Undergraduate Education, Council on - Minutes - 2007-2008
CUE Minutes 2/15/08:
Members Present: J. Rust, chair; B. Kirby, past chair; I. Schmidt, M. Atkinson, A. Nowel, J.Spurlin, J. Tector, G. Weinberg, D. Barlage, M. Chu, H. Devine, H. Kellner, C. Levine, M. Shearer, L. Williams, D. Auerbach, R. Foy, D. Howard, B. Matthews, S. Palmer, A. Dupont, J. Ambrose, C. Freeman
Opened at 1:40 pm
Comments from the chair:
- Chair Rust thanked DUAP for the lunch.
- Some members have noticed CUE has scheduled a meeting on March 21, 2008. Shall this meeting be cancelled because of spring holiday?
- Unanimous vote to cancel this meeting
- Introduced a resource manual developed by Caroline Haynes, Miami University of Ohio on Interdisciplinary Course design and teaching to share with the committee.
- Action item: Email the website url to CUE for review of the manual
- Rust had a meeting with Jim Martin and Hans Kellner to discuss the interdisciplinary symposium. Discussed methods on ways to include or share the information with the campus at large, post ideas and share comments.
- Levine had mentioned at the subcommittee meeting started inquiries on campus to find out a way to do this. She will report back to the group. Some members really like this idea to share feedback.
Action Item: Levine will do research in this area and report back.
- On Feb. 26, Rust has been asked to come to the Faculty Senate to give presentation to the group on the implementation updates. He asked members to come to this meeting to help support.
Members had a discussion on the issue of curricular review and how this is going to be handled at the university. An upcoming UCCC meeting will have R&R as a guest and will discuss how this will be done and how the process can be streamlined and abbreviated. A course list with current GER courses is being prepared to send to departments for review and subsequent inclusion on relevant GEP category course lists. Some members had questions on how they should process some of their actions (for example new concentrations in degrees) and whether to use the new guidelines or old? The department will need to decide depending on the date they want the curriculum to be effective and can modify the curriculum when the new GEP is implemented in the sum2, 2009.
Members discussed the issue of degree keys and when/where the student enters a program and which GER or GEP they will have? There are a lot of questions and folks agreed the group needed more information from Registration and Records. This discussion will be on a future agenda. We are in process of getting more information from R&R and an update will be available soon.
Comments from Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs: None at this time.
OLD BUSINESS:
REL 200 (Introduction to the Study of Religion) was removed from the table. The course is presented to be approved as a new course for the Religion and Non English speaking Culture: Moved and seconded. Discussion: none. Approved unanimously.
NEW BUSINESS:
Minutes: moved and seconded.
Revision was presented to the minutes under:
“Suggestion Revision for Rationale (complete)” – revise “help” to “helps students” – for proper subject/verb agreement.
Motion to make changes suggested to rationale to the Communication in the Major category. Moved and seconded. Approved.
Minutes as revised: Moved and seconded the minutes as amended. Approved unanimously.
Allen Dupont and Joni Spurlin have been working on looking at survey results and requested CUE volunteers to assist with this project. – Brian Matthews and Linda Williams volunteered to help review survey results (sophomore and senior surveys – University Planning and Analysis).
The Chair also invited additional members to be a part of the GK/US Diversity committees and members volunteered as follows:
- Maxine Atkinson – US Diversity
- Barbara Kirby – Global Knowledge
- Brian Mathews– Global Knowledge
- Hugh Divine – Global Knowledge
- Ingrid Schmidt – Global Knowledge
Update from subcommittee on IP Symposium: Brian Matthews, chair of subcommittee
Elizabeth Langley from Arizona State University has agreed to be an outside speaker. Hoping to have two speakers and a poster session during the IP Symposium. Shared a tentative agenda. Second speaker would be Bill Winner. Expectation is that it will be in the Talley Student Center Gallery or similar location in the afternoon the second or third week in March (2 weeks after spring break).
Discussion of possibility for Wine and Cheese Reception at the Symposium. Some members discussed in depth the issues of serving alcohol at campus events where students will be present. Members discussed the university policy concerning alcohol and events. Decided to hold a vote.
Vote:
12 – no to alcohol at reception
4 – yes to alcohol at reception
Brief discussion on the schedule and agenda, and who might be participating in the poster session. Several faculty on campus have been nominated to be invited for this symposium. (Shearer would like to send some names to Matthews of faculty in Math.) Matthews asked the committee to share/submit names of faculty members they know that might be interested in participating.
Category Discussion:
CUE has discussed, reviewed, and voted on several categories so far, but still some more to look at.
The committee reviewed the “Additional Breadth” category and the recommendation from the Task Force. There is also the possibility of categories that aren’t currently in the GEP but might fit under the idea of Additional Breadth. Engineering and Visual and Performing Arts are two such lists that could be included. Members discussed that with the “Additional Breadth” category, there are colleges on campus that don’t fall into the “sides” of campus.
Suggestions that colleges could come up with what they think fills the appropriate “additional breadth” category for their students and have this approved by CUE.
Additional Breadth (3 credit hours) – From GEP proposal:
Students will be required to successfully complete an additional general education course outside of their major and related disciplines. Students in disciplines that are primarily focused on natural science, mathematics, or engineering will take an additional course from the Humanities, Social Sciences, or Visual and Performing Arts lists; students in disciplines that are primarily focused on the Humanities or Social Sciences will take an additional course from the Mathematics, Natural Sciences, or Engineering lists*. As many programs do not fall neatly into one or the other of these categories, colleges will decide with the approval of the Associate Dean of DUAP which categories will satisfy the Additional Breadth requirement for students in each of their programs.
Discussion to remove “Students in – through – lists… as many programs” leave first and last sentence.
Discussion on how the Task Force decided on the wording as it is in the document. John Ambrose mentioned that there was concern with the new GEP that with the reduction in hours of certain categories, students wouldn’t be getting enough natural sciences or humanities as part of their general education. Some members feel it would be appropriate to have a rationale for this category to provide stronger guidance. The decision was made to have a subcommittee draft the rationale for the Additional Breadth category. Volunteers for the subcommittee were requested and include Allen Dupont, Gary Weinberg, David Auerbach.
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 pm.
* An Engineering list must be developed. See “Implementation” section of this report for details.