Modernization of General Education 

• Natasha Jones, Co-Chair, College of Arts and Letters  
• Jonathan Weaver, Co-Chair, College of Social Science  
• Megan Donahue, College of Natural Science  
• Euihark Lee, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources  
• Marci Mechtel, College of Nursing  
• Sara D. Miller, MSU Libraries  
• Ken Prouty, College of Music    
• Jennifer Schmidt, College of Education  
• John Spink, Broad College of Business  
• Alexandrea Thrubis Stanley, College of Communication Arts and Sciences   
• Sarah Tomasik, College of Veterinary Medicine  
• S. Patrick Walton, College of Engineering  
• Matt Zierler, James Madison College  
• Stephen Thomas, Office of Undergraduate Education 

• Laura Lee McIntyre, Provost   
• Amy Hertel, EVP and Senior Advisor to the Provost
• Mark Largent, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education   
• Stacia Moroski-Rigney, Project Lead and Assistant Provost, Office of Accreditation, Assessment, Curriculum, and Compliance (AACC)
• Elizabeth Elliott, AACC Project Manager   

AY 2025-26

• Attend and participate in TC meetings 
• Engage with shared resources, including any common reads  
• Conduct research for themed committees  
• Share research with themed committee  
• As a committee, present research to GEC  
• Communicate and engage regularly with TC chair(s) 
• Serve as ambassadors of the work to your college(s)/unit(s) 
• Contribute to Teams chats, agendas, meeting notes, tracking documents, and reports 
• Serve as representatives of your college(s)/unit(s) 
• Review shared materials asynchronously before meetings 

Spring 2027

• Provide feedback on the draft design of the GEC 

AY 2025-26 

• Attend and participate in invited CCG feedback sessions 
• Engage with shared resources, including any common reads  
• Share research and assessment results with GEC 
• Communicate and engage regularly with GEC co-chairs 
• Serve as ambassadors of the work to your college(s)/unit(s) 
• Serve as representatives of your college(s)/unit(s) 
• Review shared materials asynchronously before meetings 

Spring 2027

Provide feedback on the draft design of the GEC 

Provost’s Encouragement 

Laura Lee McIntyre

Thank you for your enthusiastic support for this initiative. We hear it clearly in you calling the General Education Committee Members “visionaries and pragmatists,” and urging us to do better (Friday, August 22, 2025).

Advisor Viewpoints

Bethany Judge, Advisor, Director of Experiential Learning, Undergraduate Education

Your student-first perspectives added to our known set of problem statements in meaningful ways, as you pointed out the credit issues some students encounter. Yours was one of the earliest voices to advocate for transfer students (Friday, August 29, 2025).

Amanda Idema, Assistant Dean, Engineering

You brought to everyone’s attention the administrative and technical hurdles some current general education requirements create for students, as well as how the current complexities in the rules make it difficult to explain the requirements to students and parents (Friday, August 29, 2025).

Kristy Chene, Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs, College of Education

Your comments surfaced the challenges in communicating the value of general education to students, especially our new students. You noted misaligned credits, confusion from so many choices, and duplication as problems others regularly experience (Friday, August 29, 2025).

Value of Data

Bethan Cantwell, Assistant Provost, Institutional Research 

Thank you for helping us see into the numbers, the trends over time, and the grades. With your help, the data became useful information to the audience. We especially appreciated you taking us to the IR dashboards and inviting us to your trainings (Friday, September 5, 2025).

In Service to Students

Mark Largent, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education 

Thank you for working with the committee as they prepare for the design phase of a possible new general education curriculum.  We appreciate how you have helped us explore the opportunities and challenges of creating a general education curriculum that is coherent and consistent while being flexible to evolving needs and the many different needs of our students.  We heard you when you told us that MSU and its students need a “consilient curriculum that catalyzes people and prepares them for the future” (Friday, September 5, 2025).

