From overhauling general education at Chico State to creating a program that strengthened first-year student integration and learning, Kirk Monfort made lasting contributions over his 46-year career that continue to impact students today.

A graduate of Stanford University’s doctoral program in philosophy, Monfort began teaching logic and ethics in the Department of Philosophy in 1974.

Early on in his career, he was elected to the Faculty Senate and quickly rose to secretary ofthe Senate’s executive committee, where he played a leading role in overhauling the University’s unwieldy general education (GE) program.

For more than a year, Monfort worked with Senate members to edit and restructure the program until a more efficient and logical offering was created. The revised GE programwas used for most of the next two decades and served as a foundation for every undergraduate degree offered at Chico State.

Monfort eventually became coordinator of the General Studies Thematic (GST) program,which sought to integrate freshmen into campus life by grouping them together for humanities classes.

Dissatisfied with the program’s quality at the time, he once again went to work improving the course curriculum, devising admissions criteria and recruiting high achieving high school students to apply. The revamped course was immediately popular, and included overnight trips to Ashland, Oregon, for theater performances and to the San Francisco Bay Area for art and history museums, as well as service opportunities in the community.

Monfort’s course also offered its freshman participants an instant social network. By spending 18 hours each week in class together, plus time on field trips and in study groups and service activities, students in GST enjoyed a streamlined pathway to integration atChico State.

“It worked really well,” said emeritus history professor and 2019 ERFSA Hall of Honor inductee Dale Steiner. “Students emerged from a year of GST well equipped to succeed inany major. The history department did everything we could to get the students who came out of Kirk’s program, because they came out so prepared.”

Monfort’s success with GST was honored in 1998 with the High Quality Learning Environments Award and was publicly recognized by President Paul Zingg and Provost Sandra Flake in 2010 when the program graduated its final first-year class. Today, elements of the GST can be found in the Educational Opportunity Program’s First-Year Experience.

Service to the community was central to Monfort’s work, and he modeled that commitment for his students. He was a founder of Chico Velo, a nonprofit that promotes cycling for transportation, recreation, and health, and served on the Chico Planning Commission for more than 15 years.

Across the classroom, campus, and community, Monfort’s influence is still felt in the way Chico State supports student learning, connection, and engagement from the very first year.