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General Education Council
March 24, 2021
MINUTES
PRESENT: Jo Kord, Kim Massoth, Basil Kessler, Gaile Stephens, Will Phillips, David McKenzie,
Sheila Markowitz, Larry Falcetto, Amaya Oshel, Zeni Colorado Resa, Lei Wen, Kathy Landwehr
ABSENT: Lynnette Schreiner, Shawna Shane, Rachael Spaulding and Michaela Forkenbrock
REVIEW OF MINUTES: Minutes for March 10, 2021 will be approved on the next meeting.
Update on Senate Bill or a Resolution: Stephens said that the council’s task is to present an
option that meets the 42 hours that was passed in 2019. We presented to the Faculty Senate
Academic Affairs committee, and they gave our sub-committee some feedback about the
proposed curriculum. The next step is to present it to Faculty Senate. But will not be presented
to them as a bill or a resolution. Some members will be presenting to Faculty Senate on April
20th
.
Stephens suggested that on our April 7th Gen Ed meeting to have a formal vote on the finalized
version of what we are proposing as the new Gen Ed curriculum. This will ensure we have a
council approved General Education Program to present to Faculty Senate.
Markowitz also mentioned that all we are doing is presenting the new General Education
Program to Faculty Senate as a courtesy.
Update Cultural Awareness Sub-Committee Work: Stephens said that they had their first
meeting last week. There were two meetings one in the morning and one in the afternoon to
accommodate people’s schedule. But as of right now they are still working out the details.
Markowitz explained about the Ethnic and Gender studies model. She discussed how not every
section of a course is taught through the ethnic and gender studies department. Rather a
group of individuals knowledgeable about ethnic and gender studies instruction reviews course
sections. If the course section has sufficient content about ethnic and/or gender studies, then
they approve it as a course section that counts toward the major. Each semester the review
committee sends the Registrar a list of approved course sections. The Registrar assigns the
specific course section a Ethnic & Gender studies attribute so Degree Works recognizes it as
being a part of the major. Markowitz also mentioned that they could go out and identify what
courses would work and put the attribute on that course.
Kessler brought up about presenting the 42 hours General Education program Framework and
course model to the faculty senate. Kessler asked in good faith can we move forward with our
presentation and sharing to the senate. He stressed that the sub-committee is working on the
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issue of the cultural awareness and cultural competency piece. Stephens will add any updates
to the framework once they get approved by the sub-committee and the council.
Stephens is hoping to have the definitions and some general criteria for the courses. She feels
that the curriculum will need to evolve over time. In the future we would continue to review
and refine it to build up resources.
Stephens will work on something in writing and specifics so the council can vote on it before
April 20th meeting with faculty senate.
General Education Handbook: The council had a chance to review the handbook and make
comments. McKenzie and Stephens worked on some of the handbook last week and made some
changes, but it is still a work in progress. Kord said that she would be happy to review the
handbook for wording and any typos.
Kessler asked that all the council look at the document and make any comments of changes or
questions that information could be used refining the handbook.
Stephens and McKenzie will be meeting on March 31st to continue working on the document.
Update Registrar Review: Markowitz and Stephens will be going through each major and how
gen ed will affect that major so it can catch any registration issues.
Markowitz mentioned that there are 14 different degrees/majors that have specific gen ed
requirements. They will be splitting up the degrees/majors between the two and work on that.
Meeting adjourned: 4:05
Recorder: KM