General Education Council
Minutes
9.18.06 

Council Present:
J. Charles-McCoy Business Administration
S. Ogletree-Liberal Arts
E. Blankmeyer-McCoy Business Administration
C. McCall-Education
V. Luizzi-Chair Representative
B. Stone-Applied Arts
I. Davidson-Fine Arts and Communication
L. Lloyd-Education
C. Hazlewood-Science
E. Morrison-Health Professions
S. Beebe-Liberal Arts
M. Johnson-Education
V. Sriraman-Science
S. Beebe-Chair Representative
T. Mottet-Fine Arts and Communication
K. Morris-Student Representative
Council Absent:
E. Blunk-Applied Arts
D. Yarbrough-Health Professions
A. Krejci-Student Representative 

Meeting convened at 3:30 p.m.  

Motion:

R. Brown asks for a motion to approve the minutes from August 14th and 21st.  S. Olgetree so moves.  C. McCall seconds the motion.  The August 14^th and 21^st minutes are approved as prepared. 

Handouts: 
-Report of information received from the Provost Office
-Criteria for evaluating core curricula
-Handout passed around by V. Sriraman from R. Habingreither 

Discussion:
-Leave option to students about what they want to opt out of
-Give some options to choose between
-Let them choose degree plan, but this creates a problem for DARS
-Only a few courses are under the options because 36 hours are mandated
-Cut 3-4 hours out of CC for those not mandated
-Under consideration:  COMM 1310, PHIL 1305, English Lit, 2-PFW, 1-hr lab and US 1100
-Can’t move the COMM 1310 to choice between English Lit, Philosophy and Communication Studies because it is not listed as a humanities component in the core
-Have to have 1 major and 1 minor that meets the requirement
-Many students are forced to take courses that they don’t’ want their first semester because of closed classes
-We need to come up with a plan
-It seems many departs want a cut or a cut to be shared between department and core
-The Council is compelled to make a recommendation because we have a responsibility as a council to do so or someone else will do it for us 

Reality of 120:  It is a state incentive for students to graduate within 3 hours of the minimum number of hours for their degree and they will receive $1,000.   

Each college should be allowed to determine which 2 hours to opt out of.

The advisors will suggest what the students should take 

-The cut needs to be four hours
-It needs to be a value choice.  What are important in our current core are the courses that are 3 hours because they have more value.  I’m not in favor of cutting any course that is 3 hours because they have more value.  Go with D. Stone’s proposal as a value structure of current core.  

Amended Motion:

B. Stone recommended a cut of 1-hour lab and 1-hour of PFW.   The Council suggested an amendment to that proposal. The new recommendation is for 2 hours to be reduced from the General Education Core Curriculum and those hours come from the four one-hour courses in the current core--2 PFW's, 1 Science lab, 1 US 1100 as well as each academic department being empowered to make its own choices of the 2 1-hour courses that would be required. 

Discussion:
- The College should determine the 2-4 hour cuts of the core
-Another option is 0-4 hours because some colleges don’t want to make any changes
-Logically many course are 3 hours so if the major takes 2 3-hour courses away and the GEC takes 2 1-hour courses then that should make 8 and most can get to 120 hours.
-We could add more courses as electives or add courses that are taken away as electives
-The Council needs to cut the core fro m 46 to 42.  A change of substance needs to be made.
-This is just the first cut of the process.
-Dr. Moore previously sent his recommendation of options
-If we had a charge to go from 46 to 42 then they could do so regardless of our recommendation
-If we do 2 instead of 4 then everybody gets something at least
-This shouldn’t affect IA/TA as Dr. Moore stated
-McCoy College needs a cut of at least 2 hours
-Science courses are mostly 4 hours so they would need a cut of 4 hours for this to make any difference 

S. Ogletee seconds the motion.   

For: 11 Opposed: 3 (L. Lloyd could not vote because 2 regular council representatives for Education were present)    Abstained: 1 (V. Luizzi) 

R. Brown said this recommendation was provisional as a final action until he had a chance to speak with the advisors about the complications and affects of this option.  The Council will meet next week to allow the departments that would be affected to present information about how this could affect their departments.   

The Council should also think about the option of extending the number of courses in core.  We already have a tool available if any departments want to try to add a course to the core. 

A subcommittee will be appointed to review the information Dr. Jeff Gordon presented and to confer with him about his ideas from last spring.  When he spoke with the council he felt he had made a proposal at that time.  The subcommittee will be charged with finding out clearly what he proposed and then they could make a motion to vote on it.

Subcommittee:  C. McCall  (R. Brown will appoint the rest) 

The meeting adjourned at 4:47 p.m.