WIU Council on General Education
Meeting Minutes
February 18, 2016
Fall 2015 CGE Members
Marjorie Allison
Panakkattu Babu
Rumen Dimitrov
Krista Bowers Sharpe
Kathleen ODonnell-Brown
Erik Brooks
Shavez Rosenthal
Kyle Mayborn
Nancy Parsons
Darcy Plymire
Jongnam Choi
Joanne Sellen
Keva Hibbert
Jeannie Woods
Michelle Yager
David Zanolla
Dept. of English
Dept. of Physics
Dept. of Mathematics
Library
English
Dept. of African-American Studies
Student Government Association
College of Arts & Sciences
Office of the Provost
Dept. of Kinesiology
Dept. of Geography
Dept. of Educational Studies
Dept. of Economics & Decision Sci
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Advising Center
Communication
(Humanities/Fine Arts)
(Math/Natural Science)
(Math/Natural Science)
(At-Large)
(Communication Skills)
(Multicultural)
(Ex-officio, Dean's Council Rep)
(Ex-officio, Provost's Representative)
(Human Well-Being)
(Social Science)
(At-Large)
(Social Science)
(Humanities/Fine Arts)
(Ex-officio, COAA Representative)
(Communication Skills)
Elected Members Present: Marjorie Allison, Panakkattu Babu, Krista Bowers Sharpe, Kathleen
ODonnell-Brown, Erik Brooks, Rumen Dimitrov, Darcy Plymire, Jongnam Choi, Jeannie Woods,
Keva Hibbert
Elected Members Excused: Joanne Sellen, Shavez Rosenthal, David Zanolla
Ex-Officio Members Present: Nancy Parsons, Kyle Mayborn
Ex-Officio Members Excused/Absent: Michelle Yager
Guests Present:
CGE Chair Marjorie Allison called meeting to order at 3:32 pm in Horrabin 60 on the
Macomb Campus
MINUTES, INTRODUCTIONS, AND REPORTS
Minutes approved as submitted with no changes
Welcome to Guests:
Additions to Agenda:
Announcements:
REPORTS:
a. Office of the Provost—Fall 2015 assessment data are due tomorrow. Remind your
departments to make sure the data is submitted.
b. CAS—Community college(s) are making some changes to the AS degree by removing one
humanities and one social science. EIU and others will not accept the degree as a
complete gen ed package, though NIU will. As of now, WIU will require students with an
AS to take two additional gen eds. AA graduates do not need to take additional classes.
We also require Human Well-being and Multicultural classes that the IAI does not
require. At this time, we need to make no decision. IBHE has been discussing the issue for
at least one year, as per Nancy Parsons. The problem with accepting students without
requiring them to take extra classes is that we have declared, through our gen ed
program, what we value.
c. University Advising— None
d. Faculty Senate/Articulation Requests—We have had about 10 come through at the
beginning of the semester. If we meet on March 3, we will be in Horrabin 1
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS:
 The IB articulation exam—English and Foreign Languages have said that this is a
language acquisition course, and therefore, Marjorie thinks that it would not be a gen ed
 Assessment
o Impact reports—all departments submitted a report this year! We are charged
with looking over the reports to see if there is evidence, in the reports, data are
being used to improve student learning. We will need to meet no later than one of
the April meetings. Rumen points out a seeming discrepancy in the reporting of
the English Dept. data. A discussion of the problems with accuracy and
thoroughness ensues. The collection and reporting of data continue to be a
problem. Nonetheless, we still need to report on how the data is being used to
change teaching. The important point is to assess how departments are using data
to change and improve student outcomes. Keva wants to know if we have data on
which courses are addressing which goals.
o Data collection report—discussion of what the report shows and fails to show
 Decision that the assessment committee needs to meet before we revisit the question of
assessment in CGE. However, CGE must discuss again before the end of the semester. So,
the goal will be the last meeting in March (March 24) or the first meeting in April (April
7). The subcommittee will bring questions and concerns to the whole.
GOOD OF THE ORDER
Motion: The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 pm
CGE will next convene at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, 2016
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Darcy C. Plymire (CGE Secretary)