By SHANNON O. WELLS
When it comes to what’s expected from students and their educational pathways — in terms of taking required courses vs. pursuing other passions or areas of intellectual curiosity — Pitt struggles with a certain level of dissonance.
That’s one way Belkys Torres, associate vice provost for inclusive excellence in education, described a dilemma now being addressed by the University’s newly formed General Education Task Force.
“Some of it has to do with — depending on the school and the campus — a dissonance … in philosophy and execution,” she said. “In some ways, we are committed to encouraging students’ creativity and intellectual exploration, and yet we also expect them to be very ‘planful’ and to have an idea of what they want to do.”
That expectation comes from the fact that if students don’t commit in year one to a particular educational pathway, they aren’t assured that courses taken as general education requirements will count toward their particular major when they do select it.
Spearheaded by Provost Joe McCarthy, the General Education Reform Task Force is charged with reviewing existing University-wide student learning outcomes and current general education curricula to recommend a more integrative and unified model for adoption across schools and campuses.
Comprised of a 50-person team of faculty, advisers, staff and students from all Pitt schools and campuses, the project aspires to develop a curriculum and learning outcomes — as described in the strategic Plan for Pitt 2028 — that are unified, measurable and flexible.
By working to streamline degree planning, reduce financial burdens and foster interdisciplinary exploration, the task force aims to encourage “student skill development in areas such as critical thinking, communication, leadership, data analysis, intercultural and global competency, and collaboration,” McCarthy said in a statement. The reform project is expected to be complete by the 2025-26 academic year.
The task force was launched with a Jan. 29 luncheon in Alumni Hall. Led by Torres, the event served as an informational brainstorming session where participants discussed potential strategies to enhance undergraduates’ academic experiences and improve their learning outcomes before they declare a major.
Subsequently, several virtual and in-person student- and faculty and staff-based listening sessions were held between March 19 and April 18. The last virtual faculty and staff session this spring will take place at noon, April 22. One more will be held this fall. A general education-oriented town hall gathering also was held with the Student Government Board.
“Overall, we’re hearing students say that they appreciate the ability to discover new topics, concepts and ideas that they hadn’t even thought about when they take (required) classes to complete the gen ed requirement,” Torres said. “So they see the value in sort of exploring fields of inquiry outside of their intended fields, and that’s been interesting for them to share.
“I think they’ve also shared that they really enjoyed opportunities to come into a school without an intended major and taking classes in the general education program in such a way that it’s actually led them to the fields of inquiry that they’re really passionate about,” she added, referring to students who come to Pitt, but don’t know exactly what they wanted to study. “And in taking these general education requirements (they) found a love of environmental science … and pursue that passion. So that’s been really edifying as well.”
Another element that emerged is that students are interested in having more “ownership and agency” over their core selection process, Torres said, raising the question of whether the University is “really doing a good job as an institution in making clear to them the value proposition of a general education.
“They continue to see it as courses that they need to check off on the way to the major that they really want to enjoy,” she added. “So I think as an institution, there’s still an opportunity for us to be more intentional about the value proposition of a general education and what we intend students actually gain from that experience.”
Torres, who first came to Pitt in 2015, joined the Office of the Provost in January 2023 to lead efforts in increasing educational equity while identifying and working toward removing academic and structural barriers to student persistence and completion, McCarthy said, “with an emphasis on those issues that disproportionately impact select student groups.”
The project is in addition to Torres’ role as a teaching assistant professor of Latinx and gender studies for the Literature program in the Department of English.
In Episode 6 of the “From the Office of the Provost” podcast, McCarthy said in his previous role of vice provost for undergraduate studies, he “really wanted to focus on reducing structural barriers to completion for students, writ large. And one of the things … that we noticed was disproportionately harming some students was the disparate nature of our general education curriculum.
“So while (Torres’) role is clearly much more expansive than just looking at general education topics,” he added, “this really fits into the overall structure and design for what her role would be, long term.”
While the general learning outcomes defined by the Council of Deans in 2004 served the University well “for a long time,” McCarthy said, the University is in a “new era of collaboration.”
This is exemplified by the launch of the School of Computing and Information (SCI), which partners with the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences and others to build joint programs across schools, “and with the increasing intellectual curiosity of a typical Pitt student who really doesn’t want to be hampered by barriers between schools,” he said.
However, having different general education curricula across units at Pitt has led to problems in recent years, included extending the “time to degree,” which McCarthy noted can lead to increased student-debt load while artificially deflating graduation rates.
“Another really important topic for Pitt in the coming years is going to be our accessibility for transfer students,” he said. “And I think the fact that we have a host of different general education curricula across the campus has caused some difficulty in building articulation agreements, etc.”
Torres said students have been notably forthcoming in the listening sessions, making it clear that they “actually find value” in them and the establishment of a task force.
“They’re kind of curious as to why it’s coming from the administration and not the students themselves, which is actually interesting,” she said. “It’s been really helpful to have these moments where students feel that they can be forthcoming with their experiences and share their thoughts so far. And we just want to encourage students to come out and talk to us.”
The interactive sessions include group polling via smartphones and small group conversations where people “get to know one another and share ideas about particular topics that they are interested in,” Torres said.
Gathered in aggregate form, the information shared at the sessions is kept confidential. “There’s no identifying who’s saying what. We just really want to get to the actual quality of the information that we’re receiving,” she added.
There also are opportunities to talk in the larger group setting, exchange ideas and make sure students walk away feeling they’ve shared their concerns and their motivations, Torres explained. “And we’ve got all kinds of folks taking notes and recording the sessions themselves so that we’re being honest and true with the reporting that comes out of all these sessions.”
Ultimately, Torres said, she hopes the project will “encourage students to continue to pursue an education that will prepare them for fulfilling and committed lives in the 21st century while not penalizing them financially or in terms of extended time to degree.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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