General Education Committee Minutes 2/28/05

Members Present: J. Eglin, K. Hill, S. Kalm, T. Manuel, S. Miller, D. Pletscher, G. Smith, R. Welsh

Members Absent/Excused: S. Greymorning, A. Walker-Andrews

Ex-Officio Present: L. Carlyon

Guest: Provost Muir

Chair Eglin called the meeting to order at 3:07 PM.

The minutes from 2/14/05 were amended and approved.

Communication:

§ There has been pressure for a second composition general education requirement. Chair Eglin will be meeting with the Faculty Senate and ASCRC Chair on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

§ The Provost provided information regarding the Board of Regents General Education Core Workgroup. There is a draft proposal to maintain the block MUS core transfer policy that requires units to identify courses that are accepted under the categories. A faculty group would need to determine the applicable courses.

Other issues being discussed are the need to satisfy the Indian Education for All requirements and remove upper-division courses from under the general education designation. The upper-division requirements should be called something else. The workgroup has not yet discussed college credit for high school course work. It has been recommended that a grade of C or better be required by all AAS degrees. This will be difficult because of the diverse campus cultures. If Cs are required for AAS degrees than they should be required for all degrees.

The Board of Regents is not looking at the criteria of the core. There is a possibility that an American Indian education requirement may be more clearly defined within cultural diversity. According to Kate Shanley courses meeting this requirement should have at least ¼ of the content relate to American Indian issues. A course at UM that meets the requirement is Cultural Traditions.

The workgroups will try to have something for the March Board of Regents meeting. The Provost proposed to throw out the general education core because it is antiquated and stifles innovation. The new way of thinking is that general education should be integrated rather than foundational.

The Provost urges the committee to develop a program that would be the best education for students and not get stuck in departmental resource/turf issues.

Old Business:

§ The committee made revisions to the draft preamble.

The meeting was adjourned.