Meeting Minutes 5/9/13

 

Date: May 9, 2013

Place: Building 10,241

Time: 3:10pm to 4:00 PM

Attendance: Josh Machamer, GE Chair, Helen Bailey (Office of the Registrar), Clare Battista (OCOB), Elena Keeling (CSM), Tal Scriven (CLA), Brenda Helmbrecht (CLA), Camille O'Bryant (CSM), Lisa Nicholson (CAFES), Clark Turner (CENG), Bruno Giberti (CAED), Rachel Kramer (ASI), Katie Tool (GE/Academic Programs and Planning), Mary Pedersen (Academic Programs and Planning)

Business

The charge of the GE Governance Board : Memo from Jeffrey D. Armstrong to Steve Rein, Chair, Academic Senate (PDF)

Key points of discussion on General Education

  • How can the program provide flexibility?
  • How can the program maintain 72 units?
  • How can we reduce by 4 units?

Discussion

  • Currently the program allows majors to double count in many lower-division courses and in upper-division Area F/Technology
  • Comments on the fact that some departments specify Area F within the major and some departments do not allow students to take Area F in the major
  • Concern that content within Area F may be duplicated if majors take something very similar (example - Biology students taking Genetic Engineering in Area F)
  • Review and discussion of current policy that double-counting of GE Area C4/Arts and Humanites upper-division elective and D5/Society and the Individual must be taken outside of the major
  • Discussion of the importance of student choice in General Education
  • Review of EO 1065 - Students are required to take 12 units in upper-division but there are no specific area requirements in this category
  • Comments on increased class sizes in writing-intensive courses (3000 words of writing/50% of grade)
    (A1/Expository Writing, A3/Critical Thinking, C1/Literature, C2/Philosophy, C4/Arts and Humanites upper-division elective, D5/Society and the Individual upper-division elective)
  • Difficulty for faculty to grade papers and give proper feedback when class size is to large
  • Budget concerns and student through put have created a need to increase size in writing-intensive classes
  • Need for assessment of these classes in the future
  • Some members of the committee felt they needed additional clarification on the flexibility charge
  • Discussion will continue at the next meeting.
  • Josh Machamer/Chair will summarize issues and bring back in writing for next meeting

Related Content

<script type="text/javascript">
 
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-42881706-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 
  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
 
</script>