General Education Committee Minutes
February 11, 2002
325 Graff Main Hall
Meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM
Members Present: Sandy Grunwald, Jean Hindson, Jess
Hollenback, Emily Johnson, Mary Leonard, Tom Pribek, Gretchen Reabe, Roger
Reinsch, Brenda Soto-Torres, Mike Winfrey
Consultants Present: Amelia Dittman, Theda Holder,
John Magerus, Garth Tymeson
Guests Present: Don Campbell (Cont Ed.), Lynn Weiland
(Cont Ed.), Laura Nelson (CST), Jan Von Ruden (Records and Registration),
Chia-Chen Yu (Library), Anita Evans (Library), Chris Prucha (Library)
The minutes of December 17, 2001 were approved.
New Business:
1. Adam Miller, Student Body President commented on a potential modern language requirement. Issues included:
a. faculty concerns and resources
b. society is becoming increasingly international
c. the student body will be discussing this further and
would like a recommendation from the Gen Ed Committee and the Faculty Senate
d. The first Strategic Plan had a goal to have a foreign
language requirement by 2000
2. Don Campbell addressed the committee concerning offering
courses to current high school students.
High schools are requesting courses via distance ed. Benefits of taking classes at a University of 2-year campus
rather than distance ed was discussed.
Don indicated that with EM 21 and budget cuts, offering courses to high school
students via distance ed may increase revenues as students enrolled in these
courses are not counted in enrollment management.
3. Laura Nelson from Communication Studies presented the problem of a backlog in CST110 and requested endorsement by the Gen Ed committee for an increase in resources (FTE) to address the back log. We will discuss this at a future meeting.
4. Chia-Chen Yu, Anita Evans, Chris Prucha (Library
Committee) presented information on the importance of Information Literacy (IL)
and discussed the WI Association of Academic Librarians brochure on this
subject. They complimented the
committee on the inclusion of IL in the goals statement and encouraged us
continue to list this as a goal.
Several UW-L courses are currently working with the library to include
Information Literacy. Chair Johnson
suggested:
a. there should be a
more systematic inclusion of IL in gen ed.
b.
assessment of IL in gen ed will be needed
c. the design of library instruction should be evaluated to see if it is appropriate to achieve the desired learning outcomes
Report from Emily Johnson, General Education Director:
a. Billy Clow commented that a general theme of the Future Search Conference was to strengthen General Education and to encourage faculty and students to realize that Gen Ed is an integral part of students’ education
b. Emily will attend the General Education Conference
c. Discussion of a Modern Language requirement will be coming up in the future.
d. Should international education be a part of Gen Ed?
e. We need a date for forward a draft of the goals to the Faculty Senate
f. Assessment of Gen Ed still needs to be addressed
Next Meeting: April 1, 2002
The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Mike Winfrey