General Education Gets First Major Overhaul in 36 Years
By Jason Levan
To help prepare students for life after college, IUP has launched a new general education curriculum that replaces and modernizes what many current and former students know as Liberal Studies. Called Crimson Core, the new program went into effect with first-year students this fall.
Graduate assistant Hunter Bash verified student attendance at a FLY (First Learning Year) Friday event in August.
This is the university’s first major overhaul of the general education curriculum since it introduced Liberal Studies in 1989. The program’s director, Dawn Smith-Sherwood, who is also a professor of Spanish, believes the changes will better prepare students in many ways.
“There’s a big focus on getting students ready for post-IUP success,” she said. “While an element of career readiness was suggested in the former Liberal Studies program, we are asking students to think more intentionally about that—to start thinking about their careers from the first semester they are here. We’re hoping that by making that intervention in the first semester, it will show them how to be prepared for the work world.”
Crimson Core categorizes courses in 10 competency areas, aligned with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s General Education policy, the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ essential learning outcomes, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ career readiness competencies.
Dawn Smith-Sherwood with advisee Ava Gabriel
Crimson Core’s 10 Competency Areas
- Civic Readiness
- Global Learning
- Human and Creative Inquiry
- Leadership, Teamwork, and Project Development
- Lifelong Learning, Career, and Self-Development
- Oral Communication
- Quantitative Reasoning and Data Analysis
- Scientific Reasoning
- Values and Ethics
- Written Communication
Learn more at Crimson Core.
Students will take at least one course in each competency area, and, within their minimum requirement of 40 credits, they will have room for controlled electives so they can go back to an area for more emphasis, Smith-Sherwood said. Academic disciplines from across campus contribute courses to Crimson Core.
“Generally, it’s more of a competencies approach, so it’s based on what you can do more so than what you know,” she said. “There’s been such a revolution in the availability of information. Now we need to be careful to make sure the information we receive is good information.”
While students can select from familiar course topics, such as algebra, public speaking, and psychology, they can also choose something new and different—from Civic Savvy to Teamwork and Leadership in Science, Health, and Engineering to Design Thinking or Once upon a True Crime.
But, the biggest difference with Crimson Core may be the courses tailored to students in their first two years: First Learning Year and Sophomore Area Readiness, better known as FLY and SOAR.
Three-credit FLY aims to develop students’ intrapersonal skills, to promote personal wellness, and to incorporate the “life design” concept in the context of exploring both a major and a career.
“We help students think about what they can participate in that will help them when they do go out for their first jobs and how to talk about the ways in which they have developed themselves,” Smith-Sherwood said. “How do you tell your story? What’s your elevator pitch?”
All students will have different experiences and knowledge, she said. The idea is to package those experiences to make students more marketable after they graduate.
As part of the course, FLY Fridays take place weekly, each with a different theme. These events give students a chance to connect with members of the faculty, staff, and community. The hope, Smith-Sherwood said, is that students begin to feel like part of the IUP and Indiana communities early in their academic careers.
Worth one credit, SOAR is focused on career preparation. It encourages students to explore research opportunities, internships, or part-time jobs; to job shadow; or to interview someone who works in their field of study. SOAR also helps them develop preprofessional plans and goals that relate to their major. It even offers a career-readiness assessment tool that both identifies and makes suggestions to improve skill sets in need of further development.
Jeremy Risinger ’16, M’18, one of the First Learning Year instructors, helps with FLY Fridays
“We used to think about undergraduate education and having that degree as the thing we needed to get a job,” Smith-Sherwood said. “There are so many things we do throughout college that also prepare us for our first job, but maybe we don’t recognize them or know how to talk about them. Athletics, leadership roles, internships, research—all of those experiences are pre-career activities that help us develop. So, it’s not just the transcript and the GPA. It’s all of those things taken together.”
The program also addresses career preparation beyond the first job.
“We all know how the work world continues to change,” she said, “so what kind of durable skills can we also provide students so they are ready to adapt throughout their careers?”
Planning for this major curriculum update began in 2021, when a group was charged with looking into general education at IUP to see what changes might be needed. In spring 2023, the effort gained steam when the work group surveyed faculty and staff members about reimagining the curriculum. From those surveys, a common theme emerged: what students need most is to be prepared for life after college. In May 2024, the IUP Council of Trustees approved the Crimson Core framework.
“It’s been quite a process,” Smith-Sherwood said.
“Crimson Core still has some aspects of Liberal Studies, but we have added new aspects and changed the way we think about it as a whole,” she said. “Students will see Crimson Core as the foundation and infrastructure upon which their curricular and cocurricular experiences are built.”