General Education Diversity Task Force

Date: Friday, January 20 2017

Meeting Time: 11:39 a.m.

Meeting Room: Talley Student Union, room 4280

Members Present: Herle McGowan, Charles Pittman, Jane Lubischer, Jason Miller, Jim Flowers, Julie Ivy, Kim Outing, Peggy Domingue, Karen Leonas

Members Absent:Louie Rivers, Eileen Taylor, KamrieRisku, Candy Beal, Helen Armstrong

Ex-Officio Members Present: Barbara Kirbyand Ingrid Schmidt,

Ex-Officio Members Absent: Charles Clift, Tracey Ray

Guests Present: none

Call to Order: Herle McGowan, Chair

Agenda Item Minutes:

Minutes from 1/13/17 meeting approved with minor corrections.

Summary of discussion:

  • Important competencies already reflected in current U.S. Diversity category objectives. Committee will need to address how to enforce the objectives of the category.
  • USD is currently the only GEP category in which any two of the four objectives must be meet. All other categories prioritize at least one specific objective.
  • Other information should be gathered to determine what courses are using which objectives to meet USD requirements.
  • Review of committee feedback regarding objective rankings did not clearly show a single objective which the committee felt was more important than the others.
  • Objectives 1 & 2 are seen as being foundational objectives in terms of levels of analysis.
  • Could objectives be combined?
  • What is the distinction between objectives?
  • Approaching the issue from a practical standpoint.
  • How would changing the USD category requirements, change the USD course inventory?
  • Would this be putting in place requirements students could not meet, due to limited number of seats?
  • Currently there are a large number of courses which meet USD, but it is the category with the fewest number of seats. The committee must be cognizant to not exacerbate any access issues.
  • Could the category requirement be met using major courses?
  • Several college offer courses restricted to their majors, which cover material that would meet the USD category requirements, but as these courses are restricted to majors, they are currently ineligible for GEP approval.
  • While there are exceptions made, for accreditation purposed the courses meeting GEP requirements are intended to be broad and outside of students’ majors.
  • The seat restriction has decreased from 100% to 75%, with regards to the number of seats which must be available to the general population of students.
  • Could students opt to fulfill USD with a major course rather than a Gen Ed course, or could it be considered more of a graduation requirement rather than a Gen Ed requirement?
  • A member suggested approaching USD with a two courses set. One with a scholarly approach to USD which is broad reaching, and then pairing it with a second major focused course which address diversity within the major and discipline. The second course could even be more experiential based.
  • This could allow for an early course and a course to be taken later in their curricula.
  • Credit associated with the U.S. Diversity category.
  • Do one and two credit hour classes address the needs of the USD category?
  • Placing a three credit hour requirement would show we value diversity.
  • How does changing the USD hour requirement alter the rest of the GEP?
  • Additional breadth category courses (except VPA) all live on another list.
  • Several categories require two courses.
  • What does changing USD category requirements mean for other co-req categories?
  • The possibility of developing a uniformed course.
  • First year course designed to target specific issues in diversity in a meaningful way.
  • What would this common course accomplish?
  • Introduction to college course and approaches to problem solving within different disciplines.
  • Transition to college and introduction to diversity.
  • What pieces of information does this group need to collect to help start making decisions.
  • Looking at other institutions who utilize a competencies structure.
  • Looking back at the courses meeting USD and what objectives those courses address.
  • What course are students actually using to meet USD?
  • Most students are meeting this requirement by their second year.
  • It would also be interesting to pull similar information on the GK category.

Meeting adjourned 1:00PM

Minutes respectfully submitted by: Kasey Harris