Subcommitee on Core Curriculum Minutes 2014-09-05

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Julia Metzker at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Attendance

Voting Members Present: Nancy Beasley, Roberta Gorham, Mary Magoulick, Cara Meade, Julia Metzker, Joe Mocnik, Brandon Samples, Patrick Simmons, Amy Sumpter, Sheryl Winn
Non-Voting Member Present: Kay Anderson
Regrets: Ruth Carter, Dana Wood
Guests: Chavonda Mills, Veronica Womack

Agenda

The agenda was approved with minor changes.

Minutes

The minutes from August 29 were approved as distributed.

Discussion Items

The committee’s primary discussion item for this meeting was short-term, mid-term, and long-term recommendations for the global overlay requirement. “Short-term” was defined as this year, while “mid-term” was defined as the 2015-2016 academic year and “long-term” was defined as Fall 2016 and beyond. Short term options that were discussed included supporting waivers of the requirement for this year’s graduates if they have been unable to complete it; working with department chairs who have clearly identifiable global courses in their departments that have not yet been submitted; and having a definite strategy for the overlay before the end of the year. Mid-term recommendations that were discussed included requiring all programs to have a global overlay in the major; allowing some colleges to require fewer global overlays or removing the two additional global overlays entirely; and instituting the domestic diversity overlay as an option to the global overlay. Long-term options discussed included adding the domestic diversity overlay as a permanent part of the general education curriculum or developing an entirely new plan for global options in the curriculum. As discussion continued, the committee focused on domestic diversity options. Committee members discussed whether there were enough domestic diversity courses in the curriculum to compensate for the lack of global courses in some areas. Veronica Womack explained that committees in each college would be looking at possible courses this year. Discussion also addressed whether one or two of the additional global overlays could be replaced with a domestic diversity overlay. By the end of the meeting, the general consensus was that the committee recommend that domestic diversity courses, as they are approved, be allowed to replace either one or two of the global overlay courses in the curriculum in the short and mid-term, and that an independent domestic diversity component continue to be explored for long-term implementation. A motion will be presented at the beginning of the next meeting to make a formal recommendation to CAPC and University Senate on this issue.

Julia Metzker and Cara Meade distributed a draft of a rubric for reviewing course proposals. Additional drafts will be circulated in the coming week, and this will also be a discussion item at the next meeting.

Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting will be Friday, September 12, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences 2-51.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 2:00 p.m.