Faculty Senate endorsed a program that will reform gen. eds, but its members also expressed concern about the program’s pace and implementation plan at a meeting Wednesday.

Progressive Learning in Undergraduate Studies aims to reform general education requirements for incoming students so the classes promote breadth, depth and practice. The proposed implementation date is fall 2015.

Although a motion to have Faculty Senate endorse the proposal passed, a second motion was proposed and passed in which the Faculty Senate expressed its concerns regarding the implementation process. The second vote was passed by a vote of 25 approving, six disapproving and two abstaining.

Faculty Senate members from the science departments were the first to speak up about their concerns regarding the removal of the lab requirement for general education.

“I think this is very short-sighted,” said Paul Stoddard, geology and environmental sciences professor. “I think we are essentially dumbing down the program to make the students happy. And I feel that that’s a huge mistake and I am not going to vote in favor of this with the way things stand now, under any circumstances.”

Members of other departments also expressed concerns about endorsing NIU PLUS: Robert Schneider, professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, said his school has created 12 measures to take part in NIU PLUS’ curriculum reform movement. Schneider said the deadline for getting these measures approved through the curricular process for the fall 2015 semester is fast approaching, but the proposed budget the PLUS Task Force submitted to the provost has yet to be approved.

“We feel somewhat as if we are being asked to dive off a high board without being fully certain that the swimming pool will be full of water when we arrive,” Schneider said.

English professor David Gorman, who sits on the NIU PLUS Task Force, said that although the committee achieved its goal of a 50-item list of proposed changes, it still hasn’t fully addressed implementation issues.

“Most of the worries that have been raised have had some sort of implementation component. So now the question becomes, how do we get from here to there?” said Gorman.

Faculty Senate President Bill Pitney suggested an amendment to address the Faculty Senate’s concerns. Following the approval of the motion to endorse NIU PLUS, a second motion was passed expressing the Faculty Senate’s concern over the modalities of the implementation process of NIU PLUS, specifically its implementation plan.