GE 250 / GE 251 is a two-semester course that entails a diverse set of activities and endeavors outside one's coursework. It is not particularly an academic course yet it seeks to enrich the lives of Bilkent students. It will motivate the students to go out of their rooms and classrooms and explore domains of life that they do not necessarily encounter in their daily routines.

It aims to contribute to learning to learn, learning to think, and learning to do.

Why GE 250 / GE 251? It is a means to pursue some of the educational goals of Bilkent: to go beyond merely training students for a profession or acquisition of knowledge in an area of specialization. Bilkent strives to provide opportunities for students to broaden their perspectives. Particularly, Bilkent aims to develop individuals who take initiatives, show responsibility with respect to the wider community and the world, contribute to innovation and improvement in the society at large, maintain and practice respect for differences, and are interested in intellectual and artistic/creative life of humanity.

What is unique about GE 250 / GE 251? Students themselves are active in designing and shaping the course in collaboration with the university administration. Students are also the main actors in monitoring and grading student performance in the course. It is the only course in the university (and probably in the country) given and graded by students. The points to each activity will be decided by a committee of students and it will be the students themselves who monitor these activities and hence 'grade' each other. GE 250 / GE 251 is supervised by a committee with representatives from the Office of the Dean of Students, the Provost Office, the Student Council, and the Student Clubs.

Who will take this course? The GE 250 / GE 251 program is mandatory for all four-year students. Other students can take GE 250 / GE 251 as an elective. It is to be taken in the second year, starting in the third semester. GE 250 is a prerequisite for GE 251. International students are also required to take GE 250 / GE 251: However, they are graded based on a scheme of grading different than the students for whom Turkish is their mother tongue: total points earned in the available English-language extracurricular activities.

The program starts in Fall 2010. In the 2010-2011 academic year, irregular sophomores, juniors and seniors - that is, anyone who passed their third semester as of September 2010 - are exempt from the GE 250 / GE 251 program.

Sequence, credit and other technicalities: GE 250 is followed by GE 251 in the following semester. GE 250 is a non-credit pass/fail course, while GE 251 is a one credit unit course. GE 250 is the prerequisite of GE 251.

GE 250 / GE 251 does not count towards the academic workload and hence cannot be counted as a 'new course' for students on probation.

GE 250 / GE 251 can be withdrawn from, as other courses.

Grading: Students earn points by actively participating in a diverse set of activities. Once a student collects points above a threshold, she earns a Satisfactory (S) grade in GE 250. Students who successfully complete both the Fall and the Spring modules of the program are assigned a final grade on the basis of the total points they collected during the academic year. If a student registers for but does not carry out the activity, points are deducted. At the end of the year, the plus and minus points are summed up and the students are assigned a final grade.

Operation and Administration: The GE 250 program will operate through a web site. Students will be able to view the activities filed by the student clubs and register to a particular activity, subject to the available quotas.

With the GE 250 / GE 251 program, all student clubs operating under the auspices of the Office of the Dean of Students register their activities to an online database. The registered activities are subjected to a preliminary review by a committee with representatives from the Provost's Office, the Dean's Office, Student Council and the student body on the basis of which all activities are assigned a correlating grade-point.

For each activity planned, the student clubs are required to file an online proposal with the Office of the Dean of Students. The proposals include details like the date, location, participation quota, and description of the proposed project. In their proposals, the clubs can also convey advice on how many points they desire that activity be assigned. The final decision on points assigned, however, resides with the committee. Once approved, the projects are then automatically opened for registration through the online system and students are posted a regular bulletin on new activities available. Through their STARS module, the students can view the GE 250 catalogue and register to whichever activity they desire (provided that the quota is not full). The clubs, for each activity they hold, are provided with a roster and are expected to check the attendance lists and report the absentees back through the online system so that people will not score points for activities they have not attended.

Contact ge250@bilkent.edu.tr for further information and inquiries.