General Education Committee
Meeting Minutes for January 26, 2005
Memorial Union Atrium Room; Noon - 1 p.m.

Members present: Virginia Clark Johnson, Michael Christoffers, Robert Harrold, RaNelle Ingalls, Char Myhre, Larry Peterson, Doug Rymph, Josh Swanson, Orven Swenson, Robyne Williams, and Kristi Wold-McCormick.

Larry Peterson called the meeting to order at noon and asked for corrections or additions to the minutes of the January 12, 2005 meeting, as distributed on January 14, 2005. A motion to approve as distributed (Harrold/Swanson) was approved .

One student petition had been received and was discussed. The student requested substitution of 3.0 CEUs for an experience in chemistry training for pharmacy owners for PHYS 110L. Consideration of this petition also included discussion of the preferences of Department Chairs and Heads from two science-related colleges on the substitution of classes for the laboratory co-requisite. A motion to approve the petition (Williams/Harrold) failed .

Peterson reviewed previous discussion in this committee of responses from Chairs and Heads in the College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources and from the College of Science and Mathematics about substitution of courses for the laboratory co-requirement. A motion (Williams/Swenson) to support the recommendation from the two colleges that students complete co-requisite classes and that cross-discipline substitutions be discouraged was approved .

Nominations for a Chair-Elect for this committee were delayed until an unspecified future date.

Christoffers will attend the AAC&U General Education Conference in Atlanta in February. Peterson and Williams commented upon their experiences at previous AAC&U General Education Conferences and encouraged another member of this committee to consider this opportunity.

Peterson distributed a handout from the Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication Subcommittee and described innovations implemented in MUSC 103. A motion (Peterson/Christoffers) to recommend to the University Senate that MUSC 103 be approved for a five-year renewal with Outcomes 6 and 7 was approved.

Peterson distributed the review of Category 10: Communication Activities in Upper Division Major Courses from the Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication Subcommittee and asked for comments from committee members about the continuing review. Twenty nine complete reports have been reviewed but there are four reports that have not been submitted, eight reports that were unclear, two reports that did not provide a direct response to the information needed for evaluation, and three reports that have not been added to the summary matrix. Wold-McCormick indicated that she is still anticipating a response from Phillip Parnell about how upper division writing-intensive courses would be implemented into the system-wide General Education agreements. After extensive discussion, Swenson recommended that the Chair of the General Education Committee adopt the same approach as the Assessment Committee and send reminder letters to departments/programs and copy Provost Schnell and the appropriate Dean after three months, six months, and nine months. This recommendation was accepted by consensus.

Harrold distributed a report from the Science and Technology Subcommittee. A motion (Harrold/Swenson) to request that updated materials for ENT 210 was approved. A motion (Harrold/Swanson) to recommend to the University Senate that PLSC 110 be renewed for five years with approvals for Outcomes 3, 6, and Global Perspectives was approved.

There was no report from the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wellness, and Quantitative Reasoning Subcommittee.

The UNIV 189 Review Subcommittee plans to meet next week (February 2, 2005).

The Capstone Review Subcommittee plans to have a report by mid-March.

The General Education Committee will not meet next week (Wednesday, February 2, 2005) and the next meeting will be on Wednesday, February 9, 2005. The committee is scheduled to meet in the Atrium but may meet in EML 255 if that room is available.

There was no new business to be discussed and the meeting was adjourned at 1 p.m.

Recorder: Bob Harrold