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Committee on General Education (COGE)

The Committee on General Education is charged with acting as the steering committee for the General Education curriculum and is guided by the following aims of the General Education Program:

Aims of General Education

Knowledge: the General Education Program will help students understand:

  1. aesthetic, scientific, historical, and interdisciplinary ways of knowing;
  2. religion, particularly Christianity, in its many expressions;
  3. Berea College’s historical and ongoing commitments to racial (traditionally black and white) and gender equality, as well as to the Appalachian region;
  4. the natural environment and our relationship to it;
  5. the roles of science and technology in the contemporary world;
  6. U.S. and global issues and perspectives.

Skills: the General Education Program will help students develop the abilities to:

  1. read and listen effectively; write and speak effectively, with integrity and style;
  2. think critically and creatively, and reason quantitatively;
  3. develop research strategies and employ appropriate technologies as means to deepen one’s knowledge and understanding;
  4. work effectively both independently and collaboratively;
  5. resolve conflicts nonviolently.

Habits of Mind: the General Education Program will help students:

  1. deepen their capacities for moral reflection, spiritual development, and responsible action;
  2. develop an openness to and knowledgeable appreciation of human diversity, in terms of race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, language, and culture;
  3. cultivate their imagination and ability to discern connections, consider alternatives, and think about topics and issues from multiple perspectives;
  4. think and act in ways that promote peace with justice;
  5. develop habits leading to lifetime health and fitness.

The above Aims of General Education will be achieved through a combination of learning experiences designed to help students become independent learners and thinkers.  Such learning experiences are likely to include:

  1. discussion and lecture;
  2. student-initiated learning;
  3. experiential learning (for example, service-learning, travel, internships, etc.);
  4. collaborative learning.

The Committee on General Education (COGE) has responsibility for oversight of the General Education Program. This includes:

  1. consideration of issues that affect the substance of the General Education curriculum, including reviewing and making recommendations on any matters that affect GSTR course guidelines or the General Education curriculum as a whole.
  2. administration of existing policy within the General Education Program. These matters include (but are not limited to) the development, review and approval of new sections of General Education core courses, Perspectives, and other components of the General Education Program; and consideration of requests for exceptions within the General Education Program.
  3. systematic and on-going assessment of individual GSTR courses, and of the General Education curriculum as a whole.
  4. planning for faculty development in regard to the General Education Program.
  5. initiation of proposals for programmatic and/or curricular changes to the General Education Program which are forwarded to and acted upon by the Academic Program Council (APC).

COGE will consist of eight members—the Associate Provost; seven Course Coordinators; and a student. The Associate Provost will serve as a voting member of the Academic Program Council (APC), and will function as a liaison to facilitate communication between COGE and the APC. The WELL Course Coordinator will be appointed by the Dean of Faculty, and the remaining six Course Coordinators will be appointed by the Associate Provost. Terms will generally be three years, but may range from two to five years. All members will have voice and vote.