The next meeting of the General Education Committee will be at 3 p.m. on
Tuesday, December 7, Hiwassee Room
General Education Committee
Summary of 11/2/99 Minutes
Present: Gene Bartoo, Betsy Darken (chair), Nick Honerkamp, Gail Meyer,
Marea Rankin, Ken Smith, Vicki Smith, Roger Thompson, Barbara Walton, Bruce
Wallace
The committee convened at 3 p.m.
At the chair's request, the committee revisited issues regarding dual
enrollment and transfer credit for the Cultures and Civilizations category
of general education. The motion regarding dual enrollment which was
passed at the last meeting was flawed in that it was limited to courses
from Chattanooga State, whereas dual enrollment courses are also offered by
UTC and other institutions. In addition, the chair wished the committee to
work on a rationale for its second motion at the last meeting regarding the
handling of transfer credit.
The committee spent the meeting discussing transfer credit and the Cultures
and Civilizations category. The committee regarded this category as unique
because it specifies core courses (either Western Humanities I and II or
World Civilizations I, II and III) rather than a list of courses, and these
core courses are interdisciplinary and historically based. The committee
considered the suggestions of the department heads (see minutes of
10/18/99) regarding the use of World Literature courses as substitutes for
Western Humanities, and were not favorably inclined to do so since the
former were not interdisciplinary. The committee also discussed the
question of students with transfer credit for a two-semester sequence in
either world history or western civilization. What third course should
such students take to satisfy the 9-hour category requirement? The
committee agreed to continue the discussion at a special meeting the
following Monday.
The committee adjourned somewhere around 4:45 p.m.
****
General Education Committee
Summary of 11/8/99 Minutes
Present: Gene Bartoo, Betsy Darken, Nick Honerkamp, Gail Meyer, Ken
Smith, Barbara Walton, Bruce Wallace
Visitors: Herb Burhenn (Acting Dean of Arts and Sciences and Head of the
Philosophy Department), Rick Jackson (English), Greg O'Dea (English), John
Phillips (Philosophy), Verbie Prevost (Head of the English Department),
Chris Stuart (English), Sandy Zitkus (Assoc. Director of Records)
The committee convened around 3 p.m.
The committee and its visitors from the humanities departments discussed
the issue of transfer courses and the Cultures and Civilizations category.
Key questions included: (1) How similar do transfer courses have to be to
Western Humanities I and II or World Civilizations I, II and III to be
"equivalent"? (2) Who should decide this question? (3) How flexible
should we be in answering this question? A two-hour discussion revealed a
consensus here and there but basic differences of opinion on most issues.
Consensus: the instructors of Western Humanities I agreed that this course
is being taught as an interdisciplinary course, is going reasonably well,
requires a lot of prep time on the part of the instructor, and should
become more interdisciplinary as instructors gain experience.
Sharp differences arose regarding the question of how flexible we should be
regarding transfer credit for the Western Humanities requirement.
Department heads argued that courses such as world literature I and II
should count; many committee members argued that they should not.
Arguments in favor of greater flexibility included: not discouraging
students from transferring to UTC; not overburdening junior and senior
level transfer students with freshman level general education courses; the
difficulty of teaching interdisciplinary courses like Western Humanities I
and II at community colleges; avoiding problems with dual enrollment
credit; and the significant overlap between the content of world or western
literature courses and Western Humanities I and II. Many argued against
such flexibility primarily on the basis of the unique character and value
of Western Humanities I and II, with their interdisciplinary study of works
from all major branches of the humanities and fine arts. Transfer courses,
it was argued, should be equated to specific UTC courses only if they are
in fact equivalent. Hence only courses which use primary texts and take an
interdisciplinary and historical approach to western humanities should be
equated to our Western Humanities courses. There were also differences of
opinion as to whether or not literature courses are interdisciplinary.
Arguments were also voiced that community colleges would have an incentive
to develop such courses if we chose not to waive this interdisciplinary
requirement. This provoked a discussion as to how much we should expect
nearby community colleges to modify their curricula to conform to our new
requirements, and opinions differed as to the purpose of the several
meetings which have already been held between UTC, Chattanooga State, and
Cleveland State regarding our new gen ed requirements. It was the general
understanding of the faculty who attended these meetings that our community
college counterparts were planning to make revisions to conform to our new
requirements. Such was not the understanding of Drs. Burhenn and Prevost.
With regard to who should evaluate transfer courses for the Western
Humanities requirement, there were also sharp differences of opinion. The
Dean of Arts and Sciences pointed out that department heads have been
evaluating transfer credit for general education credit for years. The
precedent had been set. The Chair of the General Education Committee
pointed out that, regardless of who is evaluating transfer credit, the
assumption has been that such evaluations would be made based on
satisfaction of general education guidelines, in this case the course
descriptions for Western Humanities I and II. The department heads argued
that they had the most expertise to evaluate transfer courses for general
education; committee members argued that the General Education Committee,
not department heads, has been assigned the responsibility of certifying
courses for general education. Others argued that a special committee of
humanities faculty should evaluate transfer credit for Western Humanities.
