General Education Committee
August 23, 2011
McMahon Centennial Center
Approved Minutes
Members present:
(Chair) James Heflin – Communications
Abdulhamid Sukar – Business
Kirsten Underwood – Fine Arts
Ken Masters – Business
Ramona Hall – Education
Jason Smith – Library
Amanda Husak – VPAA Representative (non-voting)
Karla Oty – IRAA (non-voting)
John McArthur – Vice-President of Academic Affairs (non-voting)
Agenda items/Discussions:
1. Meeting was called to order at 2:00 PM.
2. After one correction, a motion by Sukar to approve the minutes from the July 7th, 2011 meeting.
Underwood seconded. Motion approved.
3. Next agenda item: Set meeting times for fall 2011 semester. After some discussion, it was
tentatively set for the first Friday of each month at 9:00 AM.
4. Next agenda item: Election of Chair for General Education Committee. Heflin said no one has
mentioned an interest in being the new chair. It was decided by the committee that this action
should be delayed until the next meeting.
5. Next agenda item: Study and edit learning outcomes for general education. Heflin said it would
be useful for the committee to study Dr. Sailor’s report and come up with wording that would
be more acceptable both to Cameron and to the OU Board of Regents. McArthur said that each
course has a statewide review consisting of twenty-five faculty from twenty-five institutions
who attempt to get some unity on what is supposed to be taught for a particular course. Oty
also mentioned that globalization will probably need to be included more in Cameron’s General
Education program, since that is a part of what HLC reviewed at Cameron.
6. Next agenda item: Oty said that this past July she met with faculty from the School of Behavioral
Science, and afterwards they decided to measure every general education course in the
behavioral sciences they same way, with the same learning outcomes.
7. Relating to the last item, Oty also met with faculty from Business, History and Government,
Psychology, and Agriculture, and they could not agree on the same learning outcomes or
methodology for assessment relating to the Economics General Education requirement. Oty did
provide a memo that later confirms that the Economics courses will be measuring learning
outcomes 1D and 2E and will be using multiple choice examinations as their assessment tool.
Oty also said that Foreign Languages also disagreed about what to assess and how to measure,
and may even remove some courses from general education, due to the large number of
courses that already fall in that program. In a related topic, McArthur also stated that there is a
mechanism for substitutions and waivers for transfer students, and not to let this issue be a
reason to keep a large general education program.
8. Next agenda item: A motion was made to approve the requests for SOCI 1113 Introductory
Sociology to remove learning outcomes 1B and 1D. Motion approved. Next motion called for
PSY 1113 General Psychology and FAMS 1123 Family Relations to remove learning outcomes 2B
and 2E. Motion approved. Next motion called for CRM 3603 Consumer Economics to assess
learning outcomes 1D and 2E. Motion approved.
9. Next agenda item: WEAVE online: Oty said that sometime in October 2011 Department chairs
and general education faculty that had action plans from next year will need to enter data from
the 2010-2011 academic year and give analysis of the data. General Education Committee
members may need a training session before October, in order to provide assistance to these
departments.
10. Next agenda item: Assessment Funds: Oty informed the committee Cameron University has
$25,000 available for assessment funds and this money can be used for travel or bringing in
assessment experts. The funds cannot be used for existing assessment. Also, no chairs or deans
signature is required.
11. Next agenda item: Dr. Joanni Sailor’s Report: Heflin said that he wanted the committee to read
this report. Heflin asked for recommendations about the report at the next general education
meeting. Oty suggested that assessment funds could be used for actions in this report.
12. New Business: Underwood suggested that more clarification is needed regarding student grades
not being equivalent to program assessment data. Oty said grades can be an indirect measure,
and general education assessment can be a part of a student’s final grade.
13. New Business: Oty posted a draft for Cameron University’s five-year assessment plan. Oty said
any input from committee members about this draft would be helpful.
14. Next meeting scheduled for Friday, September 2nd, 2011 at 9:00 AM.
15. Meeting adjourned at 3:03 PM.