Meeting Notes
University Studies Advisory Committee Meeting
August 8, 2011
2:30 p.m.
Leutze Hall 127
Participants
Cara Cilano
Ken Gurganus
Linda Siefert
Bill Compton
Michael Freeze
Anne Pemberton
Phil Furia
Heidi Higgins
Curry Guinn
Anita McDaniel
Notetaker: Lea Bullard
Focus Topic
Transdisciplinary Clusters
Discussion Notes
Major points
• Catalog copy is due in November for Information Literacy, Writing Intensive, Capstone Course, and
Quantitative and Logical Reasoning
o Department chairs should have proposal revisions submitted by 9/1/11; these will need to be
re-reviewed but only for the points of revision
o There are 31 other proposals to be reviewed (see Action Items)
• Transdisciplinary Clusters
o Handout was provided that includes a proposed protocol for creating Clusters, Chairs’ feedback
on Clusters, and additional considerations
o Major topics discussed:
 How to develop Clusters
• Possibly have 2-stages: form preliminary clusters, then send that list out for
possible application for inclusion of other courses
 Options for inclusion in new catalog
• Possibly provide themes/descriptions only for November deadline, then provide
course information for Spring deadline
 Declaring a cluster
• Suggested that there be no restrictions on when it is required to declare
 Would students doing transdisciplinary majors (EVS, International Studies) or a major +
a minor be required to complete another Cluster?
• Departments could form Clusters from their requirements in these instances so
that fulfilling departmental requirements would fulfill a Cluster
• Students would still declare a Cluster in such cases
 Record-keeping
• BANNER could be used to track enrollment/completion of Cluster
• Advisors could be responsible for checking to see if the student has enrolled
in/completed a Cluster
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


Assessment
• ePortfolios could be used to for students to organize artifacts
• A common assignment could be given in all courses in a cluster and General
Education Assessment could treat it in a similar manner as for Gen Ed
Assessment
What faculty need to know as they are looking at themes:
• Might need to volunteer for assessment (with a small fiscal compensation)
• Course will need to address articulated SLOs very explicitly and they should
address transdiciplinary student learning outcomes in some way
• Expect to submit assignments for assessment
• Instructor will earmark an assignment for assessment and will be expected to
provide student work if selected for assessment
• Include SLOs on syllabus
Students to know for assessment:
• Will be declaring a cluster at some point, and there will be a text box for
rationale on the application
Committee Action Items
•
•
•
Next meeting: Monday, August 15 at 2:30 (Cara to email location)to discuss Explorations to review
commentary and finalize documents for the Senate
Teammates to review and submit scores of proposal listed on handout by September 1st:
o Anne and Michael GS, IL and 758
o Phil, Curry, Bill 451-492 not including prop 564
o Heidi and Anita 625-753 not including 707, 746, 750-752 (anything IL or LGS)
Cara will provide a draft of the “What Faculty Need to Know” about submitting courses for Clusters and
“What Students Need to Know” documents about Clusters
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