UNDERGRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING

June 5, 2006

Rowe Conference Room, the Knight Library

Present:

Andrew Bonamici, Herb Chereck, Kelsea Feola, Hilary Gerdes, Julie Newton, Patrick Bartlein, Steven Pologe, Kathy Roberts, Ron Severson, Margarita Smith,  Karen Sprague, Mark Thoma, and Kate Wagle

 

Absent:

Deborah Exton, Dave Hubin, Anne Laskaya, Martha Pitts, Mary Ann Beecher, Malcolm Wilson, Paul Engelking, and Glenda Utsey

 

Guests:

            Daniel Keller, 2006-2007 Student Representative

            Ashley Rees, 2006-2007 Student Representative

            JoAnna Gray, Co-Chair, Accreditation Self-Study Committee

 

Minutes:

            The Chair announced that the minutes of the May 22 meeting would be distributed electronically to members for their review and approval.

           

Introductions:

            The Chair introduced the new student representatives for the Undergraduate Council 2006-2007 and invited them to make a few comments.  Ashley Rees is a senior, majoring in Political Science. Daniel Keller is a senior majoring in Planning, Public Policy and Management.  The Chair welcomed the students, noting that he looked forward to the unique perspectives they would bring to the Council’s work.  Daniel Patton, a junior, was unable to attend the meeting due to a scheduling conflict. The Chair explained that during the interview process, the three students were so impressive, the interview committee decided to invite all three to serve on the Council.  The new student representatives, pursuant to ASUO approval, will be officially appointed to the Undergraduate Council by the President’s Office.

           

Agenda

General Education Overview

            The Chair invited the Council to look ahead to next year and suggest how to  move forward  on reviewing General Education. Specifically, the following parts of the General Education curriculum remain to be reviewed: multi-cultural coursework, foreign languages, mathematics, and writing. The previous review by the Undergraduate Council, in 2002-2003, focused on Group-satisfying courses.

·        Discussion

The Council felt that the current General Education review process is not systematic.

-         Who has responsibility for reviewing General Education courses while they are running?  The proposal for periodic review (every five years) came originally from the Undergraduate Council, but responsibility for carrying out the reviews was not clearly assigned.  It could be argued that it is the CAS Curriculum Committee’s responsibility.  Pat Bartlein said, however, that the CCC is currently fully engaged and suggested that a separate committee should handle the review process.

 

Karen Sprague proposed that since representatives from the various curriculum and academic review committees are already on the Undergraduate Council, it would be appropriate for the Undergraduate Council to do the ongoing curriculum reviews.  This especially makes sense since the Undergraduate Council has already reviewed the Group-satisfying courses.

 

Discussion in the Council made the following points:

o       “General Education” designation confers a special status on a course and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

o       Undergraduate Council should confer with the Provost and CAS and the ICGER committee to discern if they want the Council to do this work.

o       A template was designed for Group-satisfying course reviews.  Analogous templates could be used for review of the other parts of General Education.  Pat Bartlein, Chair of the CAS Curriculum Committee, pointed out that the questions that guided the review of Group-satisfying courses would be useful to the CAS Curriculum Committee in reviewing proposals for new Group-satisfying courses.

o       After review of ongoing courses, a process is needed to address any problems that have been detected.  There was strong support for the idea of referring courses that appear to not meet the guidelines back to the CAS Curriculum Committee.  Karen Sprague and Pat Bartlein will write up a specific proposal for regular review of General Education and follow-up on problems that are revealed by the review.

 

Issues to study 2006-2007

            The Chair offered an overview of work the Council expects engage in during the 2006-2007 year:

1.)    Return to grade inflation, following up on feedback received, and likely making recommendations for addressing the issue.

2.)    Further review the issue of concurrent degree requirements and decide whether to recommend a change in current policy.

3.)    Review one of the remaining unreviewed parts of General Education: multicultural courses, foreign language, writing or mathematics.

4.)    Possibly explore academic experiences beyond the traditional classroom, especially in the context of the Living Learning Center.

 

 

Election of Chair

            The Council re-elected Ron Severson as Chair for 2006-2007 by unanimous acclamation.

 

The meeting was adjourned.

 

The next UGC meeting will be announced via e-mail to the membership over the summer.