Voting members present: Aidas Banaitis, Geoffrey Barstow, Daniel Faltesek, Kelsey Emard, Jack Istok, Colin Johnson, Matthew Kennedy, Michelle McAllaster, Lori McGraw, Rene Reitsma, Randy Rosenberger, Kaplan Yalcin
Voting members absent: Justin St. Germain
Ex-officio members present: Academic Affairs – Heath Henry; DPD – Nana Osei-Kofi; Ecampus – Karen Watte
Guests: McKenzie Huber, Michael Jefferis, Caryn Stoess
Discussion of Three General Education Policies
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De minimis policy (cont’d.)
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The standard whereby the learning outcomes (LOs)are covered is appropriate and meets the Baccalaureate Core (BC) requirements.
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Proposed policy to be voted on next week: Courses approved will have their primary purpose of being in the General Education (Gen Ed) program and their content must comprehensively cover the entirety of each learning outcome.
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‘...as integral to the course and its purpose in the Gen Ed.’
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How assessable is it?
Action: Dan Faltesek motioned to approve the proposed policy – Courses approved will have their primary purpose of being in the General Education program and each learning outcome must be integral to the course and meaningfully assessed; seconded. Motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes against and 0 votes in abstention.
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Intra-category diversification
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Requirements for course designation diversification
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Enforces breadth and diversification in fields of study; prevents/discourages departments from using the Gen Ed as a way to generate revenue and student credit hours/enrollments
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Con – may force students to take a class from a different subject area than their major has prescribed
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The current policy is enforced via coding in MyDegrees (MD)
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It may not be clear to all faculty what the ‘designator’ is on a course listing.
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Possibly refer to it as a ‘subject designator’ to make it more clear what part of the course name is being referred to.
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Come programs have multiple designators, which could potentially lead to issues.
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Does this leave the Gen Ed program open to gaming of the BC for a greater budget?
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In general education categories requiring more than one course (such as humanities and scientific inquiry), students may only apply one course per subject designator.
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Could we say students may only apply one course per academic unit instead of per subject designator? Is that too hard to track in MD?
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Programming in MD that hinges on academic units would require each course to have a unit attribute attached to it.
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Mike Jefferis will look into what MD is capable of.
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Part two of the policy: Seeking Solutions courses may only be satisfied outside of a student’s home degree major area or major designator.
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Should a new Gen Ed designator be made for Transitions and Seeking Solutions courses? Similar to the ‘H’ designator for the Honors College, but what would its designated home be?
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ALS courses exist outside of an academic home.
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How is this funded? Would be paid out similarly to the Honors College. Sherm Bloomer could adjust the rules around the payout, if needed.
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Don’t ‘H’ courses only pay out partial tuition to the home unit...with the rest going to Honors College?
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Honors does take a portion and students pay a differential. The honors reimbursement is less than the salary/OPE of the faculty FTE to deliver the course.
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Could be a good motivator for courses to be created in those categories.
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A course designator will be needed, regardless, for the Transition courses, as many colleges have their own transition programs for incoming students.
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The Seeking Solutions conversation will continue during the November 30 meeting.
Action: Dan Faltesek motioned to approve the policy - In general education categories requiring more than one course (such as humanities and scientific inquiry), students may only apply one course per subject designator; seconded. The motioned passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes against and 0 votes in abstention.
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Grade minima
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Requirements for minimum passing grades
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Will be discussed during the November 30 meeting.
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Class sizes
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General Education class size requirements
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Will be discussed during the November 30 meeting.