General Education Committee
Meeting Minutes for April 20, 2005
269 EML; Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Present: Michael Christoffers, Virginia Clark Johnson, Kate Haugen, RaNelle Ingalls, Char Myhre, Larry Peterson, Doug Rymph, Orven Swenson, Cindy Urness, Kimberly Vess Halbur, Robyne Williams, Kristi Wold-McCormick.

Larry Peterson called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m.

A motion (Christoffers/Myhre) was made to approve the minutes, as distributed, from the March 23, 2005, meeting. Motion carried.

Student Petitions

Student #1

1. The student previously petitioned to have his study abroad experience in Germany in place of the (3 credits) global perspectives credits. The committee approved the global perspective credits based on the foreign language study.
2. The student resubmitted a petition to waive the social and behavioral courses because he had 122 hours of an intensive course.

A Motion was made to deny the petition (Haugen/Vess Halbur). Discussion took place the motion failed to deny the waiver. Ingalls suggested that someone with the ability to read German look at the course materials that were submitted with the petition. After input from such person, the committee will then review the outcome.

Student #2 - The student petitioned to waive University 189. The student had enrolled in University 189, he received a letter indicating he had been taken out of the fall class and would have to enroll in the spring session. A motion was made to approve (Haugen/Swenson) Motion passed.

Student #3 – A transfer student petitioned to have the Wellness credit waived because she/he is only one credit (Wellness) short. A motion (Williams/Christoffers) to deny the waiver passed unanimously.

Student #4 – The student petitioned to have her/his travel to China be considered substitute for the Cultural Diversity and Social and Behavioral Sciences. A motion was made (Swenson/Williams) to deny the petition. Motion passed.

Student #5 – The student petitioned to have his/her Cultural Diversity waived because of travel to China. A motion (Williams/Haugen) was made to deny the petition. Motion passed.

Student #6 – A Political Science major petitioned to have her/his Science lab waived. Student transferred in with an excess of sciences courses. A motion (Williams/Urness) was made to waive the lab. Motion failed.

Subcommittee Reports

Humanities and Fine Arts and Communication

The subcommittee recommends the History 261 – American Indian History, be approved as having successfully met its five year review. A motion (Peterson/Haugen) was made to approve History 261, motion passed.

Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wellness, and Quantitative Reasoning

There were problems with these two courses after our last committee meeting. COMM 216 is the simple one. RaNelle noticed when the Senate agenda was being prepared that it should have been approved for Diversity as well . A motion (Peterson/Christoffers) was made to approve the COMM 216 – Intercultural Communication course as meeting the Diversity category. Motion passed.

ADFH 486 was approved at the previous meeting for Outcome 5 (“comprehend concepts and methods of inquiry in science and technology and their applications for society”). This was not discussed at the time and consequently Larry asked the Science and Technology subcommittee to check this over because they had spent considerable time examining this outcome. They recommended against approving Outcome 5 for this course because the rubric and the class exercise did not have students investigate a hypothesis. Larry distributed the Outcome 5 rubric and the Working Definitions on the categories of “Science and Technology” and “Social and Behavioral Sciences” for the committee to consider.

A motion (Vess Halbur/Christoffers) was made to approve the ADFH 486 – Dress and Human Behavior with Outcome 5. An intense discussion took place. Rymph and Swenson said it did not fit in Outcome 5. Clark – Johnson explained how the course fit into Outcome 5. Motion passed.

Science and Technology

No report

UNIV 189

The subcommittee has developed a questionnaire for students which will be completed through the Group Decision Center. Dr. William Slanger, Office of Institutional Analysis, reviewed the questionnaire and submitted feedback. The subcommittee will take the suggestions into consideration and resubmit the draft to the committee.

Larry distributed lists of seniors organized by college who are eligible to take Academic Profile administered by the Office of Institutional Analysis. Dr. Slanger would appreciate it if Committee members could call students to urge them to take the Profile.

The next meetings will be Wednesday, April 27 and Wednesday, May 4, 2005 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. in EML 269 (Dean's Conference Room). The committee will be discussing the requests from the Registrar's Office, electing a new chair, and reviewing the Capstone Course review matrix.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Recorder: Karen Bjellum