General Education Committee
Regular Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
12:30 p.m.
Badlands Room, Memorial Union

Members present:
Robert Harrold, Kate Haugen, Phil McClean, Nancy Mueller, Char Myhre, Stephen O’Rourke, Larry Peterson, Carol Prafcke, Doug Rymph, Orven Swenson, Justin Wageman,

Members absent:
Brandon Philipczyk, Grant Striemer, Virginia Clark Johnson

Minutes were approved from the previous meeting of October 22, 2002. Justin Wageman was asked to be the recorder for today’s meeting.

Announcements: Larry announced that the Joint-University Assessment committee split into subgroups, and that there are some good ways to assess general education.

Kristi Wold-McCormick requested that the items concerning her office be addressed first.

a. Kristi requested direction from the General Education committee about the General Education Administrative Policy 6. On motion of Carol Prafcke, General Education Administrative Policy 6 was revised and adopted to read, “General education requirements can be met by successful completion of a course for which an approved general education course in the same department is a prerequisite or by successful completion of an advanced course in the same department with comparable course content.”

b. Kristi will visit with the statistics department concerning Stats 330 and Stats 210.

c. On a motion of Phil McClean, it was adopted that students who score adequately on the AP: English Lit and Comp exam be allowed to apply Engl 220 to the communications or humanities categories until the new catalog is released.

Student Petitions

a. On a motion of Orven Swenson, the petition by a student to use linguistic credits for cultural diversity credits was denied.

b. The Registrar has already been authority to deal with the particular type of petition presented by a student .

c. On a motion of Robert Harrold, the petition by a student was rejected with stipulation. Six credits will count toward General Education, while four additional credits outside of chemistry will need to be taken.

d. On a motion from Phil McClean, the petition by a student was approved. Discussion followed regarding the review of the 189 course. Kate Haugen will research the numbers of transfer students who need the course, and will report back the information to the committee.

Report from GE Prerequisites Ad Hoc Subgroup (Prafcke, Peterson, Wold-McCormick): Larry reported that 15 courses have prerequisites. Of these, three do not have general education courses as their prerequisites, and 12 do have general education courses as their prequisites. On a motion from Phil McClean, the recommended changes of language to the Preamble of the Working Definitions and Essential Considerations for General Education Courses, including the missing word “before” was adopted.

• All courses must have Academic Affairs approval before being considered by the General Education committee.
• Courses are excluded from consideration if they focus on a single discipline-specific aspect, if they intend only to deepen a student’s knowledge within a narrowed topic area, or if they treat the material within an applied professional orientation.
• Courses with a temporary number (’99) are not eligible for General Education approval.
• Courses should have no prerequisites. The only prerequisites for general education courses must be other general education courses.
• Courses should be designed for a general audience (both majors and non-majors).

There were no reports from the subcommittees.

Leftover Agenda Items from 2001-2002. There was limited discussion, due to lack of time, concerning Outcome #1. Larry is looking for guidance regarding how this outcome is evaluated when responding to inquiries from departments. This topic will be brought to the committee again.

The General Education Committee adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Justin J. Wageman
Recorder