General Education Committee
March 26, 2010 Howell Hall 107 4:00 PM
Approved Minutes
Members present:
Abdulhamid Sukar – Business
John Geiger – Psychology
Greg Treadwell – Business
Mohammad Tabatabai – Mathematical Sciences
John Hodgson – English
Jason Smith – Library
(Chair) Kirsten Underwood – Music
Benson Warren was also present.
Agenda Items/Discussions
1.
The meeting was called to order at 4:02 PM.
2. After two corrections, Tabatabai made a motion to approve minutes. Sukar seconded.
3. First item of discussion was the review of various PQIR’s. Underwood passed out the PQIR response. Warren
said that he would like to see more detailed feedback from the departments. Treadwell said it is difficult to assess
everything and have a document that fits every criterion.
4. Geiger brought up the issue of Tom Sutherlin leaving and asked about his replacement. The Committee had no
answer; however, it was agreed upon by the committee to continue the process that it had started. Underwood
also said the next step is to type up a summary of the committee’s findings and send them to the deans. This item
was discussed later.
5. Geiger said that the General Education Committee PQIR did not compare results with other regional institutions.
Underwood said that some institutions provide data, but they have different types of measurements. This brought
up the issue of benchmarks, and Underwood posed the question of whether the General Education Committee
should set the benchmarks. The committee discussed the fact that different departments and courses have
different benchmarks. This in turn led to the issue of trying to find some commonalities between different courses
measuring the same learning outcome. Underwood pointed out that the software that Tom Sutherlin has selected
may be able to achieve this goal and also would not allow incomplete information. Underwood also stated an
example of incomplete information is not having the syllabi from each general education course.
6. Underwood again brought up the issue of sending information to the deans. Warren said that in the past
information was sent to Tom Sutherlin, who then passed it down to the deans. Underwood said that the deans
could look at the PQIR and see which courses submitted incomplete or no information. Warren suggested that the
deans look at the action plans in the PQIR. Treadwell suggested having each department do their own
presentations similar to the PQIR process. Later in the meeting, Hodgson made a motion for the chair to
summarize the action plans and send them to Tom Sutherlin. Geiger seconded. Underwood said that she created
a deadline of May 1st, 2010 for departments to send any missing information.
7. Geiger asked how the objectives were chosen. Underwood said that Dr. McArthur chose these objectives.
Underwood also suggested that perhaps the same objectives be measured more than once to see improvements,
rather than changing objectives each year. Underwood also suggested getting an early start for next year’s PQIR.
8. Warren discussed the ETS proficiency exam and its critical thinking component. He said that each department
that measures critical thinking could find some consensus as to what critical thinking really is for general
education at Cameron University. Hodgson asked if the ETS exam had a definition for critical thinking.
Underwood thought it did.
9. New Business: The Physical Sciences Department sent a recommendation to remove General Chemistry II and
Lab from General Education. The committee decided to invite someone from the Physical Sciences Department
to discuss this issue. Hodgson made a motion to table this issue. Treadwell seconded.
10. New Business: The Agriculture Department requests the addition of ENSC 2004 Introduction to Environmental
Science to be added to general education courses. Hodgson said this would give students another choice to meet
their Life Science requirement. Hodgson then moved to have ENSC 2004 be added as a general education course.
Treadwell seconded.
11. New Business: Underwood said that she wanted to have a narrative about general education in the course catalog.
Warren said that general education consists of a body of knowledge that a student gains at mid-level, but some
students may not be assessed until their senior year in college. Treadwell also mentioned about assessing people
by survey five years after they graduate. Underwood mentioned that the action plan put forth the idea of senior
students in focus groups which could provide some qualitative data. Treadwell suggested an alumni focus group.
12. Warren brought up the issue that since multiple members terms are about to expire it would be beneficial for the
committee to have their replacements attend meetings this summer. Underwood said she would be willing to
meet this summer. Questions also arose about how many years each member was to serve on the committee.
13. Meeting ended at 5:00 PM.
14. Next meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 30th at 4:00 PM.