GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
Minutes for September 25, 2017
Approved October, 23, 2017
Attendees: Rick Muma, Kathy Delker, Amy Drassen Ham, Steve Oare, George Dehner, Aaron
Rife, Becky Nordyke, Shirlene Small, Chris Broberg
Absent: Keith Gray
1. Introductions
2. Approval of Minutes (see attached)—approved. (Shirlene and Becky were at April meeting, minutes need to be updated?)
3. Curriculum Change Proposals (see attached)
2 courses to be added Spring 2018—English Department:
Jane Austen—
Literary Representations of LGBTQ
George—these have a prereq—thought we were trying to get away from pre-req for gen
eds?
Rick—several of English 200 level courses have English 101/102 as prereqs.
Chris—these seem tightly focused for a gen ed, should they be further studies and issues courses?
Steve—title seems like further studies/issues and perspectives, but student success
content seems introductory
George—I wouldn't want a committee to tell me to change the title, perhaps we leave
that to the specialists.
Question about assignments, texts
More discussion about is class introduction or further studies/issues and perspectives
Shirlene—question about diversity content of Jane Austen
George—278 course, but what is the type of course?
Chris—how do we define what counts as a gen ed course
Rick—Committee doesn't have a defining policy/document describing what is a gen ed
course.
Aaron—should we come up with a document that outlines what counts as a gen ed?
George—do we have other 200 level courses as further studies or issues and perspectives?
Chris—can we bring them in to talk with this about how the course meets gen ed?
Is this a Gen Ed—and if so, is this intro, further studies, issues and perspectives?
Aaron—I can see these two courses being Gen Ed as Further Studies
Steve—move to approve Jane Austen as gen ed/further studies (Aaron seconds)—passed
Literary Representation and LGBTQ+ : seems like a further studies
George—should we ask them first whether they want to be FS or I&P? And if I&P, perhaps
this should be a 300 level course.
Shirlene—this course is not interdisciplinary—hence further studies
George—withdraw previous comment!
Vote on LGBTQ+ as gen ed, further studies—passed
4. As may arise
Kathy—as a committee, should we work on creating a statement/guideline for what constitutes
a gen ed course?
Shirlene—yes—we need clear definitions of what each category is—so when creating/submitting
courses for approval, people can choose clear identifiers.
Amy—concern that we would be over-proscribing—creating rubrics that get faculty stuck.
George—this is where submitting the syllabus comes in, looking at the syllabus has
been more helpful for gen ed committee than anything else, so we can stick with that.
Rick---gen ed committee has a website, we should be sure to be using it. https://wichita.edu/?u=generaleducation
Kathy—should we vote on creating descriptions for gen ed?
George—let’s take time to familiarize ourselves with the website and our documents—general
agreement-vote postponed.
Kathy—what role will our committee play in reviewing first year seminar?
Rick/George—we will review data from the past two years and make a recommendation
to the faculty senate.
Need to fix errors/update the gen ed website and the faculty senate page for gen
ed committee.
Adjourn