Oregon State University is changing its Baccalaureate Core curriculum, which has been in place since 1991. The changes to OSU’s general education requirements will take effect in the summer of 2025.

Over 30 years have passed since OSU updated the Bacc Core. With the changing demographic at OSU, general education has been “overhauled” said Mckenzie Huber, director of core education in the Office of Academic Affairs to adapt and prepare students for their careers.

The general education requirements were approved in October 2022 by the Faculty Senate. However, Huber explained there are two Bacc Cores for students.

The new curriculum will apply to incoming undergraduate and transfer students who begin in the summer of 2025 and are enrolled via Ecampus, the Corvallis or Cascades campuses.

Students may still notice similarities between curricula; however, changes have been made to classes, Huber explained variations were reworked into courses to meet the new requirements.

Some students say the changes are welcomed and overdue. Rafael Arellano is a fourth-year digital communication major minoring in computer science and says it’s good to learn about things outside of a student’s chosen majors.

“Hearing about these (Bacc Core) changes, I think it’s about time,” Arellano said.

Keeping OSU’s Land Grant mission at the forefront and centering accessibility for students, Huber said the new curricula will ease credit transfer for students from within the state.

The core transfer map was created to help prospective students determine how their previous credits will intersect with OSU’s new Core Education. According to Huber, this is a simplified path for students who transfer to OSU from different communities and backgrounds.

“(OSU) wanted a clear and accessible pathway for our students. Specifically, we know students from underrepresented communities start at community colleges,” Huber said. “This is aimed at promoting equity and accessibility for the rest of the state.”

Students will learn from the Core Education curriculum. It embeds high-impact practices and the ever-changing needs of students.

Core Education classes prepare students to engage in critical thinking, information literacy, environmental justice and communication.

“The foundational curriculum is fundamental skills, breadth, knowledge and promotion,” Huber said.

Another factor that went into OSU’s new curriculum changes comes from the fact that students attend OSU from across the nation via Ecampus, and that’s how Signature Core was created for the new curriculum.

Part of updating the Bacc Core is to prepare students beyond OSU, according to Huber OSU is proud of the new curriculum because it will prepare students with intentionality within the general education courses. 

Signature Core are upper-division courses, set to challenge students to apply their critical thinking skills and seek solutions. The classes are designed to develop the skills essential for traversing a complex and intersected world.

Courses like Difference, Power and Oppression are offered at an advanced level in every major and are designed to help students recognize barriers to access in fields like engineering.

This effort is aimed at students collaborating and forming partnerships that will prepare them for the workforce.

Arellano said courses with topics that involve DEI “need to be had” to help students understand the experiences and cultures of others. According to Huber, designing the new curriculum took a lot of time and effort. 

“The new curriculum was designed for 21st-century learners and graduates,” Huber said. “It is not just a set of courses, (OSU) intentionally embedded career integration. This is something we’re proud of.”

As OSU’s student demographics changed in the last three decades, adapting to meet the needs of diverse learners is meant to help retention and reform education for students.

The changes to the Bacc Core involved hundreds of voices and input from the OSU community and more.

“We talked with individual college faculty, college leadership, staff campus experts because we wanted to make sure that we were thinking about student success holistically,” Huber said.

With the new changes, students will learn more about the courses offered and learn new skills through Core Education and Signature Core.

“(OSU is) focused on student success, we have a new curriculum designed to meet the needs of our students and to meet them where they’re at,” Huber said.

Students can look forward to a new curriculum with diversity and collaboration at the forefront to help prepare for life after OSU.

“I think this is going to do better than it’s ever done before,” Arellano said.