1. Assessment. The university will begin gathering student assessment data as follows:

During the fall semester of 2003 and the spring semesters of 2004 and 2005, the university will use the CollegeBASE national general education examination as one component of a "prototype assessment system" for General Education., including Basic Skills.

(i) In the fall of 2003, WSU will use CollegeBASE to test samples of approximately 200 students in each of the following groups:

(a) incoming freshmen;
(b) students starting their junior year (defined as students who have completed between 48 and 60 hours) who have taken all their Basic Skills courses at WSU; and
(c) students about to graduate.

Students who have taken some or all of their Basic Skills courses in high school as "concurrent enrollment" will not be included in the samples if they would constitute more than ten percent of the total sample in a category. Appropriate sampling to assure randomness will be the responsibility of the administrator.

(ii) In the spring of 2004, the university will use CollegeBASE to test a sample of approximately one fourth of all the students who are have completed between 48 and 90 credit hours.

(iii) In the spring of 2005, the University will use CollegeBASE to test a sample of approximately one half of all the students who are have completed at least 48 credit hours. 

Since CollegeBASE does not assess all aspects of General Education, additional assessment procedures may be developed by the WSU community or appropriate assessment instruments or procedures developed outside the university may be recommended for use by the university. Recommendations for the use of additional assessment instruments or procedures will be submitted to the Faculty Senate Executive committee, who may bring forward recommendations for additions to the "prototype assessment system". The General Education committee, the General Education coordinator, the College of Fine Arts and the Elliott School are specifically urged to consider this opportunity.Any additions to the "prototype assessment system" must be approved by the Faculty Senate. Approved additions shall be used following the same schedule as for CollegeBASE (i.e. fall semester of 2003 and the spring semesters of 2004 and 2005).

By February 1, 2006. the University will adopt by vote of the faculty a comprehensive assessment system for assessing the General Education program, including Basic Skills. This system will consist of some or all of the following components:

(i) a nationally normed examination,
(ii) interviews with students,
(iii) student portfolio assessment,
(iv) other assessment procedures together with established criteria for satisfying each component of the assessment system; successful completion of the assessment system shall require the satisfaction of each of its components.

Beginning in the 2006-7 academic year, this assessment system will be used by all Wichita State University undergraduate students who have completed at least 48 hours in university credit (including transfer credit) and have not successful completed this assessment.  Beginning with the 2007-8 academic year, any student who was required to use the university assessment system in the previous academic year but failed to do so will not be allowed to enroll in courses at WSU until the student has used the assessment system. 

Beginning with the 2007-8 academic year, successful completion of the university assessment system will be a requirement for receiving any  undergraduate degree from Wichita State University. 

2. Transfer Credit. Each department has the sole responsibility for determining if a specific course offered at another institution can be accepted for the purpose of transfer credit as being equivalent to a course offered by said department.  Neither an advisor, administrator nor other individual in a college office is entitled to determine the equivalence of courses for the purpose of transfer. Each department is responsible for maintaining, reviewing and revising the information contained in WSU Transfer Guides. 

Beginning with the 2003-4 academic year, college advisors,  administrators and other individuals in any college or university administrative office may not make substitutions in the general education program (e.g. courses listed as Further Studies courses may not be used as Introductory courses, courses not approved as General Education courses may not be used as Basic Skills, Introductory, Further Studies or Issues and Perspectives courses) without the explicit approval of the General Education committee and the appropriate department(s).  

Every three years, each department at Wichita State University shall review every course offered by another institution and listed as being equivalent to a course offered by said department in a WSU Transfer Guide. Each year a subset of the external courses listed in a WSU Transfer Guide shall be reviewed by the appropriate departments; ideally this subset should consist of approximately one third of these external courses. In consultation with the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee, the Offices of Academic Affairs and the Registrar shall devise and implement a procedure to assist Departments in conducting these reviews; in particular, this procedure shall include the timely notification of departments of upcoming reviews, a process for obtaining course, instructor or other information required by a department to conduct its review, and assistance with other issues related to these reviews. 

3. Course Levels/Numbering. Each department has the sole responsibility for assigning course levels (e.g. 300 level courses) to specific courses offered in their respective curricula. Each department shall work with the university or college level curriculum committee to properly address and resolve any conflicts arising from inconsistencies in course numbering between WSU and other institutions. 

Conflicts associated with course numbering arising from the transfer equivalence process should not be resolved individually by advisors.  These conflicts should be brought to the attention of the chair of the advisor's college curriculum committee, who in turn should work with the appropriate department and the General Education committee to resolve the issue.

