Beginning on September 23, 2024, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will rename two areas of the General Education CLAS Core. 

Following a university review of DEI-related general education categories initiated by an Iowa Board of Regents directive, the Diversity and Inclusion GE area will be renamed Understanding Cultural Perspectives. CLAS is also changing the Values and Culture GE area name to Values and Society to better differentiate it from Understanding Cultural Perspectives.

Beyond the new GE CLAS Core area names, there are no changes to courses or GE statuses. Therefore: 

• All courses currently approved for GE status in the Diversity and Inclusion area will remain approved for Understanding Cultural Perspectives. 
• All courses currently approved for GE status in the Values and Culture area will remain approved for Values and Society.
• Instructors of courses in these two areas should plan to update any language in their syllabi related to the GE area names for Spring 2025. 
• The GE learning outcomes and content descriptions for these two GE areas also remain unchanged.   

GE CLAS Core area names appear in many places online and in printed materials. The Office of the Registrar will make the primary change to these two names in the MAUI course library on September 23, 2024, and that change will automatically update MyUI and sample plans. 

The Office of the Registrar will update degree audits manually and should be done with this process by the end of the Fall 2024 semester. Please note that there will be a period when degree audits will still have the older area names while the MyUI course browse and Schedule Builder will use the new names. The 2024-2025 General Catalog includes a statement about the change, and the Office of the Registrar will fully update the General Catalog for the 2025-2026 year.

CLAS departments should not need to do anything to change degree audits, sample plans, or GE catalog pages; CLAS or the Registrar will contact you directly if your assistance is needed in making any of these edits. 

We do request that CLAS departments review and update any of their materials that might use GE area names, such as websites, informational handouts, and advising tools, beginning on September 23, 2024. Please plan to have materials updated by the end of December 2024. 

Information for students: CLAS will be communicating these changes to all undergraduate students whose primary major is in the college in an email message on September 23, 2024. This news will repeat in a short CLAS Newsletter story on September 25, 2024. For additional information related to the renaming project, especially when student questions arise, please see the General Education CLAS Core page of the CLAS Resource Site.

Please address any questions about this change to CLAS UP at clas-curriculum@uiowa.edu.