General Education Committee
February 26, 2010 Howell Hall 107 4:00 PM
Approved Minutes
Members present:
Abdulhamid Sukar – Business
John Geiger – Psychology
Greg Treadwell – Business
Christopher Keller – Communication
David Fennema – Theatre Arts
Mohammad Tabatabai – Mathematical Sciences
John Hodgson – English
Matt Jenkins – Multimedia Design
Jason Smith – Library
(Chair) Kirsten Underwood – Music
Benson Warren, Tom Sutherlin, and John McArthur were also present.
Agenda Items/Discussions
1.
The meeting was called to order at 4:00 PM.
2. After three corrections, Hodgson made a motion to approve February 12 minutes. Tabatabai
seconded.
3. Sutherlin talked about the handout over Entry-Level and Mid-Level General Education
Assessment and the relationship between the Institutional Assessment Committee and the General
Education Committee and both committees relationship with the Academic Deans and the VicePresident for Academic Affairs.
4. Next, Sutherlin talked about ETS Proficiency Profile, formerly known as MAPP. Sutherlin talked
about the benefits of this exam, going over many of the same points discussed in the last meeting.
Sutherlin said Warren, Underwood, and Aubrey Helvey have given their recommendation for this
exam, and he will forward these to Vice-President McArthur.
5. Next order of business dealt with reducing the number of general education hours. Underwood
passed out a response from Dr. Von Underwood regarding his input with a reduction of general
education hours. Discussion led to a clarification to set the minimum number of general
education hours to 44. Eliminating the six hours of electives would bring the number down to 42,
and McArthur said there may be a 1 hour orientation course and a 1 hour introduction to real life
to add to an existing capstone class or an internship that would be on the exit end of a degree
plan. Treadwell made a motion to reduce the number of general education hours at Cameron to
44. Hodgson seconded. McArthur will send this motion to the Board of Regents.
6. Next order of business: PQIR Sub-Committee updates: Underwood said that a problem is that
there is a wide variety of input from different departments, including those with no data and no
plan. Hodgson said that for objective 1d they need something for every course. After some
discussion over what corrections were needed, it was clarified that the General Education
Committee is only giving out recommendations, which through the Institutional Assessment
Committee will be given to the deans and chairs who can implement these changes. Members of
sub-committee 2d and 2e also stated that most departments had submitted incomplete materials
for their courses listed under these objectives.
7. Underwood asked that the sub-committees send a narrative about their findings by Monday,
March 1st. She would then prepare a PQIR based on the sub-committees findings. Hodgson
requested for a way to upload these materials to a central point in order to reduce paperwork.
Sutherlin said the PQIR will be digitized for everyone to see, and Underwood said the General
Education Committee Minutes will be put on the intranet.
8. Next order of business involved the scheduling of the PQIR presentation. Discussion led to the
tentative date of Wednesday, March 10th or Thursday, March 11th at 3:30 PM. Sutherlin
suggested getting the deans to attend the presentation. Warren suggested having three
presentations, each one focusing on a particular objective. Sutherlin suggested having one PQIR
presentation, then present a workshop. He also stressed the importance of having the deans
attend the PQIR presentation. Underwood said that having separate meetings by objective would
be a better idea next year after this process gets more established.
9. Underwood said she would work with Warren and prepare a PQIR slide presentation around
March 10th. Every member would read a portion of the presentation prepared by Underwood.
The PQIR presentation will cover three objectives and would be different from the final report for
2009-2010.
10. Warren talked about having a general education component on each course syllabus that specifies
a general education objective. He said this would address the general education objectives of
each course and make it easier to fill out the PQIR templates.
11. Next meeting was scheduled for Friday, March 26th.
12. Meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM except for the sub-committee for objective 1d.