4. Basic Skills. All Basic Skills requirements of the General Education program must be met by undergraduates enrolled in a Wichita State University bachelors or associate degree program within their completion of the first 48 credits toward the degree. Students who do not meet this requirement will be allowed to complete the Basic Skills requirement in the first Fall or Spring semester of enrollment subsequent to their having reached the 48 credit plateau. Students who transfer to the University with at least 48 credit hours earned from an accredited institution but who have not completed the Wichita State University's Basic Skills requirements shall have two semesters of enrollment from their first enrollment to pass Basic Skills classes with the required C-or-better grade. Students who fail to pass Basic Skills classes in a timely fashion as defined above shall not be permitted further enrollment at the University except for enrollment in the Basic Skills courses. 

5. The Issues and Perspectives course requirement shall be eliminated and the total number of credit hours required for the general education program shall be reduced by three. Students shall instead be required to take a three, four or five credit hour "Capstone" course; this graduation requirement would apply to all students, independent of where they took their general education courses, and this requirement would apply to all students entering WSU under the Fall, 2006 catalog. Two types of Capstone courses are possible, as indicated in the requirements listed later. An example of the one type ((viii)-(a) below) might be a departmental seminar with appropriate requirements of students;  several of our existing Issues and Perspectives courses might serve as examples of the other type ((viii)-(b)). One department might wish to designate a specific course as a required departmental capstone course while another department might accept any university capstone course or any cross-disciplinary capstone course. In order for a course to be listed as a capstone course, the General Education committee would need to evaluate the course and agree to this designation.

6. Communications. The Basic Skills requirement shall consist of one Math course and two English courses as now plus one additional course. A substantial portion of this fourth course shall deal with oral communication skills. The faculty of each College (each Division of LAS) shall decide on an appropriate course for its students or shall allow each department in the College (Division of LAS) to select a course for its majors. This course should normally be a course offered by the Elliott School or a new course developed in consultation with the Elliott School; a course which is not offered by the Elliott school shall require the  approval of the General Education Committee.  

Beginning with the 2006-7 academic year, each Basic Skills course shall be assessed by the university assessment system in a manner which can be fairly applied to all undergraduate students, including transfer students; course grades may not be used as a part of the assessment procedure. Courses which cannot meet this assessment requirement may not be approved or listed as Basic Skills courses.

7. Focus/Identity In order to achieve a broad-based general education program with depth and focus, a reduction in the number of courses approved as Introductory or Further Studies courses is required. The numbers and distribution of Introductory and Further Studies courses required of students shall remain unchanged. Each discipline which currently offers Introductory courses shall be limited to offering one Introductory course per College or LAS Division in which it offers credit. (Notice, as illustrations, that Anthropology offers Introductory courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions of LAS and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics contains two distinct disciplines). Exceptions to this numerical limit may be considered by the General Education committee but no department may be approved to offer more than two distinct Introductory courses. The maximum number of Further Study courses allowed in each department shall be three and each of of these courses shall have an Introductory course offered by that department as  prerequisite. The General Education committee shall not have the authority to allow exceptions to this numerical limit.

Definition of the requirements to be an Introductory course:
Each Introductory course must
    (i) provide an overview of the multiple facets of a discipline,
    (ii) meet one general education goal,
    (iii) provide students with at least one outcome of the general education program,
    (iv) include the across-the-curriculum components (e.g. math, reading, speech) of the general education program and
    (v) incorporate the general education goal and outcome(s) noted in (ii) & (iii) in the course assessment (e.g. grading) process.

Definition of the requirements to be an Further Studies course:
Each Further Studies course shall
    (i) have an Introductory course in the same discipline as a prerequisite,
    (ii) use this Introductory course as the basis for an in depth study of one aspect of the discipline,
    (iii) meet one general education goal,
    (iv) provide students with at least one outcome of the general education program,
    (v) include the across-the-curriculum components (e.g. math, reading, speech) of the general education program and
    (vi) incorporate the general education goal and outcome(s) noted in (iii) & (iv) in the course assessment (e.g. grading) process.

Definition of the requirements to be a Capstone course:
Each Capstone course shall
    (i) offer students intellectual perspectives directed toward the development of specific skills by exploring challenging subjects, ideas, issues and perspectives,
    (ii) meet one general education goal,
    (iii) provide students with at least one outcome of the general education program,
    (iv) require students to demonstrate general proficiency in the areas of library research, writing, speech, math and critical thinking,
    (v) have been successfully offered as a regular (not experimental or topics) courses previously,
    (vi) produce "products" (e.g. seminar paper, video taped oral presentation) which are amenable to assessment by the General Education committee,
    (vii) incorporate the general education goal and outcome(s) noted in (ii) & (iii) in the course assessment (e.g. grading) process, and
    (viii) follow one of two possible models;

(a) the first model stays within disciplinary boundaries, encourages students to obtain a broad perspective of the discipline and prepares students to   use skills obtained through the general education program to communicate ideas from the discipline to a wide audience and

(b) the second model offers intellectual perspectives obtained by following a common theme or concept across disciplinary boundaries and prepares students to use skills obtained through the general education program to communicate to a wide audience the perspective(s) obtained through crossing disciplinary boundaries and working creatively and productively as part of a team.