Purpose and Outcomes

MEC General Education Program Statement of Purpose

The General Education Program (GEP) of Medgar Evers College (CUNY) provides students with general knowledge and intellectual skills, actively engages them in making connections across disciplines, and prepares them for civic responsibility and leadership roles in their own communities and in a rapidly changing technological world. Graduates of Medgar Evers College, as a result of completing courses in the General Education Program and their academic majors, will possess the knowledge, skills, and enhanced personal value system that will provide them with a foundation for life-long learning and empower them to promote the quality of their personal lives and contribute to their communities, their professions, the nation, and the world.

MEC  General Education Program Goals and Learning Outcomes

The educational goals/competencies of the General Education Program are based on the competencies identified by the American Association of Colleges &Universities (AACU) in their publication, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (2005). The LEAP competencies or Essential Learning Outcomes (ELO’s) are an outgrowth of 2000 AAC&U panel of higher education faculty, administrators, and scholars from across the country that met over a two year period. The National panel published a report, Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College (2002), which presented the recommendations for the focus of general education in the academy to meet the demands of the twenty-first century.

The LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes are the learning goals for the Medgar Evers College General Education Program. Graduates of Medgar Evers College will be prepared to meet twenty-first century challenges by gaining knowledge of and demonstrating competence in Liberal Arts and the foundation skills that will enable them to function effectively after they graduate in their chosen fields and professions.

The four GEP learning outcomes areas/goals are:

1. Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World

• Through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts.

Focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring.

2. Intellectual and Practical Skills, including:

• Inquiry and analysis
• Critical and creative thinking
• Written and oral communication
• Quantitative literacy
• Information literacy
• Teamwork and problem solving

Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance.

3. Personal and Social Responsibility, including:

• Civic knowledge and engagement local and global
• Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning and action
• Foundations and skills for lifelong learning

Anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges.

4. Integrative Learning, including:

• Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies.

Demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems.