A member pointed out that building truly interdisciplinary courses will be a lot of work, but it would be worth it. One person responded that the engineering faculty feel they cannot do their jobs without more credits. Some engineering classes could have significant writing. Another faculty member asserted that the General Education program has grown from 22 credits to 32 credits all at the expense of students' free electives. In reply, a member asked if that logic could be extended to the major.
Lets have half the credits in the major as free electives.
In a previous discussion we considered a course in engineering to be taught by engineering faculty for General Education. Sure - Knowledge of engineering is on the list of goals. No, that is too limiting. Courses taught specifically for majors cannot be General Education courses. In our department, all seniors will have a capstone course requirement that addresses many of the goals of General Education but in the context of our major.