General Education Committee Minutes, 9/22/10
Members present: E. Adams, J. DeBoer, J. Edwards, A. Lawson, J. Luckowski, D. Reisenfeld, J.
Rabinovitch, T. Thibeau, N. White
Members absent: J. Eglin, D. Sloan
Ex-Officio Present: E. Johnson
The minutes from 4/30/10 were amended and approved.
Communication:



Members introduced themselves and new members were welcomed.
Schedules were collected in order to find a regular meeting time.
The number of general education courses were counted over the summer:
Expressive Arts (A)
Literary & Artistic Studies (L)
Historical & Cultural Studies (H)
Social Studies (S)
Ethics & Human Values (E)
American & European (Y)
Indigenous & Global (X)
Natural Science (N)
49
42
46
44
30
22
49
Without lab =35,
with lab = 25
Many of the courses satisfy more than one group and have multiple sections. Except for
Ethics courses, students have not experienced difficulties in registering for general
education courses. This may be because many of these courses are offered intermittently.
Business Items:

The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate (ECOS) is currently revising the
Faculty Senate Articles and Bylaws. Faculty Senate Standing Committees charges are
in the bylaws, so this is a good time to make necessary updates. By-law amendments are
introduced at one Senate meeting and voted on at the subsequent meeting. The
Committee reviewed the charge and suggested minor changes to membership. It is very
unlikely to find a member who will serve on both the General Education Committee and
ASCRC, so this language was removed. In practice, the committee chair will attend
ASCRC meetings when necessary to report on business items. Also, the ex-officio
membership was revised to allow for designee representation for the Registrar and the
Associate Provost. This could include Sharon O’hare, Executive Director for the Office
of Student Success, whose expertise would be helpful in future discussions.

A faculty member requested clarification on the Mathematics General Education
Requirement. He was not certain how to interpret the requirement related to a students’
placement into Math 241. The requirement indicate:
1) achieving a grade of C-or better in one of the following courses which address
different aspects of mathematical literacy: Math 105 (107), 104 (109), 121 (111),
122 (112), 115 (117), 151 (121), 135 (130), or a mathematics course of 3 or
more credits for which one of these is a prerequisite.
M 115 is a prerequisite for Math 241, so the student may fulfill the requirement with
this course. The committee suggested that the Mathematics Department consider
revising the language given the frequency that this may occur with the new ALECS
placement exam. It may also be helpful to clarify how a passing score on the AP Math
exam could fulfill the requirement as well.

As part of the comprehensive review of bylaws, ECOS is separating procedures and
creating a manual. Therefore, the procedures from Faculty Senate Standing Committees
have been put into a standard format and require review. A current ASCRC policy,
adopted in 1984 specifies general requirements of general education courses. This
information is also included in the General Education Framework approved in 10/11/07,
so the old policy can be deleted.
Symbolic Systems Issue
 Chair Thibeau provided some background regarding the symbolic system issue. The
change in the framework was intended to increase the number of students required to
take a Modern and Classical language, but it did not have this effect. Primarily because
any department that required courses in their major that fulfilled symbolic systems, such
as statistics, were eligible for the exception and students no longer had a choice to either
take a language or a symbolic systems sequence.
Historically, the sequence was an option designed for extended majors (over 48 credits
required for the major). This status was defined by the Board of Regents when the 120
credit requirement to graduate was mandated. If the symbolic systems option is only
available to students in extended majors, a standard for counting credits must be
established. Academic advisors will be contacted to provide input.
Some members commented that it is a disservice to students not to require a foreign
language. Language is often needed to be competitive in the workplace and graduate
school applications.
The committee should also consider consulting with social science departments rather
than imposing a requirement.

The Modern and Classical Language definition was reviewed. Not all languages must
be housed in the department of Modern and Classical language.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m.