Millersville University, Faculty Senate
General Education Curriculum
Program Review
May 1996
III. Costs of the Program
A. The former General Education curriculum required sixty-two credits,
including:
1. English 110: English Composition (3 credits)
2. Communications 100 (3 credits)
3. Fifteen credits in the division of Humanities and Fine Arts
4. Fifteen credits in the division of Social Sciences
5. Fifteen credits in the division of Science and Mathematics,
including one laboratory science course
6. Four credits of Health and Physical Education, including a one-credit
swimming course.
In addition, the following constraints were imposed.
a. None of these courses could be within the major.
b. Two courses must be taken in one department in each division.
c. No more than 2 courses may be taken in one department to fulfill
requirements 3, 4, 5.
d. Only four General Education courses can be required related
courses.
e. Additional courses ("electives"), as necessary, to bring the General
Education total to 62 credits. These courses could not be required related
courses.
B. The current General Education curriculum requires fifty-four credits,
distributed as follows.
1. English 110: English Composition (3 credits)
2. Communications 100 (3 credits)
3. Four courses in the division of Humanities and Fine Arts (12
credits)
4. Four courses in the division of Social Sciences (12 credits)
5. Four courses in the division of Science and Mathematics,
including one laboratory science course (12 credits)
6. Three credits of Health and Physical Education
7. One upper-level composition course (3 credits)
8. Two Perspectives courses (6 credits), of which one can be from the
major department
In addition, the following constraints are imposed.
a. Except for one perspectives course, none of these courses can be
within the major.
b. Two courses must be taken in one department in each division.
c. No more than 2 courses may be taken in one department to fulfill
requirements 3, 4, 5.
d. Only four General Education courses can be required related
courses.
e. Four courses must be designated as "W" (writing) courses; any of these
can be courses in the major.
f. Four courses must be at the 200-level or above.
g. Four courses must have either a significant communications component
("C") or a significant quantitative reasoning component ("Q").
h. One course must deal principally with the learning of quantitative
techniques ("QARC").
The current General Education Program requires the following.
1. English 110: English Composition (3 credits)
2. Communications 100 (3 credits)
3. Four courses in the division of Humanities and Fine Arts
4. Four courses in the division of Social Sciences
5. Four courses in the division of Science and Mathematics,
including one laboratory science course
6. One upper-level composition course
7. Three credits of Health and Physical Education
8. Two Perspectives courses
In addition, the following requirements must be satisfied.
a. Two courses must be taken in one department in each division.
b. No more than 2 courses may be taken in one department to fulfill
requirements 3, 4, 5.
c. Four courses must be designated as "W" (writing) courses.
d. Four courses must be at the 200-level or above.
e. Four courses must have either a significant communications component
or a significant quantitative reasoning component.
f. One course must deal principally with the learning of quantitative
techniques.
The former General Education Program required sixty-two credits, including
the following.
1. English 110: English Composition (3 credits)
2. Communications 100 (3 credits)
3. Fifteen credits in the division of Humanities and Fine Arts
4. Fifteen credits in the division of Social Sciences
5. Fifteen credits in the division of Science and Mathematics,
including one laboratory science course
6. Four credits of Health and Physical Education, including a one-credit
swimming course
In addition, the following requirements must be satisfied.
a. Two courses must be taken in one department in each division.
b. No more than 2 courses may be taken in one department to fulfill
requirements 3, 4, 5.
To assess the costs of the present General Education curriculum, we shall
compare the cost of the former curriculum to the cost of the present
curriculum. In each case, we shall determine the cost for a student who just
satisfies the requirements. We shall assume in addition, that each student
can meet the "additional" requirements (the "lettered" entries above) in
the course of satisfying the principal requirements (the "numbered"
entries above). Because any statement of costs in dollars would be affected
by inflation, seniority of faculty, etc., the cost is measured in faculty
contact hours per student. For example, if a faculty member meets for one
hour with a class of twenty (20) students, the cost of providing that faculty
member for each student is1/20 (= 0.05) faculty contact hour.
We use average class sizes for each category: from the 1988-89 academic year
for the former curriculum, and from the 1994-95 academic year for the present
curriculum. Below each academic year are four columns: (1) the required
credits of that type of course, (2) the average class size of each type of
course, (3) the faculty contact hours per student-credit (fh/sc), and (4) the
product of the first and third columns (the "cost" of this requirement).
To obtain the third number (fh/sc), the number of faculty contact hours
needed to teach each section (3 in the case of all 3-credit courses, 6 in the
case of the 4-credit laboratory science courses) is divided by the average
class size times the number of credits. The very last column ("fixed
cost") is the cost of each requirement (in faculty contact hours), assuming
that class sizes had remained fixed at their 1988-89 levels (except for
Perspectives which were taken at their 1994-95 academic year levels since no
reliable 1988-89 data are available).
The totals (as well as the figures in the "cost" columns) are expressed in
faculty contact hours. Since a faculty member teaches 24 contact hours each
academic year, each contact hour represents 1/24 of a faculty load. If we
assume $52,000 as the annual cost of an average faculty member, the cost of
(2.167 ´ $52,000/24 =) $4695 per student in 1988-89 has become
(2.466 ´ $52,000/24 =) $5343 per student in 1994-95, a 14% increase in
constant dollars.The apparent cost of the present general education
curriculum is 13.6% greater than the former general education curriculum
(2.548 compared to 2.243). If class sizes had remained unchanged, however,
the present general education curriculum would represent just a 4.2%
increase in the cost of providing each student's general education (2.338
compared to 2.243).
Requirement |
credits |
fixed size |
fh/sc |
"cost" |
credits |
size |
fh/sc |
"cost" |
"cost" |
ENGL 110 |
3 cr |
19.6 |
.0510 |
.153 |
3 cr |
20.1 |
.0498 |
.149 |
.153 |
COMM 100 |
3 cr |
24.2 |
.0413 |
.124 |
3 cr |
24.5 |
.0408 |
.122 |
.124 |
HM-FA |
15 cr |
32.9 |
.0304 |
.456 |
12 cr |
27.4 |
.0365 |
.438 |
.364 |
SocSci |
15 cr |
32.2 |
.0311 |
.466 |
12 cr |
28.2 |
.0355 |
.426 |
.373 |
SciMa |
11 cr |
36.0 |
.0278 |
.306 |
9 cr |
26.3 |
.0380 |
.342 |
.250 |
lab |
4 cr |
20.9 |
.0718 |
.287 |
4 cr |
19.9 |
.0754 |
.301 |
.287 |
HPE |
4 cr |
21.5 |
.0465 |
.186 |
3 cr |
28.0 |
.0357 |
.107 |
.140 |
AdvComp |
|
19.5 |
.0513 |
|
3 cr |
20.2 |
.0495 |
.149 |
.154 |
Perspec |
|
|
|
|
6 cr |
26.3 |
.0380 |
.228 |
.228 |
Add'l |
7 cr |
26.4 |
.0379 |
.265 |
7 cr |
24.5 |
.0408 |
.286 |
.265 |
TOTAL |
62 cr |
|
|
2.243 |
62 cr |
|
|
2.548 |
2.338 |
Introduction
I. Demand for and Reputation of
Program
II. Quality of the Program
IV. Compliance with Board of Governors
Policy
V. Five-Year Plan for Major Resource
Needs
VI. Recommended Action Plan
VII. Acknowledgments
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