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› Reduce...reduce…reduce
› Allocation model
 Student tuition
 Universities
› Question value of degree from BSU

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› Providing technology-based delivery?
› Admitting all students who want to attend, even those who are less prepared? (Conditional admits at
BSU hover around 20%)
› Increasing diversity of student body


› From parents
› Accrediting bodies
› Legislatures

 Minnesota Transfer Curriculum
› Liberal education program needs to be transfer compliant
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Excludes disciplines deemed more vocational in their orientation (Exclusion is unevenly applied)
› Problems
 No inherent unity or integration to courses
 Lacks cohesive educational philosophy
 Fragmented/disconnected
 Students do not get why these courses are important
 Students lack sense of how connects to major
 Faculty often have little desire to teach

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› Recent AAC&U survey of employers findings
 Critical thinking, communication, problem-solving skills.
These are more important than the major
 Need more emphasis on essential learning outcomes so that are promotable beyond entry level

• Essential learning outcomes:
 Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world
 Personal and social responsibility
 Intellectual and practical skills including
 Integrative and applied learning

 Key programmatic features (AAC&U)
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Orientation to intellectual expectations, curricular rationale, institutional learning resources
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Critical thinking and writing found across the curriculum
› Learn about another culture and diversity within own culture
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Integrate ideas from across disciplines (e.g., themes)
› Study some subjects (GenEd) at advanced levels
› Opportunity to pull learning together
› Coherent course of study; more than sum of parts

 The BSU Faculty Senate charges the Liberal Education
Committee with developing a distinctive, integrative Liberal
Education Program based upon the principles of the American
Association of Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) LEAP (Liberal
Education and America’s Promise) initiative and High Impact
Practices, and making a formal recommendation to the BSU
Faculty Senate by February 2014.
 Understandings:
› Monthly updates will be shared with the BSU Faculty Senate and broadly disseminated for faculty input.
› The new program will meet the needs of students transferring into and out of Bemidji State University and will be compliant with the
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum.
› An assessment plan will be a part of the formal recommendation.

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OR
To provide a foundation that cultivates intentional learners empowered through intellectual and practical skills, informed by knowledge and prepared to meet the personal, civic, and professional challenges of a rapidly changing world.
 To provide intentional learning environments that empower students with the knowledge, skills and habits necessary for continued personal enrichment and a life of individual, professional and civic engagement in an ever-changing world.