General Education Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: November 9, 2015
Committee Members Present: Yingqin Liu, Kirsten Underwood, Karla Oty, Kerri Stephens,
Syed Ahmed, Matthew Van Sant, Dana Hilbert, Holly Rice, Edris Montalvo, Marge Kingsley
1. Meeting was called to order at 4:00pm in CETES 105.
2. Request for ENGL 2343 to remain a General Education course. Dr. John Hodgson
presented to the group regarding that ENGL 2343 not lose its General Education status.
Previously, Dr. Hodgson had requested the course be dropped from General Education
status secondary to the course not being offered for several years. This request was
approved through this committee. He explained that he has now found a faculty member
that wants to teach the course regularly (every other Spring). The committee discussed
the need to determine where in the removal process the course currently is and how to
discontinue the action. The committee suggested that Dr. Hodgson meet with the
Diversity and Aesthetics leaders if possible to review assessments prior to the course
being offered in the Spring. If the leaders are not available, the committee suggested that
he meet with Dr. Kirsten Underwood, Dr. Karla Oty or Dr. Edris Montalvo, General
Education Committee Chairperson. The committee recommended a 1 –year extension
(collect data in 2015-16) for the course. Recommendation sent to VPAA.
3. Approval of Minutes. Minutes were read and approved with the following corrections:
a) typographical error in number 5, b) Strike ENGL 2343 Women in Literature and
replace ENGL 2313 African American Literature.
4. Biology and Agriculture Critical Thinking General Education Assessment Meeting
Update. Biology and Agriculture met and discussed suggestions from General Education
committee, which included adjusting the proposed multiple choice question assessment to
a short answer format. They are currently developing a multiple choice assessment with
an explanation of why the selected answer was the best answer. Biology discussed
standardizing the assessment to all courses within the category. A suggestion was made
to Biology that the questions be vetted by an outside reviewer.
5. NSSE Administration. The NSSE is typically given every 3 years (Cameron University
is due in AY 16). NSSE contacted Cameron University to participate in a pilot testing
program (a year early), at no cost to Cameron University (savings of ~$4000). The pilot
survey is including the name of the institution in the actual questions. The NSSE will be
now given this academic year (Spring 2016) through their Cameron University email to
Bachelor-degree seeking Freshman and Seniors. Topic Modules will be Experiences with
Information Literacy and First-Year Experiences and Senior Transitions. Committee also
discussed the content of survey and the times when the survey is given.
6. General Education presentation to President’s Strategic Planning Committee. The
presentation named “General Education Presentation” is posted on the General Education
group page (GEC – Files) on Aggie Access.
7. General Education Cluster Key Assessment master sheet. This is a summary file
matrix by course, department and SLOs. This matrix will assist departments in
determining other courses that share their key assessment, which is helpful with
considering changes in the key assessment.
8. Steps to changing Key Assessments. Reminder that changes in key assessment should
come through the General Education committee (via the cluster groups) before making
changes so that assessments can be vetted and appropriate data will be collected.
9. General Education member term adjustment. Committee approved that the top two
vote getters would serve and their term (2 years or 3 years) would be randomly assigned.
10. January Doodle Poll. A
Doodle poll will be sent in January to Gen Ed committee
members.
11. Other Business. None
12. Adjourn. Meeting was adjourned at 4:51pm