The department heads suggested that it would take too long for the Gen Ed
Committee to rule on transfer students' general education credits;
committee members argued that petitions would not be too burdensome since
they would only involve transfer credit for the Cultures and Civilizations
category. In addition, it was pointed out that faculty committees already
took care of more urgent matters expeditiously (e.g. the Admissions
Committee about admissions during the summer), and that the process of
evaluating transfer credit would become more efficient as time went on,
since many decisions would be replicable.
There was considerable discussion about the possibility of using "packages"
of transfer courses to satisfy the Cultures and Civilizations requirement,
such as the combination of two world literature courses with a world
religions course. Others opined that this was the sort of discussion which
would be best left to a committee of humanities faculty.
At 5 p.m., everyone left.
General Education Committee
Summary of 11/16/99 Minutes
Present: Betsy Darken, Nick Honerkamp, Gail Meyer, Ken Smith, Vicki
Smith, Bruce Wallace, Barbara Walton
Continuing Funding of New General Education Faculty Lines
The chair reported, in answer to an earlier question, that according to Dr.
Jane Harbaugh the university is committed to continuing the funding of
general education lines which were initially funded this year by a grant
from the UC Foundation. There are currently several such lines in a number
of departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Background on General Education Decisions Regarding Transfer Courses
The chair also reported information obtained from Professor John Trimpey, a
previous chair of the General Education Committee: the General Education
Committee used to make transfer credit decisions vis-a-vis general
education, then -- some time prior to the mid to late 80's -- chose to
bequeath this power to the department heads,via a recommendation which was
approved by Faculty Council. The point, she said, is that the conferring
of gen ed credit to transfer courses is a curricular matter and therefore
the responsibility of the faculty. The fact that the faculty, via a
Faculty Council motion, chose to give department heads this responsibility
somewhere in the last 10 or 15 years does not mean that it is no longer a
faculty responsibility. She also noted that this action was taken when the
general education requirements were very broad and did not include specific
interdisciplinary core courses.
Western Humanities and Transfer Credit, Continued
The committee continued to chew on the issue of transfer credit vis-a-vis
the Cultures and Civilizations category. The chair's periodic attempts to
prod motions out of the committee led to several abortive motions followed
by more chewing. The committee bemoaned the lack of a Director of General
Education who could oversee the evaluation of transfer credit for general
education, especially during the summer. The committee kept returning to
the uniqueness of the Western Humanities courses, because of its
interdisciplinary nature and the use of core texts. Perhaps courses could
be equated to Western Humanities courses if they covered 80% of the primary
texts? Perhaps not, others argued, given the variety of possible primary
texts.
The status of articulation agreements with Chattanooga State, etc., was
raised -- had the administration already made an agreement with the latter?
The chair reported that Dr. Harbaugh had indeed already sent on the
recommendations of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, which included an
equivalence being made between World Literature I and II and our Western
Humanities courses. Since the curriculum is a faculty issue, she
suggested, this matter should be settled by the Faculty Council.
Gail Meyer started working up to making a motion by the end of the meeting,
and she and the chair were commissioned to come up with something definite
by the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned somewhere around 5 p.m.
****
Postscript #1 regarding dual enrollment and general education:
The following was moved by B. Darken, seconded by G. Bartoo, and passed by
an email vote of the committee on 11/17/99-11/18/99, 9-0-0. It will be
presented to Faculty Council in January.
"Dual enrollment courses taken through the summer of 2001 by high school
students may be used to satisfy UTC's 1999 general education requirements
according to flexible agreements worked out between UTC and area community
colleges. In particular, students who take two semesters of western
literature should be temporarily permitted to use these courses to satisfy
the 6-hour Western Humanities requirement under Option (1) of the Cultures
and Civilizations category.
This replaces the motion passed by the General Education Committee on
10/18/99."
Rationale: Please recall that Faculty Council has already approved a
policy allowing transfer students, through the summer of 2001, to adopt the
1998-1999 catalog instead of a catalog containing the new general education
requirements. The rationale was to avoid imposing our new requirements ex
post facto, and also to allow area community colleges time to make
adjustments. The situation of high school students who are currently or
have already taken college credit courses in dual enrollment programs
(either through UTC, CSTCC, or other institutions) is similar to the
situation of transfer students. Students have been taking certain dual
enrollment courses, such as western literature, on the assumption that they
would be acceptable for general education. Students, as well as the dual
enrollment programs, need time to make adjustments.
Note that this motion differs from the motion on transfer students in that
it applies to courses, not catalogs, so that students entering UTC as new
freshmen will still be under the 1999-2000 or 2000-2001 catalogs. Taking
dual enrollment courses will not exempt students from the new general
education requirements. Also note that dual enrollment courses taken
through summer of 2001 are to be given this special consideration
regardless of the year in which students enroll at UTC.
****
Postscript #2: Gail Meyer developed a preliminary draft of a motion which
the committee discussed by email prior to its 11/30/99 meeting.
