As of fall of 2011, Grand Valley State University students will no longer be required to take the junior-level WRT 305 class, with the exception of students graduating in the spring/summer semester of this academic year.

Chair of the general education committee Roger Gilles said with the change in the curriculum, the committee did not intend to devalue the role of writing in the general education program but to simplify the general education experience for students.

“I’m in the writing department and I believe strongly that we’re not doing that because we are going to, I believe, improve the instruction of writing within the general education program and make more rigorous the assessment of writing in the general education program,” Gilles said. “So we are eliminating a requirement but we’re building up the writing component of general education. And in the end, everyone agreed on that. “

Zach Conley, a Student Senate representative for the general education committee, said he is in full support of a change he believes reduced demands on students without sacrificing the quality of education.

“Essentially, the junior level writing requirement is no longer a useful tool,” Conley said. “The path to graduation is difficult enough without having unnecessary requirements placed upon students. So it has been discarded, the responsibility of evaluating student writing proficiency instead couched comfortably in the curriculum of each discipline.”

Gilles said the change has caused some ripples of frustration among students who completed the course or are currently completing the course.

“I’ve been thinking it’s kind of like having a tax cut go in place and your saying, ‘Well I wanted the tax cut last year. Why didn’t you reduce taxes from last year, give me a refund on the taxes I paid last year?’” he said. “But you know, you have to move forward, and we’re trying to deal with this requirement now and in the future.”

Although it will no longer be a general education requirement, WRT 305 will still remain in the curriculum as an elective. As a WRT 305 instructor, Gilles said he and the rest of the writing faculty agree on the importance of the class and hope that the new focus allows for WRT 305 to better mirror its original intentions – to work in tandem with the majors and try to help prepare students for the writing demands that they might face there.

“The WRT 305 course is seen as valuable by people who have taken it,” Gilles said. “It’s often not seen as valuable by people before they take it because they think of it as an external requirement. But I’m hoping it has a new life as an elective.”

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