By SHANNON O. WELLS
The last time Pitt engaged in a significant revision of its general education framework was during the second term of the George W. Bush presidential administration. Back in 2006, the process was guided by nine student-learning outcomes shared across the University.
“Implementation was decentralized, so each first year-admitting school on the Pittsburgh campus — as well as all the regional campuses — developed their own general education model,” said Belkys Torres, associate vice provost for curricular innovation.
“Faculty within each unit mapped courses to those outcomes independently, and that’s resulted in the nine distinct general education models across the University today.”
In her presentation to Faculty Assembly at its Oct. 8 meeting, Torres explained that this model has essentially outlived its effectiveness.
“Twenty years later, the time has come for a new conversation around foundational learning for students across the University,” she said. “Gen Ed reform is a key initiative of our strategic commitment to enrich the student experience with transformative opportunities to learn, grow and thrive without increased financial burden or added time to degree for our undergraduates.”
Torres visited Faculty Assembly along with other Senate committees recently to roll out the second phase of the Gen Ed Task Force’s re-thinking of Pitt’s approach, a process that started in 2023. Phase 2 involves soliciting feedback on a newly released draft proposal that outlines student learning outcomes and rubrics based on a shared governance structure for a reimagined Gen Ed program.
In addition to her committee-based outreach, a series of in-person and online Gen Ed Drafting Days events are scheduled to share information based on the reform process. The next sessions will be held Oct. 30 and Nov. 4 (read below for details).
“The proposal … advocates for the development and implementation of a University-wide Gen Ed curriculum, one in which we replace the current decentralized model and aim for a more inclusive, integrated framework that reflects the University’s mission, meets our accreditation standards and aligns with strategic priorities outlined in the Plan for Pitt 2028,” Torres said. “The question that we get most often is, ‘Why Gen ED reform now?’ and the answer is that … we want to lead and thoughtfully evolve the Gen Ed curriculum to guarantee responsiveness and resilience in ways that benefit our students, our faculty and staff.
“We want to make sure that we remain on the cutting edge of foundational learning for all of our undergraduates.”
Building on solid ground
Chartered by Provost Joe McCarthy in 2024 and guided by a more than 60-member University-wide task force, the proposal builds on the 2006 reform process while introducing key structural changes to address longstanding challenges.
“Today’s students increasingly pursue interdisciplinary studies, multiple credentials and transfer pathways across schools and campuses,” Torres explained. “Yet the existence of multiple general education models has created barriers to student mobility and curricular coherence. In response, the task force is developing a unified Gen Ed model to be implemented across all schools and campuses.”
This phase of reform follows efforts from 2024 that included 16 listening sessions that attracted about 140 faculty and 120 staff members. Although student attendance was relatively low, the task force generated a survey for undergraduate students that generated 3,000 responses.
Listening sessions also were held at the Pitt–Bradford campus that included members of their Gen Ed Committee as well as faculty advisors and campus leaders.
“What we found … is that folks overall wanted to ensure our commitment to centering liberal arts education as foundational to all students learning, regardless of the major. That does not change,” Torres said. “Folks express feeling motivated by a student-centered approach to our reform efforts to ensure that we offer students agency and flexibility when it comes to course selection and encouraged us to ensure that we maintain rigorous faculty approval processes of whatever happens next.”
Broad interest also was shared in embedding experiential learning and high-impact practices as a “signature opportunity for us here at the institution,” and something that could be provided to students “as early as year one,” Torres said.
Faculty and staff also shared concerns about increased workloads and questions regarding the possibility of decreased course offerings depending on how the project advanced.
They “wanted us to keep that top of mind as we did our work (and) be more diligent about providing data and information to guide faculty and staff engagement and feedback as we continue our work,” she noted.
‘Accessible and equitable’
In an era of rising skepticism about higher education’s value, Torres said data and experiences indicate that institutions reshaping Gen Ed structures to be mission driven and outcomes focused can improve student retention and completion rates as well as post-graduation success.
“Gen ED reform is actually a strategic imperative for (R1) institutions to demonstrate the relevance and the impact of liberal arts education for all,” she said.
Some undergraduates often view Gen Ed requirements as a “checklist or as a barrier to their major,” leading to “disengagement and sometimes missed learning opportunities.”
Faculty at research institutions such as Pitt, she added, can help reframe the Gen Ed narrative as “intellectually rigorous and relevant” by featuring how courses integrate research, focus on interdisciplinary inquiry and approach real-world applications of theoretical learning in the curriculum.
“We also have an opportunity here to think about how thoughtful reform — especially models that are self-articulating and purpose driven — can make Gen Ed more accessible and equitable, aligning with institutional commitments to cultivating student success.”
For example, a shared foundational curriculum would be accessible to first-generation students who may find the current curriculum overly daunting, she noted. “It may also make it accessible to students who are changing schools and campuses at the institution, as well as to incoming transfer students who are hoping to continue their studies without having to take too many steps backwards.”
Other reform-based goals include enhancing faculty collaboration and innovation to reduce creation of discipline- and school-based silos and allowing Pitt to improve its accreditation compliance. Regarding the former, Torres said recent conversations across the University show that faculty benefit from a platform to discuss interdisciplinary research opportunities, team teaching and curricular experimentation.
“Our hope is to continue the conversation about how integrative and high-impact models can encourage cross-disciplinary dialog, collaborative teaching and pedagogical innovation over time,” she said.
As far as accreditation compliance, Torres explained that the Middle States Commission on Higher Education requires institutions to meet two objectives that Pitt is “not confidently” meeting at the moment. Standard V, she noted, requires that universities define and assess student learning outcomes across all programs, while Standard III requires periodically evaluating Ged Ed’s effectiveness.
“Today, the nine different curricula or sets of requirements for foundational learning at Pitt do not share defined and measurable University-wide learning outcomes that can be assessed over time, nor do they enable evaluation … of the general education program, writ large,” she said, adding that new curriculum would feature shared student-learning goals and outcomes students could meet using existing curricular options. “Key competencies, goals and outcomes would be shared across all schools to build students’ breadth of knowledge and to cultivate 21st century skills.”
Sharing information
Acknowledging the shortcomings of the existing Gen Ed model and potential challenges of reform, Torres said getting the word out is a key goal.
“The good news here is that none of this should be new to anyone because all of this is already happening at Pitt. It just seems to be happening as a big secret, and what we’re wanting to do here is to tell the story and amplify the narrative, University-wide.”
A series of in-person Gen Ed Drafting Days allow faculty and staff to “come out and have conversations with us,” examine the proposed features and address questions on topics including preferable curricular prototypes, general learning goals and outcomes being proposed and what makes sense vs. what needs to be adjusted.
The sessions provide a chance to “talk with each other, ask good questions and help make this project the truly unique opportunity that I know it can be for us as educators and for the future students that come through our doors,” Torres said, noting that online feedback also is welcome.
The next Gen Ed Drafting Days online session for faculty and staff will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 30, and the next in-person session will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 4.
Responding to a Faculty Assembly question about how to incorporate feedback from an array of disciplines in different schools, Torres said deans and associate deans are inviting her to meet with their curricular committees or directors of academic affairs.
“For instance, I’ll come and talk with all of the directors of undergraduate learning in the School of Engineering to gauge their thoughts on this document,” she said, noting she is open to “those smaller group conversations” involving academic advisors. “We’re having a special Gen Ed Drafting Day for them on Dec. 4 as part of their broader Professional Development Day.
“If you have a team at the school level, or if you have a team at the campus level who would like to have those conversations, I’m here for it,” Torres added, including those at Pitt’s regional campuses. “I’ve had the opportunity already to meet with all of them … and I have follow-up meetings with all of those Gen Ed committees or educational policy committees across our regional campuses in the month of November.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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