The Student Senate approved to submit a proposal to the Liberal Education Committee to restructure the LEP 100 and 400 courses on April 7. If their proposal passes, the LEP 100 and 400 courses would be eliminated and students would instead take two courses during their freshman year to satisfy Liberal Education Program requirements.

This is the second year the Senate has submitted this proposal.

In the Senate’s proposal, LEP 100 would be replaced with a major-specific course, such as MGMT 100 or POL 100. This design would provide students with an introduction to their major or act as an opportunity to explore fields of study, senators said at the meeting. These major-specific courses would be project based and fulfill the critical thinking goal of the SMSU Student Learning Outcomes.

“We wanted to make it more clear to the students what they were signing up for,” Senator Shane Vogt said.

Senator Rebekah Danielson said that students enjoyed the idea of the LEP 100 course becoming more major-specific and that students preferred taking project-based classes.

In addition to the major-specific level 100 course, freshmen would be required to take a First Year Seminar course during their first semester. If passed, faculty and administration would be tasked with creating courses that are “based on retention and university engagement yet still academically enriching,” the proposal said.

Creating a similar First Year Seminar course across disciplines may pose a challenge.

“I feel like the wording of this proposal is not as clear and concise as it could be,” Danielson said.

Corey Butler, Student Senate Faculty Liaison and Professor of Psychology, says the proposal is a good starting point for the discussion of improving the LEP courses.

The Senate’s proposal must gain approval by several different channels before it can be implemented. After the Liberal Education Committee reviews the proposal, they may choose to bring it to the Faculty Association. The Faculty Association would then likely add amendments and send the proposal back to the Student Senate to vote on, Butler said. Finally, the proposal would be sent to Administration for approval.

“This process tends to be pretty slow. I would be surprised if any substantial movement were to happen before the fall semester,” Butler said.

Student Senate will host the Liberal Education Committee at their next meeting to discuss the Senate’s proposal and other ways to improve the LEP 100 and 400 courses. Students are encouraged to come and voice their opinions, which could affect the outcome of the LEP classes.

“If there was a representation of 40 or 50 [students] it would be nice,” Scott Crowell, Vice President of Student Affairs said.

The Liberal Education Committee will present questions about the LEP courses during their focus group discussion. Students will then break out in groups to share thoughts and ideas for LEP course improvements.

“I think a lot will depend on the conversation next week,” Butler said. “If students say they like the LEP as it is during the focus groups, I doubt any major changes will happen at all.”

The Liberal Education Committee student focus group will be held on April 14 in PE 214 at 6:25 p.m. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend, senators said.