General Education Committee
10/19/09
325 Main Hall
Meeting convened at 3:33pm, Galbraith presiding
Attending: Michael Current, Anne Galbraith, Tom Gendreau, Gerald Iguchi, Jean Hindson, James Pierce, Tom Pribek, Bob Ragan, Don Sloan
Excused: Kara Zweig
Guest & Consultants: Chris Bakkum, Beth Cherne, Amelia Dittman, Kathleen Enz Finken, Bryan Kopp, Troy Richter, Rhonda Smith
M/S/P, approve minutes of 10/5/09; voice vote, unanimous
Kopp, for WE/WIMP/CATL
- WE page revamped: list certified instructors now public everyone in process, including some departed); directions for new instructors, as well as proposal review criteria
- "Deadlines are a nice thought but hard to follow" for new hires; only one new proposal ready for today, rest next month
- Who should comprise mis-named WE Subcommittee? Formal or informal organization? How much role does GEC want to play?
- responses & discussion: Recruit a pool, different groups could assist proposal review as their time allowed; set up D2L site for GEC & volunteers; "three [readers] is a reasonable number"
SLOs & aligning: Smith, f/SAC, & Cherne, f/Theatre Dept.
- What IS the urgent need for renaming/organizing SLOs?
- "aesthetic" defines a philosophy, a way of meaning different from science, like "beauty"; UW System Goals "bury that concept"
- vice chancellor: "conformity not required, no penalty"; Regents etc. like uniformity of campuses' "agenda"; SLOs WILL be "the point of discussion for a long time ... tied to a national movement & major organization"
- add 6th category: System + our original "aesthetic" thus "carving out a special mission ... the individuality of our campus"
M/S/P, to adopt UW System Shared Goals with an additional category for "aesthetic"; continue tinkering w/SLOs as a working document; voice vote, approved with 2 abstaining
Wide-ranging discussion w/vice chancellor
- assessment dir. position will be advertised within week or two, funding from GQA & available now, national search; not sure about GEC rep. member but probably GEAC; Bill Cerbin chair
- assessment non-compliance issue: "I have to write to HLC to report progress in GE, that it's real, if dept.s aren't participating they understand the seriousness"; HLC might demand complete revamping of GE
- assessment for courses in progress, but not GE program; need role models from other institutions; we do not have data for supporting GE to HLC
- "I don't want to see us adopting change just because GE is 20 years old"; alternatives are complex, tiered systems
- don't want to discourage double/triple majors
- currently don't have "faculty engagement" in some dept.s
- do have new faculty w/experience in teaching & assessing, beyond their academic specialty
- co-ordinator might bring something to GE in aid of program assessment
- "We are one of the few institutions in the nation with the smorsgasbord of courses; that doesn't mean it doesn't work"
Meeting adjourned at 5:45 p.m.
Notes compiled by Pribek