General Education Initiative Task Force:

Minutes of Meeting - November 5, 1997

Members Attending:

Phil Creighton, Jane Dané, Tom Erskine, Mike Garner, Ben Greene, Steve Hetzler, Victoria Hutchinson, Fred Kundell, Jim Lackie, Robert Long, Chapman McGrew, Pat Richards, Fatollah Saliman, Kathleen Shannon, Sarah Sharbach, Debra Thatcher, Gail Welsh, Arlene White, George Whitehead, Ellen Whitford, Bill Zak

Members Not Attending:

Mike Boolukos, Greg Cashman, Robert Smith

Announcements

• Minutes were revised and approved as revised.
• Future minutes will reflect comments without names except if someone distributes a handout.
• The holding of an open meeting on 11/18 as discussed last week cannot occur due to a conflict with a Senate hearing on 'The Culture of Conversation' - a part of the Alcohol Task Force.
• If you wish to attend a conference, please let Pat know and she will provide the names to the Provost to make the arrangements. The Provost is currently working on the registration for individuals attending conferences in January and February. He would like each member of the committee to attend a conference over the course of this initial study year that addresses Gen Ed issues.
• Homework: If you are a school representative, please gather the following information:

• A list of professional organizations that represent disciplines within your school. The department may be already be affiliated with the professional organization or may be interested in that organization.

• Request that department members provide us with information from these professional organizations that address or define desired attributes or competencies that the organizations deem necessary for majors of their discipline.

• You may include any organizations that you feel are relevant including crossover organizations or honorary societies.

• This information should be synthesized into a 1 to 2 page executive summary for each area/professional organizations.

• Please start gathering the information - it may take time to pull together - committee would like to have it by the 12/10 meeting or at latest by January retreat. Request was made that Sarah and George assist the Fulton school rep - Bill Zak -due to the large number of departments within Liberal Arts.
• Provost discussed the issue of attributes of a SSU grad. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves in the process. We need to stay focused on identifying those attributes - this is the critical starting point. It is essential to identify the attributes by doing the reading on Gen Ed and by investigating associated agencies.

Once we go to the open meeting- each member on the committee must act as a task leader and the committee must appear focused. This was scheduled as the year of learning - each person meeting on this committee should go to the library and do the reading. Of all the campus committees, this is probably the most critical one - we must make informed decisions. It is important that we do not get ahead of ourselves. We must do the attributes first and then get to the models etc.

• A suggestion was made that the reference material be divided up into groups and each team review and report back on it. Jim Lackie was asked to do a classification of the reference material so that we can go through it more easily. Jim will bring a focused list next week and then the committee can split it up for review.
• The issue was discussed as to whether a representative from Student Services or Student affairs should be asked to join the committee. Gen Ed requirements may also deal with service learning and orientation, and having someone from a student support area may provide additional insight. Concern was expressed that by inviting an additional non-faculty person to join this committee of 24, which is already large and currently has 4 non-faculty members, the committee may become even more cumbersome and the perception that this is a faculty committee may be diluted. Finally after a lengthy discussion, the consensus was that a Student Services or Student Affairs representative will be identified and will be invited to selected meetings, but will not become a part of the committee at this point. This decision may be revisited later when we are further along into the process.
• No Deans and Chairs meeting will be held on January 22nd so the date of January 21/22 for the planned retreat will be acceptable.
• Pat passed out two handouts - one from Becky Emery in Career Services and the other from Robert Smith on COMAR regulations.
• There was a lot of discussion on when to have an open meeting and the process that we wanted to follow. Ideas included:

• Holding an open meeting on 12/9

• Waiting until the beginning of February for the first meeting on attributes and then meeting again within a month for an open discussion of the attributes.

• Combining the discussion of our attributes with the discussion of the strategic plan on 11/25.
• Discussion as to whether we are ready to even present our attributes list ensued and also how the attributes would fit into the strategic plan. Timing issues were raised. The Provost indicated that although we may not be ready to incorporate our attribute list in the strategic plan that will be presented on 12/2/97, the plan can be modified once we have come to consensus.

The Provost explained that the strategic plan needs to be completed now so that it can be meshed with the capital plan and the building plans and presented in a package in April to the Board of Regents.

• The question was raised as to whether the strategic plan will be codified and become like a contract that we will do these things - whether we get the additional funding or not. The Provost emphasized that a strategic plan is a living document - one that changes and grows continually. Even though things are written on paper, the idea is that this plan will continue to be molded and enhanced to fit our changing needs and environment. The intended audience of the strategic plan is first the Board of Regents and secondly, the faculty. The strategic plan will be used as a tool to increase the funding base that we receive from the Board of Regents. If we get money, we will implement the plan as written, if we don't get the money we will modify to fit with what we do receive. People should not be afraid of the plan - it is not being created to set people up for failure - it is our attempt to increase funding so that we can meet target goals like 85% percentile for faculty salary, conversion of contingents, technology improvement, etc.
• When will we complete our discussion of attributes? It appears that our work so far is not terribly different from what we have currently. There are issues about how groups came up with their top 5 list's and how each group organized their categories. Can we come to consensus on the attributes so that we can at least present a draft to the faculty by the 11/25 meeting. If we can circulate it for a while, we can then use the faculty feedback to revise and refine during January retreat.
• We will work specifically on the identifying the attributes at the 11/19 meeting. We hope to put together a document that can be distributed to faculty on the 25th and even discussed if time allows at the end of the Strategic Planning meeting.
• It was the consensus of the committee that we hold an open faculty discussion meeting about attributes in early February.
• Homework - In order to accomplish our goal on the 19th, there will be homework:

Go through the attributes and look at the minutes from the meeting of the 15th. Each individual produce a reflective listing of the attributes that you feel are necessary - make a copy to distribute to the members of the committee.

Try to mesh the attributes with the strategic plan as it is written. On 11/19, we will try to pull the attributes together. We will need easel's, markers.

• At this point, we do not plan on scheduling an open meeting until the list is pulled together and circulated first to faculty.
• Jim Lackie discussed the COMAR reg's and what SSU does. He will copy and distribute the overhead that he used at the next meeting.
• Vickie will forward meeting handouts to those individuals who are absent from the meeting.

11/6/97

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