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Meeting Minutes

January 10, 2006

Announcements:

Georgia Rhoades has joined us because Dave Haney has been appointed vice-chancellor and will continue to sit on the Task Force in that capacity.

Joni Petschauer has asked Nikki Crees to take her place while Joni is in Germany this semester.

Bill Ward had a death in the family; he will be rescheduled for February 14 when Kate Brinko also comes.

Today we will use our time to plan for the semester. We will be in this room (224 IG Greer) until the Hubbard Center gets set up in February in 1041 Old Belk.

Several of you volunteered to lead small discussion groups this semester. The announcement is going out today. We talked in December about how to increase attendance. Chairs can be encouraged by e-mail to send a representative. The topics will be open. The locations are a problem as the small classroom in the Hubbard Center is not available yet. We’ll have to relocate. Keefe will arrange with the discussion leaders on meeting sites.

The March 3 small discussion group overlaps with our scheduled retreat. Sammye should be able to run it and still attend the retreat.

The small discussion group leaders should provide a report to the Chair on the concerns discussed at the meetings. We should provide documentation.

There was a reminder that there will be an open forum January 27, in Price Lake, from 1-3. Chair will e-mail the Chairs and Deans, past attendees to announce the forum. Check our website to correct the time. We will be presenting information on critiquing the core curriculum (curriculum, instruction, administration, & assessment) and models from Portland State (AAC&U exemplary model) and Bowling Green U (in our cohort). Two papers describing these programs will be put on our WebCT site. It was noted that models need to be tied to goals in the presentation.

It was noted that our current core curriculum dates from the 1960’s without much change.

Retreat planning:

Possible retreat dates were recommended: Feb. 24-25, or March 3 & 4. Most task force members didn’t reply about which they favored; a few said they could only come certain dates.

We could have retreats on two consecutive Fridays instead; everyone could at least come to one of those. We could talk about discussing goals and move on to models. Perhaps our workshop with Dr. Carol Geary Schneider will help us to arrive at an agenda. It might be better to have two separate retreats to give us time to consider motions. A vote was taken and two consecutive Fridays were established as dates for our retreats (Feb. 24 and March 3). Room arrangements will be secured for 224 IG Greer if possible. Lunch in Chancellor’s Dining Room?

Should we wait until after the departmental statements are in to hold retreat? Why wait? There are many things to discuss. We need to do our work, and see how departments fit in with those goals.

In terms of a time schedule for the semester, we should plan on coming up with educational goals by the end of March. Then we can turn to examining models and we may have a generic one by the end of April. Perhaps we can prepare a report by then that gives a summary of our work this year, a list of preliminary recommendations, the educational goals, and a general outline of the model we favor. Look at the College of Business’ website for a good example of goals, learning outcomes. The provost would like to see some sort of model over the summer in order to examine budgetary considerations.

How to plan for the approval process? If we want to present the goals to the faculty, this will take time. If we need to take the plan to AP&P, this will take two months (have to get on agenda early). Preparation needs to happen beforehand (go to Faculty Senate, Staff Council, and Council of Chairs) so that it is successful in passing at AP&P. After spring break, there are only five weeks left in the semester. This process will clearly go into the fall semester.

There was some discussion of the process of general education and the need to see it as a continuing process. General education should always be evolving. The essential principles we adopt will be firm guideposts, but the specific learning outcomes may change.

Q: What are we going to do with white papers we get from departments? We will need to summarize these documents. Promise them a summary in April?

We need to begin planning for Dr. Schneider’s visit in February. She will hold a workshop from 10am-3pm on Friday, Feb. 17. Agenda might include a discussion of best practices concerning administrative structure.

Wiki site:

Ann Viles reported on the development of the Wiki site for the Task Force. It is a collaborative site. People could search quickly to see topics we have covered. You can add comments if you are a manager. It’s a site that could be used for collaborative writing projects, for example, when we establish a subcommittee for writing a final document.

GETF_WIKI@appstate.edu.

Viles will register everybody as members and managers. PDF’s are hard to add. Word is okay. We’ve already got information all over the place and this is a good way to bring it all together.

We may need a work session for us all to learn to use the wiki.

There was some discussion about whether we will be advocating major reform. Clearly, the Provost would welcome it. Our presentation on Jan. 27 will be advocating major reform as necessary. It was remarked that we’re naive if we think we’re just going to tweak things.

Subcommittees report:

1. Community College/High School

Alexandra Hellenbrand and Joni Petschauer met with 10 representatives at the Gear-Up Leadership Summit on Jan.8-9. Reform is happening rapidly in the public schools. They asked us what they should be putting into place and how to prepare students for the core competencies. It was a fascinating discussion. They will respond to whatever the university decides to do. We need to be communicating clearly with them.

The single most important but lacking skill is technical reading, according to them. What ability level do we expect?

There is not enough science experience, not enough reading in science.

2. Alumni/Employer

Greg Rhoads is going to facilitate the focus group on the 28th with alumni on campus. We’ll start getting a survey ready for employers soon. We’ve started getting feedback from department chairs on more employers to contact.

Meeting adjourned.