General Education Committee
Meeting Minutes for May 4, 2005
269 EML; Noon – 1:00 p.m.

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

Larry Peterson called the meeting to order at 12:00 p.m.

A correction to the April 27, 2005 meeting minutes: Add Robert Harrold to those present. A motion (Haugen/Wold-McCormick) was made to approve the minutes as amended. Motion Carried.

Vertical Writing Proposal

Kevin Brooks discussed the Vertical Writing proposal to have an ACT score of 18 serve as the “cut-off” point to trigger student exemption from English 110. Discussion followed. A motion (Williams/Swenson) was made to set the minimum ACT English Score at 24. Motion carried.

Student Petitions

Students #1 & #2

The students resubmitted their petitions to have their field trip to China meet the Cultural Diversity requirement. A Motion was made (Urness/Mehta) to accept the request to accept the petition. Discussion took place. The committee stipulated that future requests must be resubmitted every semester and that ideally instructors should work with International Programs before the trip. Motion carried.

Subcommittee Reports

Humanities and Fine Arts and Communication

No Report.

Social and Behavioral Sciences, Wellness, and Quantitative Reasoning

No Report.

Science and Technology

The subcommittee recommends Conditional Approval of the BIOL 124L. A motion (Harrold/Swenson) was made to approve BIOL 124L pending Lisa Montplaisir's willingness to revise her material as requested.

UNIV 189

The most recent version of the revised Univ 189 questionnaire was distributed by Peterson, via email, on May 3, 2005. There was no discussion.

The Committee did not complete its discussion of Capstone Course Review Committee Draft Matrix/Spreadsheet.

New Business

Christoffers acknowledged he would indeed call the first meeting next semester until a chair was elected. Peterson indicated that Rymph, Urness, Swenson, himself included, would not be on the committee next year.

The Committee was unable to discuss any recommendations about future membership. The two issues that have been mentioned are requiring a minimum of three years of service at NDSU for all members and changing status from non-voting to voting for the members of the Committee from the University Assessment Committee, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the University Registrar.

The meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

Recorder: Kären Bjellum