WSU UCORE Course Renewals Suspended One Year until Fall 2021

PULLMAN, Wash.—Renewals of University Common Requirements (UCORE) courses at Washington State University have been postponed during the 2020-21 academic year, Clif Stratton, UCORE director, said Tuesday.

The decision was made by the 23-member UCORE Committee, which approves such general education courses and assesses the effectiveness of the UCORE curriculum. All existing UCORE courses—some 400 of them—must be renewed through a formal process to maintain alignment and adherence to UCORE learning outcomes.

The decision to insert the one-year hiatus impacts a four-year rolling schedule for course renewals program wide. It does not impact new course proposals or revisions to current courses.

Nod to Faculty Commitments

The committee cited as the impetus for the decision the demands on faculty sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the need to shift from in-person to online teaching.

The decision was described in a letter to associate deans, department chairs, and school directors by the committee, Stratton, and Vice Provost for Academic Effectiveness and Student Achievement Mary F. Wack. They said that faculty could use the extra “time and space to sharpen the effectiveness of new approaches before submitting course renewals. We anticipate that the shift to remote learning may, in fact, generate greater cohesion and purpose between face-to-face and online sections of a course.”

A Few Exceptions

Stratton noted, however, some exceptions. For course renewals already submitted by an Apr. 1, 2020 deadline, the UCORE Committee will review such submissions in the coming fall or spring.

Further, if departments have already prepared renewal packages ahead of the Dec. 1, 2020 deadline, they are welcome to submit those as planned. The UCORE Committee will review them this academic year.

Barring those situations, all courses scheduled for Dec. 1 submission will defer to Dec. 1, 2021, and those set for Apr. 1, 2021 will defer to Apr. 1, 2022. All subsequent renewals will delay a year.

For more information about course renewals and other UCORE topics, such as proposing and revising a UCORE course, visit the UCORE website.

Media Contact:

Clif Stratton, director of WSU UCORE (University Common Requirements/general education courses), 509-335-2230, clif.stratton@wsu.edu.