General Education Committee Meeting Minutes

Thursday, October 3, 2002 at 12:30 p.m. in the Badlands Room

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Members present: Virginia Clark Johnson, Bob Harrold, Kate Haugen, Phil McClean, Nancy Mueller, Char Myhre, Stephen O’Rourke, Larry Peterson, Brandon Philipczyk, Carol Prafcke, Doug Rymph, Grant Striemer, Orven Swenson, Kristi Wold-McCormick.

Members unable to attend: Justin Wageman

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m. by Chair Larry Peterson. After a correction of the spelling of one member’s name, the minutes of the previous meeting (September 12, 2002) were approved.

Announcements included: 1) A new course submission - CDFS 475 ‘Children and Families Across Cultures’ has been submitted with requests for approval for Categories B (Outcomes 3 and 6) and D; 2) The Senate Executive Committee met on September 30, 2002; and 3) The next joint luncheon of the General Education and University Assessment Committees will be held on October 15, 2002 with details to be provided as information becomes available.

There was no report from the Humanities and Fine Arts and Communication Subcommittee.

Larry Peterson reported for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Quantitative Reasoning, and Wellness Subcommittee that PSYC 250 (previously PSYC 213) “Developmental Psychology’ should be approved for Category B with Outcomes 4 and 5 and also recommended that Outcome 3 be dropped. A MOTION to approve this report (Paterson/O’Rourke) was unanimously approved.

The Science and Technology Subcommittee recommended that PHYS 212/212L (previously PHYS 123/124) ‘College Physics II/Lab’ be approved for Category S (Subcategory P) with Outcomes 5 and 6. A MOTION (Harrold/Prafcke) to approve this recommendation was unanimously approved. This Subcommittee also reported that more information was requested for BIOL 151/151L and that the course be resubmitted as a new course. (Approval had been sought for Category S (Subcategory N) with Outcomes 1, 2, 5, and 6. A MOTION (Harrold/Swenson) to request additional information for BIOL 151/151L was unanimously accepted.

Kristi Wold-McCormick presented four student petitions for exception to General Education Requirements and each was discussed at some length. The petitions and the respective outcomes were:

1) A student petitioned to substitute a Study Abroad course for 1 credit in the Science and Technology Category. A MOTION to approve this petition (Philipczyk/McClean) was approved.

2) A student petitioned to substitute study abroad experience for the Cultural Diversity requirement. A MOTION to approve this petition (Swenson/McClean) was approved.

3) A student petitioned to accept a transfer course in lieu of the Cultural Diversity requirement. A MOTION to approve this petition (McClean/O’Rourke) was defeated and the petition was denied.

4) A student petitioned to have foreign student status meet the Cultural Diversity requirement. A MOTION to approve this petition (Philipczyk/Striemer) was approved.

Extensive discussion followed on permitting the Office of Registration and Records to provide automatic approval of petitions from individuals having foreign student status or of domestic students with Study Abroad experiences as meeting the Cultural Diversity requirement. Much of the discussion was concerned with students from English-speaking provinces of Canada. A MOTION (O’Rourke/Prafcke) to permit blanket approvals of Cultural Diversity requirements for petitions from students having at least three credits of Study Abroad experiences in another country was approved. A second MOTION (Prafcke/Haugen) to automatically waive the Cultural Diversity requirement for international students, with the exception of those from Canada, was approved. Petitions for exception to the Cultural Diversity requirement from students from Canada will continue to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Larry Peterson distributed handouts from the joint luncheon with Susan Hatfield and the members of the University Assessment Committee held on Tuesday, October 1. Dr. Hatfield provided a number of points for the members of the General Education Committee to consider, including:
- Is there a conscious General Education curriculum in terms of outcomes?
- Data are needed to demonstrate that students have been exposed to, and achieving, all outcomes.
- General Education course syllabi should identify the outcomes that each meets
- This committee should work with the Academic Affairs Committee to have the previous recommendation included in their Web-site on elements needed in syllabi.
- A more conscious map should be created for General Education Outcomes.
- Departments should be asked to provide evidence and artifacts that demonstrate student learning in each of the outcomes requested for courses.
- Transcript evaluations need to be conducted to measure how deeply students engage the Outcomes.
- Standard or basic rubrics need to be developed to provide faculty with models for evaluating the General Education Outcomes of their courses.

Discussion followed on whether General Education is a program or a set of courses and on the current working definitions re-distributed by Larry Peterson prior to this meeting. Chair Peterson then asked for three volunteers from the General Education Committee to meet with three members of the University Assessment Committee (to be named later) to discus Dr. Hatfield’s recommendations and to develop joint recommendations to be presented to each committee for assessing general education. Prafcke, McClean, and Philipczyk volunteered.

At this point, several members of the General Education Committee had to leave for other commitments and the meeting was adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

Unfinished agenda items to carry forward to future meetings include:
- Higher Learning Commission materials on general education
- Suggested revisions of the new General Education Course Packet
- Agenda items carried forward from the 2001 - 2002 academic year
- Questions for the General Education Committee from the Office of Registration and Records.

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Recorder: Bob Harrold