The core curriculum at Texas State Technical College Harlingen consists of 15 semester hours of general education drawn from and including one course in each of the following areas: humanities/fine arts, social/behavioral sciences, and natural science/mathematics.
The TSTC Harlingen administrator primarily responsible for Core Requirement 2.7.3 is the Vice President for Student Learning, Pat Hobbs [Ref 1]. Instructional administration staff reporting to the Vice President for Student Learning also associated with responsibilities for this Principle includes the Curriculum Coordinator, the division directors, and the department chairs.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), in its publication Guidelines for Instructional Programs in Workforce Education (GIPWE), requires the following: "To meet Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) guidelines, each degree must have an overall minimum of 15 semester hours in general education. The 15 hours of general education must include at least one course in each of the following three areas: humanities/fine arts, social/behavioral sciences, and mathematics/natural sciences" [Ref 2].
According to the 2002-4 Texas State Technical College Catalog [Ref 3], all TSTC associate degree programs "must contain a basic core of general education courses. This basic core must contain a minimum of 15 semester credit hours and include at least one course from each of the following areas: humanities/fine arts, social/behavioral sciences, and natural sciences/mathematics." The general education component at TSTC Harlingen requires a total of 15 hours, distributed in the following areas:
- Composition: 3 hours
- Mathematics/Natural Science: 3 hours
- Social/Behavioral Science: 3 hours
- Oral Communication: 3 hours
- Humanities/Fine Arts: 3 hours
- Total: 15 hours
The 2002-4 TSTC Harlingen College Catalog lists the basic core of general education courses available to meet this requirement [Ref 4]. The table "General Education Courses in AAS Program" [Ref 5] graphically shows how the general education requirements are met in each individual technical program. The table "Texas State Technical College Harlingen General Education Program/Component in AAS Degrees" [Ref 6] graphically identifies the course offerings for each AAS degree available. Both tables are prepared by the Curriculum Coordinator and reviewed annually by the Curriculum Committee, as mandated in COP 3.78 [Ref 7]. These requirements are further monitored during regular program reviews by the Program Assessment and Improvement Team, which is the college's internal program assessment effort, in the Curriculum section [Ref 8].
The content of the general education core courses is monitored by the Division of General Education to ensure that the courses do not focus on the skills, techniques, or procedures specific to any particular technical programs' students. Any given general education course at TSTC Harlingen will consist of students from a wide array of technical programs, as well as students taking the course for transfer purposes.
All academic courses offered by TSTC Harlingen are drawn from the state-approved Lower Division Academic Course Guide Manual [Ref 9], which dictates course syllabi requirements and certifies course eligibility for academic transfer to all other colleges and universities in the State.
To further facilitate the transfer of lower division general education courses, the Texas Common Course Numbering System (TCCNS) was developed. This is a voluntary, cooperative effort among Texas public and private community colleges and universities to facilitate transfer of freshman- and sophomore-level general education academic coursework [Ref 10]. The TCCNS provides a shared, uniform set of course designations for students and their advisors to use in determining both course equivalency and degree applicability of transfer credit on a statewide basis.
Determining course equivalency for an undergraduate course lacking a TCNNS is subject to review, consideration and approval on a course-by-course basis. The student must provide an official transcript from the originating institution at the time of admission to TSTC Harlingen. Determination of the course equivalency follows the procedure outlined in COP 3.61, Transfer and Substitution [Ref 11].
