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Meeting Notes

Spring 2005

Appalachian State University Provost Stan Aeschleman met with the General Education Task Force on Friday, January 14, 2005 and charged the group with the task of developing a signature general education program for undergraduate students attending the University. Provost Aeschleman requested that recommendations from Task Force be forwarded to his office by the end of Spring Semester 2006.

The Task Force was encouraged to be mindful of, although not limited to, the following considerations in completing their task:

  • Conduct general overview of issues and approaches (for example, what is the objective of general education, both alone and in relation to major programs?)
  • Establish a finite number of objectives (10 or fewer) that a General Education curriculum should engender. Objectives must be measurable.
  • Evaluate our current approach relative to objectives.
  • Explore alternative models
  • Be creative. Initially, do not be concerned with pragmatic issues (for example, who will teach, which department will receive the student credit hours)
  • Keep campus involved throughout the process

Dr. David White chaired the task force during spring semester, 2005. Several guidelines were discussed and developed during this initial period of the task force, including the following:

  1. It is essential for Appalachian’s faculty and wider campus community to become fully engaged with the development and implementation of the general education program.

  2. The general education program will be developed with the idea of a baseline of minimum standards of knowledge and skills necessary for college work.

  3. At the same time, the university must assess and take into account the kinds and levels of knowledge and skills brought to Appalachian by our students.

  4. Appalachian State University should establish a mechanism by which it can evaluate and inform high schools of their success in preparing students for college-level work.

  5. Appalachian’s student orientation process will need to include more of an academic training component in the future.

After reading Strong Foundations, the Task Force divided into four subgroups to discuss the desired characteristics of an Appalachian graduate. There was considerable consensus on the following five domains: global understanding, communications literacy, science and math, historical thinking, and personal development/civic mindedness.

At the last meeting of the semester, Provost Stan Aeschleman announced that Dr. White would be leaving to take a position at West Georgia University and introduced Dr. Susan Keefe as the new Chair of the Task Force.

Summer 2005

In May, five members of the Task Force attended the five day AAC&U Institute on General Education in Newport, RI. Task Force members attending included Susan Keefe, Dan Friedman, Joni Petschauer, Laurie Semmes, and Ray Williams. The Institute included workshops, panel discussions, and presentations on all phases of general education planning: theoretical models, curriculum development, integrative learning, student expectations, and assessment. Time was also available for the ASU team to work together to clarify goals. Given the initial stage of the Task Force’s work, the team established the following immediate priorities for 2005-06: (1) raising the visibility of the task force and the inclusiveness of the dialogue on campus regarding general education, and (2) gathering information from the campus community (faculty, students, others) on thoughts about general education at Appalachian. Strategies for accomplishing these goals were outlined, including a website, an Institute on General Education on campus, focus group research, survey research, meetings with key administrators and administrative units, and outreach through the Faculty Senate and “town hall” meetings.

During the summer, two subcommittees were established and worked on (1) grant development and (2) focus group research. The Grants Subcommittee investigated NEH, CCLI, and Writing Across the Curriculum proposal opportunities. Private foundation support for a campus Institute on General Education was also explored. The Focus Groups Subcommittee formulated a research design consisting of student, non-tenure track faculty, and tenure-track faculty in 10 focus groups to be conducted in the fall. The subcommittee also created the questions to be asked at the focus groups. The subcommittee began to coordinate with the Office of Institutional Research as work proceeded on the research design.

Fall 2005

The Task Force worked on implementing the focus group research early in the fall. Tina Hogan and Heather Langdon (Office of Institutional Research) assisted in the sampling and development of the protocol for the focus groups as well as training Task Force members for the roles of moderator/note taker. Letters of invitation were sent to potential focus group participants in the first week of September. The focus groups were held during the last two weeks of September.

Beginning in October, meetings will be devoted to presentations by speakers on topics of interest in general education. The Task Force will be formulating recommendations regarding these issues, including writing across the curriculum, the first year experience, international studies, integrative/interdisciplinary studies, etc.