Minutes of the General Education Committee
for September 25, 2003

The Committee met at noon on September 25 to begin in earnest the year's work on the reworking of the general education program, particularly with respect to freshman courses and needs. Attending were Lori Allen, Lynn Carlson, Patrick Goldsmith, Gerald Greenfield, Susan Haller, Frances Kavenik, Lisa Moeller, Megan Mullen, Sue Norton, Lisa White, and Evelyn Zepp; absent were Oliver Hayward and Carmel Ruffolo.

Report from the Director. Susan reported that she had done two executive actions for students to complete their BOK requirements, and that she had found the '91 proposal from the task force on general education and sent it to all members of the committee. Lynn asked for a copy, and Susan said she would send it to her. Evelyn suggested that S. Christoph would be
likely to have the final proposal which was sent to the Senate, and Susan agreed to ask him for it and send it along. She also reported that she had attended the Teacher Education Preparation Steering Committee, the ICBL Meeting, and the Internship Group Meeting, as part of our ongoing effort to connect with other campus groups and task forces whose work and outcomes implicate general education. She deferred her other discussion items for the new business portion of the meeting.

Old Business. The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted without emendation. We chose meeting dates for the remainder of the semester for the committee of the whole, to wit:

October 10 (CART 279)
November 14 (CART 233)
December 12 (CART 233)
Meetings will be at noon, and we have a 2-hour bloc of time. (We are assuming that the heat will be turned on some time before December.)The attendance policy extending to all senate-based committees, including ours, will be on the first senate agenda of the semester. Lori handed out a list of subcommittees and current members and invited committee members to sign up for their favorites. Each subcommittee needs someone to take charge of it, and several brave souls volunteered (see below). Lori
indicated that by the next meeting, October 10, each subcommittee should have a vision statement and its objectives, along with a (very) preliminary report. We are hoping to have some conclusions and recommendations from each subcommittee by the end of the semester, so that we can begin working on the full draft report early next year.New Business. Susan has met with Dean Cress, who identified several areas of concern which relate to general education.

(1) BOK scheduling. Susan handed out a (very small print) version of the spring 2004 BOK courses for the committee to peruse. She suggested we pay particular attention to the lack of BOK courses available during evenings and/or weekends. She will attempt to get comparative data on previous years' offerings and find out how many (or what %) of these courses are taught by adjunct instructors. We agreed to take this matter up at a later meeting and to think of strategies for increasing evening general education offerings for fall 2004.

(2) Relationship between the diversity/ethnic studies committee and the general education committee. Basically the general education committee is responsible for the diversity requirement, which it has devolved to ethnic studies. Timing and communication problems suggest that the relationship needs to be clarified and procedures need to be worked out to everyone's satisfaction. Susan volunteered to talk to Fay Akindes, and then report back to the full committee. Evelyn suggested APC might also be of assistance in working on procedural guidelines.

(3) Issues of coordination between ACSK 090 and ENGL 100 and subsequent English courses. With so many more sections of ACSK 090 being taught (40% of entering new students this semester), the problem of coordination of these courses with further writing courses has become acute. After discussing some of the issues involved, those on subcommittee IV agreed to add this investigation to their objectives.

(4) Upper-level general education requirements. Susan noted the dean's concern that all transfer students entering with AA degrees are considered to have completed their general education requirements, thus making our adding upper-level requirements problematical. We added this problem to the objectives of subcommittee V.

Susan also announced that Chris Evans will be sending a letter to the director and the committee on behalf of the Natural Sciences about reforming and redefining the offerings in their category. The ICBL and American Democracy advocates also wish to talk to the committee about their interests, and we will invite them to meet with us this semester.

Subcommittees:

I. Expanding Freshman Orientation (working with the appropriate offices on campus) including logistics, university citizenship (Honor Code) and socialization.
*Lisa White
Lisa Moeller
Jerry Greenfield

II. Performance Outcomes for the Four Identified Goals of General Education.
*Pat Goldsmith
Sue Norton
Laura Gellott
+ members of the "Hallmarks" group

III. Introduction of General Education Goals (aka University Seminar) into lower division courses.
*Frances Kavenik
Evelyn Zepp

IV. Enhancing relationships between departments and General Education in incorporating, realizing, and assessing the goals of General Education.
*Lori Allen
Lynn Carlson
Sue Norton

V. General Education at different levels of the student's career.
*Megan Mullen
Susan Haller

The meeting adjourned at 1:50.