For students, the end of a semester is a stressful time. Projects are due, class registration is happening and moving out of residence halls and rental properties are all in the minds of busy University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students. As finals week draws to a close, students are finally able to move on from school to summer.
However, incoming UWL students in the summer and fall of 2025 will have new information to think about, as the university is adopting a new general education program. Current students do not have to worry about this change, as they will continue to complete the general education requirements listed in the catalog of the year they started.
The current general education requirements are separated into three categories: “First-Year Seminar,” “Skills” and “Liberal Studies.” The new program’s requirements are separated into three categories as well: “First College Courses” and “University Core” are largely the same as the current categories, while the third category, called “Integrative Perspectives,” is the largest area of change.
During the Feb. 26 Student Association meeting, Provost and Vice Chancellor Betsy Morgan shared “Integrative Perspectives” has four categories, offering different class choices for students.
The four categories under Integrative Perspectives are “GEN ED 1010 The Stories We Tell,” “GEN ED 1011 The Pasts that Define Us,” “GEN ED 1012 The Planet that Sustains Us” and “GEN ED 1013 The Cultures of Our World.” According to UWL’s website, these courses explore the “interconnectedness of global systems to help students understand their sense of place in the world.”
The new GEN ED 1010 category, “The Stories We Tell”, is the literary category and is similar to the current GE 07 category. Courses that fall under the new GEN ED 1010 include ENG 200 and PHL 100.
GEN ED 1011, “The Pasts that Define Us”, will have students examine historical events and is an expanded version of the current GE 04’s world history requirement. Under this category, students can still take courses such as HIS 110 and ARC 200 but can also take courses that are new to the general education program, such as HIS 260 and SOC 115.
GEN ED 1012, “The Planet That Sustains Us”, focuses on learning about and analyzing current and potential environmental issues. Similar to the current GE 04’s global and multicultural studies requirement, courses available under the new category include BIO 102 and POL 202.
The last new category under Integrative Perspectives is GEN ED 1013, “The Cultures of Our World”. This category combines many classes from the current GE 02, GE 04 and GE 06 categories and will have students explore and reflect upon different cultural end ethical perspectives.
The First College Courses category is essentially the combination of the current First-Year Seminar and Skills categories. The sub-categories under First College Courses are “GEN ED 1001 First Year Seminar,” “GEN ED 1002 Written Literacy,” “GEN ED 1003 Spoken Literacy” and “GEN ED 1004 Quantitative Reasoning.” These categories include the required classes FYS 100, ENG 110 and CST 110, as well as most of the mathematics and logical systems courses that are currently found in GE 02 under the Skills category.
The new University Core category is home to GEN ED’s 1005-1009: “Ethnic Diversity”, “Mind & Body”, “Arts and Aesthetics”, “Experiential Science” and “Social & Behavioral Studies”.
These categories are similar to the Liberal Studies requirements of GE 03, GE 09, GE 08, GE 05 and GE 06, respectively. These courses are designed to help boost students’ intellectual development and show the importance of a liberal arts education.
While most of the required classes are the same between the current and new general education programs, the overhaul of the categories isn’t a project the university is taking lightly.
“This is a huge project, as every time you change Gen-Eds, the coding with your advisement reports takes a lot of effort,” explained Morgan. “It is the biggest change at UWL and Gen-Ed in 25 years.”
In addition to the categories being revamped, two course numbers have been changed. POL 244 is now POL 140 and is under GEN ED 1011, and POL 251 is now POL 150 and is under GEN ED 1010.
While the new requirements only apply to incoming students, the course numbers are effective for all students.
WINGS hasn’t been updated yet to reflect the course number changes, so make sure to register for POL 140 if you are taking POL 244 and POL 150 if you are taking POL 251.
