Peter,

Thank you for facilitating the Town Hall Meeting regarding the General Education Transfer Module initiative underway. The animated discussion is reflective of the passion with which the faculty at the various institutions have towards delivering a high quality education to their students, but I am sure also makes it a challenge to facilitate. As you requested, I am summarizing the extra classes that students who transfer into the Chemical Engineering Department will end up with Ð the so-called ``wasted credits." I believe the same is true of all ABET accredited engineering programs at OSU. If such a Transfer Module is to be effectively delivered there will need to be resolution of this GOTCHA.

Please refer to the ``Transfer Module - OSU Bac Core" slide you presented in the meeting for the discussion below. Engineering curricula are heavy in technical class requirements (Math, Science, Engineering) as required by The Engineering Accreditation Commission, ABET, leaving little flexibility in other components of the curriculum. ABET mandates ``a general education component that complements the technical content of the curriculum and is consistent with the program and institution objectives." In terms of humanities and social science requirements, the College of Engineering (COE) at OSU has interpreted that to be consistent with the BAC Core, which includes 7 classes: 5 perspectives classes, one from each category (Western Culture; Cultural Diversity; Literature & Arts; Social Processes and Institutions; Difference Power & Discrimination) and 2 synthesis (Contemporary Global Issues; Science Technology and Society). For the General Education Transfer Module presented at the meeting, there are 6-8 classes in the ``Arts & Letters" and ``Social Science" categories in the ``Introduction to Disciplines" section. On top of that, students will still have to take at least one perspective class (Difference Power & Discrimination) and 2 synthesis classes (Contemporary Global Issues; Science Technology and Society). Assuming all the other perspectives are covered by the Transfer Module, this would result in 9-11 total classes, or 2-4 more than the student who matriculated at OSU as a freshman. In addition the General Education Transfer Module contains two lower division writing courses. While there are also two writing requirements in the COE, one is Technical Writing (WR 327). This class is a core skill for engineering students, and it is unlikely it would be acceptable that any general writing class would satisfy it. Thus, there would be 1 extra (i.e ``wasted") writing class the student with the General Education Tranfser Module would need. In total, there are 3-5 extra classes as proposed, with even more if the perspectives are deemed not to transfer cleanly.

My apologies for abundant detail in this note, if you have any questions or need more info let me know.

Milo