EVAN CARAVELLI/Arizona Daily Wildcat Jerrold Hogle, the new vice provost for instruction, is re-evaluating the general education program at the UA to see how the current system can be improved.

The 7-year-old gen ed program is undergoing a routine review this semester, and if a committee recommends changes, students could begin to see them next spring.

Jerry Hogle, the new vice provost for instruction who will re-evaluate the general education system, said most departments go through a mandatory academic program review every seven years, and though this review is similar to the current one, it is not required.

"Students have raised individual concerns about parts of the gen ed system, but no one set of complaints has precipitated this now," Hogle said.

He could not predict what concerns would be addressed, but he said the committee wants to consider all aspects of the gen ed program that has been required for undergraduates since 1997.

Hogle wants to include students and faculty on focus groups to get opinions on the gen ed system.

Some students said they see benefits of the gen ed program when it helps them in other areas of their education.

It is important to require students to have a well-rounded education when they leave, said Jessica Wong, an ecology senior.

"It's good in the sense that if people didn't have to take them, they wouldn't have to go outside of their major," Wong said.

The classes are useful if they can be applied to other areas of a student's life, said Jennifer Fankuchen, a freshman majoring in Spanish and Latin American studies.

"They're beneficial if they help me feel like I realize more about the world around me," Fankuchen said.

Seems kind of like a waste of time. I was just there for the grade. ÷ Jerome Briggs economics junior

Rhonda Gillett-Netting, an assistant professor of anthropology who teaches a Tier One NATS course, said she tries to help students apply the gen ed material to the rest of their education.

"I really like helping students see how to approach the material," Gillett-Netting said. "My goal is that it helps them do better in whatever major they choose."

Jonathan Patchett, a geosciences professor, said he also tries to make his class matter more to a student than just a grade.

"We try to teach them things that are of social relevance," Patchett said.

Hogle said the review process will probably continue into the fall, but he is hoping the committee will have a proposal for any changes they deem necessary for Provost George Davis by December.

He added that the review is not intended to eliminate the program.

"At the end of the process, there will be a gen ed program," Hogle said.

Jerome Briggs, an economics junior who transferred gen ed credits from Pima Community College, said he thought gen eds were only "somewhat helpful" in finding a major.

"Seems kind of like a waste of time," Briggs said. "I was just there for the grade."

He said if students already know what they want to study, the gen eds they take should relate to their major.

"If you know what you are going to do, they should draw a parallel around the major with gen ed classes," Briggs said.

Patchett said he would not change the content of the classes, but how professors accommodate students.

Because the classes are big, students tend to correspond with him via e-mail, instead of coming in to his office, Patchett said.

He said he feels like he is always on-call for them.

"I would love to reduce the time that I spend dealing with e-mails," Patchett said.

He even tried setting aside specific office hours for checking e-mail from his students in his Tier One NATS class.

Overall, he said students he interacts with do not have negative opinions of the gen ed system.

"I've never heard a student here say it was a waste of time," Patchett said.