By STEPHAN BISHA
Kansas News Service

For decades, a university education meant students had to load up on math, history and English courses. Now, Kansas universities are slashing those general education requirements so more students can graduate on time and have more room for classes in their major.

This week, Wichita State University became the latest school to reduce how many gen ed classes their undergraduates need to take.

By cutting back on gen ed credits or ditching philosophy and history requirements in favor of specific goals, schools are hoping students can learn skills like ethical reasoning from an engineering course. But liberal arts professors warn the change will take away a core aspect of what a university education provides — a broad knowledge of the world that goes beyond what’s taught in their major.

“Our students will be less competitive, less prepared for the world that they enter when they leave here,” Wichita State University associate sociology professor Chase Billingham said at the faculty vote.

Cutting class

The main driver of Wichita State’s general education cuts is a requirement by the Kansas Board of Regents to reduce credit hours.

In 2017, the board made it their goal to cap most bachelor’s degree program requirements at 120 credits, the minimum needed for a degree. The majority of students fail to earn their degree in four years, forcing them to pay for an extra semester or more of school, so the regents think fewer classes will make it easier for students to graduate on time.

But an across-the-board general education wasn’t the target of the regents’ cap.

Fine arts and engineering faculty at Wichita State complained they already cut as many classes as they could and were still coming in above the credit limit. That’s why they believed general ed cuts should make up the rest.

“We have already cut to the bone our core course,” Wichita State voice professor Pina Mozzani said during the faculty vote. “Our students are going out impoverished in their own area.”

The regents have exempted engineering programs at state universities from requiring more classes, though engineering professors want gen ed cuts so they can put back in more of the major’s core classes.

Faculty pushing for the cuts also argued that Wichita State required 14 gen ed classes, which is more than other competing schools. But some liberal arts professors said their classes shouldn’t be viewed as a burden. Instead, they said, the classes should be celebrated as better preparing students for the post-college world by developing wide-ranging skills.

“I don’t want to get engaged in a race to the bottom,” said John Dreifort, a history professor at Wichita State. “We should still maintain that there are courses in a university that are important for an educated person to have access to.”

Some professors also expressed concern that fewer gen ed requirements would mean fewer students taking their classes. But they also worried that without general education, you end up with state vocational schools.

“This is Wichita State University,” associate history professor George Dehner said. “It’s not Wichita State Tech.”

Ultimately, many liberal arts professors at Wichita State supported the gen ed reduction, swayed by the argument that losing two classes was better than a proposal for four classes.

Professors also went into the vote expecting this to be the last time gen ed was touched for years, though some suggested this was just a patch job and a hard look at reshaping general education was still needed in the years ahead.

“It’s just a Band-Aid on what is a much bigger question about what general education should be in 2019 for our students,” said Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, the director of Wichita State’s school of music.

Rethinking requirements

One possibility for WSU’s future is taking a page from Kansas State: ditch the classic university model in which students take specific subjects offered by specialized departments, and instead have them focus on concepts.

In 2012, K-State overhauled its gen ed program (and the University of Kansas made a similar change in 2013). Students in Manhattan still have to take some liberal arts classes. But now a taxation class offered by the accounting department can count toward social science requirements. An animal behavior class from the agriculture department satisfies the empirical and quantitative reasoning goal.

K-State is still evaluating how effective the change has been, but the university said it has seen positive early results.

“It’s not impinging upon any one or two departments to teach all these classes,” said Brian Kovar, a member of the university’s general education council. “It really allows a lot of people to be involved in this.”

Elsewhere, Fort Hays State University is considering allowing some major classes to count toward gen ed, though its main focus is cutting down credits. Pittsburg State University cut gen ed credit this year, while Emporia State University is also looking to do the same.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education and young adult life for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha or email him at bisaha@kmuw. org. The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on the health and well-being of Kansans, their communities and civic life.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating what was initially believed to be an aggravated battery.

Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a residence in the 300 block of SW Harrison in Topeka on the report of an aggravated battery, according to Lt. John Trimble.

Upon arrival, officers located one victim who suffered what appears to be a non-life threatening gunshot wound.

The victim was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. Late Saturday, investigators determine the shooting was an accidental, self-inflicted discharge of a firearm by the victim, according to Major Scott Gilchrist with Topeka Police. Name of the victim has not been released.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas man who fatally shot an argumentative robbery victim has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Twenty-seven-year-old Danzel Reese of Kansas City was sentenced Thursday for involuntary manslaughter and first-degree robbery in the 2010 fatal shooting of Lance Rutter.

One witness told police the original plan was to rob a drug dealer. But when the dealer didn’t show up, the witness returned to a vehicle, where he got a call from Reese saying he was “just gonna rob anybody.”

