General Education Committee Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November18, 2004
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Meadow Lark Rooms, Memorial Union

Present: Virginia Clark Johnson, Michael Christoffers, Robert Harrold, Kate Haugen, RaNelle Ingalls, Sudhir Mehta, Larry Peterson, Doug Rymph, Orven Swenson, Kevin Teigen, Cindy Urness, Robyne Williams, Kristi Wold-McCormick.

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 by Larry Peterson. Karen Bjellum served as recorder for the meeting. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, December 2, in the Meadow Lark Rooms, Memorial Union, at 8:30 a.m.  

A Motion (Haugen/Mehta) to approve the minutes for the November 4, 2004, meeting minutes as distributed, was approved.

Student Petitions

Student #1 – Petitioned to have the general education requirement in Humanities and Fine Arts waived due to excess elective credits in Modern Languages. A Motion (Harrold/Mehta) to have elective courses in French accepted as meeting requirements in Arts and Humanities received approval.

Student #2 – Petitioned to waive one credit of in the Humanities and Fine Arts requirement. A Motion (Mehta/Urness) for this portion of the petition was approved. A second aspect of the petition was to waive two credits of the requirements in English. A Motion (Williams/Christoffers) to deny this aspect of the petition received unanimous support.

Student #3 – Petitioned to use CHEM 121L for the laboratory requirement without completing the corresponding chemistry lecture course (CHEM 121). The student has been unable to enroll in a Physics lab to meet the co-requirement because the department has been unable to staff the lab sections. Discussion took place on other options for this student and for future students encountering comparable situations. Mehta and Swenson will meet with Provost Schnell and explore opportunities to staff laboratories for selected lower-level Physics courses.

After extensive discussion, a Motion (Harrold/Teigen) was presented to table a decision until responses could be obtained from the Department of Chemistry and from the Department of Geology. (Geology labs represent another option in the “Physical Science” category.) This motion was approved. Peterson will contact the Chair of each Department for comments.

Old Business

General Education Application Guidelines for New Courses

Peterson indicated that updates to the draft distributed on October 21, 2004 should include adding “Date submitted” at the top of the 2 nd page, adding “Form completed by” and ”Date” for tracking purposes, and adding “Approved by” for the same function. A Motion (Urness/Swenson) to approve the form, as updated, received unanimous approval.  

Guidelines for Five Year Reviews of General Education Courses  

A Motion to approve the format distributed on November 3, 2004, with minor corrections, (Mehta/Haugen) carried. 

Formative Assessment Questions (sample for Outcome 5)
Christoffers suggested changing the sentence – “One or more ways of accomplishing the above outcome are:” to “This outcome can be accomplished in many ways. Some examples are:”. In response to a question, Mehta explained that on-line “Formative Assessment” is not mandatory. Peterson added that he gives extra points to the students that complete the formative assessments.

The next step is to develop formative assessment questions for Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. Faculty could then choose the appropriate questions for their course or develop questions appropriate to the function of the class. Peterson asked the individual subcommittees to submit draft questions or examples for each outcome for consideration at the next meeting (December 2, 2004).

Reviewing General Education Integrated into the Major (spreadsheets distributed on 11/04/04).
Peterson asked Bjellum to explain what she did with the reports. Bjellum explained that she went through each individual department report and recorded whether or not the department has integrated outcomes nine through twelve into the curriculum for their major.

Peterson suggested that the subcommittee structure be used to provide summaries for Categories 9, 10, and 11. Assignments were:

Category 9 : Computer Usage – Science and Technology,

Category 10 : Communication Activities – Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication, and

Category 11 : Personal and Professional Ethics: Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wellness, and                      Quantitative Reasoning

Wold-McCormick volunteered to serve as convener for a group that will examine the Capstone Experience (Category 12). She will be assisted by Clark-Johnson, and Harrold.

Subcommittee Reports  

Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication: No report.

Science & Technology: No report.

Social and Behavioral Sciences, Quantitative Reasoning, and Wellness: No report.

University 189 Committee: Ingalls reported that Student Focus Groups meetings are in progress.

Other:
Peterson indicated that a small number of reports have been received for Five-Year Reviews of General Education courses.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted, Kären Bjellum, Recorder

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Reminder: There is no meeting on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 25, 2004.

Short-term goals for the General Education Committee include:

December 2: Discuss example questions for formative assessment
                    (Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7).

December 9: Complete work on example questions for formative assessment.