Subcommittee on Core Curriculum Minutes 2012-09-05

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Mary Magoulick at 11:30 a.m. in Arts & Sciences Room 236.

Attendance

Members Present: Martha Allen, Scott Butler, Esther Lopez, Mary Magoulick, Stephanie McClure, Amy Sumpter, and Kay Anderson
Absent: Kevin Crabb
Regrets: Cara Meade, John Swinton
Guest: Jason Huffman

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the August 29 meeting were approved with one minor edit.

Action Items

GC2Y 2000 Ecosophy as an Area B2 Section
After review, the committee approved the section with a vote of 7-0-0. This section will now be forward to CAPC and University Senate as an information item.

WMST 2010 Women in Society: An Introduction to Women’s Studies for Area E and the Global Overlay (continued from August 29 meeting)
The committee reviewed university and system policies related to Area E, and discussed whether Humanities faculty would be able to teach this course if it were placed in Area E. Women’s Studies can fall under both the Humanities or the Social Sciences depending on the way the class is taught, but more Humanities faculty are involved with teaching the course on our campus than Social Scientists. This issue is currently being discussed by the Women’s Studies Committee. SOCC will wait to review this proposal until Women’s Studies faculty confirms that they want the course considered for Area E.

Discussion Items

Global Overlay Distribution. The committee began a discussion on the global overlay requirement. Because of the state-wide transfer articulation requirements, transfer students who enter Georgia College core complete will not be able to fulfill the requirement to have two global overlays in the core. Students who transfer credit but who are not core complete may also have issues fulfilling this requirement based on the availability of global overlay courses in their remaining coursework.

The committee focused on two options for addressing the global overlay distribution issue:
1. Propose a change in the distribution from two courses in the core and one from anywhere in the student’s curriculum to one course in the core and two courses from anywhere in the student’s curriculum. This change would be effective for all students.
2. Allow transfer students to either waive one of the overlay requirements, or to adjust their distribution to one course in the core and two from anywhere in their curriculum.
Each committee member agreed to seek feedback from their colleagues regarding this issue. John Swinton and Kay Anderson will draft a brief summary to send out to the committee to help them in their discussions. This topic will be on the agenda for the committee’s next meeting.

Global Overlay Course Approvals. To date, only nine courses outside of the core have been approved for the global overlay. To ensure that there are enough courses for students to fulfill this requirement, we need to immediately begin approving several courses from the majors. The committee discussed possible ways this process could be expedited, including:
1. Automatically giving global overlay credit to students who study abroad
2. Automatically giving global overlay credit to international students
3. Automatically applying global overlay credit to courses that were already approved for the International Plan
4. Consult with the foreign language faculty about the amount of culture presented in 1001-2002 foreign language courses, and consider a collective approval of one or more of these courses.

After discussion, the committee endorsed the idea of automatically counting courses that were already approved for the international plan as global overlays, and with giving global overlay credit for study abroad courses. John Swinton was charged with drafting a short letter to the deans and department chairs asking for their feedback on this plan. After we get additional feedback from the departments, we will continue this discussion.

Demystifying the Approval Process. The committee also discussed what measures we could take to make the approval process more predictable and friendly. Suggestions included: outlining the process and possible outcomes as soon as we receive a proposal, assigning contacts in advance, and ensuring that we have a statement about what will happen after SOCC’s approval on every congratulatory email (i.e., needs to go to CAPC only, no more steps, must have system General Education committee approval), and inviting faculty to the meeting when their course is up for review. Mary Magoulick volunteered to draft an email that could be sent to faculty as soon as we receive a submission that outlines each step of the process.

Next Meeting

The committee will meet on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, at 12 noon, in A&S 216.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 12:30 p.m.