General Education Committee
Meeting Minutes for February 16, 2005
269 EML; Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Present: Michael Christoffers, Robert Harrold, Kate Haugen, RaNelle Ingalls, Sudhir Mehta, Char Myhre, Larry Peterson, Orven Swenson, Cindy Urness, Kimberly Vess Halbur, Kristi Wold-McCormick.

Larry Peterson called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m.

The committee members introduced themselves to Kimberly Vess Halbur, the new Pharmacy representative.

Student Petitions

Student #1 – petitioned to have his study abroad experience in Germany accepted in place of the (3 credits) global perspectives credits and the (6 credits) social and behavioral sciences. He studied German literature, grammar, and writing.

A motion (Harrold/Urness) was made to separate the global perspective credits and the social and behavioral credits request. Motion carried.

A motion (Harrold/Urness) was made to approve the global perspective credits only based on the foreign language study. The committee tabled the second request, to waive the social and behavioral courses until Ingalls receives more information from the student.

Student #2 – The student transferred from MSUM. The student took Biology 102 and Biology 104 in Moorhead. He/she has had Biology 150L here at NDSU. The student wants the Biology courses accepted as general education courses. A motion (Urness/Mehta) was made to approve the petition. The motion did not pass; it was tabled until the committee can learn if Biology 102 was considered a general education course at MSUM.

Vertical Writing Requirement

The Motion to Enhance Writing Skills of our Students (Vertical Writing Requirement) draft went before the University Senate on February 14, 2005. Among the amendments made to the draft was one to drop English 110 as a general education course in Fall 2006. Kristi noted that NDSU will face many obstacles in the NDUS for such a change. A majority of the registrars must approve any change to the gold and silver pages in the GERTA agreement such as this. Some members of the General Education Committee (Harrold, Mehta, Peterson, Wold-McCormick) will be meeting with Provost Schnell and others to draft appropriate changes to bring to the next meeting of the University Senate.

Subcommittee Reports

•  Humanities and Fine Arts and Communication

The subcommittee evaluated the five-year reviews from Modern Languages and their request to drop Spanish 101 from the General Education list, and to change the second year language courses from Global Perspectives to Cultural Diversity. The subcommittee is withholding a recommendation on the courses pending a response from the department. Spanish 101 is listed as a pre-requisite to Spanish 102. Dropping it would conflict with our policy that any pre-requisite for a general education course must also be a general education course. The department chair will be consulting with the Registrar about their options.

•  Science and Technology

No report.

•  Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wellness, and Quantitative Reasoning

No report.

•  UNIV 189

This subcommittee will be meeting next week to discuss student surveys.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. in EML 269 (Dean's Conference Room).

Recorder: Karen Bjellum