General Education Committee
June 12, 2009 Howell Hall Room 107 2:00 PM
Approved Minutes
Members present:
John Geiger – Psychology
Jason Smith - Library
John Hodgson – English
Mohammad Tabatabai – Mathematical Sciences
Abdulhamid Sukar - Business
(Chair) Kirsten Underwood - Music
Vice-President John McArthur and Benson Warren were also present.
Agenda Items/Discussions
1. The meeting was called to order at 2:01 PM.
2. Approval of minutes from April 28 meeting- Dr. Hodgson moved to approve the minutes. Dr.
Geiger seconded. The motion carried.
3. Dr. Geiger submitted a document that highlighted progress from department’s that have not
submitted an assessment plan for their general education courses.
4. Dr. Underwood wanted to discuss strategies to support further progress. Dr. Hodgson wanted
to know what the next step is for the General Education committee in terms of creating a PQIR.
It was agreed by the committee to have data by the fall semester from those departments that
has submitted a plan and data. For those that have not, it was suggested to only include their
plan of action w/o data. Dr. McArthur suggested having all of the information in by October 1st,
2009.
5. Discussion led as to each department’s information has to reflect what is in their PQIR for
General Education. Some dept’s have objectives that do not reflect General Education’s
objectives. Dr. Sukar mentioned that the Business Dept’s objectives do not reflect General
Education objectives.
6. It was suggested that the General Education committee needs descriptions of how each
department is measuring objectives by the fall. Dr. Underwood mentioned about the chart that
was handed in the last General Education meeting. Dr. Underwood also made it clear that the
Music Dept’s plan was more like a questionnaire and the wrong kind of assessment.
7. Talk was made on whether or not the General Education Committee should meet this summer.
It was suggested that the committee keep meeting, but that the committee could put together a
report on information that was already available.
8. Dr. McArthur talked about the objectives; more specifically objective 1D. He mentioned the
different number of dept’s and courses that will measure objective 1D, and the difficulty in
bringing about some kind of synthesis. It was said that the language of objective 1d, which
measures critical thinking, does not measure the same through every department.
9. Dr. Underwood asked if the committee should pick 3 objectives to go over in the July meeting.
Dr. Hodgson suggested limiting the courses only to General Education courses that every
student is required to take. Dr. Tabatabai said that option would leave the other courses
behind. Dr. Geiger suggested the General Education Committee could take random samples.
Dr. McArthur thinks the Committee would be too busy trying to go over all the objectives.
10. Benson Warren suggested that maybe some dept’s over read the objectives. That led to a
discussion about the differences between dept’s simply “doing it” instead of “teaching it”. Dr.
Geiger then suggested that perhaps some dept’s are listing more courses for assessment due to
fear of have classes dropped. Dr. Tabatabai said some dept’s may not have to give assessments
for so many courses. Dr. Hodgson alluded to the fact that the General Education Objectives are
written rather subjective, and difficult to measure. Questions were asked as to who selected
these objectives for the General Education Committee and could they possibly be changed.
11. Discussion led as to the thought about some courses being cancelled. Dr. McArthur suggested
using Northeastern State University as an example, as there Task Force recently issued
proposals concerning general education. It was suggested to Dr. McArthur about Cameron
University reducing their requirements to 40 hours. Dr. McArthur said he would entertain a
proposal if the conditions were met that there would be more depth in the upper division
classes. This could be achieved by either reducing the number of hours for general education or
electives courses.
12. Dr. Underwood assigned for the committee members who are involved with departments who
has already submitted plans to contact the Agriculture Dept. about their assessment tools for
objectives. As for those dept’s that have not submitted plans (History/Government and
Biology), the assigned committee members need to keep in contact with those dept’s.
13. Next meeting scheduled for July 8th at 2:00 PM in Howell Hall room 107.
14. Meeting adjourned at 3:19 PM.