The witness says he then saw Reese point a handgun at two people on a porch and fire once.

The surviving victim told police that he handed his wallet to one suspect, who then took off running. The man said Rutter was shot when he argued with the other suspect.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a weekend vehicle crash that may have been a suicide attempt.

Just after 11:15 a.m., police responded to a rollover accident at Kellogg and Edwards in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 2010 white Ford F250 was westbound on Kellogg in the center lane being driven by a 19-year-old woman and occupied by a 15-year-old male passenger.

Without warning or reason, the truck veered hard to the right and crashed into the concrete barrier over Edwards, causing the truck to flip on its side and slide to a stop. EMS transported both occupants to an area hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

When medical crews contacted the occupants, the woman was unconscious, and the boy made comments of wanting to harm himself. Through further investigation, it was learned the boy and woman grabbed the steering wheel of the truck together and turned it abruptly, in an apparent suicide attempt.

RENO COUNTY — For the second day in a row, the Hutchinson Fire Department was on the scene of a grass fire.

On Sunday, crews responded to the 3300 block of 95th for a grass fire. According to HFD, all units were on the scene and battling strong northerly winds.

There is no word yet on any damage or evacuations.

On Saturday firefighters battled a large fire that started in the 5200 block of East 4th Avenue. The fire spread quickly and passed 17th Avenue before being brought under control. Crews worked to save several homes in the East 17th Avenue area, but an out building was lost in the fire.

Officials did not report any injuries. More than 30 fire units were called to help fight the fire.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The head of a giant private prison company says his firm is prepared for the “worst case scenario” should a Democratic presidential candidate win the 2020 election and attempt to abolish private involvement in the prison sector.

CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger addressed such a potential scenario in the company’s latest earnings conference call last week when asked about the number of top Democratic presidential candidates who favor ending federal private prisons. He said Tennessee-based CoreCivic remains upbeat that the company would continue to earn money in such a scenario and noted the federal government currently does not have the infrastructure to house inmates without relying on private facilities.

“In worst case scenario, knowing half our business is with the states, nothing is going to change,” Hininger later said in a Friday phone interview with The Associated Press, echoing comments he made on the earnings call.

On the call, he said CoreCivic had reported $509 million in earnings for the third quarter.

He said that CoreCivic would still earn money should the federal government ever end its contract, saying his company would be able to sell or lease its real estate if that were to occur — stressing that such an effort would likely take years to phase-out and approval from Congress on appropriating enough funding to build new facilities and resources.

The company operates 51 correctional and detention facilities including the Leavenworth Detention Center in northeast Kansas. They own 44 with a total capacity of roughly 73,000 beds. This has resulted in the company becoming the largest private owner of real estate used by U.S. government agencies.

“We think that an option could be if there is a big push not only at federal but at state level to eliminate use of the private sector to provide real estate and services,” Hininger said. “That maybe the option that they ask us to consider is to either buy our existing assets or capacity or lease our facilities.”

Top private prison firms across the country have been closely watching the growing backlash from the top Democratic presidential contenders — ranging from former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who strongly favor ending federal private prisons.

These companies recently formed an advocacy group known as the Day 1 Alliance to rebut the criticism. Meanwhile, unease in the industry continues to linger about negative public opinion on private prisons.

For example, in a recent SEC filing, Florida-based GEO Group noted that resistance to private prisons “could result in our inability to obtain new contracts or the loss of existing contracts, impact our ability to obtain or refinance debt financing or enter into commercial arrangements.”

Hininger also added on the call that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals do not own or operate any detention centers, making them reliant on private companies like CoreCivic to house detainees. But even if the federal government became opposed to privatization, Hininerg said state governments are increasingly showing more interest in the area.

“In the last two years, we’ve had contracts with Ohio, Vermont, Wyoming, South Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky. These are states with both Democratic and Republican governors, both ends of the spectrum,” Hininerg told AP on Friday. “They’ve engaged us with solutions and I don’t see that changing.”

CoreCivic’s involvement with ICE, however, has come under fire from the left as one of two private companies that operate migrant detention centers for ICE. According to CoreCivic’s financial statements, ICE detention accounted for 25 percent of the company’s $1.8 billion in total revenue in 2018.

CoreCivic has defended contracting with ICE by countering that it doesn’t run facilities for immigrant children separated from parents, but it does have ones that detain adult immigrants, as well as one center that houses migrant mothers and their children together.

In 2016, then President Barack Obama’s administration announced the Federal Bureau of Prisons would no longer use private prisons and unveiled a plan to phase-out of the contracts. That decision was quickly overturned after President Donald Trump took office.