LGC 11.52 — Major-Focused University Act — PASSED

[ZMUN M441]

THE MAJOR-FOCUSED UNIVERSITY ACT

Section I — Title

This resolution may be cited as the Major-Focused University Act.

Section II — Major-Focused Universities

1. All public universities in Lincoln shall abolish 'general education' requirements, and replace them with a set of required classes for each major; these required classes are to be relevant to the major in question.

2. Universities will be given three months to fully abide by this act; if they do not abide by this reform within 90 days of this act's passing, they shall have their funding cut to 50% until they do so.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

Occupying: Slot 1 of 10
Sponsor: ZMUN M441

[ZMUN M441]

This bill abolishes 'general education' requirements at Lincoln's public universities. These requirements — which mandate that students take classes in a broad array of topics — essentially turn a student's first two years at university into 13th and 14th grades, teaching them the same 'general' topics they already learned in high school, even if they aren't relevant to their major or their planned career. There is no reason that a Chemical Engineering major needs to take English classes, or that a History major needs to take advanced mathematics.

It also replaces these 'general education' requirements with new sets of required classes — a selection of substantially relevant classes for each major.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Good act. But there are a few issues:

1. what is a general education requirement. Is that a subjective term or interpretation. Is maths general education if you study as a physician or geologist?

2. Three months to adapt / fully abide is a very small time. Such changes in reality take far longer to implement, because one needs to find the teachers, needs to re-arrange all classes and directions, change the agenda, adjust lessons etc. It's not just one quick change, it takes far more preparation. For example all the lessons that you deem more relevant need to be prepared as well. You can't prepare that in 3 weeks. Or if you move pupils in to existing lessons that you deem more relevant, there simply might not be an available teacher or room for that class to host way more students than it already does. You are looking at creating an organizational nightmare which in turn will affect the quality of education and the classes.

If you don't think maths is general education if you study as a physician, i've taken a look at classes in Belgium, and what you propose here is already implemented. I remember being surprised looking at classes given in USA because indeed as you say/claim there are like classes in university that in Europe would be given in college already.

If you want to make these changes, i think you'll need to reform college and level college up as well, and now might not be the good time to do that, given due to lockdowns many pupils have build up a backlog relative to pupils who finished college before the pandemic started.

I think the changes you want to make are good, but be aware of how and when you want to implement it, because you might damage more than what you intend to fix.

[ZMUN M441]

Good act. But there are a few issues:

1. what is a general education requirement. Is that a subjective term or interpretation. Is maths general education if you study as a physician or geologist?

2. Three months to adapt / fully abide is a very small time. Such changes in reality take far longer to implement, because one needs to find the teachers, needs to re-arrange all classes and directions, change the agenda, adjust lessons etc. It's not just one quick change, it takes far more preparation. For example all the lessons that you deem more relevant need to be prepared as well. You can't prepare that in 3 weeks. Or if you move pupils in to existing lessons that you deem more relevant, there simply might not be an available teacher or room for that class to host way more students than it already does. You are looking at creating an organizational nightmare which in turn will affect the quality of education and the classes.

If you don't think maths is general education if you study as a physician, i've taken a look at classes in Belgium, and what you propose here is already implemented. I remember being surprised looking at classes given in USA because indeed as you say/claim there are like classes in university that in Europe would be given in college already.

If you want to make these changes, i think you'll need to reform college and level college up as well, and now might not be the good time to do that, given due to lockdowns many pupils have build up a backlog relative to pupils who finished college before the pandemic started.

I think the changes you want to make are good, but be aware of how and when you want to implement it, because you might damage more than what you intend to fix.

1. In Atlasia, 'general education requirements' are fairly objective — currently, students are required to take classes in selected topics, regardless of their major, and cannot graduate without doing so. This bill abolishes those requirements.

2. I am willing to strike the time limit if there is demand for it. The only reason I included it was to ensure that universities abide by this legislation.

[ZMUN M441]

Motioning for a final vote.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Gen-Eds are unnecessary extra work for those with majors, only placing more stress (and financial burden) upon them. I agree with this actZ

[Joseph Cao]

University is a time for specialization and "gen ed" should have been taught in K-12 along with enough skills for people to actually survive without higher education. Strongly support the sentiment here.

[ZMUN M441]

A final vote on this bill has been initiated.


Aye

[Vice President Christian Man]

Aye

[nerd73]

Aye

[Pyro]

Abstain

[ZMUN M441]

LGC 11.52 passes 3-0, with one Deputy abstaining and another not voting.

[Former President tack50]

X tack50

One of the bills I am most happy to sign