Timeline for student completion of writing intensive courses passes in Academic Senate
Incoming Central Michigan University students will need to complete two writing intensive courses before reaching 56 credit hours, or face having their accounts frozen, starting fall 2016.
With 70 percent approval, the Academic Senate voted March 24 to change the requirement from students having to complete four writing intensive courses by graduation to having to complete two courses within their first 56 college credits.
According to the general education committee’s Feb. 19 meeting minutes, completing two writing intensive courses earlier in the student’s academic career should assist them in being more successful in their higher level courses.
“I looked at 200 freshmen in the fall and found 40 percent had taken no writing intensive course,” said Registrar Karen Hutslar. “We would need 7,341 seats to meet the demand. We currently have around 5,000.”
Students who do not meet the requirement by the time they complete 56 credit hours will have their accounts flagged by the registrar and will be unable to register for any additional classes until they sign up for a writing intensive course to meet the requirement.
Several senators voiced concern about the new change, asking how they could approve such a change when the university may not be able to meet the demand.
“If we pass this now, when does it kick in?” said Senator Alan Rudy. “Incoming students will likely only have four semesters to get this done.”
The original implementation date for the requirement was set for fall of 2015, but an amendment was passed by 69 percent of the senate to push the date back to 2016, giving the colleges time to structure enough classes to meet the incoming demand.
Current students will be unaffected by the change as they fall under previous general education requirement obligations.
