The university is gaining a better sense of what a degree plan may look like in less than five years.

The proposed general education program is getting closer to going through the Curriculum Committee and Academic Counsel, the formal approval bodies for curriculum changes Cory Lock, director of general education, said.

Although the curriculum alterations were made in 2014, the catalogue won’t be available to students until Fall 2018.

Why now? Lock said that change is long overdue.

“The curriculum was created in the early 1990s,” Lock said. “The student population has changed, as well as what knowledge people are entering St. Edward’s with.”

Another reason for the change is to facilitate the increase in transfer students that the university has seen throughout the years. Assuming the changes are approved, Lock hopes for more entry points for transfer students, as well as more flexibility with which courses can be considered transferable.

Less general education requirements doesn’t necessarily mean expanding major requirements.

“The extra time is for students to do things that enrich the St. Edward’s experience, such as taking on a double major, a minor or studying abroad,” Lock said, “[It’s] for students to not be so desperate to take a course only because it fits into the general education requirements.”

One of the biggest changes students may see on their degree plan are those in regard to Capstone. Rather than one semester-long project with a focus on social justice, it would be more of a student-led project that applies to one’s major.

“The purpose is to not have Capstone as we know it anymore,” Lock said.

Although the curriculum changes are supposed to enhance a student’s experience, there are concerns about what may be lost in the process. Capstone as we know it evokes a similar experience no matter what major one chooses, and “parts [of the course requirements] are easier to manage when there’s a common theme,” Mary Rist, chair of the Literature, Writing, & Rhetoric Department said. “But everyone knew a big change was coming.”

Amy Adams, an adjunct professor and a senator on the Faculty Senate, feels that while growth and flexibility within courses benefits students, a professor with an office and full availability to students is a necessity for the “quintessential college experience.”

On Feb. 26, the Faculty Senate voted 8-7 to send the vote on the general education revisions to the Collegium, which includes adjunct instructors.

The other option was to have only the Assembly vote, which excludes adjuncts. Those that don’t respond to the vote will be considered to have abstained.

Adams is in favor of adjuncts being able to vote because they make up the majority at St. Edward’s. Adjuncts made up 57 percent of the faculty in Fall 2015.

“A lot of institutions have a split between general education and the major, and there’s not enough conversation about how they’re not completely separate things,” Lock said. “The hope is that there’s more interaction between the two that can invigorate faculty and students for the leadership made possible with more flexibility and therefore more enjoyable.”