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Historically, the general education curriculum — made up of the introductory and foundational courses students take before fully entering their major — has been something that students simply endure. A checklist of courses, a sequence of disconnected topics, a necessary hurdle standing between first-years and the subjects they actually want to study. At least, that’s the model at most universities.

At 91��, though, faculty and administrators spent the last four years rethinking what general education could look like if it were designed around connection, flexibility and long-term student success from the very start.

“We took it right down to the studs,” says Dr. Robert Murray, associate dean for General Education at 91Ů��. “It’s a holistically new launch. It’s not a reform of the old program. It’s a brand-new program.”

That program, called Quest (an acronym for Question, Understand, Explore, Strengthen, Thrive), replaces a traditional “checklist” model built on distribution requirements with a more flexible path designed to build career readiness, develop durable skills and prepare students to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

“Right now, gen ed is the thing that is in your way,” Murray says. “What I hope we discover is that Mercy’s gen ed helps you get where you want to go.”

From obligation to purpose

For decades, general education has looked something like this: a series of required courses spread across disciplines like humanities, social sciences, math and natural sciences, with little connection to students’ majors and career goals. Students complete the requirements, but may not understand their purpose.

“We originally assessed students and faculty for what they understood about the gen ed curriculum,” says Dr. Dena Whipple, senior vice provost for Academic Affairs. “That became the impetus for how we would redesign it.”

What followed was a multiyear, institution-wide effort that reached nearly every corner of the university.

Faculty governance groups, curriculum committees, academic leadership teams and staff across advising, registration and student support all played a role in shaping how the new curriculum would function in practice. Faculty worked together to define learning outcomes, while departments aligned degree pathways around the new structure.

“It really takes the entire institution to move forward on a gen ed curriculum that’s innovative and good for students,” Whipple says. “This is not just one committee leading this.”

Choice, flexibility and student engagement

A defining feature of the new curriculum is the way students move through it. Instead of a rigid list of required courses, students complete learning outcomes through a wider range of course options tied to their interests and goals.

Students can now take courses that fulfill multiple requirements at once: building skills, exploring interests and even working toward minors.

“Double counting is actually very intentionally part of the design,” says Murray. With thoughtful and efficient course selection, “you can take multiple English courses, for example, and build them toward an English minor very easily now.”

This more customizable approach “allows for building micro-credentials, while staying on track and on time for graduation,” says Whipple. “And it’s also exciting for faculty because they have room to think in a more creative way about the curriculum.”

For faculty like Dr. Elise Arnold-Levene, associate professor of Spanish and program director for Modern Foreign Languages, that flexibility transforms how students engage. “Students may choose to enhance their writing skills through my advanced Spanish Reading and Composition course,” she says. “That course also counts toward the Creative Expression category and can be used toward a minor. The curriculum is both effective and efficient, and it gives students meaningful choices.”

Building skills across the curriculum

Quest is designed so that students develop and revisit key skills throughout their college experience instead of encountering them once in an isolated course. “If you teach something once, you’re not really teaching it at all,” says Murray.

That’s why writing, collaboration, critical thinking and communication are introduced early and reinforced across multiple classes and disciplines, giving students repeated opportunities to practice and improve.

The curriculum is also structured so that learning outcomes are measurable and consistent across courses. “With clear student learning outcomes attached to each course, we can measure student success in new ways,” Whipple says. “If there are courses where we see students are not finding success, faculty will have the right information to make adjustments and revise as needed.”

Starting strong: The First-Year Seminar

The First-Year Seminar, piloted last semester ahead of the full rollout of Quest, anchors the new curriculum. All incoming students take it in their first term, giving them a shared academic experience and a structured introduction to college.

The seminar introduces students to academic expectations, campus resources and one another. “Building community, collaboration and focused connections starts from the very first class,” Whipple says. “Not when they’re starting their major.”

“It’s very important for university students to get that extended orientation to make them feel a sense of belonging,” says Dr. Tharushi Perera, assistant professor of Chemistry. “One place we start with is how to write an email to your professor. And then we are slowly building everything from there. It’s like a full package.”

Fostering a sense of connection carries particular importance at Mercy, where many students commute and many are also first-generation college students navigating unfamiliar systems and expectations.

“We want them to feel connected to the campus and connected to the university as a whole,” says Dr. Maureen MacLeod, associate dean of Student Success and First Year Experience and associate professor of History. “You need to find your people,” MacLeod says. “You need to know where you belong, not where we say we think you belong.”

Faculty is seeing that transformation firsthand. “Students do not naturally feel connected to other students or to their professors,” says Dr. Jackie Fisher, assistant professor of Psychology. “These are relationships that need to be carfully built. First-Year Seminar gives students those opportunities in a low-stakes environment.”

Through activities as simple as visiting campus offices or collaborating on projects, students begin to see themselves as part of a larger academic community. “You belong here,” Perera tells her students. “And it’s OK to ask for help.”

According to Murray, early data suggests that the approach is making a difference. “GPAs are up, and we have the highest retention and perseverance rate in Mercy’s history right now.”

Long-term impact: Connecting coursework to careers

Quest is designed to connect general education directly to students’ academic paths and professional goals. Career development is integrated into the seminar sequence and reinforced across courses. “There’s a piece in every seminar that specifically relates to careers,” MacLeod says. “We want it to feel relatable.”

Students practice collaboration, develop communication skills and work through applied projects that reflect real-world expectations. “By the time they get to a job interview, they’ll have real experiences to talk about,” Murray says.

“There was a lot of thought and care that went into this,” MacLeod says. “I don’t know many places where this kind of intentionality goes into general education.”

For Whipple, that level of alignment supports a broader goal across the university. “Everything we’re doing is connected,” she says. “It’s all with a focus on helping students find success, not just while they’re here, but after they graduate.”

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