The ASUU Student Senate Executive Committee voted down the proposed corequisite that would require students to participate in community engagement before graduation.
The four voting members of the Associated Students of the University of Utah voted one in favor and two against the proposal, with one abstention.
If passed, the corequisite would have required all students to complete at least one hour of community service or a service project before graduating. The corequisite requirements could be completed without additional course work, ASUU President Patrick Reimherr said.
Senate Chair Jennifer Buhler, a senior in elementary education, said the committee members felt they didn’t have sufficient information to pass the corequisite.
“We talked about it for a long time,” Buhler said. “Several members needed more specific information.”
Buhler said the committee members were not necessarily against the corequisite but wanted to know what classes would count for the community engagement. She said they also had concerns about how transfer students and non-traditional students would factor into the corequisite.
Kasi Goodwin, senator for the College of Science, said she was strongly against the corequisite from the beginning. Goodwin was unable to be at the meeting when the corequisite was considered, but she said she has been doing research on her own within her college.
“It was too abstract,” Goodwin said. “I didn’t see how it would be applied across the board.”
As a chemistry major, Goodwin said that after speaking with her adviser, someone in her position would have to take an additional class to fulfill the requirement, which is in contrast to what the original proposal stated.
“Science majors are busy,” Goodwin said. “There is not a course already implemented that would count.”
Goodwin said by requiring service participation, it could take away from the good experiences that can come from community engagement.
Reimherr and ASUU Vice President Jon Hayes presented the corequisite to the committee and Service-Learning Scholars. As scholars, participating students are required to complete an Integrative Service Project to complete the Service Learning Program. Reimherr said he decided to use the corequisite as his ISP when he found out it was feasible, but he had conceived the idea long before.
Reimherr and Hayes decided to pull the bill for a month or so after it failed to pass the committee.
“We walked away from the meeting with the desire to do more research and learn how we can continue to make this more of a unique benefit than a burden,” Reimherr said.
It appears there are still several questions and concerns that need to be addressed for the proposal to move forward, Reimherr said.
A survey was sent to students to gauge what kind of support the corequisite had on campus. The results look positive, Reimherr said.
However, Goodwin said she isn’t so sure how critically the responses were considered. She said the wording on the survey was a little confusing and vague. College of Architecture Sen. Jessica Batty said the committee needed more information on specific options for student’s majors that would fulfill the requirement.
“Since the corequisite wouldn’t take effect until 2010, we felt a few more months should be taken to do research,” Batty said.
A more critical look is needed because it affects so many people, Batty said.
The committee will not hold a meeting in December, so the earliest it could be re-submitted is in January of next year.