General Education Committee Minutes, 3/30/10
Members present: J. DeBoer, J. Eglin, D. MacDonald, D. Potts, T. Thibeau, K. Shanley, D. Sloan
Members absent: J. Edwards, E. Johnson, J. Luckowski, K. Mariani F. Rosenzweig, A. Williams
Guest: G.G. Weix
The minutes from 3/19/10 and 4/9/10 were amended and approved.
Communication:

The General Education Coordinator position in the Provost’s Office discussed at the College
of Arts and Sciences Faculty meeting will be focused on personnel and budgetary aspects of
general education not curriculum. The individual will likely be an ex-officio member of the
General Education Committee.

The General Education Committee has been asked to meet with the Writing Committee to
discuss its report on the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Assessment. Chair Eglin is not
sure whether the UDWPA is under the committee’s jurisdiction. The report will be sent to
members for comment.
Business Items:
Chair Elect
 Professor Thibeau was elected as chair-elect.
Symbolic Systems Issue
 The Committee discussed the extended major status defined by the Board of Regents.
Majors that require over 48 credits can be considered extended. However there is no
guideline for how credits are counted. It seems that many of the Social Science majors
currently on the exemption list have approximately 36 required credits. It is difficult to
determine the required credits for many of the business majors currently exempted. The
committee will need to establish a protocol for counting credits if a credit benchmark is
implemented.
It was suggested that programs on the exemption list be required to show why they are
considered extended majors. The 1993 memo identified the following extended majors
Business Administration
Forestry
……..
The data is incomplete in terms of a percentage of students that test out from the modern and
classical language requirement. It is unknown whether Modern and Classical Language
will be able to service all the students that would be required to take a first year language if
the benchmarks are implemented. Professor Weix reminded the committee that Modern and
Classical Languages is not the only department that teaches languages. The requirement is
for students to demonstrate competency and this can be accomplished in a number of ways.
Not all students would need to take 10 credits of a language. Flexibility of delivery could
solve the logistics problem.
Professor Weix would like the Committee to talk with the Social Science departments to
negotiate the requirement rather than enforce a benchmark.
The draft motion was revised as follows:
From fall semester of 2012, undergraduates will be subject to the general education
language requirement unless enrolled in a major requiring 48 credits or more.
Professor MacDonald indicated that he would not vote to approve the motion because
departments should be able to decide what courses are appropriate for their majors and it
removes students ability to choose their courses.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.