General Education and Assessment: Generating Commitment, Value, and Evidence

The Network for Academic Renewal Conference
March 4-6, 2004
The Hilton Long Beach
Long Beach, California

This conference brought campus practitioners together to discuss key outcomes of 21st century general education programs designed to prepare students for work and life in an increasingly diverse, complex and interconnected global society. It focused on defining and assessing these outcomes across the curriculum.

The challenges students will face will involve them in making judgments in the context of evolving geopolitics, fluctuating global economies, diminishing natural resources and environmental quality, and continuing intolerance of racial/ethnic and cultural differences both domestically and internationally. We owe it to our students to help them develop the competencies to link diverse areas of knowledge in practical application to unscripted, complex problems. Only then will they be prepared to act effectively and responsibly in the world.