Meeting of the Faculty Senate
General Education Committee
325 Graff Main Hall
04 March 2013
2012-2013 Members: Colin Belby
Abdulaziz Elfessi
Rebekah Fowler
Tom Gendreau
Gerald Iguchi
Janet Kirsch
Lisa Kobs
Michele Pettit
Rachel Slough
Geography
Mathematics
English
Computer Science
History
Chemistry
Biology
Health Ed & Health Promotion
Murphy Library
Members Present:
Elfessi, Fowler, Gendreau, Iguchi, Kirsch, Kobs, Pettit
Members Excused:
Belby
Members Absent:
Slough
Guests/Consultants:
Chris Bakkum, Registrar; Patrick Barlow, UW-L Assessment
Coordinator; Carla Burkhardt, SAH; Amelia Dittman, CBA; Kenny
Hunt, GEAC Chair; Betsy Knowles, GEAC; Leslee Poulton, MLG
Chair; Michelle Stertz, Acad. Advising; Tim Walls, CLS; Hongying Xu,
MLG
The meeting was called to order at 3:33 PM by Tom Gendreau, chair.
1. M/S/P Minutes of 2/18/13, voice vote, no abstentions.
2. First Reading of CHI 305 – Introduction to Modern Chinese Literature: This
course was brought before the Gen Ed committee by Leslee Poulton (Chair of
Modern Languages) and Hongying Xu (who will teach CHI 305). It is intended
to allow students to develop their comprehension of writings from a different
culture. Leslee noted that there are a number of parallels between this course and
RUS 305 – Golden Age Russian Literature and Culture, which is already
designated as a Gen Ed course.
•
The question was raised about why the course was being offered at the 300
level when it has no prerequisites. This course is intended to be a part of the
proposed Chinese minor, and will then help those students earn 300-level
course credit.
•
The question was also raised about whether the English department would
have a problem with Modern Languages offering a course like this. Since
English already signed off on the course for its review by UCC, this did not
appear to be an issue.
•
Without any significant reasons against adding this course to the Gen Ed
program, the course was approved M/S/P, voice vote, no abstentions.
3. General Education Assessment Compliance: Tom reviewed the assessment
process with the committee, including the general timeline of the currently
accepted procedures and the content of forms A, B, and C (an overview of which
can be found here: http://www.uwlax.edu/gened/Assessment.htm)
•
Kenny and Betsy reiterated their concern from earlier meetings about the
rates of compliance in the current three-year timeline. The committee
discussed the pros and cons of moving to a one-year or two-year cycle, and
the representatives of the GEAC seemed receptive (or at least resigned) to
the idea of moving to a two-year cycle.
•
The idea of sending out a survey to Gen Ed course instructors designed to
identify the ‘ideal’ assessment cycle period (or even to ask why compliance
appears to be so low) was discussed. Tom will look into it and we will talk
about what this survey might look like at a future meeting.
•
One of the biggest challenges to the GEAC seemed to be in getting reports
from departments about the SLOs that Gen Ed courses intend to assess in a
given assessment cycle. Modifications to the assessment cycle that require
courses to report this information to GEAC earlier in the process would be a
significant improvement.
•
This discussion did not result in a specific charge to either Gen Ed or GEAC,
but it represents a move toward fostering better communication between the
two committees.
4. Gen Ed Assessment processes used by other UW System schools: This
discussion will be continued at our next meeting, but in the interest of starting to
address the committee's investigation of Gen Ed assessment procedures around
the state, several members of the committee shared their preliminary findings.
These findings will be compiled and a summary table of the results will be
included with future meeting minutes.
•
Committee members who have not already done so were asked to email Janet
with assessment information about their assigned institutions.
•
For our next meeting on 1 April, committee members should also try to
identify the number of SLOs that are assessed at their assigned state
institutions.
M/S/P, The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 PM.
Notes compiled by J. Kirsch