General Education Committee Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, October 23, 2002 - 12:30 p.m. Badlands Room, Memorial Union

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

Members not present: Striemer, Grant

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 pm by chair Larry Peterson. After deleting Char Myhre from the “members present list” the minutes from October 3, 2002 were approved.

Announcements:
Larry announced that a survey on ethics was distributed through the faculty listserv and reminded committee members to complete it. It can provide information for general education assessment.

Larry distributed a handout – Summary of October 1 Meeting with Susan Hatfield. Discussion followed about the successful luncheon held by joint committees of University Assessment Committee & General Education Committee.

One of the options discussed at the meeting was to use the present five year reviews of general education courses to get information on how departments are assessing the general education outcomes. We may ask central administration for support to hire graduate students to help us with this.

Three from the University Assessment committee (Amy Richter, Rick Shaw & Mark Schmidt) will join Phil McLean, Carol Prafcke, and Brandon Philipczyk as member of a joint UAC/GE Committee to examine assessing general education.
Bob Harrold & Larry Peterson were asked to be Ex-Officio members.

At the present time no other luncheons are scheduled jointly with the UAC & GEC.

Subcommittee report for Humanities, Fine Arts & Communication: The committee recommended that History 135: Race in U.S. History to be accepted with Categories A & D and Outcomes 3 & 6. A MOTION (Prafcke/Harrold) to approve this recommendation was unanimously approved. Discussion followed & Prafcke suggested that the model submitted (History 135) be a model for other courses to follow since it was a very complete submission for a new course review. The committee agreed.

Subcommitee report for Social & Behavioral Sciences, Quantitative Reasoning and Wellness: The committee recommended that the 5 year review for the course Soc 412: Sociology of Sex Roles be approved with Categories B & D, Outcomes 3 and 4 (1 deleted). The committee recommended that the new course CDFS 475 Children & Families Across Cultures Categories B & D, Outcomes 3 & 6 be approved. A MOTION (Peterson/Prafcke) was made to approve Soc 412 for five year review and CDFS 475 for new course review.

Extensive discussion followed on the approval of CDFS 475. The question was raised on pre-requisites for this course. Discussion followed on the policy for General Education class requirements.

Discussion led to an amendment on the motion. Amendment was to split the motion to approve Soc 412 & table CDFS 475. (McClean/Harrold). More discussion followed. A MOTION (Wageman/Philipczyk) was made to approve CDFS 475. The committee voted by show of hands: 6 to approve the new course of CDFS 475, 7 opposed to approving the new course of CDFS 475. This course was tabled until the committee can clarify the policy on pre-requisites.

Wold-McCormick did not have any student petitions for the committee to review. She did have an inquiry from a student wondering if an upcoming trip would qualify for the cultural diversity waiver. The trip involved going to Italy in March 2003. The committee discussed the inquiry. The committee unanimously agreed that the trip would not qualify for three credits of cultural diversity. The trip was not long enough and would not qualify for 150 credit hours.

Discussion followed about the appeal process & how the committee should review the files. A MOTION (McClean/O’Rourke) was approved that any appeals must meet a deadline and be in committee member’s hands one week prior to any General Education Committee meeting.

The committee discussed suggested revisions in the New General Education Course Packet. A MOTION (Peterson/Wageman) was approved to add two questions and a statement (Please provide specific examples) to the form.

“What methods of evaluation do you use to determine whether this outcome has been met?” Please provide specific examples.

“Which assignments/tests/projects included in the attachments refer to this outcome?” Please provide specific examples.

Bob Harrold distributed “Outcome 5” handout. Discussion followed and the committee agreed to use this instrument internally for Outcome 5.

McClean raised the question regarding files for General Education Committee, is there a repository? Peterson announced that the Office of Registration & Records (Ceres Hall Room 110) will be the repository for General Education files. Previously the files were spread about campus, Wold-McCormick agreed to be the repository for the files.

Committee members had to leave for other commitments and the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Unfinished agenda items to carry forward:
-Discussion of material previously distributed from Bob Harrold on Assessment, Accreditation, General Education, and NCA.
-Questions for the General Education Committee from the Office of Registration & Records

Recorder: Nancy Mueller