are still required to take Introduction to World History, Statistical Reasoning and Practice, and Interpretation and Argument, but must also choose courses from new categories: Communicating: Language and Interpretations, Reflecting: Societies and Cultures, Modeling: Mathematics and Experiments, Deciding: Social Sciences and Values, and Creating: Designs and Productions. Students may choose from over 20 different classes — not limited to HSS — in each category. Rather than having two years to complete 13 classes, first-years will have four years to complete 15 classes. 

HSS senior Joanna White is wary of the new program: "I don't think that [having four years to finish Gen Eds instead of two] is a good idea, only because it might give some freshmen the idea that they can wait to finish them."

For HSS junior Brian Gray, the old DCRs helped him whittle down his many interests to form one major, even if the range of classes was limited. Gray finds that the new program is not that different from the old one, but enjoys the fact that it gives more choices and room for customization.

The new Gen Ed program takes permanent effect this semester. Future plans may include instituting more university-wide General Education requirements outside of Interpretation and Argument and Computing Skills Workshop. Another possibility is for other colleges at Carnegie Mellon to adapt their own General Education requirements to this model.