Comprehensive Full-Time Undergraduate Curriculum Review

Working Group on General Education
The Working Group on General Education will focus on the mechanisms by which Saint Joseph’s University will ensure that its students get the broad education required in the 21st Century. It should consider how much of the University’s curriculum should be devoted to General Education (as opposed to the Major and/or Divisional Core requirements) as well as what form this portion of the curriculum should take.

For the most current version of the GEP and for ease of reading, try this hyperlinked GEP version. You'll need your SJU login.

Results of faculty poll on the GRE, from October 2007, in PDF and MSWord formats.

Notes from open discussions in fall of 2007 are here:
Sept 13 notes
Sept 19 notes
Sept 27 version 1, Sept 27 version 2 , Sept 27 version 3

The 9/25/06 draft of the Working Group's report is available in MSWord format and as a PDF file. Appendix B showing the sample majors is in separate files, also in MSWord and PDF formats.

Some of the responses of discussion groups that met October 18 2006 are collated here; you will need your SJU login to view them.

A revision to the report including altered requirements and course descriptions was released in March 2007 and is available here in PDF format.

Composition of Working Group (10 members):
One faculty member from each division
One member from the Jesuit community
Two student representatives – one from CA&S; one from HSB
Two members from the Comprehensive Curriculum Review Steering Committee
One representative from the library

Specific Tasks:

Formulate a statement concerning the necessity of having a General Education component in the curriculum.
Define the purpose of the General Education Requirements (GER), as currently practiced and as they might be handled in a revised curriculum, including desired outcomes and how these outcomes will be achieved.
Define General Education Requirements? Should a General Education Requirement be defined in terms of competences to be gained or as course to be successfully completed or in some other way? If defined in terms of a course to be completed, what makes a GER course distinctive?
Consider the nature of courses in the GER, specifically the issue of core vs. distributional requirements. Should the GER contain core courses which are common to all students? If so, what should these core courses be?
Should the GER contain distributional courses which allow for student choice within specific areas of study (e.g., natural sciences; social sciences)? If so, in which areas should distributional requirements be specified?
Under our current curriculum, divisions and/or majors may specify particular courses which must be taken to fulfill a particular distributional requirement (e.g., HSB students must take ECN 101-102 to satisfy two of the Social Science distributional requirements). Is this good practice to limit student choice as to how to fulfill a distributional requirement?
Define the role of “free” electives in the GER.
Describe how the GER can address the issues of student engagement, rigor in the curriculum, and pedagogy.
Consider the extent to which and how the Jesuit Catholic identity of the University should be reflected in the GER.