Media Training Overview

Sydney Hawkins, Director of Public Relations, University Communications

You helped us step up our game when we encounter the media or want to share information with our colleagues. Don’t feel pressured, avoid jargon, and prepare for difficult questions was some of your excellent advice.  We were left thinking about opportunities, as you encouraged us to do (Friday, September 12, 2025)

Experts in Integrative Studies

Brandy Ellison, Center Director, Integrative Studies, Social Science

Because of your remarks, we are bearing in mind the highly talented faculty who are held to exacting standards when teaching general education content. Thank you for speaking up about the value of high-impact practices, smaller class sizes, and innovative curriculum design and teaching methods from your Center (Friday, September 19, 2025).

Gabe Ording, Center Director, Integrative Studies, General Science

We learned about the essential considerations related to general education, as well as the ongoing changes and moments of innovation over the years. The current mission of CISGS is to foster scientific literacy among MSU undergraduates and strives to innovate year after year. (Friday, September 19, 2025).

Garth Sabo, Center Director, Integrative Studies Arts & Humanities

Some of us were very moved by your passionate depictions of what general education does for thousands and thousands of our students every year, invoking Bela Hubbard current data on employers’ desired skills, and the importance of creativity (Friday, September 19, 2025).

Crystal VanKooten, First Year Writing Director 

Grounded in research, first-year writing (FYW) helps students develop ‘writerly’ habits for both budding writers and new Spartans alike through encouraging student expression. By its very nature, FYW is inclusive and welcomes diverse perspectives, while serving as a gateway to student success (Friday, September 26, 2025).

Jeff Schenker, Mathematics Department Chair

Focused on diverse student needs, Math 101 and Math 102 avoids a one-size-fits all approach to general education. As the others also indicated, we heard more about sustainability issues and challenges of large class sizes (Friday, September 26, 2025).

Peer Institution Success with New General Education Curriculum

Randy Smith, Vice Provost for Academic Programs, The Ohio State University

We appreciated hearing your story about what happened at OSU, now in your fourth year of implementation! Your encouragement to be optimistic and stay the course mattered to many on the team (Friday, October 3, 2025).

Meg Daly, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, The Ohio State University

Your pointers about how implementation and monitoring is happening at OSU helped us see more about what is possible in the future. We heard about navigating course fulfillment, and bookends too, as well as your inventive approaches with credits and themes. (Friday, October 3, 2025)

Our weekly guests have taught the GEC so much. We also kicked off the work of the six Themed Committees whose main role is to explore a significant research question and then make formal recommendations to the GEC early in 2026. 

Related to this, the Campus Community Groups have also started their more people-focused explorations. This month, we turned our attention toward communications by developing templates and sharing messaging, as well as by launching MGE Communications Advisory Team (MCAT) who will help the small team maintain our high standards by adding their expertise and holding the group accountable for demonstrating transparency, consistency, engagement, adaptability, and timeliness. The GEC learned about the new timeline that calls for the committee to be ready to present the new, modern, innovative, global general education committee to academic governance in November 2026.

Most of August 2025 was spent on launching the General Education Committee (GEC) after being charged by Interim Provost Jeitschko the prior April. Over the summer, the Council read Paul Handstedt’s book, General Education Essentials: A Guide for College Faculty. 

Meetings for the GEC were held every Friday, beginning on August 22, with logistics, materials, support, and general operations detailed at the start of the weekly meetings. Everyone was glad to welcome Provost Laura Lee McIntyre as our guest on the 22nd. 

For the remainder of the month, campus leaders shared their current thoughts and recommendations for the GEC to consider (visit our 'Thank You for Your Insights' section to learn more about our conversations). While the GEC was learning, other members of the team were actively reaching out to numerous colleges and other groups to ensure groups knew the same facts: it has been decades since a full curriculum redesign has been undertaken. 

President Guskiewicz expects the team to complete this work quickly, and MSU’s world-class faculty on the GEC are committed to a transparent process. We spoke with nearly 500 people in the first month of the project alone. Preparing for Themed Committees, Campus Community Groups’ work, and Feedback Sessions rounded out the month.