General Education Committee
October 30, 2009 Howell Hall 107 3:00 PM
Approved Minutes
Members present:
Abdulhamid Sukar – Business
Mohammad Tabatabai – Mathematical Sciences
John Geiger – Psychology
Greg Treadwell - Business
John Hodgson – English
Antonio Laverghetta - Psychology
Christopher Keller - Communication
(Chair) Kirsten Underwood - Music
Jason Smith – Library
Mary Penick – Computing and Technology
Department Chairs and representative faculty were also present: Douglas Catterall.
Agenda Items/Discussions
1. The meeting was called to order at 3:00 PM.
2. Hodgson made a motion to approve the October 2 minutes. Tabatabai seconded.
3. Old business: Underwood gave updates and passed out the following handouts: Current Status of
General Education Courses with Assessment Plans 10/2009, Memorandum from the Math
Department of the curriculum for MATH 1513, Meeting summary of the Pilot Sub-Committee
meeting from Oct. 23, 2009, General Education Objectives, General Education Requirements,
and assignment of Committee members with specific objectives.
4. Underwood went over the Current Status of General Education Courses with Assessment Plans
10/2009 stating that every department needs to be collecting data for all objectives, even though
the General Education Committee is specifically looking for data for objectives 1.d, 2.d, and 2.e.
This handout also included courses that the Committee does not have any information about.
Geiger said he thinks that CRM 3603 may possibly be removed. Hodgson said the Biological
Sciences Department told him over the summer that they have questions already in place, along
with assignments in their lab courses. Hodgson said he will find out more information. Another
course in question was HUM 2513.
5. Douglass Catterall from the History and Government Department was in attendance, and
explained that the HUM 2513 course was included in the equivalency matrix for the state, and has
no meaning for local assessments, has not been taught for years, and that his department has no
information about what general education objectives this course fits under.
6. Catterall also confirmed that the History and Government Department still has plans in progress.
Catterall did mention that his department is making efforts to include common sets of questions
in the final exams for the larger surveys. And since there is no content overlap between different
humanities courses, professors have decided to cross-grade each other’s exam questions.
Underwood also cleared up the deadlines for plans and data.
7. Next item on discussion was the Pilot Sub-Committee for objective 2.d meeting. Underwood said
that Multiculturalism, Introduction to Theatre, Art Appreciation, and Music Appreciation all
submitted rubrics for assignments that covers this objective. Underwood then said that she
looked for commonalities of these assignments, and also to look at what everyone thought about
the meaning of the word “aesthetic”.
8. New Business: The Mathematics Department made minor changes to MATH 1513. After brief
discussion, Penick approved changes. Hodgson seconded. It was noted that the Curriculum
Committee will need to approve of these changes as well.
9. Next item involved the PQIR preparation assignment where committee members were assigned to
specific departments. Underwood explained that she tried to match committee members with
different disciplines. The logic behind these parings is that perhaps faculty who is not familiar or
trained in a specific discipline may see things in a different perspective.
10. Next item was discussion for reducing the 50 hours of general education requirements to 42-45
hours. This is in large part to be in alignment with other universities requirements and also due to
the state reducing the requirements for a Bachelors degree at 124 hours. Underwood also said
that Vice-President McArthur wanted to know what is meant by the phrase “Electives sufficient
to total 50 semester hours, but with no more than 6 hours of these electives in any one
department.” Discussion about whether these requirements were actual general education courses.
Many Committee members talked about the possibility of eliminating electives. Underwood
tabled discussion of this subject for a later time.
11. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 20th at 1:00 PM in Howell Hall room 107.
12. Hodgson made a motion for the meeting to adjourn. Geiger seconded. Meeting adjourned at 3:57
PM.