UWGEC Minutes

Date: 10 December 2008

Time: 3:00-5:00 pm

Venue: UA Main Library - Special Collections Room Doug Toussaint, Chair; Jim Riley, Vice Chair

AGENDA ITEM / OLD BUSINESS
DISCUSSION/ACTION/MOTION / NEW BUSINESS
DISCUSSION/ACTION/MOTION / FOLLOW-UP RESPONSIBLITY /
I. Call to Order/ UWGEC Members / Self introductions
II. Minutes from last meeting / November 2008 minutes approved
III. Working Groups/ Subcommittees
A. Ad hoc committee on cost cutting measures; Chair Paul Melendez, Roxie Catts, Malcolm Compitello, Amy Fountain / See notes below *
B. Substitution Guidelines; Chair Jonathan Beck, Celeste Pardee, Erica Cirillo-McCarth / Report on questions:
1.  transfer policies statement
2.  multiple use of courses
3.  courses that can replace NATS / See notes below **
C. General Education Policies; Chair Malcolm Compitello, Ted Laetsch, Kim Jones, Leslie Sult / Should Tier Two courses have prerequisites? No need to change it at this time. The committee will wait for a case relevant to the discussion to be presented.
D. Periodic Course Review; Chair Tom Fleming, Michael Polakowski, Amy Fountain, Gwen Johnson / See notes below ***
E. Communications Gen Ed Experience; Chair Judy Nolen, Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, Bill Fee, Chris Johnson, Anne Marie Jones, Matthias Mehl / Report on recommendations in Dahlgran Report (Tabled to January 2009)
F. Honors Track; Chair Laura Berry, Dennis Ray, Jeff Reid, Roxie Catts, Rebecca Mitchell / No report
V. New Courses; Chair Anne Marie Hall, Dennis Ray, Nancy Stiller / ECOL 220 – communication with the faculty and department has not moved this course into compliance with the course requirements. The course was motioned to be disapproved; motion by Anne Marie Hall, second by Tom Fleming. Motion carried; all in favor, none against/abstained.
VI. New Business /Motions from working groups
VII. Liaison Reports
A. Transfer Articulation-Bill Fee and Brigid Murphy
B. Undergraduate Council; Laura Berry
C. ACC Assessment Coordinating Committee; Representatives Anne Marie Hall and Jim Riley
D. Senate Task Force on Student Retention; Anne Marie Hall / Report / See notes below ****
VIII. Comments for the benefit of UWGEC-All / SPBAC Report on White Papers – continuing process; continue to work together cordially toward next phase.
IX. Meeting Adjourned

See notes below * Ad hoc committee on cost cutting measures Paul Melendez: Summary of comments from last meeting organized into a handout was distributed (Handout #1). We need to take a broader view by looking at things with one on one view and including such things as expanding hours, etc., to keep the gened structure the same while achieving the cost saving objectives. Gail Burd: (Handout #2) The option of replacing one Tier One course requirement with an assessment component offers excellent common instruction and assessment of the gened program. The summary of the proposal follows. Reduce tier one courses to one per strand per student with one wildcard to have each student take four classes. Teaching faculty would supervise three unit courses as they do now. The assessment unit would ne an on-line delivered course and supervised/managed separately. No change would be made to the Tier Two courses; these are offered by the department and used as introductions to the majors.

See notes below ** Substitution Guidelines Double dipping: Policy (reference notes for November) NO foundation courses can be applied to majors or minors with few exceptions in math and language. No change recommended in the current policy. Six units from Tier Two course could count for the minor; this could/should be reviewed (tweaked). Subcommittee recommended that one course currently used to satisfy Tier Two could count toward the minor. Second minor could have a separate Tier Two course posted to meet that criteria. Motion to make this change; motion by Jonathan Beck, second Kim Jones. Motion carried; all in favor, none against, none abstained. Celeste will present this at Undergraduate Council for discussion.

Courses that can replace a NATS Tier One requirement is not really a policy change. Acceptable science course that can substitute for gened courses are available to certain majors. The policy now states that the course can be substituted for Tier One but not for Tier Two. The proposed change from this committee suggests that these courses can be substituted for Tier One or Tier Two if the student is not in a science major. This is an example that can offer a degree of flexibility and would pertain to current students. Motion to make this change; motion by Jonathan Beck, second Malcolm Compitello. Motion carried; all in favor, none against, none abstained. The policy information regarding all general education courses will be listed on the Registrar’s web page. This was approved by UWGEC during 2007-2008. this concludes this matter and does not need to be moved to the Undergraduate Council for discussion.

Transfer policies statement not reviewed at this meeting.

See notes below *** Periodic Course Review Response from CALS-Doug Toussaint -- the NATS course Biology in Medicine and Engineering has been cancelled by CALS and will not be offered in the future; the NATS 104 Nutrition, Food and You course has been revised to include the writing component. The on-line virtual labs are viable. With that notation and an updated syllabus the course has been approved as meeting the UWGEC Tier One standards set forward in the review.

Response from SBS-Juan Garcia – The college and department are aware of the course requirements but they lack the resources to change the class to meet them at this time. We request that this review of this course be suspended until a discussion can be continued with the college dean.

See notes below **** Senate Task Force on Student Retention Summary of Faculty Senate Report made by Dr. Strittmatter: multiple degrees; limited on-line courses compared to ASU; delivery of curriculum. Bottom line: flexibility; multiple disciplinary degree is encouraged; question of what skills do students need. Copy of most recent draft posted to gened web site. (Note: this version is a draft – the final version is due to the Faculty Senate by the end of December 2008).

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