Monday, February 5, 2007
Attendance: Anthony Defusco [Student Representative from Honors], Orin Chein, Chris Dennis, Bruce Conrad, Catherine Schifter, Mary Anne Gaffney, Jackie Resavage, Philip Harris, Bernie Newman, Michelle O’Conner, Jane Evans, Rob Drennan
The meeting was called to order by Mary Anne Gaffney at 2:05 pm.
Approval of Minutes:
Corrections to the minutes from the January 22, 2007 meeting included: Adding Bernie Newman to the list of members present, addition of the word ‘was’ on page 2, line 14. The corrected minutes will be sent to D. Englert for comment. Orin Chein also noted that there was a question about the relationship between GEEC and EPPC, which should be reflected in the minutes.
Chair’s Report:
Mary Anne Gaffney reported on the following items:
[1] President Hart met with all GEEC members and three Deans about the General Education Curriculum. Her briefing was about General Education, the number of electives as reported by D. Englert and the number of courses in each of the areas. She expressed the importance of having enough seats in these courses. She commented that the budget process would be put into place when a new CFO is secured and this will include funding for general education. The meeting ended with a discussion of the use of adjunct faculty. Mary Anne will send the Adjunct Report to President Hart and to members of EPPC.
[2] Chris Dennis mentioned that there are now 53 General Education Courses listed to be in the course inventory. Courses are entered into the inventory through the Office of the Vice Provost, but they are scheduled through the college.
[3] Michelle O’Conner provided an update on the work of the Transfer Committee with respect to General Education. In particular, the Committee has been working on updating our existing core-to-core agreements with various community colleges in light of the upcoming move to General Education. Using various Associate Degree programs from Delaware County Community College as an example, she distributed a document that can be used as a tool to compare their [DCCC] current general education requirements to our new General Education requirements. This comparison is made for each Associate Degree program offered by each Community College. She asked us to look at the methodology illustrated in this document and see what gaps exist. Based on this analysis, we can then re-approve our existing agreements or make some changes/suggestions to the Community Colleges.
[4] Writing Intensive Committee: Mary Anne reported that this Committee was handling a number of issues and that we would address these at a future meeting.
Globalization Issues in the Core:
Michelle O’Conner led a discussion concerning the International Studies requirement in the existing core curriculum. The existing International Studies requirement can be met in a variety of ways including studying a language for a given number of semesters, taking a given number of international studies courses and/or completion of a study abroad program of varying lengths. Michelle noted several problems with the existing requirement: the current ways of satisfying the requirement have not been clearly articulated and there is perhaps an unnecessary distinction in the international studies courses between ‘western’ and ‘non-western’ given changes in the international environment since the distinctions were first made. She suggested that the requirements be simplified.
Course Renumbering Project:
Michelle O’Conner led a discussion concerning the Course Renumbering Project. She indicated a time-line for communication with students, Deans and the Academic Community. She distributed a copy of the ‘Course Renumbering Training Document’ for the Committee to review. Michelle indicated that all of the following among items would need to be updated to reflect new course numbers: syllabi, handouts, pre-requisites, websites, on-line course catalogue, etc. She also noted that the admissions office is currently using new course numbers when evaluating records of transfer students.
EPPC Charge and Committee Members for Handbook:
Mary Anne Gaffney, Jane Evans and various other Committee Members had a discussion concerning the wording of the ‘EPPC Charge’ in the Handbook and the responsibilities of EPPC vs. GEEC. Based on that discussion, Jane Evans agreed to edit the Handbook wording and distribute it to the Committee for review.
New Business:
None
Next Meeting:
February 26, 2007.