General Education Committee Minutes
11/30/99 Minutes
Present: Gene Bartoo, Betsy Darken, Nick Honerkamp, Gail Meyer, Marea
Rankin, Ken Smith, Vicki Smith, Roger Thompson, Bruce Wallace
Visitors: Peter Caithamer (Mathematics), Stephen Kuhn (Mathematics), Vicki
Steinberg (Foreign Languages)
The committee convened at 3 p.m.
Proposals
1. Math 408
Committee members asked Professors Kuhn and Caithamer a number of questions
about the audience for the course (Math majors), the reason for slight
modifications (the writing requirement), the appropriateness of the 20%
writing requirement (mathematical proofs), the lack of use of technical
word processing packages for this course (too cumbersome for students), and
the choice of computer software or calculators (up to the instructor, but
TI-83,85, or 86 preferred by Professor Caithamer). Professor Meyer asked
for examples to illustrate the answer to Guideline #1. Professor Caithamer
commented that the examination of regression models by students would
develop their ability to "pose questions, identify and analyze critical
information", while the requirement of developing mathematical proofs would
require students to "test hypotheses or conclusions".
Bruce Wallace moved and Ken Smith seconded the certification of Mathematics
408 for the Statistics Category, with the proviso that the response to
Guideline #1 be expanded to include the examples provided by Professor
Caithamer. The motion passed, 9-0-0. **Math 408 will be certified for the
Statistics Category as soon as the General Education Committee receives a
final version of the proposal with the added examples to guideline #1.**
2. Math 307: Applied Probability and Statistics
Committee members asked Professors Kuhn, Caithamer, and Darken a number of
questions about the audience of the course (Computer Science majors, Math
Ed majors, and perhaps Chemistry majors), the distinction between Math 307
and 210 (the use of calculus), the source of the slight modification (the
writing requirement), and the appropriateness of the writing requirement
(Professor Darken: "highly appropriate"). Ken Smith moved and Nick
Honerkamp seconded the certification of Math 307 for the Statistics
Category. The motion passed, 9-0-0.
3. UHON 106: Film Studies
The committee praised the proposal, except for two problems regarding
guidelines #4 and #6. Professors K. Smith and Honerkamp pointed out that
responses which amount to saying, "We do that in this course", are
inadequate. It is necessary to explain how this particular course
satisfies the requirements. Examples are extremely helpful in this regard.
Professor Steinberg extemporaneously provided eloquent responses for these
guidelines. She also gave the committee some insights into the impact of
culture on art forms; for instance, music has not always been as
influential as it is now.
Professor Darken asked about the dearth of films from the last 20 years.
Professor Steinberg commented that in its next life, the course would
probably contain a film from this era. She ignored the suggestion that
"Titanic" be included on the syllabus.
The committee was sorry that such a wonderful course was limited to UHon
students, and wondered about how a non-UHon student (e.g. Nick Honerkamp)
could get permission to enroll.
Nick Honerkamp moved and Ken Smith seconded a motion to return the proposal
for revisions to Guidelines #4 and #6, as described above. The motion
passed, 9-0-0.
B. Outcomes Assessment
The chair warned the committee that she would be emailing them a number of
suggestions about how to assess the impact of the general education
curriculum on student learning/achievement. As everyone knows, we are
required to provide outcomes assessments for all of our endeavors these
days, as part of the SACS accreditation requirements. The committee
briefly discussed the CBase, the Alumni Survey, and other possible sources
for assessing gen ed goals. The difficulty of measuring gen ed goals was
generally acknowledged. Vicki Smith suggested that the survey of its
graduates' employers by the Occupational Therapy program might be one
source of information about the achievement of general education goals
related to oral and written communication. Employers would be a
particularly valuable source for evaluating the achievement of such goals.
Possibly other professional departments also conduct such employer surveys?
C. Nursing Plan
The chair asked the committee to provide feedback to the Nursing Department
regarding a revision to their proposal to integrate computer literacy. The
committee was willing to waive the requirement that all course syllabi be
attached to the proposal, given that the plan would involve all 20 courses
in the Nursing program. However, the committee still expected to be given
specific information regarding the manner in which each guideline is to be
addressed, the weight given to computer-related assignments, and examples
of how guidelines regarding ethics, computer structure and organization,
and the impact of computers on society would be addressed in the program.
D. Transfer Courses and Western Humanities
[Note: the quality of minutes always seems to degenerate each time the
committee wades into this issue. This is probably due to the inability of
this linear thinker to take intelligible notes during a circular
discussion.]
The committee continued to hammer out a recommendation regarding acceptable
transfer credit for the Cultures and Civilizations category. The gist of
the draft was that the General Education Committee , or a special committee
designated by Faculty Council, should be in charge of deciding about
general education credit for transfer students who believe they have
completed the requirements of the Cultures and Civilizations category even
though they have not taken courses equivalent to Western Humanities I and
II or World Civilizations i, II and III. The chair's fond hopes that a
formal motion would be made by the end of the meeting faded as 5 o'clock
came and went. Alas....
The meeting faded away somewhere around 5:15 p.m.
Betsy Darken, Ph.D.
Mathematics Department, #6956
UT-Chattanooga
615 McCallie Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone:423-755-4580;Fax: 423-755-4586; Email: [log in to unmask]
|
