A proposal to do away with University of Illinois Springfield’s requirements that all students take classes on diversity, inequality and social responsibility may have been defeated, but disagreements remain over how the curriculum should be administered.
The March 25 online meeting of the Campus Senate will be the next opportunity for considering solutions to complaints about the process that decides which classes qualify for credit in UIS’ Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) curriculum.
“There’s an attempt to find a compromise,” said Celest Weuve, chairwoman of the senate who is an associate professor and chairs the Department of Allied Health.
The ECCE curriculum’s concepts are important to retain as requirements for all undergraduates at UIS, she said, but the senate appears interested in broadening the types of courses students can take within their majors to qualify for ECCE credit.
The senate debated several proposals in recent months that would make changes in the curriculum, a three-course requirement that has been in place for more than a decade at UIS and is now being emulated at many universities across the country.
Some UIS faculty members say the faculty group deciding which classes qualify for ECCE credit has been biased in favor of liberal arts courses. These educators would like to see the faculty group broadened or the system for awarding ECCE credit changed.
Additional classes that students must take outside their majors to satisfy the ECCE requirement can add costs and hinder UIS’ efforts to recruit students to academic programs outside the humanities, ECCE critics say.
The Campus Senate decides on general education requirements, and a majority of campus senators voted to stop an early proposal that would have eliminated ECCE requirements.
The senate, made up of faculty and student members, then voted overwhelmingly Feb. 18 to halt progress on accounting professor Frank Nation’s proposal to let individual colleges within UIS – rather than the campus-wide faculty group – decide which classes qualify for ECCE credit.
Nation’s resolution was seen as diluting the program, Weuve said.
The senate now is considering other resolutions, one of which would create a broader campus-wide committee to rule on which courses receive ECCE accreditation. The panel would include representatives from all four UIS colleges – Business and Management; Education and Human Services; Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Public Affairs and Administration.
Nation said this proposal could work to reduce bias in granting ECCE credit. He said he doesn’t favor a different proposal that would send the issue to a campus committee for further consideration. That plan could delay progress toward a solution to a problem that began three years ago, he said.
Weuve said she would like to see the divisive matter resolved so the senate can move on to other issues.
Kristi Barnwell, a UIS associate professor of history and supporter of the ECCE program, said she is relieved that debate about eliminating the curriculum has subsided.
“There was definitely a will on campus to keep ECCE,” she said.
Lilian Georgiou, a UIS history major in her junior year, told senators Feb. 18 that the ECCE curriculum should be retained and not weakened. She said the curriculum “is a major force encouraging students to become more engaged with the study of humanity and to cultivate community across disciplines.”
At a time when societal divisions are rampant, she asked, “Should you really do away with a program which holds as its goals addressing racial bias and expanding students’ understanding of international and global affairs? …. Surely, in the current world in which we live, any program that encourages critical thinking is necessary.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.edu or 217-679-7810.
This article appears in Overcoming the odds.
