General Education Committee
Minutes of the meeting of May 3, 2004
3 p.m. in the Badlands Room of the Memorial Union

Members present: Virginia Clark Johnson, Bob Harrold, RaNelle Ingalls, Marina Ioudina, James Larson, Char Myhre, Larry Peterson, Doug Rymph, Orven Swenson, Justin Wageman, Kristi Wold-McCormick.

Unable to attend: Brian Dougan, Kate Haugen, Phil McClean, Grant Streimer

Guest: Dale Sullivan

Larry Peterson opened the meeting at 2 p.m. by asking for a recorder for this meeting (Bob Harrold) and for comments on the minutes of the previous meeting of March 22, 2004. The minutes e-mailed on March 23, 2004 were approved as distributed.

Dale Sullivan, Head of the Department of English, distributed six handouts:

1. “English Department Proposal to alter Gen. Ed Writing Requirement”,
2. “Description of Proposed Writing Requirements”,
3. Descriptions of advantages of the changes for students, faculty in English, other programs of study, and why the courses identified should count as Gen Ed courses,
4. “Suggested Revision of Bulletin Copy for New Gen Ed Writing Proposal”,
5. “Guidelines for Writing intensive General Education Communication Courses”,and
6. “Proposed General Education Communication Advisory Subcommittee structure and responsibilities”.

There was extensive discussion on the proposal and the draft documents provided before general agreement that the Department of English should complete meeting with faculty in individual colleges next fall. After those meetings, the proposal and any modifications could then be re-presented to the members of the General Education Committee.

Due to time constraints, discussion of reviewing general education outcomes integrated into the major and review of capstone courses was delayed until fall.

Larry discussed the Academic Profile Test that was offered to seniors on April 17 and April 14. Improved student participation will be sought in the future.

Two student petitions for Exception to Academic Regulations (General Education) will be distributed electronically. Votes on the petitions should be returned to Larry.

The members of the Science and Technology Subcommittee presented a proposed rubric for Outcome #2. After discussion, a motion to approve the proposed rubric (Harrold/Larson) was approved.

The members of the Humanities and Fine Arts Subcommittee recommended the following courses for approval:

New General Education Courses:

Continued Approval for General Education with Changes in Outcomes:

Continued Approval for General Education with No Changes:

A motion to approve the two courses recommended after their five-year review (Harrold/Larson) was approved and a motion to approve the two courses submitted for initial approval as general education courses (Rymph/Larson) was also approved. Doug indicated that the subcommittee has developed a rubric for consideration by the full committee but asked that discussion be delayed until fall semester. Doug also reported that the subcommittee recommended that the following course be re-submitted with more specific examples of "concepts and perspectives needed to function in national and international societies" and examples of concepts from cultural diversity. These would provide evidence in the sections on the “methods of instruction used in relationship to the general education guidelines,” the “methods of evaluation of general education outcomes,” and the “evaluation criteria” for the general education outcomes.

Larry indicated that the time allotted for the meeting had been exceeded and indicated that the remaining items on the agenda for this meeting would be discussed during the fall semester. The meeting was adjourned at 4:04 p.m.

Recorder: Bob Harrold