University Colleagues:
The General Education Committee (GEC) invites you to review our proposed mission for
general education at St. Cloud State University. You can access this mission under
Documents and Policies at the General Education web page at
http://www.stcloudstate.edu/generaleducation. The current version is dated 10/10/05.
We welcome your comments! The GEC hopes to forward the mission statement to
Senate later this month. We can expedite this process by soliciting your feedback at this
time prior to that action.
How can you give us feedback?
If you have not yet subscribed to the General Education listserv, please do so. Listserv
subscription is on the web page. Or, if you prefer, use the handy feedback form on the
web page. Or, you may contact your elected GEC representative. Names are listed on
the General Education web page.
How did the GEC arrive at this mission statement? Some background information may
help you to see the care taken in its construction.
1. SCSU did not have a mission statement for general education. The closest “guideline”
we had was the listing of five criteria for a general education course that has been used
for determining general education curriculum (meeting three out of five criteria). In
Strategic Planning and through conversations with both the Dean of Undergraduate
Studies and the Director of Assessment (in conjunction with information received from
NCA/HCL) we realized a need for such a statement.
2. We gathered sample mission statements from a variety of general education programs,
both in state and elsewhere. Committee members examined these documents and
selected ones they liked the best. These samples are collected on the General
Education web page under Documents and Policies (see Starting Point Links on General
Education Mission/Vision).
3. We gathered input from the faculty at the April 6th Forum and incorporated faculty
feedback into an original draft. One of our members, Carolyn Hartz (PHIL), has been
extremely helpful in providing numerous drafts of the mission. We also solicited input
from faculty at the Fall Convocation meeting.
4. We consulted the Higher Learning Commission Statement on General Education to make
sure we were considering what they believe is important in general education. You may
wish to consult this statement at http://www.hpcnet.org/assessmentgep.
5. We checked mission alignment with SCSU Mission/Goals.
6. We recently examined numerous drafts of our mission, considering specific wording and
presentation of ideas in a careful, thoughtful manner. We have tried to incorporate
concerns of our college representatives in the final draft.
What is our next step as a committee?
At this point we have not articulated student learning outcomes. That will come next. You will
note from GEC minutes posted on our web page that we hope to incorporate other viewpoints as
we embark upon this task. We recognize the need to offer more general learning outcomes at
the program level (general education) which will filter to more specific knowledge/ability/skills
learning outcomes at the course level. We are asking for assistance from the University
Assessment Committee in accomplishing this task.
[Sent electronically via SCSU Announce on 10-13-2005]