By: Grant Flora, Andrew Scalf, Emily Bontrager, and Alexis Podgers
Indiana Wesleyan University announced that it will transition to a new general education course package beginning in the 2026-27 school year.
The changes include giving more course options for students in order to fulfill requirements in the humanities categories. IWU has offered the same 180-level courses for over 20 years.
IWU formed a general education committee that consisted of representatives from each affected department in order to come up with a feasible alternative to the current package, including Dr. Will Carpenter, chair for the division of Art and Design.
Dr. Carpenter said that the committee wanted to provide more options for the students to select topics more suited to their interests. It also wanted to give the professors a chance to teach closer to his or her area of expertise.
The addition of these options didn’t come without logistical problem-solving. Registration and Academic Services (RAS) adjusted some general education requirements in order to accommodate for the changes.
Lori Hunt, the assistant registrar, said that incoming students will now be required to take five humanities courses as opposed to just four (due to music and art being separated into two courses instead of one), and students will be required to take one less social science to balance that out. She also said that only incoming students will be affected; all current students will retain the original requirements.
The humanities classes have always presented unique circumstances for professors, such as larger class sizes and different subject matter. Both Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Paul Allison, a long-time faculty member in the division of Modern Language, Literature, and Communication, both mentioned how it can be difficult but also enjoyable to tackle these classes.
“I really enjoy teaching the larger classes, because it does put you in a different kind of teaching mode. So, it’s challenging in that way for faculty… it keeps you on your toes,” Dr. Allison said.
Dr. Allison went on to say that class sizes will be capped at a smaller number of students, allowing for more discussion and specialization for students’ interests.
All of these factors should allow for professors to be more creative and engaging in classes. Dr. Carpenter said that he learned a lot about what worked in his humanities classes, which was insight he was able to provide to the committee.
“I’ve taught the art appreciation class probably 120 times… it’s not a perfect class, but it was awful when I began it. And over the course of years… I’ve tried to make it something that’s useful, relevant to students, where I’m always trying to help students see things that are relevant in many different areas,” Dr. Carpenter said.
There could be some potential drawbacks to this model. For example, Dr. Allison said that because of the changes, students may not have as much experience with writing, so professors will need to accommodate for this.
“We’re aware that students might need a little bit more hand holding with their writing assignments in the course, and we are trying to make accommodations for that too. So, we’ll spend a little bit more time talking about expectations for our writing… so they can do really good analysis,” Dr. Allison said. “We realize that we’re losing some things by going to this model, but we’re hoping to gain a lot more.”
Students may not always like the idea of taking their general education courses, but staff and faculty members agree that it’s in their best interests.
“I think that is a real opportunity to lean into some of the things that you’re really interested in… We are a liberal arts school honing in to what God can do in your life, and these humanities courses are built and lean into that help,” Hunt said.
“Some students come into college knowing what they want, but not knowing that there’s other things that they want. And so, these classes are going to help train their imaginations. It’s going to help guide their tastes,” Dr. Carpenter said. “It’s going to open up whole other worlds of possibility to them so that they can see the world through other perspectives.
