High Impact/First Contact Subcommittee
Meeting Minutes: 31 March 2000
Present: B. Amenson-Hill, S. Byrne, A. Deprey, S. Furlong (Co-Chair), C. Grosso, L. Hansen, A. Haynie, N. Suchomel, M. Kubsch, C. Matter, S. Meredith, M. Regan, L. Sear, M. Stearney (Co-Chair), and L. Toonen.
Excused: J. Gerow, J. Jackson, and G. Wilson-Doenges.
1. The meeting was called to order at 2:05 p.m.
2. Committee members introduced themselves.
3. Prof. Furlong presented the committee’s charge and a general time line for the completion of tasks. The subcommittee’s report must be completed by the end of June.
4. Chairs Furlong and Stearney lead a discussion regarding the first three recommendations of The Task Force on the Compelling Idea, which constitute the basis of the subcommittee’s charge. It is anticipated that combining elements of SOAR and Introduction to College will not be a difficult task although several important considerations were brought to the fore: dates for new freshmen registration, fulfilling government mandates regarding alcohol use and sexual harassment guidelines, the timing and scheduling of the redesigned required offering, and whether or not students will receive credit. Instituting peer orientation and development groups appears to be a more difficult task and will likely have some connection to recommendations four and five. Preliminary ideas regarding the course currently referred to as the Learning to Learn Seminar were presented. At this point, it is expected that this seminar will be required of all students during their freshman year, will be credit bearing, and there will be 15-20 students per section. M. Regan and S. Furlong agreed to bring models of freshman seminars from other institutions to the next meeting. Comparisons were made to UW-Green Bay’s LES course work from the 1970’s. It is clear that the make-up of the subcommittee will provide diverse perspectives during the development process of the new freshman seminar.
5. It was suggested that members of this subcommittee follow the meeting minutes of the other subcommittees to keep abreast of related and overlapping developments.
6.There will be reserved readings kept in the library for any committee member (or other campus personnel) to access concerning the issues and recommendations discussed by the HIFC committee.
7. The next three meeting dates were set; the location will be forthcoming.
14 April, Friday, 2:00
21 April, Friday, 2:00
5 May, Friday, 2:00
8. The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by C.A. Grosso.